by Kay Curry
Northwest Asia Weekly
When I walked into the screening of Rage Claw: The Legend of Hank, I was thinking, yes, Rage Claw equals Rage Fist. Hank is Bruce Lee and he even wears a yellow robe. But in fact, the film, which was released on July 15th, is not “Fist of Rage”, but “Fiery Saddle.”
If you remember or have seen “The Blazing Saddle” (and it’s quite old), it was released in 1979 and directed by Mel Brooks, who was also governor. The story follows a black sheriff assigned to a white town with blatant racism that was known (and still is) known at the time, and asked, “Why can’t we just get along?”
It was bold at all times in that era, and managed to present troubling truths that, in my opinion, are not objectionable. It’s true that, as Brooks himself said, the film is ultimately about love. The sheriff had to keep fighting for the love of those who hated him (but changed their ways).
The opening credits of “Claws of Wrath: The Legend of Hank,” presented by Paramount Pictures, Nickelodeon Films, and “a bunch of others to name a few,” says it takes place in a world (country? province?) with only cats Alive (read “white people”). There are dogs somewhere, dogs elsewhere (read “colored people”), but they’re not allowed in cat land. Evil big man Ika Chu (voiced by Ricky Gervais for the tee) Hope the quaint and cute town next to his palace disappears to better show the shogun (voiced by Brooks) when he visits. It was here that I immediately thought of “The Emperor’s New Groove” and my brain started running along Down the road – but it’s not where we’re going.
After several failed attempts, Ikachu decided to send the sheriff to take over, determined that the town would kill Hank, and then Ikachu had an excuse to tear down the town. Of course, this won’t happen. Hank starts out as a pretend samurai, enduring the town’s grievances while training with the one-time samurai Jimbo (voiced by Samuel L. Jackson) and falling in love with the man in his care. Along the way, he had some lessons to learn, mostly about pride; there were lessons in town about racism.
I’m just glossing over it here, but “The Legend of Hank” is a scene-to-scene and character-to-character remake of “The Blazing Saddle.” Brooks played an equally important role (now a shogun) and also produced and helped write the script. Hank, of course, is the sheriff of color – that’s the only place I’ve found other references to “Fist of Rage”, like in that movie where Lee’s protagonist is dismissively told that if he can “like” Act like a dog” and he will be allowed into parks where “Chinese and dogs” are not allowed. Jimbo is “Jim,” played by the irrepressibly glowing Gene Wilder, and Ika Chu’s evil twin is “Hedley Lamarr,” played by Harvey Korman.
The film is full of Brooks’ typically brutish humor, from the witty comments at the beginning and end to the cute little town known as “Kakamucho” (speak out loud). The innuendo to kids is appropriately toned down (“Blazing Saddles” has a lot of the same pornography as “the other” “Wild West”), although the songs in the end credits kind of blew me away, like “He’s the best at tailgating” And “he has the biggest sword” – ahem. At the time I thought no one, but I was following anyway.
There are also many uses for the fourth wall, which is a trademark of Brooks. In Blazing Saddles, the final battle falls from the movie screen into the audience. Here, the sumo wrestler (voiced by George Takei and paired with “Mongo”) suffers a similar fall. The soundtrack by Bear McCreary is good. There’s a song in the middle that’s beautiful and sad with lyrics like “why do you believe me?” It’s probably a silly complaint when we’re happy for more Asian and Asian American representation, but it annoys me Yes, Michelle Yeoh’s accent is not Japanese (I know, the town is fictional, but it’s clearly meant to be Japanese-like). Why can’t we go a step further and not just “Asian” find someone with the right origin? But once you go down that path, it gets tangled (or actually pretty simple). Samuel L. Jackson is not Japanese. Nor Ricky Gervais et al. But I digress.
Time to get back to the news, it’s important, but I wonder who?
Throughout the film, I kept thinking, to whom is this message of peace and love among people of different skin colors and backgrounds? First, let me say that I think it’s an honorable effort by Brooks to rekindle the “hot saddle” and hopefully we can all get along, update it, and bring it into the 21st century, when we still desperately need it. But this is an animated film for children – is the message for children the same? I tend to think kids easily “get it” or already get it. Common psychological data tells us that no one is born racist. Children learn racism from adults. It’s hard for me to think that adults who really need to hear this message will understand. I know it’s weird to say this, but I’d really like to know if anyone has been so closed off to go from “those are cats and dogs” which is a cartoon to “those are two different races” which is real.
That said, Claws of Rage: The Legend of Hank is a captivating movie, fun to pick out allusions to Brooks’ early masterpiece (some are obvious, like the “blazing” arrow ending that Hank shot) — But if you’ve never seen the early films and just simply enjoyed the humor, it doesn’t matter to the audience (I’m sure it does for Brooks). This movie probably won’t blow your mind and probably won’t change anything unless the change comes from kids coming home and telling their parents that, you know, we should all get along.
Kay can reach info@nwasianweekly.com.
