Trying to find a film I saw about 20 years ago

July 17, 2005 4:15 PM

I'm looking for the name of this movie I saw in the early 1980s, when I was a child, that ended with the antagonist winning.

The antagonist in this movie was an Asian man and if I remember right, he had a moustache. I think he was also wearing a hat, but I can't remember what kind.

At the end, once he had won whatever conflict he was in, he was shown at length in closeup, laughing. Then the credits rolled.

I remember thinking the movie was old, but I was a child at the time and "old" could have been something from the early 1970s. I remember thinking also that the man was "bad"--a villain--but I'm not sure now if that was just a child's interpretation or if it was something the filmmakers seemed to want the audience to think. What I do remember is that I was horribly disturbed that the antagonist had won, and I wanted the film to come back on and show that he hadn't, and that my family were annoyed at my insistence that that wasn't the ending. None of them remember it now.

Any idea what film this might be?

posted by Tuwa to Media & Arts (10 answers total)

Was it black and white or in color?
posted by Anonymous at 10:39 PM on July 17, 2005

Cowboy, gangster, kung-fu?
posted by tellurian at 11:12 PM on July 17, 2005

Here is a several page thread on movies where the bad guys win, but just glancing at it spoils dozens of movies straight-off, so you'll have to dig through yourself.

Sorry that that's not too helpful --
posted by rafter at 11:35 PM on July 17, 2005

At the end of the 1980 Flash Gordon movie, although Ming the Merciless (Max von Sydow, in East Asian makeup) is impaled by the front end of a rocketship, seemingly dies, and vanishes, at the very very end ("The End?") we hear his laughter. (He doesn't win, but does literally get the last laugh.)
posted by Guy Smiley at 12:23 AM on July 18, 2005

Response by poster: It was in color.

It was not cowboy and was not sci-fi. It might have been kung fu, now that you mention it, which would mean the possibilities are practically limitless. My father loved kung fu films.

I remembered it as a drama, or maybe a mystery or thriller--I'm thinking there was intrigue or some sort of cat and mouse business.
posted by Tuwa at 4:54 AM on July 18, 2005

Response by poster: That's a fascinating thread, rafter, but nothing there that helps.

Remembering the intrigue/cat and mouse business about the film, I'm wondering now if it might have been a Fu Manchu flick, but my Googlefu is weak so I haven't yet found it if it is.
posted by Tuwa at 5:38 AM on July 18, 2005

Are you sure that the villain actually won, and didn't just survive (like in Flash Gordon)? Maybe he was defeated, but he is shown laughing at the end to make room for a sequel, in which case it could be any one of quite a few movies.
posted by bingo at 6:27 AM on July 18, 2005

Response by poster: I'm pretty sure he won, and not just temporarily. But, again, I was young and it was twenty years ago. That's a good thought, though, and I might be wrong. I suspect this is one of those where there is just simply not enough information to answer the question unless you saw the film recently or are Martin Scorsese.
posted by Tuwa at 12:44 PM on July 18, 2005

I seem to recall a James Bond movie ending this way, but I can't remember which one.
posted by modofo at 2:04 PM on July 18, 2005

Response by poster: Hm. I spent some time reading through Bond plots and spoilers (pre-1985) and didn't find it. I might have missed one though. At any rate, thanks for the suggestion; I'll take another look.
posted by Tuwa at 7:43 AM on July 19, 2005