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Matt Glasby

This is the latest instalment in a feature series reflecting on instances of East meets West in world cinema, including China-US co-productions.
In the 1970s, the UK film industry was in deep trouble. Hoping to diversify its output, British horror specialist Hammer joined forces with Hong Kong’s legendary Shaw Brothers Studio for a three-picture deal.
The first was 1974’s martial arts mash-up The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires, which failed to set the box office alight. The second, made the same year, was Shatter, a tough-talking Hong Kong-set action movie pepped up with bursts of kung fu.
It was a troubled production, with original director Monte Hellman replaced by producer Michael Carreras during shooting. “We ran into all sorts of problems, and like all pictures that are bad, I think it was badly conceived from the start,” Carreras said. “One did all sorts of things to try and save it, but it didn’t work.”


Viewed today, however, the results are much more interesting than film history or Carreras would have us believe.
After assassinating an African leader, American hitman Shatter (Stuart Whitman) travels to Hong Kong to pick up his fee, but his bosses have other ideas. During the cab ride from Kai Tak Airport, someone tries to shoot him, and when he visits the office of German banker Leber (Anton Diffring), he is threatened and turned away.
Soon he finds himself on the run from Leber’s goons, with help from sex worker Mai-Mee (Lily Li Lai-lai) and kung fu expert Tai Pah (Ti Lung). Chief Inspector Rattwood (Hammer regular Peter Cushing) of the Royal Hong Kong Police Force looks on cynically, as corrupt as any of the villains.
“Never trust anyone,” he warns Shatter, “especially in Hong Kong.”
What follows resembles a crude, kung fu-filled Get Carter. David Lindup’s score is absolutely fantastic, all insouciant snare, wah-wah guitar and walking basslines, like the soundtrack to a blaxploitation film. Shatter only has to open a door for his theme to start blaring, and every kick or punch is accompanied by a squeal of outraged brass.


Apparently, music director Philip Martell rejected the original Shaw Brothers score as “absolutely appalling”, and thankfully he did, because the new one gives the film a real pulse.
There are also some good lines. “That’s not a name,” someone tells Shatter when he introduces himself. “No,” he replies, “more a way of life.” And there is much to enjoy in the 1970s stylings: big ties, bad sunglasses and Bacardi cocktails.
Not that Carreras was completely wrong. The exposition is clunky – can you really make cocaine from opium, as the villains seem to think? – and we are never quite sure why Mai-Mee and Tai Pah are so keen to help Shatter.
But the main flaw is how boringly the kung fu fights are staged and shot, especially when compared with the shoot-outs and chases, which have real verve. And the less said about the unconvincing dummies falling to their deaths at the climax, the better.
The action scenes lack excitement, the dialogue scenes are dull and Hong Kong looks like a slum
Producer Michael Carreras
Perhaps nobody could bring together so many clashing styles. Part Bond movie, part blaxploitation homage, part martial arts flick, Shatter attempts to cram far too many genres into one film.
But that feels strangely fitting for Hong Kong, a city of conflicting influences. As writer Tim Worthington said, “It inadvertently captures the push and pull between East and West in early 1970s Hong Kong, repackaged Coca-Cola bottles and all.”
In most Western films, Hong Kong is presented as exotic and romantic. In Shatter, it is a building site, with rubble everywhere, a harbour choked with boats, and streets full of massage parlours, dive hotels and downtrodden locals. In short, it provides the perfect backdrop for Shatter’s enemies – and their dirty deeds – to go unnoticed.
“In my opinion, the action scenes lack excitement, the dialogue scenes are dull and Hong Kong looks like a slum,” said Carreras. But it is the latter element that really brings the film to life, adding grit, local colour and a sense of realism missing from similar macho fantasies.

Shatter was released in the US under the blaxploitation-friendly title Call Him Mr Shatter in 1975. In the UK, it remained on the shelf until 1977, when its pick-and-mix charms must have seemed way past their sell-by date. The film opened in Hong Kong in 1980.
Variety called it “dull and sloppy”, praising Ti Lung’s martial arts sequences as “choreographed with unusual skill” while also noting that “this kind of stuff is getting stale by now”.
Perhaps understandably, Hammer and the Shaw Brothers ended their three-film contract ahead of time, and plans to turn Shatter into a TV series were shelved indefinitely.
But just because the film didn’t quite work doesn’t mean it deserves to be forgotten. As a snapshot of Hong Kong in the 1970s, a time capsule from a place in transition, it is fascinating despite its flaws – much like the city itself.
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Whitman (left) and Peter Cushing in a still from Shatter. Photo: Hammer

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(From left) Russell Crowe, RZA and Eli Roth on the set of The Man with the Iron Fists.

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Film & TV

Shatter, featuring Peter Cushing, Lily Li and Ti Lung, was a box office failure in 1974, but offered a glimpse of a Hong Kong in transition


Shatter, featuring Peter Cushing, Lily Li and Ti Lung, was a box office failure in 1974, but offered a glimpse of a Hong Kong in transition.


Why flop movie Shatter is a perfect 1970s Hong Kong time capsule

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Shatter, featuring Peter Cushing, Lily Li and Ti Lung, was a box office failure in 1974, but offered a glimpse of a Hong Kong in transition

Shatter, featuring Peter Cushing, Lily Li and Ti Lung, was a box office failure in 1974, but offered a glimpse of a Hong Kong in transition