I’ve been thinking a bit about “lost movies.” A lot of silent films are lost because nitrate film is dangerous and self-destructive. Other movies have become lost because nobody wants to watch them anymore. One of the fun features for the Cinema Overdrive movie series was they’d run a few trailers for movies that have vanished into obscurity. A major reason a film can become lost is that the studio/distributor has vanished and no one has bought up their titles to keep distributing them on any format including streaming on Tubi. If they’re lucky, their negatives are left undisturbed at a film vault. The not so lucky ones are trashed in a dumpster because nobody paid the storage fees. According to the notes on the back of the Blu-ray box, Deadly Kung-Fu Factor had vanished after its initial distribution in 1978. While it was made in Hong Kong, it wasn’t produced by either Golden Harvest or Shaw Brothers. This was released by Climb Up Film Company. The film went missing for quite a few decades. It also doesn’t help that it’s been released as Jia Huo, The Delivery and a few others so even fans could be calling it by the wrong name. Someone finally tracked down the original camera negative to give it a proper release on Blu-ray. Now you can enjoy the thrilling Deadly Kung-Fu Factor cops and Triad chase.
The Hong Kong police get word that a local Triad has made a massive deal with a Japanese Yakuza gang to import heroin. Their main suspect San Lang (Project A Part II‘s Chen Hui Min aka Michael Chan) arrives at the airport. The cops think he will lead them to the kingpin. But he eludes the cops tailing him with stunt driving to Kraftwerk’s “Autobahn” song. However he ends up bumping into motorcyclist Li Hsiang Yun (Bat Without Wings‘ Susanna Au Yeung). Instead of a death on the highway, the duo hit it off. She’s so cool with him that she’s willing to join him at a mobster run Poker game and help him cheat. Tu Shao Hsiang (Mad Mad Kung Fu‘s Charles Heung Wah Keung) isn’t exactly thrilled that the middleman on his big deal is such causing way too much trouble in the underworld. Is he really going to be able to pull off this massive drug deal?
Deadly Kung-Fu Factor is interesting because it comes in the era of Hong Kong cinema between the death of Bruce Lee and the rise of Heroic Bloodshed. It contains both elements. There’s plenty of martial arts action with the modern criminal tale. Comedy pops up for a few moments. There’s a great scene where a fight breaks out on the dance floor and the band keeps playing as if they’re orchestrating the Kung Fu action. During one fight a guy is hitting people with an acoustic guitar. This reminds me of El Kabong in the old Quick Draw McGraw cartoons. This isn’t a comedy cop movie which would also become a popular genre in Hong Kong. There’s quite a bit of getting freaky in the movie. This should appeal to folks who enjoy a hard R with their action. One character has a threesome with two hookers to show that it was rather edgy for the times. It’s great that Deadly Kung-Fu Factor has been found to deliver plenty of kicks.
The Video is 2.35:1 anamorphic. The transfer has a bit of debris on the frame which is fine considering this is a film that hasn’t been available in decades. The Audio is Mandarin DTS-HD MA 2.0 mono. The subtitles are English.
No bonus features.
Dark Force presents Deadly Kung-Fu Factor. Directed by Ta Chuan Hsu. Staring Michael Wai-Man Chan, Auyeung Pui-San, Na Na and Charles Heung. Running Time: 100 Minutes. Rating: Unrated. Release Date: July 14, 2026.
