When it comes to martial arts movies out of East Asia in the '70s, establishing the pedigree can be a complicated matter. According to City on Fire's deep-diving critic Paul Branhall, Magnificent Wonderman from Shaolin is notorious Hong Kong film hack Godfrey Ho's reworking of Kim Seon-Gyeong's Korean action pic Golden Gate from a few years earlier. The flick definitely has Korean star power: Casanova Wong, Eagle Han-ying, Elton Chong, and Marty Chui Man Fooi are each prominently featured. And if you're noticing a pattern here re: their names, you probably won't be surprised to learn that this flick has been dubbed into English, albeit of the corniest variety. I doubt the translation's faithful. I suspect the earliest version was best.
But Magnificent Wonderman did get me wondering. Why isn't the dumbed-down dialogue in martial arts movies ever given a homoerotic twist? With its original title (Golden Gate) and no shortage of sexy men, you could easily resituate the story to San Francisco then recast the relationships as romantic rivalries. What if the impressive skull grip that causes a foamy mouth had sexual connotations? What if the old monk with the inverted swastika headband was undercover at a neo-Nazi HQ? How might we reframe the swordplay followed by a fatal kick to the groin? Couldn't the hand that burns with each touch or the jumpcuts between two sets of staring eyes get a queer reinterpretation? I realize that was not the intent of Kim or Ho or any of the players. But what's the point of this movie anyway? And where did those Wolverine fingernails come from?
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