The Tattoo Connection (E yu tou hei sha xing; Tso Nam Lee, 1978)

Tung Hao (Tan-Liang Tao) brings Fat Dog (Fu Hung Cheng) to their boss, Mr. Lu (Sing Chen). When Fat Dog is unable to produce the money he was supposed to acquire, Lu sentences him to death. Tung Hao, not as malevolent as his employer, instead uses a branding iron to remove Fat Dog's eagle tattoo, the symbol of their gang. Later, Lu's men steal a valuable diamond. The insurance company sends their top investigator, ex-CIA agent Lucas (Jim Kelly) to retrieve it. Meanwhile, Tung Hao's girlfriend Nana (Nami Misaki), who works as a stripper in a club owned by Mr. Lu, tries to convince him to abandon his life of crime.

Martial arts movie aficionados know Jim Kelly for two iconic films directed by Robert Clouse: Enter the Dragon and Black Belt Jones. In fact, in the U.S. and U.K., The Tattoo Connection was marketed as the sequel to Black Belt Jones on VHS and DVD. Needless to say, it's not, and while it's an enjoyable film, it's nowhere near as good as its alleged predecessor. (Incidentally, the film Hot Potato, featuring Kelly as a martial artist who actually is named Jones, is considered by some to be the actual, unofficial sequel to Black Belt Jones). The dubbing is hilarious, with many of the characters sporting British accents. Kelly's Enter the Dragon costar, musclebound perennial heavy Bolo Yeung, is even dubbed with a Cockney accent! Even more egregiously, Jim himself is dubbed by someone else! The word "bastard" is used at least half a dozen times. There's also this phone conversation:

Mr. Lu: I just received the picture you sent me, but what is his name?
Guy on other end: His name is Lucas.
Mr. Lu: Ah, Lucas is his name.

So wait, what's his name again?

Suzi Quattro's "Can the Can" and "48 Catch" are played in the strip club, and dollars to donuts the studio didn't get the rights to use them. Lu bribes Tung Hao's uncle, an elderly diamond cutter, with nubile young things to get him to work his craft on the stolen gem, which he later swallows for no apparent reason. The ending has one of the most blatantly obvious uses of a mannequin to create the illusion of someone falling to their death I've seen in a film. Whatever the film's flaws, Jim Kelly is as cool as ever, Tan-Liang Tao brings some real depth to his role, and the fight scenes are far from bad. Blaxploitation and martial arts fans expecting anything on the level of Kelly's better known work will be let down, but if you set your expectations a smidgen lower this is a pretty fun way to spend an hour and a half.