Bruceploitation Reviews

[Drunken Monk]

Now this is a kung fu movie! This afternoon I watched Bruce - King of Kung Fu. So far, I'd say this is the best Bruce Le film I've seen. No confusing plots, no long periods without any action. This is basically training scenes and fight scenes. Wing Chun, snake kung fu, drunken snake kung fu... It's got it all. I was shocked to see that Bruce Le was the fight choreographer because there are some complex shapes on display here. Not just block, block, punch, punch. 

And we have a lot of familiar faces in this one: Bolo Yeung, Chiang Tao, Fung Hak On and even Shih Kien as the final bad guy! Who does a phenomenal job, by the way.

There's not much more to say other than everyone should give this a go. If you've doubted Bruce Le or Bruceploitation in general, I think this one might surprise you. Definitely one for fight fans. It does feature some goofy comedy but it's not overly done so doesn't annoy too much.

A word of warning, however. This film does feature what I found to be an EXTREME moment of animal cruelty. Basically, Bruce holds a snake's mouth wide open and pours wine into it. A shitload of wine. Like, "I'm pretty sure that snake didn't make it" amounts of wine. It's quite upsetting. Not quite Canibal Ferox gross but not very nice.

Beyond that one scene, I think I unearthed a gem here. Great stuff!

Edited May 11, 2020 by Drunken Monk

[DragonClaws]

On 5/9/2020 at 1:28 AM, One Armed Boxer said:

@Drunken Monk's Bruce Le kick inspired me to watch his Korean actioner 'Return of Red Tiger'.  Talk about instant regret.  I gave it the full review treatment over at COF (& just check out that poster!) -

https://cityonfire.com/return-of-red-tiger-aka-the-return-of-bul-bom-1977-review-bruce-le-huang-kin-long-eagle-han-ying/

 

 

Why did you have to remind me of this one @One Armed Boxer?, fantastic review by the way.

 

 

4 hours ago, Drunken Monk said:

By the way, for those interested, I've watched 34 Bruceploitation movies in 22 days.

 

There should be some kind of award for viewing that much Bruceploitation in just 22 days, hat's off.

 

 

[Drunken Monk]

I regret to report that Bruce and Shaolin Kung Fu sounds good on paper but it another Chinese vs  Japanese dud. I'm beginning to see a constant thread with many Bruce Le movies: poor pacing.
The fights here aren't bad. They're a bit clunky here and there and lack the fluidity of some 1977 kung fu movies, but I genuinely enjoyed them. The issue if that we get quirky "pressure point" opening and a fight or two and then the whole thing turns into a yawn worthy "grey area." The dullness of most of this movie just isn't justified. Maybe it's just me. Maybe I'm too greedy for fights.

Chan Sing and Bolo make an appearance but its nothing special. In fact, Chan Sing has a pretty goofy style of fighting I didn't much care for. And the fight between Bolo and Chan Sing is the one spliced into Treasure of Bruce Lee. It was far better suited for this film as it actually made bloody sense.

Not a good one, this one, folks. Watchable but if you've had a big lunch you may find yourself dozing off.

And that's my Bruceploitation for the day. Tomorrow I might attempt Bruce and the Shaolin Bronzemen again and possibly Bruce and Shaolin Kung Fu 2 but I feel like I'm setting myself up for disappointment with the latter. I suppose we'll see!

[DrNgor]

5 minutes ago, Drunken Monk said:

regret to report that Bruce and Shaolin Kung Fu sounds good on paper but it another Chinese vs  Japanese dud.

At this point, it seems dubious that you'll be able to declare Bruce Le's Top 5 to be better than Bruce Lee's Top 5. 

That said, I do want you to review the sequel. You also have Concorde of Bruce, released by Tai Seng back in the late 90s as Ninja vs. Bruce Lee.

I'm keeping my track sheet post updated with the films you watch.

[Drunken Monk]

1 hour ago, DrNgor said:

At this point, it seems dubious that you'll be able to declare Bruce Le's Top 5 to be better than Bruce Lee's Top 5. 

That said, I do want you to review the sequel. You also have Concorde of Bruce, released by Tai Seng back in the late 90s as Ninja vs. Bruce Lee.

I'm keeping my track sheet post updated with the films you watch.

If I can squeeze in Concorde of Bruce tomorrow, I will.

And you’re right, Bruce Lee’s and Bruce Li’s top 5 certainly beat Bruce Le’s. Unless I find some true gems over the upcoming week.

[DrNgor]

17 minutes ago, Drunken Monk said:

And you’re right, Bruce Lee’s and Bruce Li’s top 5 certainly beat Bruce Le’s. Unless I find some true gems over the upcoming week.

Have you considered doing a Bruce Liang or Dragon Lee run when you finish Bruce Le?

Edited May 11, 2020 by DrNgor

[Drunken Monk]

1 hour ago, DrNgor said:

Have you considered doing a Bruce Liang or Dragon Lee run when you finish Bruce Le?

I have every intention on moving onto Dragon Lee after Bruce Le.
I thing Bruce Liang/Bruce Leung is a little harder because he seems to have done more “normal” kung fu movies than actual Bruceploitation movies. Maybe I’ll look for a list of his more Bruce-ish ones.

 

[DrNgor]

38 minutes ago, Drunken Monk said:

I thing Bruce Liang/Bruce Leung is a little harder because he seems to have done more “normal” kung fu movies than actual Bruceploitation movies. Maybe I’ll look for a list of his more Bruce-ish ones.

I think that even when he was using the Bruce Liang moniker, who was diong his own thing, with the exception of The Dragon Lives Again.

[DrNgor]

Bruce and Dragon Fist (South Korea, 1977: Shim Wu-Soeb, Zacky Chan) - Okay, to show some solidarity with @Drunken Monk in his grand undertaking, I decided to watch and review a Bruce Le film. So I chose this pedestrian South Korean effort, in which Bruce Le actually has a supporting role, despite his top billing. In yet another film that pits the Chinese against the Japanese, we have a Korean tae kwon do expert who's living in Manchuria and has set up a gym to teach his style to the local population. His main rival is a karate school run by those dastardly Japanese. When the tae kwon do teacher beats the Japanese school at a martial arts tournament, they decide to get revenge and kidnap his wife, who's just arrived from Korea. So while he's busy drinking away his sorrows, an undercover cop, Sgt. Chan (Bruce Le), arrives disguised as a beggar. He finds out who the kidnappers are and helps our hero find those who hired them, while trying to catch a notorious killer who's also involved. That killer is played by Chiang Tao, although we don't find out until the end, because he spends most of his scenes with his face obscured by the body of the prostitute he's always sleeping with.

The movie spends much of its time jumping back and forth between overwrought melodrama and fighting, although the fighting is at its best in the beginning and the end. The rest of the action is sloppy basher-esque brawling or goofy comedy fighting. One good thing about the film is that they got a whole bunch of tae kwon do experts for the cast--this is a Korean production after all--so there's a lot of solid bootwork in the fights. Too bad the decent choreography is marred by the pan-and-scan in the version I watched. Bruce Le mainly goofs off in his earlier fights, only stepping up to the plate in the last 15 minutes when he takes on Chiang Tao, and then participates in the big climax. His fight with Chiang Tao is shapes-oriented, as his original training was in hung gar. The climax is a dojo fight, which is when he really turns up the volume on the Bruce Lee imitation. We even get a "warming-down" fight, where Bruce Le and the other protagonist have a friendly duel after all the dust settles, which isn't great, because the other actor's tae kwon do isn't good for shapes choreography; he looks stiff.

But yeah, I didn't get a whole lot out of the film. Only the staunchest of the Bruce Le fans will, and that's a niche-within-a-niche that must be shrinking by the day. So unless you want a little bit of good tae kwon do action, or want to see a woman spend the entire third act trying not to get raped by a mute hunchback, you can probably skip this.

[Drunken Monk]

I appreciate the solidarity, @DrNgor! Sorry the film was so bad.

Speaking of bad, I tried Bruce and the Shaolin Bronzemen again this morning and I’m going to make it official: this is the only Bruceploitation film I cannot get through. The dub is the worst I’ve ever heard.

I try to keep the volume down on the tv while my wife has a lie in so that could have contributed but the people doing the subbing definitely have English as a second language. I struggled.

This one won’t be added to me list of conquered movies. Maybe one day.

[DrNgor]

3 minutes ago, Drunken Monk said:

I appreciate the solidarity, @DrNgor! Sorry the film was so bad.

 

*fist bumps Drunken Monk* The only way we'll get where we're going is together. Or whatever the Oracle said.

Would you mind if I did a Bruce Liang run while you finish up Bruce Le and then move on to Dragon Lee? I wouldn't want to steal your thunder.

[Drunken Monk]

5 minutes ago, DrNgor said:

*fist bumps Drunken Monk* The only way we'll get where we're going is together. Or whatever the Oracle said.

Would you mind if I did a Bruce Liang run while you finish up Bruce Le and then move on to Dragon Lee? I wouldn't want to steal your thunder.

Absolutely! I welcome you tackling Bruce Laing. I realize I have a way to go with Bruce Le and I’m sure Dragon Lee has at least ten films for me to get through. I dub thee one of the Knights of the Bruceploitation table.

I see us like Thelma and Louise. We’re driving off that cliff together but we’re doing it proudly.

[DrNgor]

1 minute ago, Drunken Monk said:

I see us like Thelma and Louise. We’re driving off that cliff together but we’re doing it proudly.

Damn skippy we are!

So be it!

[DrNgor]

Little Godfather from Hong Kong (Hong Kong, 1974: Ng See-Yuen) - aka Godfather Squad - 

Almost two years after Way of the Dragon, producer Ng See-Yuen gave us The Little Godfather from Hong Kong, aka The Godfather Squad. The film was an early lead role for choreographer and supporting player Leung Siu-Lung, who would go under the moniker of Bruce Liang  during much of the 1970s. The film wisely doesn’t follow Way of the Dragon’s story too closely, opting for something much bigger, and ultimately more absurd. The Italian mafia is lashing out against Interpol, killing their agents all over the map. They try to kill an agent based in Hong Kong via an exploding dog(!)—I swear I’m not making that up—who is saved at the last moment by David (Leung Siu-Lung), a martial arts expert. David becomes a local celebrity and is even invited to Rome to make a kung fu movie. Naturally, the Mafia isn’t happy with David having spoiled their plans and puts out a hit on him, which gets violent very quickly.

The one thing that The Godfather Squad has in its favor is Leung Siu-Lung, who’s a fine martial artist. A student of both Northern style kung and Wing Chun—Bruce Lee’s style—Leung was easily the most physically talented of the Brucesploitation actors from the 70s. He was especially impressive as a kicker, for which he’s most well known by fans today. Leung choreographed his fights, and refreshingly did his own thing, rather than just copy Bruce Lee’s moves. He also packed more power and snap in his moves than Cliff Lok did in Chinese Kung Fu Against Godfather, another Way of the Dragon clone, and was indeed one of the best martial arts actors of the early 1970s, when the genre was already saturated with actors of varying degrees of talent. Sadly, the big fight finale, where Leung squares off with Japanese heavy Yasuaki Kurata, consists of the two running all over Rome and even into the snow-capped hills outside the city, only occasionally trading punches and kicks.
     
Where The Godfather Squad really goes wrong is the script, which is far more amibitious than Bruce Lee’s film. Conversely, that means that when this film stumbles, it falls hard and gets goofy really quickly. The mafia killing a person with an exploding dog is absurd enough. But this mafia is led by an Italian man with two adopted sons, a German Nazi (played by sword-and-sandal film veteran Gordon Mitchell) and a Japanese karate fighter (the aforementioned Kurata). It’s practically China vs. the Axis Powers in this movie! You have machine guns with noticeably neverending clips of ammo; assassination attempts in front of the Vatican; hitmen who have a clean shot at their target, but still feel the need to walk up until they’re within kicking distance to take a shot; a woman who tries to run down a villain with her car, and despite being several yards away, still takes almost a minute to get close to him; and all sorts of lapses of logic and good sense.
     
Way of the Dragon, on the other hand, had a simpler premise and worked because of it.  The mobster want the restaurant, but the owner won’t sell. They try to use force, Bruce fights back. Now they want to kill Bruce, but he’s too strong. So they hire people worthy of his talent, leading to the climax. The actors acquitted themselves well to their parts and everyone knows how their characters should act in the circumstances presented. When a traitor shows himself at the end, his reasons make sense, as does the logic behind his waiting until the last second to betray his friends. Compare with The Godfather Squad, in which more than one character betrays our hero, but given that the aim of the Mafia was to kill him from the beginning, you can’t help but notice that they could’ve knifed him or shot him when his guard was down at any moment, but never did.

Some other observations:

- the machine gun at the end has an unlimited clip of bullets;
- Shirley Corrigan's face after she gets shot is goofy;
- Did Gordon Mitchell stash a sub-machine gun atop the tower *knowing* that they might get engaged in hand-to-hand combat that would eventually lead there?
- I wish the film had explained better the fact that both female characters had been hired to betray Leung at some point;
- When Bruce Leung steps off the plane in Rome with Maria D'Incoronato on his arm, she looks fairly attractive in that 70s way, but then she dons the ugliest pair of BIG 70s glasses I've had the displeasure of seeing.

[Drunken Monk]

Concorde of Bruce Lee (incorrectly named Condor of Bruce Lee on YouTube) - This is another convoluted mess with a climax of excellent fighting.

The plot involves a Chinese antique referred to as a “flask” being stolen by a Korean gang led by Chiang Tao. Bruce Le plays the cop hunting down the flask and a whole bunch of nonsense happens in between.

Reading HKMDB, apparently this movie is My Name Called Bruce and Return of Bruce spliced together. It’s no wonder this movie is so tonally off. At times it feels like another full crime thriller and then it feels like a truly great kung fu movie

My greatest takeaway from this movie is: GIVE ME MORE PEARL LIN!

I honestly know nothing about her save for Jackie’s Dragon Fist and she is phenomenal here. Like a Chinese Etsuko Shihomi, kicking Chiang Tao in the face while wearing a super fresh leather jacket. Honestly, I couldn’t get enough of her.

Le is good too. He’s given enough fights to truly shine but they’re all packed into the last 45 minutes. The first half is annoyingly dull.

I’d recommend this one but it might be a slog to get through, I’m afraid.

[DrNgor]

5 minutes ago, Drunken Monk said:

Concorde of Bruce Lee (incorrectly named Condor of Bruce Lee on YouTube) - This is another convoluted mess with a climax of excellent fighting.

 

Are there any ninja in this? And does Bruce Le fire an M-16 at any point?

Edited May 12, 2020 by DrNgor

[DrNgor]

The Star, The Rogue, and the Kung Fu Kid (1977)

Starring: Leung Siu-Lung (Bruce Liang), Michelle Yim, Wang Lai, Kwan Chung, Ku Feng, Tony Leung Siu-Hung, Addy Sung

Director: To Man-Bo

Action Director: Leung Siu-Lung

This obscure film from the latter part of Leung Siu-Lung’s old school career actually turned out to be one of his absolute best, at least out of the movies of his that I’ve seen. It’s supposedly based on real-life events in Bruce Liang’s life, although I wonder if there were so many well-choreographed fights in his real life.

The story is pretty simple. Leung Siu-Lung plays a man named Chang, but I’ll just call him Bruce for short. Bruce is an action choreographer and martial arts actor on the TV circuit. One day he steps in when an up-and-coming actress, Shen Ming-Ming (a HAWT! Michelle Yim), is being harassed by a bunch of hooligan-types working for a Triad who has his dirty mits in the entertainment industry. Bruce and Shen eventually start spending time with each other, much to the chagrin of Ming-Ming’s mother (Wang Lai), a lazy gambling addict who thinks she has the right to make all decisions regarding her daughter’s professional future.

Worse than Bruce’s potential mother-in-law is the aforementioned Triad boss (Kwan Chung), who probably is given a name, but whom I’ll refer to as Weinstein Fong. Fong has somehow determined that his life will not be complete until he beds Ming-Ming, and won’t let a low-caste kung fu actor like Bruce stand in his way. Whether it be staging accidents onset, attempted framings or flat out kung fu ambushes, nothing is below Weinstein in his mindless quest to get into Ming-Ming’s panties.

There are some dull spots, a few soap opera moments of pure melodrama, and some dodgy editing at the end that confuses how the main conflict was resolved, but for the most part, I was entertained throughout the film’s brief 82-minute run time. I did like the pseudo-“behind the scenes” look at making kung fu TV in Hong Kong. Much like Black Belt, there’s an interesting scene where Ming-Ming’s current studio heads try to guilt-trip her into renewing her contract, which is about to expire. I also find it interesting how kung fu actors are treated by people in the business as a lower caste, as if dating a rich businessman, producer or director was the supreme goal for an up-and-coming actress.

Exploitaiton fans will get their fill with a random strip club sequence early on, followed immediately by a sex scene between Kwan Chung and Lam Yeung-Yeung, who plays a slutty wannabe actress who thinks she can use her vagina to get to the top (incidentally, Yeung-Yeung’s filmography suggest that she quickly got pigeonholed into “sexy” roles in movies like Sensual Pleasures and Erotic Dreams of the Red Chamber). I sort of feel sorry for her character, as she hangs out with the Triad guy and his men all the time, and they never think twice about calling her a talentless tramp who can’t act. And yet she sticks around probably because she doesn’t feel there’s any other path she can make it.

There are a handful of fights, all of which involve Leung Siu-Lung save one, in which Lee Ka-Ting, in a cameo as Michelle Yim’s fight choreographer, exchanges some blows with Ku Feng, the wastrel father of one of Yim’s co-stars. Leung’s kicks are on full display here, and they look great. While he does throw his fair share of Mississippi haymakers, he also does a lot of machine gun punches, and some interesting blocks that look like they were adapted from the snake style or wing chun. There are surprisingly fast and agile exchanges of hand-based attacks, especially by 1977 standards. The finale has him taking on numerous attackers, including Ku Feng and his own little brother, Tony Leung Siu-Hung, who busts out the sai swords. Leung Siu-Lung, instead of wielding the expected nunchaku, uses a chain whip for part of the climax. He doesn’t do anything flashy with the weapon, but the change of pace is welcome. I’m tempted to place this above the finale of Call Me Dragon (it certainly beats his work in Broken Oath) because there’s less running and better handwork.

This is a particularly rare film, but one worth checking out.

 

This review was previously posted here: 

 

 

[One Armed Boxer]

8 minutes ago, Drunken Monk said:

My greatest takeaway from this movie is: GIVE ME MORE PEARL LIN!

I honestly know nothing about her save for Jackie’s Dragon Fist and she is phenomenal here. Like a Chinese Etsuko Shihomi, kicking Chiang Tao in the face while wearing a super fresh leather jacket. Honestly, I couldn’t get enough of her.

You mean like a Korean Etsuko Shihomi.  Pearl Lin's real name is Im Eun-ju.

Here's her filmography over at the Korean Movie Database - http://www.kmdb.or.kr/eng/db/per/00006887

& over at HKMD (which contains many of the internationally re-titled movies from her Korean filmography) - http://hkmdb.com/db/people/view.mhtml?id=15460&display_set=eng

[Drunken Monk]

2 minutes ago, One Armed Boxer said:

You mean like a Korean Etsuko Shihomi.  Pearl Lin's real name is Im Eun-ju.

Here's her filmography over at the Korean Movie Database - http://www.kmdb.or.kr/eng/db/per/00006887

& over at HKMD (which contains many of the internationally re-titled movies from her Korean filmography) - http://hkmdb.com/db/people/view.mhtml?id=15460&display_set=eng

Ah, I had no idea! Yup...Korean Etsuko Shihomi.

I think I’ll look up more of her stuff eventually. She’s quite the on screen fighter.

[Drunken Monk]

10 minutes ago, DrNgor said:

Are there any ninja in this? And does Bruce Le fire an M-16 at any point?

No and no. The bad guys do wear these bizarre white hooded masks on their heads at the beginning of the movie. They’d ninja-esque but far from actual ninja garb.

As for the machine gun on the poster, nope. That is definitely not in this movie.

[Drunken Monk]

I felt like I was running low on Bruce Le movies and decided to go for one that didn’t have “dragon” or “Bruce” in the title. So I went for Mad Cold Blooded Murder.

Bruce Le isn’t really the lead in this film but, to be honest, it doesn’t feel like anyone’s the lead. Also, it’s not really a kung fu movie. Instead, I got a very enjoyable serial killer thriller with a few fight scenes sprinkled in for good measure.

A serial killer is murdering prostitutes (they’re casually referred to as “whores” throughout) and it’s up to Carter Wong’s squad (which includes Bruce Le) to solve the case. The film also stars Michael Chan Wai Man.

This one cuts out the bullshit and delivers a fun murder mystery. No complexities or crazy twists. Just murders and kung fu. Even if the fights were taken out (there are only a few anyway), this would have been a pretty solid watch.
Weirdly, during the action scenes, Carter Wong looks terrible. I think it’s done an purpose to make Le look like the fighter of the bunch but it’s odd to see him so sloppy.
I’m not sure if Bolo’s appearances are spliced in footage or not. It kind of works in the context of the story but it’s very much a side plot used to give us action. But I’m not complaining. Le versus Yeung usually brings the heat and it does so again here.

I liked this one far more than I thought I would and probably more than I should. I recommend it for those of us looking for something a bit different.

[Drunken Monk]

My introduction to Dragon Lee has not gone well. I got thirty minutes into Bruce Lee's Ways of Kung Fu and simply had to turn it off. Complete drivel and not a fight scene in sight. This one will not go on "conquered" list.

I'm now watching The Dragon's Snake Fist. Not even three minutes in and I've already got a good fight scene. I think this might be one more to my tastes.

[DrNgor]

2 hours ago, Drunken Monk said:

My introduction to Dragon Lee has not gone well. I got thirty minutes into Bruce Lee's Ways of Kung Fu and simply had to turn it off. Complete drivel and not a fight scene in sight. This one will not go on "conquered" list.

The HKMDB review says it's one of his worst. Ironically, you wanted more Pearl Lin and you couldn't make it through this one.

[Drunken Monk]

Can someone please tell me why I didn't have The Dragon's Snake Fist in my life before now? Having just say through it, I'm very comfortable with saying it's an essential classic of the genre. Or at least the Bruceploitation sub genre. I loved this movie.

The film centers on two warring schools. The dub will have you believe they're the snake and crane schools but neither snake or crane kung fu is used at all. Or at least what we know as snake and crane kung fu. Amazon says it's a Jeet Kune Do school going up against a dragon fist school, which makes much more sense but I have no idea where they got this from.
It's a simple premise: a snake fist master broke the leg of a crane fist master many years ago and now the crane fist master's son (and secretly the father) want revenge. On the other hand, Dragon Lee, the student of the snake fist (Jeet Kune Do) master has been asked to spread his knowledge of kung fu and to live peacefully, never using his martial arts to kill. And that's it. Straight forward and to the point.

For some reason the film opens with the Enter the Dragon theme song but this is very much an old school kung fu film. It's more Drunken Master than any of Bruce's movies. Dragon Lee doesn't even bust out any screams.
Tossing all that aside, this is a TOP NOTCH kung fu film. The fights come thick and fast, they're a mix of shapes and 80's style kickboxing stuff, there's sword work, metal rings being wielded as weapons... All sorts. To add even more excellence, the Koreans do undercranking right. The fights are obviously sped up but not to an obnoxious level. They look great.

Yuen Qiu (best know for Kung Fu Hustle) turns up for a scrap or two, too.

I am genuinely happy to have found this film, especially since my Dragon Lee journey got off to such a shitty start. This one is a gem; a true example of old school kung fu done right.
Dragon Lee has the charisma, the physique and the moves. Sometimes, there's a little too much telegraphed dodging but if you're forgiving like me, that doesn't matter at all.

This is on Prime Video with a very good looking print. I recommend everyone that hasn't seen it adds it t their watchlist. I don't think you'll be disappinted.

[DrNgor]

3 minutes ago, Drunken Monk said:

Can someone please tell me why I didn't have The Dragon's Snake Fist in my life before now? Having just say through it, I'm very comfortable with saying it's an essential classic of the genre.

Did you notice the torch-blowing villain who always looks like he's goofing off in the background?