weezeralfalfa No buts about it! Wang was sent by a rich Chinese warlord to California to make good investments with a large amount of gold. In the interim, having acquired 4 mistresses: of American, Russian, Italian, and Chinese descent, respectively, he decides to tattoo partial instructions to the hidden location of the gold or whatever investments he made with the gold, on the buttocks of each mistress! Thus, anyone else wishing to know this location would have to obtain access to all 4 buttocks! The message within a fortune cookie later found in Wang's safe: "The bottom of every woman is fortune", suggests that old Wang had a buttocks fetish, so why he came up with this bizarre method of hiding instructions for locating his treasure. But, he forgot that 4 is an unlucky number for Chinese, associated with death. When safe cracker Dakota(Lee Van Cleef) is caught ready to blow open his safe, he dies in the explosion, which yields only photos of the backsides of the 4 women plus the fortune cookie. As you will see in the finale, old Wang was devious with respect to this fortune in more ways than one. A huge hole in the plot is the lack of a clear connection between the women's buttocks and the location of the fortune. It's merely guessed that there is, based on the suggestive, but far from clear, message in that fortune cookie.As in a typical kung fu film, there is a large surreal element, with the hero(s), at times, taking on supernatural powers, and with many unlikely coincidences to aid in accomplishing their goals. Having learned of the death of Wang, the warlord holds all his extended family accountable for the recovery of his fortune. The responsibility for recovering it within a year is thrust upon young Ho Chiang(Lieh Lo),kung fu expert, demonstrating his skill for the warlord. Upon contacting Wang's lawyer, Ho obtains $1000. inheritance, plus the 4 photos with the women's addresses on the back, plus the fortune cookie. Learning that the safe cracker(Dakota) responsible for his uncle's death is in the local jail, Ho enters a saloon with a clear 'no Chinese' policy and is arrested for disturbing the peace, in order to be put in jail so he could talk to Dakota. Released a few days later, he saves Dakota from a hanging, in dramatic surreal fashion, and they decide to become partners in the search for the women, and thereby Wang's fortune.(Given the extreme anti-Orientals attitude in CA in this era, it's difficult to believe that Dakota would be hung for the accidental death of a Chinaman, even a wealthy one!)The search for the women and access to their buttocks is seldom straight forward. To find the American mistress, they must track down the horse-drawn traveling church-house of charismatic arch -villain Yancey Hobbit. Typical of classical villains, he's dressed all in black ,including a wide-brimmed hat, moustache and beard. He has come to this town to extol the promotion if sinful activities, then shoots several men dead as punishment for their sins, while quoting bible passages! The heros gain entry to his mistress by intimidation, then have to pick the lock on her chastity belt to read her message! Unfortunately, this induces Yancey to question his mistress why they are interested in her bottom. She guesses it has to do with Wang's fortune. Unable to read Chinese, Yancey copies down Wang's tattoo, then teams with his giant Native American friend Indio to look for the other 3 mistresses. This is another huge hole in the plot. How does his mistress know there are 3 more(scattered) mistresses, with tattoos, and where they are likely found??Our heros manage to stay one step ahead of the evil duo for a while. Ho wins much money from the house, gambling in the saloon where the Russian mistress is. Instead of bankrupting the owner, be asks to be allowed to examine the bottom of the owner's wife. But, he finds nothing remarkable, as she is the twin sister of the woman he is looking for, who is also present. They accomplish their goal, despite the fact that her bottom is covered with autograph tattoos. To find the Italian mistress, they must catch a moving train with a private car, and Ho masquerades as a doctor, treating her ailment with acupuncture needles in her bottom. The Chinese mistress is easy to find, but Ho hesitates to ask her that day, as her father is present. This gives Yancey an opportunity to kidnap her, with the help of acquaintance Calico's Mexican bandit gang. Dakota is later captured trying to recover her and, while locked in a room, she is suspended in a cage over a fire to induce her to translate all the Chinese characters. Ho arrives later and frees Dakota for a final drawn out confrontation with the collective villains, Ho taking on Indio, and Dakota dealing with Yancey to finish things.I will stop here in my brief summary. I don't want to reveal the rather unexpected, ironic, and dramatically-presented finale. Currently, you can discover this for yourself by obtaining a copy of the 8 westerns DVD pack by Echo Bridge; well worth it for a number of the films. I should add that I'm not normally a fan of Kung fu-type films, other than Jackie Chan's, nor a big fan of spaghetti westerns. However, I found this hybrid of the two intriguing, with a good blend of intrigue, humor, action and irony, despite the holes in the plot.

Wizard-8 Around the time this movie was made, the spaghetti western was just about on its last legs. Also, the craze for kung fu movies was starting to die out as well. So it must have seemed logical for the Italians and Hong Kongers to team up and make a movie that mixed both genres (though this movie was not the first to do so.) Though it's perhaps inevitable that a mix of genres would have mixed results. Certainly, the movie has solid production values, and its light-hearted nature is welcome after so many serious spaghetti westerns and kung fu epics. There's also some nudity, unusual for both genres at this time. But the movie feels kind of drawn out, taking its time when the pacing should have been a bit more snappy. Even more surprising is that there isn't a terrible amount of kung fu in the movie, though this may have been because the choreography and direction of the martial arts fights are sub par. Also, the two leads don't manage to generate that much chemistry, though the language barrier might explain this. I'm not saying this is an awful movie, but it is disappointing. If you want to see a good spaghetti western / kung fu mix, watch "The Fighting Fists Of Shanghai Joe" instead.

Witchfinder General 666 "Là Dove Non Batte Il Sole" aka. "The Stranger And The Gunfighter" is certainly not a very good Spaghetti Western, but it's a very funny one. A Chinese Kung-Fu warrior named Ho Chiang comes to the American Southwest to find his late uncle's treasure. His Family is held hostage by a powerful warlord back in China until he will return with his uncle's fortune. After Ho Chiang saves a gunslinger named Dakota (Lee Van Cleef) from the gallows, the two keep on searching the uncle's fortune together. The Chinese stranger and the gunfighter soon find out that the tattooed bottoms of four ladies are the key to the secret treasure."The Stranger And The Gunfighter" is a Spaghetti Western with a nice touch of Comedy and Action. The characters are quite funny, especially the main villain, a psychopathic religious fundamentalist gunfighter and preacher who comes to different towns to "preach the word of God", and and shoot those whom he considers to be sinners. Lee Van Cleef (one of my personal favorite actors of all-time) stars as the gunfighter Dakota, Martial Artist Lieh Lo plays his ass-kicking Chinese buddy Ho Chiang. This Movie is great fun, especially for Spaghetti Western fans like myself. Definitely worth watching!

unbrokenmetal The "East Meets West" idea of an Asian fighter in the Wild West was not new anymore (see Terence Young's "Soleil Rouge" from 1971, or "Il mio nome e Shanghai Joe" by Mario Caiano, 1973), but "The Stranger And the Gunfighter" was the first time (1974) that an Asian production company, namely Shaw Brothers, came to Italy for a Western production, bringing Lo Lieh as a seasoned star of their own. The kung-fu fighter has to recover a treasure that once belonged to his uncle and return it to China. The map leading to the treasure is tattooed in 4 parts - on the backs of 4 ladies. Yes, that's a bit of a different idea for once ;-). Lee Van Cleef plays a bank robber who assists very unwillingly, but in the end even enjoys a little trip to Asia. The movie is nowhere near "Soleil Rouge" and Lo Lieh isn't Toshiro Mifune, but it's an entertaining action movie with a story you haven't seen before. "Il mio nome e Shanghai Joe" is a very violent flick, whereas recent movies such as "Shang-High Noon" are silly comedies. What I like best about "The Stranger And the Gunfighter" is that it's well balanced between action and comedy.