Storyline
Continued from last issue: As he agreed, Kato is directing a pro-Communism martial arts film, with shooting at the Shaolin temple. However, he is subtly manipulating the PRC government officials overseeing the production, and arranges a delay by having one of the cast, temple member Tong Loo, injure his "opponent" in what appears to be an accident. Col. Ng is not so easily fooled. He assigns two misleadingly sexy guards, Coral and Jade, to Kato, whom he has removed as director and locked in a cell when he's not filming. However, Kato had learned how to travel through the temple's ventilation shafts while a student, and finds Ulysses' cell. He arranges the appearance that Chow fell to his death while attempting to escape, pointing it out to five soldiers whom he fights and defeats. But he is then accosted by Coral and Jade (the former subsequently reports that Kato "killed a guard," singular, but which one?) and again locked up, more securely this time. The next morning, Kato and Ng prepare to film a VERY realistic fight scene....Concluded next issue.
Story Notes
1: The credits are presented as follows: writing=screenplay, pencils=set design, inks=lighting, colors=choreography, letters=best boy, editor=director, editor in chief=producer, cover artist=cover girl. 2: Just how much time has passed since the previous issue is not made clear, but the idea of making the movie already filming on page 1 was prompted by the Communist government's capture of the star of the "decadent Western" White Ninja pictures at the close of #2; the fact that party officials are on the very remote location debating fundamental story points does suggest that things have moved rapidly. 3: Kato is shown smoking(!) in the opening scene here (this story may have been originally plotted--and the first few pages pencilled--with this character as Carter Lin, who IS directing the film at the beginning of the next issue).