Stoner

One of the best complements that you can give a desert in China is "not too sweet."

Golden Harvest's Stoner has gone by several names: the original Mandarin translates as Iron King Kong Breaks The Ziyang Temple. Then there's A Man Called Stoner; The Shrine Of Ultimate Bliss; Hong Kong Hitman; and more. Stoner and Hitman are obvious comic allusions to the film's subject matter. The number of names says something. It is 'film that doesn't fall neatly into any one marketing segment', a scattershot that somehow manages to hit most of its targets. It's a star vehicle, sexploitation, 007 spoof, gritty crime thriller, buddy cop, Brucesploitation, picaresque, kung-fu comedy with a couple of art house cityscape montages thrown in.

After the the split screen funk-fulled opening credits that make sure you know you are watching a Seventies action movie, a Hong Kong auction for a derelict ship goes a little out of control. The unbelievable price paid for the lump of scrap alerts the suspicions of the Taiwanese authorities. They send police officer Angela Li Shou-hua (Angela Mao) to investigate, unofficially.

Back in Hong Kong. In a secret lair and drug lab, complete with a desk on a rotating dais and a world map with flashing lights (Blofeld, eat your heart out), a scientist (Yuen Fang) announces a new wonder narcotic, part hallucinogen, part aphrodisiac, to the boss (Joji Takagi). It is to be tested on foreign soil.

Sydney, Australia. A naked woman, Melanie (Romanolee Rose), is transported on a litter to a strange ritual in a drug fulled orgy. Stoner leans heavily into Lust For A Vampire era Hammer horror. Seeing the cult's leader (Samuel J Peake), she writhes in ecstasy, crawling her way up his body. Watching on is another woman. She suggestively sucks a red ice lolly. The melting juice runs from her mouth like blood.

Stoner (George Lazenby), a hard boiled Australian cop, is searching for his sister Melanie. His methods are on the wrong side of legal but on the right side of Dirty Harry. He finds her lying naked and strung out on the new drug. After beating information out of the cult leader, he departs for Hong Kong...

The remaining hour and a half of the film keeps up the same pace as the first 20 minutes, with the addition of evil henchwomen, scuba diving, infiltration, capture and a lot of kung-fu fighting. It touches base with pretty much every genre that it can.

Of the two leads, Mao is both the stronger actor and the stronger fighter. She very prominently has top billing, at least in Hong Kong. In the three years since The Angry River, her acting has gone from theatrical to cinematic. Her martial arts performance is incredible and she can handle comedy, such as the scene in which she accidentally feels up George Lazenby's arse. Lazenby, the former used car salesman who blagged his way into playing James Bond, is a bit less convincing as an actor, but works in the part. He can hold his own in the fight scenes, which is probably due to Sammo Hung's choreography. He gets pushed to top billing for the international audience.

There are some significant differences between the original Mandarin cut and the English one. The dialogue is dumbed down, the language less elaborate. The voice acting isn't that great. Also ten minutes has been cut from the film which significantly changes the way it comes across.

Stoner has all the pieces in place for a really fun Hong Kong action flick. It has the plot, a fast paced driving narrative, and the pacing to go with it. Huang Feng and Ni Kuang's writing is sharp and witty. The fight scenes are very well choreographed. The onscreen blocking of action by Sammo Hung and Huang Feng gives it a deep depth of field. The martial artists with speaking roles can all act competently. When it comes to shot composition Huang Feng was one of the one of the best, and that shows in the interiors and in his shots of the city. It has the sensation, it has the spectacle.

What Stoner doesn't have is too much of any one thing. With all that it is packing in it could get overwhelming. It is a balancing act of flavours. Only at the end, the final fight scene is a little overindulgent. The rest of is is never too graphic, never too comic, never too sweet.

Reviewed on: 24 Aug 2026