The Tattoo Connection AKA Black Belt Jones 2

1978 · KonstantineCategoryIII

Tattoo Connection, The | aka Black Belt Jones 2 (1978) Review Posted on January 23, 2011 by JJ Bona “The Tattoo Connection” American Theatrical Poster AKA: Hong Kong Connection Director: Lee Tso Nam Cast: Chan Lau, Chan Sing, Cheng Fu Hung, Jim Kelly, Kong Do, Tony Leung Siu Hung, Sham Chin Bo, Tan Tao Liang, Wan Faat, Bolo Yeung, Lee Hoi San Running Time: 90 min. By Joseph Kuby Disclaimer: The real title for the film is ‘The Tattoo Connection’ though the UK DVD is called Black Belt Jones 2, even the original theatrical trailers (as seen on the Shaolin Chamber) site call the film The Tattoo Connection. 70s Chop Socky Goodness! This movie rocks – the tunes, the one-liners, the fights, the nudity, the fashion, etc. It’s easy to see why the Kung Fu boom generated so much interest in the 70s and why we have films like Kill Bill today. Whilst the movies offered up by the Shaw Bros. film studio and the Golden Harvest film studio were influential, it was the appearance of black martial artists which were vital as they were responsible for maintaining the public interest in the martial arts and the movies they were featured in (people like Van Damme and Seagal, of course, would take over the mantle as far as “western martial artists sustaining western interest in martial arts” was concerned). The reason for this is that besides the idea of having a western martial artist was a more bankable selling point (think David Carradine in the TV series Kung Fu), these movies were doing enormously well in urban theaters (blacks and other ethnical/cultural minorities could identify with the struggles of the underdog minority) even when the genre started to fade (Jackie Chan mentioned the importance of the black audience when discussing his American debut The Big Brawl, for the UK distributor Hong Kong Legends). You see, people could actually have heroes to admire through this particular format of casting. Jim Kelly was a natural candidate seeing as how he was in Enter The Dragon (he did for the blacks what Bruce did for the Chinese) and unlike Ron Van Clief, Jim had a solid fan base, charm, good-looks, charisma and decent acting ability (or at least more of a personality). Whilst Ron had the most skills (or chutzpah in technique), Jim had the most presence. Plus Jim had a huge legion of female fans at his feet – something Ron could never take away or pull off on his own terms. But, nevertheless, the films offered by these two black individuals (along with other stars such as Tamara Dobson, the star of the Cleopetra Jones movies*) helped to bring people like Billy Blanks and, more famously, Wesley Snipes into the mainstream (though it could be argued that after the success of Enter The Dragon, Jim was in a position that even Wesley couldn’t compare to today – even with the Blade films which just goes to show you how popular Jim really was back then). Of course, you could go so far to say that it’s these black martial arts stars (along with the other Blaxploitation actors & actresses) who helped to give more recognition towards black performers in the film business e.g. Morgan Freeman, Denzel Washington and Halle Berry. Jim was a natural born athelete so it seems – he was a talented American football player and professional tennis player (he turned professional in 1975 rising to No. 2 in California in the senior men’s doubles rankings and reaching the state’s top ten in senior men’s singles, among other titles). Jim was also a Karate champion (in 1971 he became the international middle weight Karate champ, again among other titles). In fact, Bruce respected Jim so much as a martial artist (Jim had adapted the philosophy and applications of Jeet Kune Do to his training in Karate) that Bruce let Jim choreograph his own fights for Enter The Dragon. Jim was definately a top-notch martial artist who was almost in the same league as Lee even if they don’t usually or hardly ever share the same space in history books. He could probably have defeated a few of the martial arts stars at the time as he was surprised as to how many of them weren’t really good off screen as they were on – in fact a lot of them couldn’t fight at all (whether this was found out via the result of challenge matches, witness accounts or research is anyone’s guess). Which leads us to this film, whose true title is The Tattoo Connection and not Black Belt Jones 2 (a film which was financially backed by Warner Bros. and released by one of its distributional companies), as can be seen in the original cinema trailers. The true sequel to Black Belt Jones is a film called Hot Potato. As the ending indicates, there was meant to have been a sequel to The Tattoo Connection (thus being Black Belt Jones 3) but because of arguments between the two leads (Jim and Dorian Tan Tao-Liang), the idea was scrapped; which is a shame because a sequel to The Tattoo Connection would have been more enticing than a sequel to Rush Hour, much like how The Stranger & The Gunfighter deserved a