Yet another example of the end of the world New York City of the late 1970s, Death Promise - not a threat, but a death promise - is all about the residents of a tenement building (but not Tenement) are being forced out of their homes by a realty company who goes past shutting off the air conditioning, power and water to murder, not to mention lighting fires in the hall and releasing rats, the bad guys kill off Charley's old man boxer father, the man who was trying to keep the tenants all together in the face of these slumlord tactics.

Fortunately for the audience - and bad for the antagonists - Charley (Charles Bonet, Way of the Black Dragon, The Black Dragon Revenges the Death of Bruce Lee, Don't Go in the House) and his friend Speedy (Speedy Leacock) are martial arts experts, making this movie the result of a one night stand between Enter the Dragon and Death Wish.

Beyond just ruining the board members of Iguana Realty's lives, our friends are now planning on murdering each and every one of them. Well, it wasn't called Maim Promise, so that makes sense.

To get his revenge, Charly's master Shibata (Thompson Kao Kang, who was the action director of this movie, as well as a stuntman who appeared in movies like The Karate Killers; sadly he was killed by a Hong Kong cop in what was called a "trivial street quarrel") reads him a letter from the dead dad, which sends him to study under Ying (Tony Liu, who was in The Big Boss, Enter the Dragon, Fist of Fury and many more),where he learns how to take out everyone in his way. That means throwing stars, arrows to the head and death by rats.

Brought to theaters by Howard Mahler Films, the same people who brought From Beyond the Grave, The Big Doll House, The Killer Must Kill Again, Deep Red and Devil's Express to your grindhouse, this movie boasts an incredible Neal Adams-drawn poster.

Pretty sweet rom com. I like the bit where he kills all them ruthless landlords.

DEATH PROMISE is a low rent urban martial arts film from 1977, shot in New York on a remarkably low budget. The story is about a bunch of ruthless landlords who terrorise their tenants and end up committing murder. The victim's son swears revenge and teams up with a bunch of martial arts experts to train and exact it.

This is very much a product of its time so expect lots of wacca-wacca guitar music and massive flares. The street grittiness of New York during the era is well captured. The script is pretty poor, with risible dialogue, and the acting fails to ignite the screen to boot. It's amusing to see all of the Asian stereotypes in the cast list. Worst of all, the slow fight scenes are nothing to get excited about, and that rooftop fight at the climax is completely interminable.