Jump to content

Bruceploitation Reviews


Guest jirpy100

Recommended Posts

  • Member

The Lama Avenger

Bruce Li & Chien Yuet San  team up as theatre performers who get fired and end up visiting Bruce's aunt.Of course the local gangsters want her out of her house so the usual mayhem ensues. Takes it's time getting going, middle tire Bruce Li but not bad overall. And of course it has Chien Yuet San  chanelling his inner Tony Manero...my copy is a VHS to DVD Transfer of the old NTSC tape called Three Avengers (though onscreen title is Duel Of The Dragons) semi widescreen, unfortunately for some reason it's only got left channel audio. As far as i know this is one of the few Ho Chung Tao titles not to see a DVD release ( red sn boots excepted)

  • Like 5
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Member
Killer Meteor

TREASURE OF BRUCE LEE (1979)

I checked this previously unseen Bruce Le potboiler out to commemorate Chen Sing's passing, only it turned out the footage of him in this (and that of Bolo and James Nam) was all repurposed from the far superior BRUCE AND SHAOLIN KUNG FU!!!
Yeah, I got screwed
3/10

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Member
3 hours ago, Killer Meteor said:

TREASURE OF BRUCE LEE (1979)

I checked this previously unseen Bruce Le potboiler out to commemorate Chen Sing's passing, only it turned out the footage of him in this (and that of Bolo and James Nam) was all repurposed from the far superior BRUCE AND SHAOLIN KUNG FU!!!
Yeah, I got screwed
3/10

Thank you Joseph Valasco!

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Member

Bruce Lee Vs Supermen

Early Ho Chung Tao flick is so insane it has to be considered a sort of forgotten genre classic. Li plays secret agent Carter who randomly dresses up as Kato or in a red masked avenger suit. He teams up with a bearded hipster also in a masked avenger suit who is known as Green Hornet. Plot involves the kidnapping of Dr Ting, a scientist with a dodgy heart who has a secret formula to end world food shortage. There's amazing car chases up there with the French Connection, an incredible rescue by rickshaw stunt that i'm convinced inspired Cruise for his M.I. movies, Lung Fei in a nifty black suit with a white tea cloth for a cape. Chung Tao has a sex scene as hot as anything seen in Last Tango and frankly there's too many delights to mention. The german DVD has an english dub and from a tape source but is wider, anamorphic and looks better than the inter ocean vhs transfer i have. A towering achievement.

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Member
Killer Meteor
3 minutes ago, saltysam said:

Bruce Lee Vs Supermen

Early Ho Chung Tao flick is so insane it has to be considered a sort of forgotten genre classic. Li plays secret agent Carter who randomly dresses up as Kato or in a red masked avenger suit. He teams up with a bearded hipster also in a masked avenger suit who is known as Green Hornet. Plot involves the kidnapping of Dr Ting, a scientist with a dodgy heart who has a secret formula to end world food shortage. There's amazing car chases up there with the French Connection, an incredible rescue by rickshaw stunt that i'm convinced inspired Cruise for his M.I. movies, Lung Fei in a nifty black suit with a white tea cloth for a cape. Chung Tao has a sex scene as hot as anything seen in Last Tango and frankly there's too many delights to mention. The german DVD has an english dub and from a tape source but is wider, anamorphic and looks better than the inter ocean vhs transfer i have. A towering achievement.

I enjoy this one a lot. A Mandarin 2.35:1 version turned up recently.

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Member
NoKUNGFUforYU
17 hours ago, Killer Meteor said:

I enjoy this one a lot. A Mandarin 2.35:1 version turned up recently.

This was one of my first sub jobs. The Mandarin version that is remastered is an entirely different cut, focusing much more on comedy than the English Dubbed US release. It's an attempt at Pink Panther level comedy in certain parts. Also, alas, the sex scene is cut. Different characters, different fights.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Member

Tough Guy (AKA Kung Fu The Headcrusher)

Chen Sing is an undercover agent out to bust a smuggling ring by infiltrating and gaining their trust. Early 70's basher ticks all boxes of the genre- wild dubbing, pretty much non stop fighting, intrigue, filmed mainly in fields and quarries etc etc.. great cast reunites a few from Fists of the Double K and of course the quarry set finale has Fang Yeh brandishing his trusty whip yet again. Chen Sing, in the peak of physical condition spenda a lot of the film shirtless.

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Member
Killer Meteor
5 hours ago, saltysam said:

Tough Guy (AKA Kung Fu The Headcrusher)

Chen Sing is an undercover agent out to bust a smuggling ring by infiltrating and gaining their trust. Early 70's basher ticks all boxes of the genre- wild dubbing, pretty much non stop fighting, intrigue, filmed mainly in fields and quarries etc etc.. great cast reunites a few from Fists of the Double K and of course the quarry set finale has Fang Yeh brandishing his trusty whip yet again. Chen Sing, in the peak of physical condition spenda a lot of the film shirtless.

Released in the USA as Kung Fu Master Bruce Lee Style!

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Member
28 minutes ago, Killer Meteor said:

Released in the USA as Kung Fu Master Bruce Lee Style!

Kung Fu The Headcrusher is a better title than the original Tough Guy i think, given Chen finishes a lot of his opponents off by doing just as the title says 😏

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Member

Bruce & Shaolin Kung Fu

Quite a rarity-a Bruce Le movie with a reasonably coherent storyline. Here he's a kung fu expert trained by Chen Sing who then gets involved in stopping the evil japanese and their expert hired hands, including Bolo & Chiang Tao. Probably up there with Bruce Le's best, decent fights and plenty of them. German dvd is nicely widescreen however has a fair few full frame inserts for the previously cut scenes.

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Member

Bruce Takes Dragon Town (Taiwan, 1974: Liu Hung-Sheng) - aka Dare You Touch Me - I've seen this cited in some places as being the first Brucesploitation film, although that fact is certainly debatable. The film came out in 1974, the same year as Bruce Lee  - A Dragon Story, so it would certainly be in the running for that title. However, the original title presumes that it was meant to be your standard basher, and that the Bruce-y title was the decision of foreign distributors. Moreover, the last scenes of the film are set to Pino Dimaggio's "The Coronation" from Carrie, so I'm guessing that it was released as Brucesploitation in the States only as early as 1976, when the Brucesploitation sub-genre was already at its peak. That said, lead actor Yuen Si-Wo (Little Hero and Ape Girl) does do some Bruce Lee-inspired foot shuffling and western boxing in his final fight with Lung Fei, so the influence is definitely there, title notwithstanding.

This film takes the long road to being a Yojimbo clone. There are two rival crime bosses: Boss Chin (Tsao Chien, who appeared in over 230 movies over the course of 30 years) and Boss Wen (Sun Yueh, who plays the baker with the hots for Nina Li in The Pedicab Driver). Boss Wen's men have successfully stolen Boss Chin's merchandise, putting him at a competitive disadvantage. Realizing that he needs some real muscle on his team, Boss Chin decides to "hire" Daredevil Alan (Yuen Si-Wo) to his side, taking his sick mother as a "guest" on his premises to "sweeten" the deal. (note: Boss Chin is kind enough to see to her medical needs and pay Alan a good salary, but we know that if Alan tries to make a break for it, bye bye mother) At first Alan is successful in beating up Wen's goons and forcing him to show his hand. Then Wen finds out about the mother and sends his goons to sequester her, except that they kill her accidentally. When Alan finds out, he's going to get his revenge against both parties.

As a basher film, the fights aren't too bad. Fight choreographer Pan Chang-Ming didn't have a particularly illustrious career, but he did get to work with the Queen of Kung Fu, Angela Mao, on a couple of her Taiwanese films, namely Proud Horse in Flying Sand and Duel with the Devils. The choreography is better than anything you'd see in a basher starring Jimmy Wang Yu or Pai Ying, so take that as you will. Yuen Si-Wo does some decent kicks for this sort of film, tries some Western boxing at the end, but tries to do a sort-of stiff, economy-of-movement style of handwork (one reviewer called it a rigormortis style of fighting). The most talented member of the cast is easily Lung Fei, who plays Boss Wen's number one bodguard, who squares off with Alan at the climax. Most of the movie is fighting, and many of the fights go on quite long, both in real time and movie time. During climatic ambush, the two gangs start fighting about 4 am, when it's still dark, are still fighting at sunrise, and then are still fighting when the sun is high in the sky before it finally ends. Don't these people ever get tired...or have a threshold for getting hit with loud slapping sounds?

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Member
Killer Meteor

Bruce Takes Dragon Town

A fake Bruce Le movie? Whatever next?

Named on the Goodtime LP VHS as "Bruce Takes Dragon Town"…on the tape itself anyway, the box just says "Bruce Takes the Dragon." Said box has a nice big picture of Bruce LE, who is the star according to the box. The plot synopsis on the back is for the Bruce LI movie Deadly Strike.

So what we have is a 70s Taiwanese basher, dubbed in the 80s by those fine chaps who did 9 Demons (so everyone has an absurd English name). The lead, one "Daredevil Alan" is played by Yuan Si-ho, a scrawny middle-aged fellow with bad teeth, no charisma and although his kicks have impact, he isn't exactly flexible. Quite why he got the lead is beyond me – he isn't even the producer, maybe he was a cousin of the producer. The lowest moment must come when some bad guys try to jump him with ropes, and he uses one as a skipping rope with girlish glee. Perfect for Jackie Chan or Yuen Biao, not for any basher hero, never mind a lousy one.

Only real saving points to this are a couple of decent fights involving the supporting players, and Lung Fei being a cool villain called William (!).

Music: The Ocean Shores mid-80s dubbing means we get to hear music in dialogue scenes from films later than the original production, such as Taxi Driver (Bernard Hermann) and Carrie (Pino Donaggio). Even drek like this is improved when hearing the requiem music from Carrie.

 

3/10

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Member
Killer Meteor

I think the Carrie music was only added when Ocean Shores dubbed it into English in the mid-80s. Yuen Si-Wo was sorely in need of a dental plan!

Here's my review

 

Bruce Takes Dragon Town

A fake Bruce Le movie? Whatever next?

Named on the Goodtime LP VHS as "Bruce Takes Dragon Town"…on the tape itself anyway, the box just says "Bruce Takes the Dragon." Said box has a nice big picture of Bruce LE, who is the star according to the box. The plot synopsis on the back is for the Bruce LI movie Deadly Strike.

So what we have is a 70s Taiwanese basher, dubbed in the 80s by those fine chaps who did 9 Demons (so everyone has an absurd English name). The lead, one "Daredevil Alan" is played by Yuan Si-ho, a scrawny middle-aged fellow with bad teeth, no charisma and although his kicks have impact, he isn't exactly flexible. Quite why he got the lead is beyond me – he isn't even the producer, maybe he was a cousin of the producer. The lowest moment must come when some bad guys try to jump him with ropes, and he uses one as a skipping rope with girlish glee. Perfect for Jackie Chan or Yuen Biao, not for any basher hero, never mind a lousy one.

Only real saving points to this are a couple of decent fights involving the supporting players, and Lung Fei being a cool villain called William (!).

Music: The Ocean Shores mid-80s dubbing means we get to hear music in dialogue scenes from films later than the original production, such as Taxi Driver (Bernard Hermann) and Carrie (Pino Donaggio). Even drek like this is improved when hearing the requiem music from Carrie.

Edited by Killer Meteor
  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Member

Challenge of the Tiger (Hong Kong, 1980: Bruce Le) - This is one of two globe-hopping kung fu movies that Bruce Le did with schlock producer Dick Randall's (Pieces and Don't Open till Christmas) assistance. The other one was Ninja Strikes Back (1982). This is a James Bondian tale of two CIA agents (Bruce Lee and Marco Polo's Richard Harrison) teaming up to find the formula to a chemical that produces sterility--which was the plot of On Her Majesty's Secret Service. Also trying to get the formula is the Spanish mafia and the Viet Cong, led by Legendary Superkicker Hwang Jang Lee. The chase takes our heroes from Spain to Hong Kong and finally to Macau, where they storm a manufacturing facility staffed by Asian guys in karate gis (sound like any Bruce Lee movie you know?).

More than the fights, most viewers will remember this movie most for the near-pornographic quantity of female flesh on display here. Bruce Le's approach to the material seems to be: "If I can't out-fight the real Bruce Lee, I'll simply out-sleaze him." Most infamous is the scene that introduces Richard Harrison's character: he drives up to his mansion, where the gate is opened by a topless woman. We then cut to him playing tennis...with a pair (or trio) of topless women...in slow motion. Lots of bouncing there. We then cut to his swimming pool, where there are three or four more naked women, swimming, taking showers, sunbathing, or running buck naked into the pool.

The fighting isn't bad by Bruce Le standards. He's fast and agile here, and he does a few decent jumping front kicks. He's outshone by Hwang Jang Lee, who kicks up a storm, albeit without any of his trademark aerial kicks. Hwang does do a nice move where he side kicks his opponent, misses, bends his leg at the knee and back kicks the person. Bolo Yeung also shows up for a couple of scenes. On the stunt casting scene, former peplum actor Brad Harris shows up as a Spanish mob enforcer. He briefly scuffles with Bolo, allowing us to see Hercules vs. the Chinese Hercules. He then squares off with Bruce Le at the end, but loses relatively quickly. This isn't a very *good* movie, but if you like boobs and beatings, this should be your cup of tea.

 

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Member
Killer Meteor

Challenge of the Tiger is from 1982 but for some reason nearly every online source claims 1980 with no evidence - despite the film itself stating it takes place in 1982.

 

It's also great fun! Not many kung fu movie illicitly sneak in a cameo from Jack Klugman and Jane Seymour! At an event that took place in 1982...

Edited by Killer Meteor
  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Member

I remember buying Bruce Takes Dragon Town on vhs and being so pissed off when watching it, the hero being an old guy with rotting teeth and the fighting was aweful. Loved  Challenge of the Tiger though for HJL and all the trashy exploitation fun, even Bruce Le wasn't to bad!

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Member
On 1/26/2020 at 4:04 PM, DrNgor said:

former peplum actor Brad Harris shows up as a Spanish mob enforcer. He briefly scuffles with Bolo, allowing us to see Hercules vs. the Chinese Hercules. He then squares off with Bruce Le at the end, but loses relatively quickly. This isn't a very *good* movie, but if you like boobs and beatings, this should be your cup of tea.

 

Harris was an American bodybuilder turned actor/stunt player, he sadly passed away in 2017 aged 85. He appeared in a lot of European/Italian movies, before he got som work in Asia, around the time he made Challenge of The Tiger(1980). They really wasted their oppertunity, with the Hwang Jang-Lee vs Bolo Yeung. The fight is pretty much reduced to a brief one sided beat down.

 

 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Member
Killer Meteor

I just saw a rather revealing pin-up shot of Richard Harrison on the Classic Horror Film Board - probably not safe for work but if you're curious - https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/monsterkidclassichorrorforum/viewtopic.php?p=1515753#p1515727

 

Harrison himself is going through the ringer at the moment - https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/monsterkidclassichorrorforum/daughter-of-aip-s-founder-james-h-nicholson-and-wi-t69364.html

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Member
Killer Meteor
19 hours ago, CT KID said:

I remember buying Bruce Takes Dragon Town on vhs and being so pissed off when watching it, the hero being an old guy with rotting teeth and the fighting was aweful.

He doesn't seem to have made many films to begin with, I can't imagine how he got the job.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Member
On 1/28/2020 at 5:57 PM, Killer Meteor said:

He doesn't seem to have made many films to begin with, I can't imagine how he got the job.

Probably was related to the director or producers...

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Member

Return Of Bruce

 Bruce Le travels to Manila looking for family, he befriends an orphan and a girl who he saves from a sex trafficking gang. That's about the extent of the plot, that hangs on pretty non stop fighting. Like all Le's movies, it makes no sense but it's very entertaining. Great cast, Meng Fei, Cheung Nik, James Nam,Lo Lieh are all here. Swiping music from various sources, inclusing Barry Manilow, comedy relief is provided by the gangsters effeminate bell bottomed white trousers wearing lackey. i found this pretty nice wide custom DVD on Cinemageddon, english dubbed, it looks pretty good. Didn't think this was available wide.

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Member

Bruce’s Deadly Fingers (1976) - While the recently released Blu Ray looks stunning, this film really is a sack of shit.

A muddled plot makes way for some pretty lackluster fights. Every gets very boring, very quickly. 
Worth watching to laugh at, I suppose. But, for me, this was an incredibly weak effort. Especially with the talent it has! Thumbs down.

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Member
1 hour ago, Drunken Monk said:

Bruce’s Deadly Fingers (1976) - While the recently released Blu Ray looks stunning, this film really is a sack of shit.

A muddled plot makes way for some pretty lackluster fights. Every gets very boring, very quickly. 
Worth watching to laugh at, I suppose. But, for me, this was an incredibly weak effort. Especially with the talent it has! Thumbs down.

i love this one

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

Terms of Use

Please Sign In or Sign Up