Bruceploitation Reviews

[Lady Jin Szu-Yi]

On January 21, 2016 at 2:08 PM, DrNgor said:

 “You’ve entered both the Dragon and the Tiger, but if you have nothing better to do, why not see about entering the Leopard while you’re at it?”

 

I swear you almost made me fall out of my chair Doc. Great review How you were able to construct such a long review for this, well, bless you sir.

In all seriousness though, I 100% agree with your comments about the unnecessary rape scenes and the overall meh of the two Bruces involved.  Like I said, the things I sit through for my Chan Wai Man fix. 

[Secret Executioner]

@DrNgor: Bruce Le only made Enter the Game of Death (1978), Re-enter the Dragon (1979) and Enter another Dragon (1981) - so he did "enter" too.  

[DragonClaws]

On 21/01/2016 at 7:08 PM, DrNgor said:

And the guy’s pink and yellow tank-tops are an eyesore. 

lol that line cracked me up Dr Ngor. I'm trying to think of a Bruce Le film where he doesn't wear some outlandish tank top?.

Edited January 25, 2016 by DragonClaws

[Secret Executioner]

2 hours ago, DragonClaws said:

lol that line cracked me up Dr Ngor. I'm trying to think of a Bruce Le film wear he doesn't wear some outlandish tank top?.

Clones of Bruce Lee maybe ?

[DrNgor]

7 hours ago, Secret Executioner said:

@DrNgor: Bruce Le only made Enter the Game of Death (1978), Re-enter the Dragon (1979) and Enter another Dragon (1981) - so he did "enter" too.  

ENTER ANOTHER DRAGON - Which is akin to saying Exit King Ghidorah and Enter The Guy From Goliath and the Dragon.

[DragonClaws]

51 minutes ago, Secret Executioner said:

Clones of Bruce Lee maybe ?

Its that long since I watched Clones I cant recall if he wears a tank top in that one?. He spends most of Enter The Game Of Death in the jumpsuit and I'm not sure if he even dons the trademark big sunglasses?.

[Lady Jin Szu-Yi]

9 hours ago, Secret Executioner said:

Bruce Le only made Enter the Game of Death (1978), Re-enter the Dragon (1979) and Enter another Dragon (1981) - so he did "enter" too.

Stop this ride I want to get off! 

[DrNgor]

Bruce Lee Fights Back from the Grave - Legendary bad movie taken from a Korean movie ( @One Armed Boxer, what's the name of the original film), about a martial arts instructor from Taiwan who goes to Los Angeles to check up on a friend who moved there to make his fortune. The friend has since committed suicide by "falling" off a building (notice the contradiction in the words there) and now the man, Wong Han (Jun Chong, of the 80s ninja movie Silent Assassins), must track down the men (identified by his friend's white girlfriend as a white man, a black man, a Japanese man, a Mexican and a cowboy) who may be involved in the guy's death. With those can't-miss descriptions, Wong's lucky that most of them come looking for him. The fight scenes aren't that bad, and Jun Chong has some pretty good moves. But everything else about the movie is pretty darn bad. You feel bad for the girlfriend, Susan, who spends the entire movie waving around a sign that reads, "There's room in my panties for you, Wong Han." Unfortunately, his English isn't good enough to read that sign, but it's good enough to bilk her out of her money and car.

EDIT: The film is called Vistor of America

 

Edited January 7, 2017 by DrNgor

[DragonClaws]

On 07/01/2017 at 0:06 PM, DrNgor said:

Bruce Lee Fights Back from the Grave - Legendary bad movie taken from a Korean movie ( @One Armed Boxer, what's the name of the original film), about a martial arts instructor from Taiwan who goes to Los Angeles to check up on a friend who moved there to make his fortune. The friend has since committed suicide by "falling" off a building (notice the contradiction in the words there) and now the man, Wong Han (Jun Chong, of the 80s ninja movie Silent Assassins), must track down the men (identified by his friend's white girlfriend as a white man, a black man, a Japanese man, a Mexican and a cowboy) who may be involved in the guy's death. With those can't-miss descriptions, Wong's lucky that most of them come looking for him. The fight scenes aren't that bad, and Jun Chong has some pretty good moves. But everything else about the movie is pretty darn bad. You feel bad for the girlfriend, Susan, who spends the entire movie waving around a sign that reads, "There's room in my panties for you, Wong Han." Unfortunately, his English isn't good enough to read that sign, but it's good enough to bilk her out of her money and car.

Recall being very disapointed with this movie when I first watched it on VHS. Like you mentioned Jun Chong has the skills but it just doesnt gel as a movie. It doesnt help that its amkrted as a Bruce Lee exploitation movie, when it wasn't before the additnal title sequence. The VHS release I had listed Dan Inosanto among the cast on the cover for added exploitation.

[DragonClaws]

Bruce & Shaolin Kung Fu Part 2.

 

[DrNgor]

The Dragon Lives Again (1977) - One of the screwier Brucesploitation films out there is essentially a teenager's fan fiction translated into a live action film, about 20 years or so before fan fiction really became a thing. Leung Siu-Lung (aka Bruce Liang) plays the famous Little Dragon, who has just died and gone to the Underworld. Bruce Lee quickly runs into conflict with the local thugs, Clint Eastwood and Zatoichi. He eventually decides to whip the Underworld into shape, teaching the residents jeet kune do and opposing the local gangs, run by The God father and Father Karras on general principal. Even the promise of a blow job from Emmanuelle isn't enough to sway him to the bad side. So he continues kicking the snot out of everybody around him, including Dracula, his army of men in skeleton outifts ("Zombies" if you will), James Bond, The Man With No Name, and some others. He even thwarts a plot to replace the king with Father Karras, in which the former would get screwed to death by Emmanuelle. And for the record, what exactly happens to someone in the underworld when they "die"?

So yeah, the plot doesn't make much sense, the sets are threadbare, and it's a shoddy production all around. But at the same time, you got Eric Tsang playing Popeye, Nick Cheung Lik (a fixture of Brucesploitation films) playing the One-Armed Swordsman, and even Bruce Lee teaming up with Caine from Kung Fu, which is a character he himself created. The fights are just okay. Leung Siu-Lung was always one of the more talented people to imitate Bruce Lee, and he looks good in his fights. However, you can tell that his heart wasn't in the production. The training sequence has him looking particularly uninterested and almost everybody else, including the "zombies", move and fight like Putties from the Power Rangers. But then again, this movie gives you Bruce Lee vs. Mummies and copious amounts of female nudity and sex. While martial arts fans may get something out of this, fans of the random and the bizarre will probably enjoy this more.

[sym8]

Lama avenger,starring Bruce li.Great film and in my opinion one of his best,wish I could get a DVD of this as the copy I watched was a vhs tape(god knows how old)complete with wobbles scratches and s..t sound,still great viewing though.??

[DragonClaws]

Recently sat down and re-visited The Super Gang, any Kung Fu Fandom readers, who interested in my old school ramlbings, can click on the link below, thank you.

Edited August 10, 2017 by DragonClaws

[Killer Meteor]

FIST OF DEATH (1982)

Lame South Korean Bruce/Jackiespolitation yarn with Kim Tae-Chung looking only like Bruce when he bugs his eyes out. The Jackie clone is even weaker. In a way, this is a Fist of Fury knock-off with the Ching Wu school vs the...well, the dialogue says "YMCA" but the logo on the school is clearly YMGA!

Either way, I wonder why I bother sometimes...

3/10

[DragonClaws]

Re-watched Jackie and Bruce To The Rescue, for @DrNgor mutual monthly reviews. Posted some thoughts in this thread last year, but the post was deleted when the forum went down.

Anyone who would like to read my ramblings, can click on the link below, thank you.

[DrNgor]

Last Fist of Fury (1977) - Okay, this South Korean Brucesploitation film stars Dragon Lee is best known for being tacked onto the documentary "The Real Bruce Lee." The story is pretty simple: Dragon Lee plays Siao Leung, a martial arts expert from China during the Japanese occupation, whose blood brother runs the Jing Wu School (no mention of Huo Yuanjia here). Said compatriot accepts a duel with the vicious Japanese fighter Yashioka, and is actually winning until a second fighter jumps into the mix and the two Japanese guys beat him to death. So Dragon Lee ventures into the city to avenge his death, which he ultimately does. So the remaining Japanese students hire a half-Japanese, half-German International Karate Champion to avenge them, despite the fact that Europe probably wasn't holding international karate tournaments in the days prior to WW2. Also, the guy's name is Gruber, so I can only imagine he's the father of Hans Gruber and Simon Gruber from the DIE HARD films. Gruber and his flunkies kill Siao Leung's master and kidnap his daughter, so it's up to Siao Leung to get his revenge.

So this film isn't very good. There's quite a bit of fighting, but it rarely elicited an emotional reaction out of me. I found that a bit odd, so I started paying closer to attention to what was onscreen. It became apparent that the photography of the fighting left a lot to be desired--we get a lot of shots with the stuntman's back to the camera, so when Dragon Lee kicks him, we don't really see the move in its entirety. There's the question of editing. There's a question of power and impact, which is sorely lacking from the fights--Sammo Hung may have been copying Bruce Lee in Enter the Fat Dragon, but he really put the right amount of power into the hits to up the intensity, without making himself invincible. There's the choreography, which was probably cobbled together and filmed so fast that we get a lot of sloppy, low-altitude kicks being performed, especially from the villains. 1977  was far too late for this kind of Jimmy Wang Yu bashery. In the end, it feels like a xerox of a xerox of the best of Bruce Lee's work, or even of Sammo Hung's work from Enter the Fat Dragon. The familiar elements are there, but it's not very pretty to look at.

[DragonClaws]

12 hours ago, DrNgor said:

Last Fist of Fury (1977) - Okay, this South Korean Brucesploitation film stars Dragon Lee is best known for being tacked onto the documentary "The Real Bruce Lee." The story is pretty simple:

Looks like you enjoyed this one less than me @DrNgor, I've only watched the shorter version like you, but I'd still like to see the longer cut with the missing scenes.

The end fght is bonkers if a bit poorly choreographed, it certainly set the standard for Dragon Lee movie finales.

[DrNgor]

3 hours ago, DragonClaws said:

Looks like you enjoyed this one less than me @DrNgor, I've only watched the shorter version like you, but I'd still like to see the longer cut with the missing scenes.

Actually, I think I saw the longer cut. It ran 88 minutes and can be seen on Youtube.

Yeah, it's certainly not the best Dragon Lee film I've seen. I'd rank it under CLONES OF BRUCE LEE. SECRET NINJA, ROARING TIGER and ENTER THREE DRAGONS are better than this one.

[DragonClaws]

3 hours ago, DrNgor said:

Actually, I think I saw the longer cut. It ran 88 minutes and can be seen on Youtube.

One of the cut scenes, that was removed from the version Dick Randall tagged onto TRBL, features Dragon Lee arm wrestling a fellow student.

3 hours ago, DrNgor said:

Yeah, it's certainly not the best Dragon Lee film I've seen. I'd rank it under CLONES OF BRUCE LEE. SECRET NINJA, ROARING TIGER and ENTER THREE DRAGONS are better than this one.

I'll always have a soft spot for this flick, it introduced me to the super hyped Dragon Lee.

Yet to watch Enter Three Dragons, but I'd rate Secret Ninja Roaring Tiger the best of the bunch.

[One Armed Boxer]

18 hours ago, DrNgor said:

Last Fist of Fury (1977) - Okay, this South Korean Brucesploitation film stars Dragon Lee is best known for being tacked onto the documentary "The Real Bruce Lee."

Entertaining review Doc, worth mentioning also that this movie is Dragon Lee's debut.  Thankfully he'd go on to bigger and better things (well, depending on your perspective), have you seen 'Golden Dragon, Silver Snake'?  I think that's probably my favorite Dragon Lee flick, and gives the rare opportunity to see him going bananas in a contemporary setting for a change (plus, it has a speed boat scene, I know how much you love speed boats!)

[DrNgor]

7 hours ago, One Armed Boxer said:

Entertaining review Doc, worth mentioning also that this movie is Dragon Lee's debut.  Thankfully he'd go on to bigger and better things (well, depending on your perspective), have you seen 'Golden Dragon, Silver Snake'?  I think that's probably my favorite Dragon Lee flick, and gives the rare opportunity to see him going bananas in a contemporary setting for a change (plus, it has a speed boat scene, I know how much you love speed boats!

I think I saw GD, SS, or at least the finale on Youtube. The sound effects were so exaggerated that even *I* thought they were silly. But if you recommend it, perhaps I'll see it in the near future. But until then, I have other FoF knock-offs to view.

[DrNgor]

Fist of Fury 2 (1977)

 (aka Chinese Connection 2)

 Starring: Bruce Li (Ho Chung-Tao), Tien Feng, Lo Lieh, Chan Wai-Lau, James Nam, Jimmy Lung, Sit Hon, Lee Kwan

 Director: Jimmy Shaw, Lee Tso-Nam

 Action Director: Tommy Lee

 Fist of Fury 2, another attempt to make a sequel to the Bruce Lee hit, makes for a fascinating example of divergent evolution next to the early Jackie Chan effort. Both films seek to tell the story of the Ching Wu School following the death of Chen Zhen, albeit from the points of view of different characters. In this case, we see what happens to the school’s teacher, played once again by Tien Feng, in the aftermath of the massacres of both the Japanese and Ching Wu schools that marked the last act of Fist of Fury. Interestingly enough, if not for a key moment in the film’s opening scene, this film could actually pass for a prequel to New Fist of Fury as well as a sequel to The Chinese Connection.

 We open with the funeral procession of Chen Zhen, performed by the remaining students from the school. As the pallbearers are burying the casket, Ma Li’er (not played by Nora Miao, but by some actress whose face is obscured by the traditional Chinese funeral garb) throws her onto the coffin and commits suicide. This troubles an already-shaken Teacher (a returning Tien Feng), who soon finds himself turning to alcohol to deal with his problems, which are only just beginning.

 Shortly after the funeral, some Japanese martial artists led by another interpreter, Mr. Wong (Chan Wai-Lau, filling in for Wei Ping-Ao), enter the Ching Wu school. They announce that their leader, Mr. Miyamoto (Lo Lieh, who had played the lead Japanese baddie in The Chinese Boxer), has acquired the school and now requires the students to vacate the premises. The students don’t take that very well and try to fight back, only to get whooped by the superior Japanese fighters. The Chinese students flee and try to hide out at the other local schools, but are hunted down by the Japanese and subsequently tortured.

 A few months later, one of the remaining Ching Wu students sneaks by the grave of Chen Zhen, which has been cordoned off by the Japanese. He finds a stranger who claims to be Chen Zhen’s brother, Chen Shan (Bruce Li, aka Ho Chung Tao). The student warns Chen Shan to beat it, but too late, some Japanese karate fighters show up. Rather than leave, Chen Shan wipes the floor with the lot and forces them to pay respect to his dead brother. Mr. Miyamoto is really going to love that, isn’t he?

 Miyamoto starts pressuring the local police inspector to arrest Chen Shan, although the inspector sympathizes with Chen enough to let him off the hook. The Japanese school reacts by using violence to coerce the other schools into turning Chen Shan in, which quickly puts the schools at odds with what little remains of Ching Wu, now that the Teacher is a useless drunk. Of course, it will only take but a few patriotic speeches to get the schools on Chen’s side, guaranteeing Miyamoto’s ire. Miyamoto declares the extermination of all schools in Shanghai, which his men handily carry out, even though two of the masters survive and go into hiding.

 Obviously, the masters won’t be able to hide for very long, leaving it up to Chen to protect them. Moreover, the inspector can only stick up for Chen for so long until he puts him and his men in jeopardy. So Chen will eventually have to go on the offensive if he wants to save the kung fu students of Shanghai and his own tail.

 Despite being a reworking of the film it’s supposed to be a sequel for, Fist of Fury 2 succeeds partially on the strength of its action and its rather bleak storyline. Like New Fist of Fury, the filmmakers try to continue the story of the Ching Wu school in a logical (well, at least according to the logic of kung fu movies) way, but here the villains are far more cruel and dastardly then Chen Sing and his daughter were in the other movie. The entire first act is devoted solely to showing people suffer—heck, Bruce Li doesn’t even show up until almost the 30-minute mark. Even after Chen Shan quickly establishes his fighting credentials, a lot of people are going to be unfairly walloped and snuffed before the curtain falls. That said, the major failing of the script is that the plot goes in circles for most of the second and third acts, following a pattern in which Chen Shan beats up some Japanese, the Japanese rough up some others trying find out where he is, Chen Shan argues with other Chinese about the validity of his actions, the Japanese rough up more people, Chen Shan comes to the rescue, rinse and repeat.

 The movie also benefits from Tommy Lee’s action direction, which is a lot better than what we got in too many other Bruce Li films. Tommy Lee had offered his talents to the groundbreaking hit The Secret Rivals the year before and was already on his way to becoming one of Taiwan’s most talented fight choreographers of that era. He wisely avoids trying to fit Bruce Li completely into the Bruce Lee mold, giving him a similar, but distinctive style instead. Li (or Ho Chung Tao, if you will) kicks a lot better here than he has done in other films and his handwork is sufficiently complex to set itself apart from Bruce’s simpler punches. The main flaw to the action is that the group melees tends to be repetitive and uninteresting whenever Ho Chung Tao isn’t dishing out the hurt.

 The storyline isn’t exactly original, and the movie loses a few points for its treatment of the Ma Li’er character. Watching her mature in New Fist of Fury was a refreshing piece of character development, so her suicide in this film’s first reel feels almost sexist and backward in comparison. Interestingly enough, after the funeral sequence, there are no women in the movie whatsoever (save a few extras, probably). Compare that with the Jackie Chan film, which had two strong female characters on both sides.

 Criticisms aside, this is rightly considered to be one of the better Bruce Li vehicles out there. Interestingly enough, Li spent a good portion of his career as not only a Bruce Lee imitator, but on making movies that involved the Little Dragon himself somehow. Bruce Lee, a Dragon Story; Young Bruce Lee and Bruce Lee, the Man, the Myth were pseudo-biographical films about Bruce Lee. Bruce Lee’s Deadly Kung Fu tells a fictional account of how jeet kune do was founded, even though Li didn’t technically play Lee in the film. Exit the Tiger, Enter the Dragon; New Game of Death; and Bruce Lee, We Miss You were set in alternate universes following Bruce Lee’s death. Dynamo is essentially a Brucesploitation film about a man who becomes a Brucesploitation actor, if you can wrap your head around that.

Moreso than Bruce Le and Dragon Lee, Bruce Li’s films were, for better or worse, intimately related to the great star himself. Both men had similar martial arts training, especially in the wing chun style (I’m going to guess that Ho Chung Tao also trained a bit in tae kwon do). I suppose then that it’s only fitting that Bruce Li/Ho Chung Tao be cast in a sequel to Bruce Lee’s most revered film. And it should be fitting that it beats out all of the other attempts to make a sequel to Fist of Fury, including Donnie Yen’s recent Legend of the Fist: Return of Chen Zhen.

[ShaOW!linDude]

23 hours ago, DrNgor said:

Li (or Ho Chung Tao, if you will) kicks a lot better here than he has done in other films and his handwork is sufficiently complex to set itself apart from Bruce’s simpler punches. The main flaw to the action is that the group melees tends to be repetitive and uninteresting whenever Ho Chung Tao isn’t dishing out the hurt.

This is pretty spot on. I don't think a fight scene went by where Li didn't sail through the air in a flying side kick. The end fight against Lo Lieh is really good though Li seemed to get the short end of the choreography stick in that, seeing as he gets his butt whooped for most of it. Still, the end is pretty cool, almost gruesome.

[Ah_Tao]

5 minutes ago, ShaOW!linDude said:

This is pretty spot on. I don't think a fight scene went by where Li didn't sail through the air in a flying side kick. The end fight against Lo Lieh is really good though Li seemed to get the short end of the choreography stick in that, seeing as he gets his butt whooped for most of it. Still, the end is pretty cool, almost gruesome.

I totally agree. I mark this up there as one of my favorite Bruceploitation (although this wasn't really trying to be Bruce Lee) films out there

[DrNgor]

4 hours ago, ShaOW!linDude said:

I don't think a fight scene went by where Li didn't sail through the air in a flying side kick.

He also had a nice kick where he hooked his leg around a guy's arm and then roundhouse kicked him in the face. His fights were better than Dragon Lee's in Last Fist of Fury.

 

4 hours ago, Ah_Tao said:

I mark this up there as one of my favorite Bruceploitation (although this wasn't really trying to be Bruce Lee) films out there

You could tell that Tommy Lee and Bruce Li were trying to give Chen Shan a fighting style that wasn't a shameless aping of the Little Dragon. Sadly, that wasn't the case in Fist of Fury III, where the choreographers went back to having him copy the original, but to no effect.