Wong Tao takes center stage with, more or less, the Charles Bronson role. Ah Yan or ‟Miracle Man‟ is a mute, revenge-seeking martial artist who saw his father hanged by a vicious, hunchbacked baddie, The Black Dragon (Tommy Lee). The Jason Robards role is replaced by a mystery guy, the Man in White (Stephen Tung Wei), who is later revealed to be a cop.

Thats really it in terms of a connection to Once Upon a Time in the West, just the hanging flashbacks and the duo versus one bad guy story. No Westward expansion, land grabbing plotline. So, with that aspect gone, you don't get a juicy female role. Instead of Claudia Cardinale you get a little wisecracking street kid (Chi Kuang Lung), which, in my book, is hardly a suitable replacement. The villain is stock, kung fu bad guy, which I guess is the kung fu version of a near mythically evil, gang leading gunslinger. Though, one imagines Henry Fonda would have been hard-pressed to ever play hunchback.

Miracle Man makes his way to different members of the Black Dragon's Society of underworld cronies, offing them one-by-one, working his way up to fight the big guy. First up is a obsessive compulsive, germ phobic, bald bruiser, then a gang of beauties who run a casino, a kind of no-background guy, and a deadly duo of main henchmen. The film actually tries to generate some sympathy for at least two of the villains, the main casino babe and the nondescript guy, who's wife actually does a good job begging for her baddie hubbies life. Along the way Miracle Man befriends the street kid and gets aid from the Man in White, but they are just satellite distractions to his single-minded goal of vengeance.

I've never been a big fan of Wang Tao (aka. Don Wang/Wong). I don't dislike him, but, despite being in some decent films like The Hot, The Cool, and the Vicious, Eagle's Fist, and Fatal Needles Vs. Flying Fists, he never captured my interest very much as a martial performer. His fighting is okay but not jaw-dropping. As an actor he was prefectly acceptable but, again, lukewarm. He's good but not quite engaging or unique enough in his psychical skill or screen charisma to really stand out in the large crowd of 70's kung fu stars. Playing a mute actually diminishes some of his charm because without any real emotive acting, which he was pretty good at delivering, you are just left with a fair martial performer.

Director Wu Ma was a real HK workhorse both behind and in front of the camera. As one of Hong Kong's most popular character actors, his face is instantly recognizable to HK film fans. He also enjoyed steady employment as a director for the better part of two decades, from Kung Fu Eight Drunkards, to Dead and the Deadly, to Circus Kids. He was really adept at any story with levity, making even the most substandard b-film he helmed entertaining because of the goofiness. Along Came a Tiger is a standard revenge tale so there wasn't much room for humor and as a result Wu Ma doesn't get to showcase what he was best at delivering.

Fightwise, the film is okay. Not really the stuff of highlight reels. Enough to entertain your die-hard marital junkie, though casual/average fans may find it a tad lackluster. This is the kind of film that you can tell they were on budget, so there wasn't much leeway in terms of time to stage elaborate choreography. A few fairly inventive moments, like the casino girls feathery fans of death, and Miracle Man has a neat short staff turned sectioned nunchuck-looking weapon he pulls out from time to time.

The DVD: BCI

Picture: Once again, I hang my head. As a kung fu film fan, I should be used to it by now. When it comes to getting nice transfers, in any format, the genre is largely doomed to mediocrity. So, don't expect much. Thankfully for consumers, the folks at BCI were nice enough to putting a little blurb on the back cover, paraphrasing, ‟...we did the best we could with the surviving elements...‟

The back cover also states Anamorphic but this is a weird one. The aspect ratio is off because there is some matte bar cropping. When displayed in widescreen, you still get a good deal of matte bar at the top and bottom of the image, which in turn is a bit squeezed, and the subs get cut off, so it isnt any kind of true Anamorphic image. I'm confused how and why this kind of flub occurred. As for the rest, it is a very dull, worn print, some wear and tear and generally weak overall details. That I will forgive, but technically the image is further marred by severe aliasing and motion blur that will make it unacceptable to pickier film lovers.

Sound:You get the choice of English or Mandarin dubs, both in either original mono or 5.1 remixes. Optional English subtitles. I opted for the English dub for the bulk of my review watching, only turning on the Mandarin tracks and subs in spots to compare. Each track has a different score, the Eng opting for some funky synth stuff, the Man keeping to more traditional Chinese orchestral tunes. I didn't find a tremendous difference in the remixes other than the side speakers getting a little more push and pull out of the fx and some general brightness. The remixes, thankfully, don't tinker with the action fx and score, and remain faithful. Both tracks have source faults, namely some bad distortions, buzz, tinniness, all common faults within the genre.

The difference between the subtitles and the dub are pretty extreme. Ah Yan's alias/other moniker in the dub is ‟Miracle Man‟ but the subs opt for ‟Cloud.‟ Black Dragon's gang of cronies are called the ‟Tong Fan Clan‟ in the dub and the ‟Black Dragon Gang‟ in the subs. In addition, there are various variances and the subs have some grammatical errors.

Extras: Trailer. --- Photo Gallery. --- Interview with Robert Tai (5:55). --- Feature Commentary by all-around kung fu afficionado Toby Russell and actor/co-producer Wong Tao.

First up is the interview with colorful director Robert Tai (Ninja: The Final Duel). Tai is pretty outspoken, and provides a rant on swordplay film, or big budget HK action films versus low budget flicks, drawing a strange comparison by using the Bond and Spiderman franchise as examples. He then proceeds to slag on Yuen Woo Ping and Ching Sui Tung with such great manly venom that I wish this extra was three times longer.

The commentary is quite good, purely for the fact that many old school stars, especially guys from the fringes like Wong Tao, sort of fell off the face of the planet when they became obsolete in the late 80's. His memory is a bit sketchy in spots but Toby Russell does a good job of prodding him without becoming too invasive. By the end of the commentary, you get some good anecdotes that provide a good view of the indie kung fu film scene. You even get to learn of Wong Tao and Tommy Lee's falling out.

Conclusion: When I first heard of BCI's Rarescope line, I got my hopes up that a US company would finally take up the mantle and figure out how to do a really top notch kung fu film DVD transfer, but they ended up falling into the same pitfalls that has plagued the genre. As a fan, you just have to be happy they are at least putting some chop socky out there, even if the titles they've released so far are a little lackluster and the quality certainly wont help make new converts.

Along Came a Tiger is a pretty mediocre film, but for serious martial freaks, the commentary makes this disc is worth checking out. Kung Fu flick dorks like myself will want to purchase it for the commentary, but, because of the actual film and transfer content, the rest of the consumer world will want to stick to a rental.