Pantyhose Hero (1990) Sammo & Stunt Team At There Best!

[Guest Chen Zhen]

that depends.

on the action side, this is some of sammos best stuff..the fights and stunts are crazy in typical sammo fashion...if u liked the fights in pedicab, these fights, while not quite as good, are definetely in the same ballpark.

now, if u consider urself homophobic, then there are quite a few scenes that u may want to fast forward through. its kinda funny, his take on the gay community. but fear not, theres nothing in there that is too outrageous to make one feel very uncomfortable.

on the action side - 4.5/5

overall, i'd give the movie a 3.5/5

one thing to note is that, once again, sammo gives u insane action scenes.....in very small doses.

[Guest Markgway]

The film is unfortunately homophobic and even though I'm not gay myself I found it offensive. There's a lot of sleazy comedy to get thru before the stunts at the end. Try it at your peril.

[Guest D1 Ma]

Oh, come on!

I fought some of the faggot jokes were funny!

I don't know why people are so hyper-sensitive about this film. Sammo's actualy DEFENDING gays in this movie, both verbally and physically. It's defenitely not anti-gay, it's just happen to take place within gay community.

Plus, this movie is about action, the plot is not that important, so forget all that politically correct bull$hit and enjoy the movie!

[Guest Chinatown Kid]

Thanks for your comments guys, much appreciated. Since it has some of Sammo's great choreography and stunts in it then I definately want to check it out. Sammo's definately known for having controversial stuff in some of his movies before, I remember when he dressed Yuen Biao up in blackface to impersonate Robert Samuels character's brother in Don't Give a Damn. What was worse was Samuels had to act like he was actually fooled by it! :eek

[Guest rederror]

Quality film. i found it quite funny and the action is brutal. Check out sammo's car stunt...all i can say is OUCH!!!

[Guest rdenn]

this is the last good film sammo has done, really violent fights sammo doesnt hold back does he.

[Guest Markgway]

I'm hardly Mr. Political Correctness, but I seem to remember gays being treated pretty badly in that film. Certainly at the time I didn't like it. But everyone's different.

[Guest silver hermit]

its a sammo film people are supposed to get beat up. and the fact the serial killer targets gays has nothing to do with homophobia

[Guest Riceboy2000]

I thought it was funny as well. The fighting does have the nice brutal feel to it. I remember being let down by the ending a tad bit though. I'm a fan of Alan Tam too so I enjoyed the film.

[Guest tigerstyles]

its pure class and deserves a decent DVD release right now. Wait a minute i realy could do with a new version of Hard Boiled.....8o

[Guest GwaiLoMoFo]

Great action with a passable story that is somtimes funny. I found it way more silly than offensive. Actually pretty daring subject matter Sammo covered the time it was made. Nowadays youre hard pressed to find a channel on tv not catering to the gay agenda (except maybe Spike).

even though I'm not gay myself

Damnit, I just lost $20 in the Fandom pool!

[Guest Man from WAZ]

best line in the movie: "me gay, you gay, sooo...let's gay!

[Guest tigerstyles]

superb film just watched it again

[Guest Beat TG]

the action was hot but the movie itself is quite something that's not so pleasant to watch (I'm not homophobic or anything though, I meant for other people).

[Guest David G Rees]

Great film, typical 80's action with a great finale.....and that stunt with the car...ouch!!

[Guest Beat TG]

that car stunt always makes me go "ouch!!!"...

[niro]

I just watched this film...i've wanted to check it out for long time...its fackin hilarious

The funniest part was when they were training to be gay with that woman and they had the following dialogue:

Alan:Hii

Sammo:Hii

Alan:You gay?

Sammo: mmm

Alan: Me gay too

Sammo: So....

Alan: Let's gay

Sammo: Ok,OK

[Karlos]

It's a cracking modern day Sammo flick - but, as noted, it's not exactly PC!!

Still, when have HK films ever worried about offending anyone when it comes to their comedic moments?!

FarEastFlix.com has it - it's a transfer of the old VHS, but it doesn't look like it's getting a proper DVD release anytime soon!

[TibetanWhiteCrane]

Let's gay......:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D

[chen lung]

It seemed like Sammo wanted the word gay mentioned as often as possible, so he stuck in words like it.

I tried getting it and although the case has Pantyhose, I ended up getting 'Master With Cracked Fingers'!

[David Rees]

Great Sammo action and funny if a little dated.

Found a dvd here but im sure its a bootleg..its says 2:35-1 widescreen but my tape is fullscreen...anyone got this disc?

PANTYHOSE HERO DVD

[chen lung]

Think 'Pantyhose' is a 1:85:1 film and that DVD is a bootleg.

[thedirtytiger]

i HAVE THE hk VCD There is no official dvd release as yet...

[Joseph_Kuby]

The Indian title for Pantyhose Hero is Lethal Killers. Those wanting to buy the film could try searching for a possible Indian DVD release.

Even though Sammo was involved in directing the action and a few of his own non-action shots, Wong Jing was the main director.

An online Chinese article about Alan Tam confirmed that Jing served as director. This credential is evident in the fact that the film is considerably more violent than the stuff Sammo usually directs.

The people who helped Sammo choreographed the fight scenes were Yuen Cheung Yan (who worked with Sammo on Pedicab Driver) and Siu Tak Foo (the assistant director of Encounters of the Spooky Kind 2).

Yuen Cheung Yan and Siu Tak Foo had previously worked with Jing on Winner Takes All.

Siu first worked with Sammo on Eastern Condors and would go on to be his assistant fight choreographer for the making of Moon Warriors, The Eagle Shooting Heroes, Blade of Fury, Kung Fu Cult Master, Ashes of Time and Knock Off.

Pantyhose Hero (a.k.a. Pantyhose Killer) was made during a period when Alan Tam was collaborating with Jing (i.e. Casino Raiders, The Last Blood and No Risk, No Gain).

Jing was also one of the writers for Pantyhose Hero (hence it being inspired by a Western film {Partners}, having politically incorrect humor and English dialogue). He included the reference to Rock Hudson in the script as well as the paraphrased passage of Shakespeare.

Jing is well known for wanting to cash in on the latest big thing hence why he wanted the film to have a serial killer who's obsessed with the caped crusader (after the '89 Batman movie had done well in Hong Kong).:S

An example of Jing's influence is that in the nightclub scene, one of the gay guys mildly looks like Jackie Chan's manager Willie Chan (which foreshadows what Jing did in High Risk). The scene where Sammo touches Alan's butt (when they're learning how to be gay) is reminiscent of a scene in High Risk where Jing implies that Willie is gay.XD

One of the sight gags is even similar to City Hunter (an attempted rape by a homosexual resulting in torn clothes of the near-rape victim). Like City Hunter, there's AIDS jokes. Like the other Jing/Hung collaboration, Kung Fu Cult Master, there are jokes about rape too.:quiet:

Jing was aware that Jeff Lau (one of the producers of Eastern Condors) was making a God of Gamblers parody so he decided to name Sammo's character after him as a tongue-in-cheek response to that.:l

If you look at Skinny Tiger and Fatty Dragon, Sammo's hair style was constantly changing due to the fact he had to go back and forth between the two movies. Sammo made his hair curly for Pantyhose Hero as Jing felt Sammo's usual bowl cut was too typical for him and fairly quaint (like how Eric Tsang wanted Jackie Chan to lose the '70s style hairdo for Armour of God).

Pantyhose Hero would be the start of a reoccurring theme in a Wong Jing-produced film where Sammo gets stabbed in the stomach but lives (the following films featuring this motif being Kung Fu Cult Master and The Avenging Fist).

The irony of this film is that back in 2000, it was screened at a gay film festival in Boston, where several people had perceived it as a pro-gay film (i.e. the end of the nightclub scene and the biker scene).

[Guest Markgway]

I always thought that this was Sammo's worst film... now it turns out to be a Wong Jing film.

Finally makes sense.