Original outing about Commissario Rizzo or Piedone series formed by four parts . First installment with Bud Spencer as commissary Rizzo or Flatfoot executing his missions in city of Naples . Amusing comedy set in Naples for Bud Spencer enthusiasts , repeating his usual role as Commissario , this time dealing with mobsters and drugs trafficking . Rizzo ( Bud Spencer or Carlo Perdesoli ) is a corpulent and bouncing cop from Naples where meets enemies , facing off dangers, and several adventures against rapists , night attackers and other delinquents . He join forces with an American Inspector named Sam ( the notorious US secondary Robert Loggia ) and his underling named Caputo ( Enzo Cannavale ) to stop a drug smuggling , but the violent methods used by Rizzo cause his suspension by the Inspector chief ( Renato Scarpa) . A mobster named Pastrone is killed and Piedone or Bigfoot or Rizzo is accused . In order to clear his name he has to resolve who is the spy allegedly bought by Pastrone , from a Mafia ring , who has infiltrated his police department . Flatfoot suspects on Barella ( Al Lettieri who acted in ¨The Godfather¨ though very secondary ) as dope kingpin and he pursues him . Flatfoot goes to Bangkok where is shown the ordinary touristic spectacles as Thai dancers , Kickboxing and habitual monuments . Later on , Flatfoot arrives in Hong Kong where take place new adventures . There , in a ship as game-house called Golden Moon attempts to contact a clue but disappears , after that , he enters in Green Dragon club where meets the mobster named Barella .

This entertaining , engaging movie is crammed of fist-play , punches , kicks , knocks , moving stunt-work and colorful outdoors from Naples , Bangkok and Hong Kong . It's an amusing romp with action , intrigue ,thrills , brawls and some funny struggles involving masked dancers , including bounds and leaps . This is a nice entertaining juvenile for Bud Spencer fans , as he's delightful . It packs action , fist-play, slapdash , humor with tongue-in-cheek and is quite bemusing . This release has some cool and hilarious moments here and there ; however the Terence Hill-Bud Spencer duo films are better . The film isn't always good , sometimes is fresh and diverting and on a couple of memorable occasions ,it's frankly delicious . The movie displays innumerable laughters , jokes and slapstick . In the 70s and 80s Bud Spencer starred various movies without Terence Hill , as he made three kinds of films : 1ª he performed pictures with a little boy as partner as ¨Banana Joe ¨ , ¨Aladino ¨and ¨The Supersheriff¨ ; 2ª about cop named Flatfoot or Rizzo, also called Piedone, such as, ¨Flatfoot in Hong Kong, Flatfoot in Cairo , Flatfoot in Egypt , Flatfoot in Africa¨, furthermore the ¨Extralargo¨ series ; 3ª about diverse characters as a medieval knight as ¨Soldier of fortune¨ , a swindler as ¨Mr Charleston¨ or a fisherman , ex-player as ¨Bulldozer¨ and marshal as ¨The sheriff and the little extraterrestrial ¨ . In the picture appears usual secondaries from B Italian series seen in several genres as Spaghetti Western and Peplum as Pietro Torrisi, Giovanni Cianfriglia , Dominic Barto , Octaviano Dell'Acqua and Riccardo Pizzuti ; all of them acting habitually as thugs in minor interventions . Catching and commercial musical score by the series usual , Guido and Mauricio De Angelis (Spaghetti Western's ordinary) and composed by synthesizer . Passable cinematography by Giuseppe Ruzzolini , Pasolini's ordinary cameraman , though is necessary an urgent remastering because the copy is washed-out . The motion picture is professionally directed by Steno , Stefano Vanzina (father of Carlo Vanzina ). He wrote and directed in the 60s Toto vehicles (Toto vs the four, Two colonels) ; Walter Chiari and Raimondo Vianello shows (Heroes of the West, Twins from Texas). In the 70s and 80s directed Bud Spencer movies about Flatfoot or Rizzo, also called Piedone, such as, Flatfoot in Hong Kong, Flatfoot in Egypt and Banana Joe , among others. And in the 80s directed TV series , the Professore Jack Clementi, again with Bud Spencer. Rating : Acceptable and passable , though only for Bud Spencer fans .

It's followed by various sequels as : "Piedone d'Egitto" original title) or "Flatfoot on the Nile" (1978) ; "Piedone l'Africano" (original title) or "Flatfoot in Africa" aka "Knock-Out Cop" and Pies Grandes (1975) or "Piedone a Hong Kong" or "Flatfoot in Hong Kong . All followings are lively performed by Bud Spencer and usual secondary appearance of Enzo Cannavale as Deputy Inspector Caputo .

Bud Spencer stars in the first of several cop comedy/action films as the character Inspector "Flatfoot" Rizzo. It was released in the US drive- in/exploitation theaters in 1975 but it was made two years earlier. The film is essentially a travelogue of the Asia Pacific region with Bud visiting temples, casinos, and a sumo wrestling match while chasing clues that he believes will lead to a mole on the police force.

With a little more character development and less slapstick, this could have been a very nice thriller. As it is, it is a pleasant 70's action film that is light on plot.

"Piedone a Hong Kong" or "Flatfoot Goes East" or "Buddy in Hongkong" or "Plattfuß räumt auf" or "Flatfoot in Hong Kong" etc. is a co-production between Italy and Hong Kong from 1975, so this film had its 45th anniversary last year and Spencer is still famous enough here in Germany for me to mention two German titles here. Probably more famous than everywhere else and this could also include Italy where he is from. This is of course a movie without his longtime partner Terence Hill. The fact that Hong Kong is a country of production is of course directly linked to where this movie is set and also where it was filmed. It says here on imdb that there are two versions, the uncut version at 115 minutes and the cut version at 108 minutes and I think I watched the latter tonight here on national television. At least it did not come close to two hours, so it must have been this one if there are really only these two versions in existence. The director is Steno and he is also one of the writers. No surprise here because Steno has far more writing credits than directing credits, even if the latter is also a pretty high amount. It is only a surprise from the perspective that Steno only directed the first Piedone movie and was not one of the writers there. But here he is. So yes, there are several Piedone movie. This is the second from four films if I am not mistaken. The following two, which I will also review soon, are set in Africa. It is a bit unusual for lead actor Bud Spencer to play the same character in so many films. I mean it is not unusual that he returned for a sequel, but four films is an exception. Of course, the character he plays is police inspector Rizzo and you can see in one scene that he is not just a simple police officer, namely during the one in which he orders the cops to let go off the woman they were about to arrest and bring back to her hospital. But I will talk a bit about the contents later. I can already say now that after having seen this film and the first, I am not too happy about the outcome quality-wise. If I wasn't a big Bud Spencer film, then I'd probably hand out a negative recommendation here and take away another two stars. But I just love the man, so I am a bit generous. I just hope that the quality gets better in the coming movies. I can see why this one here did not win Spencer another Golden Screen apparently. The poster I am also not too big of I must admit. It summarizes the film pretty nicely though from a negative perspective. Spencer in the center is nice, but maybe other than him, there is just too much going on and it should have been a more essential film with better focus. Sadly, it is not, even if it is also never really bad or anything. Just a bit all over the place at times and as a consequence I even did not like the fighting scenes here too much and those I almost always like in Spencer's other films.

First of all, there are many parallels here if we compare this movie to the very first film that was a bit of an introduction to the series although I am not sure if they knew back then already that three more would follow. Probably not. Honestly, this film with the entire idea of catching a police officer that works with the drug dealers felt so similar to the first that I really would have wanted some more creative writing. No major differences at all. Except that the film is set on another continent and that is it then. Sorry, but this is absolutely not good enough. As I said, I truly hope the other ones add something new story-wise and I will find out next week. But now back to this one here. It was nice to see Spencer/Pedersoli in the water here fighting the bad guys, something rather unusual for him, especially if you know about his background as an Olympic swimmer. Otherwise, you will find the typical Spencer stuff here when he beats up the bad guys. Only that they are Asians this time on many occasions. Some of them wear pompous traditional costumes even. Sumo is also included here and this scene almost felt like taken from a James Bond movie in terms of the contents (also with the FBI guy in the end as some parallel to Leiter) with how the big guy (obviously not Spencer's character) is killed by an assassin. Kinda fitting because Bond was of course really big in the 1970s. At that point, Moore had taken over from Connery already. Anyway, back to this one here: This aforementioned scene also showed something not too typical for Spencer and his films, namely that he is not always really superior physically compared to the people he is up against. The sumo wrestler has a bit of an advantage early on. It does not last for long, but still. And in the first film, Buddy's Rizzo struggled a bit against the guy on the roof early on and also against a big bald brute later on. Oh, I must also mention the kid from this film here. Not an alien this time, but a local. That little Asian boy was really cute. Also in the last shot when he finds his own way to eat those spaghetti. Perfect combination of Italy and Asia if you ask me. This kid is credited here as Daygolo and a bit sad to see he has never been in another film before or especially after this one. Also a bit strange there is only one name to him. His smile was really infectious though. Somehow I thought that at the end we could find out that he actually understood everything Rizzo said, but they did not take this route and it was probably a good decision. Why would he speak Italian all of a sudden. Or German in the version I watched. I still think Bud Spencer films are among the very best dubbing I have come across in my cinematic life. Gotta love Wolfgang Hess' work and I hope he rests in peace. Just like Spencer himself. A bit telling that there were exactly two months between the dates of death from those two, even if Pedersoli/Spencer was considerably older. One thing I liked here as well was the music. really catchy tune at times. So it may not have sounded like this early on, but this film definitely has its pros. The cast is alright too. Actually, we have some actors here who showed up in some really big movies like The Godfather or 12 Angry Men. And then there are those that appear on many Bud Spencer films like Enzo Cannavale who is a regular in these Flatfoot movies, but even he was part of a classic movie (about movies). The one I always have to mention though is Riccardo Pizzuti. Glad to see he is still alive now and I hope he stays it for a while if he wants to. He is always so easy to identify and great fun, even if his role in here is pretty small, especially compared to other films. His scene when he crashes through that door with his head is among the funniest from the entire movie. Also Rizzo's comment about knocking before entering was another highlight. I guess this is pretty much it then. Overall, these minor positive aspects have a pretty hard time though in my opinion to make up for the fairly uninspired plot and this is never a film to be taken seriously and the problem is that it feels as if this film wants to be taken seriously in contrast to many other Spencer movies. So if you have seen nothing from the man, then this one here is not the greatest choice to start with. Go for one of his more famous works. This one here is a film you want to check out once you have seen a lot from him and he has a place in your heart. You can also watch it then before the first Piedone film as I think it is not necessary to stick with the chronological order here really. Even if it probably the better choice. I am talking only about the first two films of course. Cannot (yet) elaborate on the other two. I think for this one here the comedy also could have been a bit better. I mean no offense, but the old woman beating up some of the bad guys was never really funny and this final brawl sequence was really as much over the place as the film itself for the most part. It was also fairly difficult to see who is who. It felt as if everybody was basically fighting everybody and yes, this takes out the fun. I mean in other Spencer films, there is still some kind of order in the chaos. Here not so much. So I give the outcome here only a very cautious positive recommendation. Also could have been at least ten minutes shorter. And come on, did they really not understand immediately that the little boy was pretending to be sumo wrestler? Please. That felt like the most illogical part of it all to me. Okay I'm done now. You get the message. Here's hoping the Africa movies are better.