Blood Street (1988)

"How did I know he was gonna be a combination of Columbo, Philip Marlowe,
Bruce Lee, and a Catholic priest?." - Vanna

A P.I. gets caught in the middle of a gang war.
Starring: Leo Fong, Richard Norton, Stack Pierce, Stan Wertlieb

Link to IMDB

This is the sequel to Low Blow. Let's see if Leo Fong can impress me twice.

Joe Wong is still freelancing as a private investigator from his dirty little office, and he's still taking cases that get him involved with goons that need drop kicking. The current case he's on is to find the missing husband of a mysterious woman named Vanna.
It's established that the streets of San Francisco are being torn apart by a drug war between two ruthless crime lords, Malcolm Boyd and Old MacDonald, and as Joe follows the clues to find Vanna's husband he suspects that the man might be involved with these criminals somehow.

Joe gets himself into all sorts of trouble as he snoops around the most dangerous thugs in the city, and he soon has hitmen and crooked cops coming after him with guns.
Lots of stuff happens but it's mostly incidental to the plot... That's my nice way of saying that the plot is a fucking mess. Most of the movie is about Boyd and MacDonald plotting against each other, and Joe is caught in the middle trying to keep himself alive.


You really just have to go with the flow and not worry about trying to follow the story too much. It can get dull with the scenes of people sitting in poorly lit rooms talking about god knows what, but there are a few standout fun moments, and Joe is still fun to watch as he insults and punches pretty much everyone he meets.

"I bet you all the ox manure in China that all this carnage is connected." - Joe

A rogues gallery

It looks and sounds like a homemade movie, and I don't think Leo Fong remembered that he was supposed to be working behind the camera because he's clearly having fun in front of it instead. I'm betting he made this movie just so he could act out his detective fantasies and play the hero again.
Unfortunately, it just doesn't capture the same magic as Low Blow. The story is too generic and dry, but it does have enough enjoyable cheese and hilarious dialog to keep it entertaining.

Be sure not to miss:
- I guess Joe took some driving lessons since the first movie.
- There's about five "private dick" jokes in the first 10 minutes.
- Chuck Jeffreys is here, and George Chung has a cameo. They were making Hawkeye at the same time as this movie!

Internet review:
"A Fong-tabulous experience." - Comeuppance

Should I watch it?
It might have exploded my hams more if I wasn't obligated to compare it to the great Low Blow.

Where can I find it?
Here on YouTube.

Blood Street gets...