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Thursday, February 19, 2015

TIGER LOVE A.K.A. REN HU LIAN (1977)

http://www.hkmdb.com/db/images/movies/10249/TigerLove+1980-1-b.jpg

I have been getting deeper and deeper into the 200 film set Drive In Cult Classics Collection. I am going to have to come up with some short hand for that damned thing. from now on I think we'll refer to it as DRIVE-IN 200. Sound good? Good!
So, TIGER'S LOVE. We have a couple in love who have to run away because their families are feuding. They are stopped by the grandfather of the girl who tells her that she must marry her cousin. (um, ewwwww!) She is already pregnant by the man she loves so she refuses. The grandfather's cronies beat the man to death and she throws herself from the cliff.
Instead of plummeting to her death her fall is stopped by a tree branch. Under the tree branch is a tiger who, when she spots the beast, makes her piss herself and it lands on the tiger. There is an old legend that if a woman kisses a tiger they are her slave. She thinks the piss must have the same effect on the tiger. Regardless, the tiger stays with her as she gives birth and helps raise her son. He even teaches the boy some tiger kung fu in the process.
The boy is curious and goers to a nearby village. He discovers that his father is alive. He also discovers a beautiful girl who is from the warring family?
Yeah, it seems that we are fated to go through this whole story again with the ancestors of the original two from the beginning of the movie.

http://hkmdb.com/db/images/movies/10249/TigerLove+1977-107-b.jpg

It is pretty much a typical kung fu flick. The hits all sound like a broomstick on a plastic couch. The dubbing tries to match mouth movement which is always awkward. I've seen hundreds of these and nothing could prepare me for the end.
The young boy's mother is killed. This allows the tiger to kill it's 100th human victim. Now it can change its shape and turn into a psychotic old woman with huge teeth and claws who proceeds to kill everyone from the warring family, holding them responsible for the death of her friend.
That little jog to the left straight into the head scratching valley of what did they just do? MAde Tiger Love more than just your typical kung fu flick.
It made it awesome.

https://dobbelta.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/tigerlove1977-174-b.jpg

One worry is the tiger used in the film. There's a scene where the young boy is playing with the tiger and it comes at him and knocks him down. They freeze frame the shot and the boy has a look of pure terror. We never see him again so I just assume the tiger ate the kid. I'm also pretty sure that tiger messed up some other people in the production, but have no proof.
Still, a pretty epic kung fu flick.  

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