Country: Hong Kong
Genre: Action/ Martial Arts
Director: Fung Hak-On
Year: 1991
Rating: 
TRASH CINEMA RECOMMENDED MOVIE
The Godfather’s Daughter Mafia Blues is one of those film’s about a legendary character in Hong Kong cinema, the Triad boss with principles. Does such a thing exist? Who knows.
Alex Man takes a break from playing loathesomely sleazy characters to give us Master Hwa, who runs a hostess bar in which the clients aren’t allowed to touch the merchandise. Um, okay. He’s a sentimental sort of guy. After Wai (Mark Cheng) breaks into his compound and starts a fight, leaving behind a Chinese Army medallion, Master Hwa hires him. You see, they were both in the same division of the army.
But there’s trouble in the wind. A punk kid from Japan, Kuyama (Ken Lo), takes a controlling interest in Master Hwa’s corporation, purchasing stock through means of threats and intimidation. To make matters worse, Master Hwa’s headstrong daughter, Amy (Oshima Yukari), offends Kuyama. As is often the case in such matters, Kuyama must have revenge, and it all escalates from there.
Thankfully, there is a ton of acting talent on display in the leads and secondary characters to flesh out the basic scenario. Alex Man is moving as a violent man who has grown diplomatic with age. Oshima Yukari plays a bubbly young girl, for a change — she’s delightful as Amy, Master Hwa’s daughter. Ken Lo is appropriately hateful as the duplicitous and vengeful Kuyama. Mark Cheng hits the right notes as the lower class Wai. He’s endearingly clumsy, but a good man to have next to you in a fight. Dick Wei is excellent, as usual, as the scheming Master Tung. For added flavor, we’ve got the superb character actors Fung Fung, Peter Yang, Leung Kar-Yan, and Tai Bo.
Many of these actors can also fight, and they’re given some wonderful choreography by director Fung Hak-On, who doubled as action choreographer on this flick. Expect lots of hard-hitting Kung Fu, acrobatics, busted furniture, and broken glass.
Unfortunately, the film has some problems. I’m not sure whether the fault belongs to the company that put out the DVD or the filmmakers, but whole scenes seem to be missing from the film. At one point, Wai is headed over to the headquarters of some low level gangsters for a fight. Cut to Wai, who is tied up by the gangsters, being bailed out by Master Hwa. The fight is skipped! How can this be? This main point of this movie is the martial arts battles!
There’s also an unfortunate lapse in the heroes’ intelligence late in the proceedings. When it seems like the villains have completely crushed our heroes, Wai and Amy take one last stab at redemption. Unfortunately, that means driving straight up to the bad guys’ lair, getting out and striding purposefully towards dozens of henchmen who are armed to the teeth. What did Wai and Amy think was going to happen? The goons direct a blistering fusilade of gunfire at our heroes, forcing them to temporarily retreat. This plot development makes Wai and Amy look like idiots. Why not go in guerrila warfare style, and pick off a few henchmen before attempting a direct engagement?
Even so, despite it’s flaws, The Godfather’s Daughter Mafia Blues is an engaging martial arts action flick, and the only chance I know of to see Oshima Yukari portray a sweet and spunky young girl instead of a borderline psychotic banshee.
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