Bruceploitation Reviews

[DrNgor]

New Fist of Fury (1976)

(Aka Nova Fúria do Dragão; Shaolin Contra os Filhos do Sol; O Regresso do Invencível)

Starring: Jackie Chan, Nora Miao, Chen Sing, Han Ying-Chieh, Chiang Kam, Cheng Siu-Siu, Hon Siu, Yi Ming, Liu Ming, Henry Luk

Director: Lo Wei

Action Director: Han Ying-Chieh

In 1976, Jackie Chan signed on to Lo Wei’s production company, Lo Wei being the same fellow who directed Bruce Lee’s first two films. Up until then, Jackie had had only one starring role (in Young Tiger of Canton, later released as Snake Fist Fighter) and numerous gigs as a stuntman and supporting character. Lo Wei set out to make Chan into a star, although he didn’t quite no how to do so. Over the course of two years, Lo Wei would cast Chan as a wuxia villain, a wuxia hero, a serious kung fu hero and even a role originally meant for Bruce Lee. However, for their first collaboration, Lo actually put Chan in Bruce’s shoes and cast him as the successor to Bruce Lee’s most popular screen persona, the legendary Chen Zhen.

New Fist of Fury, despite being dismissed as a Bruce Lee cash-in film (which it was to a certain extant), actually begins promisingly. We open with Inspector Lo (Lo Wei, reprising his role from the original film) sneaking across Shanghai to an abandoned building. Hidden in one of the rooms upstairs is Ma Li’er (Nora Miao, also playing the same role she did in the Bruce Lee classic) and two other Ching Wu students (one of whom is the portly Chiang Kam of Snake in the Eagle’s Shadow). According to Li’er, the Japanese consul reneged on his promise to spare the rest of the school after Chen Zhen’s murder and the students were hunted down until the last three were forced to go into hiding. Inspector Lo has made arrangements for Li’er and her colleagues to flee to Taiwan, where she can hide out at her grandpa’s place and plan for her revenge against the Japanese.

Shortly after Li’er’s arrival, one of her packages is stolen by a local thief, Helong (a pre-eye surgery Jackie Chan). Hoping for something of value, Helong is surprised to find the package containing only a pair of nunchaku. Helong is determined to give the weapon back to its owners when he’s invited to one of the local kung fu schools by its teacher (Henry Luk), who’s in cahoots with the Japanese. Helong refuses to join the school on the principle that he can’t support anyone who regularly brown noses the enemy. That simply earns him a sound beating which almost kills him, if it were for Li’er and Mr. Hong (Han Ying-Chieh, the villain from The Big Boss/Fists of Fury), who find Helong and nurse him back to health. Li’er finds something to admire in Helong’s principles, even though he turns down repeated invitations from her to study kung fu.

Meanwhile, Mr. Hong and his business partner, Ma’s grandfather, are actually trying to plan a rebellion against the Japanese in secret. An assassination attempt on the local karate master, Okumura (Chen Sing, who played a Japanese villain in The Chinese Boxer and Shanghai 13), prompts the same to use his clout to bully the local schools into being assimilated into his school. Actually, most of the bullying is performed by his daughter (Cheng Siu Siu), who goes around picking fights with whomever she wants. When they show up at Li’er’s grandfather’s 80^th Birthday Celebration and try to pick a fight with the Peking Opera actors, the stress is too much for gramps, who kicks the bucket on the spot.

This convinces Li’er to reopen the Ching Wu school and start teaching the mi-tsung fist style to the Taiwanese locals. The school who tried to coerce Helong into training with them shows up and gets their collective arses handed back to them. That’s enough for the Okumura and his daughter to show up and humiliate the students. That is the last straw for Helong, who decides that it’s time to make a stand and learn kung fu. Will he learn the “fist of fury” style quick enough to use at the special “meeting” scheduled by the Okumura for all the local kung fu teachers?

There are a myriad of problems with this particular film, which is surprising, if you consider that director Lo Wei had been responsible for the original Fist of Fury. I’ve read in several places that Bruce Lee did most of the work on his Lo Wei films, while the director just lounged about and slept. If that’s true, that may explain why the two films are so drastically different, despite boasting similar themes. Many of this film’s flaws stem from the script. The original Fist of Fury took a simple premise of a man avenging his teacher’s murder and turned it into a compelling tale of an individual standing up to the forces of oppression, and those on the sidelines who ultimately suffer the consequences for it.

This movie, on the other hand, is all over the place, with more subplots and characters than it knows what to do with. First we have Miss Lee’s quest for vengeance against the Japanese, which never gels because for all of her spunk, Miss Lee never gets her hands dirty, fight-wise. Nora Miao probably wasn’t a martial artist, but she at least faked it well in films like Snake and Crane Arts of Shaolin. She barely even tries here. Then there’s a subplot about her grandfather in charge of a revolutionary movement and his suspicion of government corruption that is dropped before making much of a contribution to the story only to be brought up again near the end without adding anything at all to the film—in fact, it kills the movie’s momentum since it’s unrelated to the final fight. Another plot thread involving Helong’s mother being a brothel madam who regularly supplies the Japanese men with prostitutes does little for the film beyond supplying it with a few moments of melodrama. That leaves us with the major storylines, which are Helong’s journey from a reluctant thief to Chen Zhen’s spiritual successor and Mr. Okumura’s attempts to assert influence over Taiwan’s kung fu schools.

Much like the other subplots, these two plotlines feel underdeveloped, mainly because Lo Wei is too busy letting everything else get in the way. Helong’s thread is especially problematic, because it means that Jackie Chan has very little to contribute to the movie until the third act, when he finally starts his training. Snake in the Eagle’s Shadow had Jackie Chan’s character undergo a similar journey, but wisely kept the focus on Jackie and pushed his training into the second act, giving him more time to showcase his skills. Unfortunately, that’s not the case here. The main conflict with the Japanese villain is unconvincing because other than kill a few would-be assassins, he never comes across as being truly evil. Sure he’s a jerk for strong-arming the local schools, but he seems nowhere near as corrupt as Mr. Suzuki or sadistic as General Fujita. Then again, so little time is given to his quest to consolidate his power over Chinese kung fu that it becomes just another undeveloped plot thread.

Problems in New Fist of Fury’s plotting inevitably results in flaws in the action direction, especially the pacing. The first real fight doesn’t occur until 40 minutes into the movie, which is an especially grave error in a 1970s chopsockey film. Following the succession of three brief martial arts sequences, we’re almost 70 minutes into the film before the next fight occurs. And then there’s the whole Jackie Chan as a good-for-nothing layabout bit, which means that he won’t be performing any martial arts until after he’s been trained. Since that doesn’t occur until the third act, that means Jackie Chan will only let loose during the film’s finale. Bad move, Lo Wei. We understand that Jackie Chan wasn’t a household name at that point, but who wants to see a movie starring the potential “next Bruce Lee” if that actor isn’t even going to fight until the very end? It’s ultimately that problem, more than the script, which sinks the film faster than a Chinese junk facing a Yamato-class battleship.

Han Ying-Chieh was something of a pioneer in modern fight choreography, offering his talents to early wuxia classics like Come Drink with Me and A Touch of Zen. He also directed the non-Bruce Lee fight scenes to The Big Boss and Fist of Fury, and the difference between his work and Bruce’s is stark indeed. At his worst, Han Ying-Chieh exemplified everything that was wrong with early 1970s: flailing arms, lack of power in the hits and sloppy kicking. The action here is a little better than his work in those early Bruce Lee movies. Jackie Chan acquits himself well, especially during his fight with Cheng Siu-Siu, where he uses some more acrobatic moves and drop kicks. He even uses some praying mantis techniques, which Chan never used in his movies, since he mainly focused on southern Chinese styles. Unlike Bruce Lee’s Chen Zhen, Chan’s Helong spends both of the two final fights as the underdog, which was a questionable decision since it undercuts a lot of his physical talents.

Chan Sing is also solid, using his usual tiger claw technique (despite playing a Japanese villain) and sai swords. Cheng Siu-Siu, who plays Okumura’s daughter, kicks pretty well, although her jump kicks are obvious wire/trampoline-assisted. Everybody else, including Han Ying himself, are pretty nondescript. Where the fighting really falters is those moments where Chan tries to ape Bruce Lee with the slow motion hand movements, which look extremely silly, and the use of the nunchaku at the end. Both are badly-filmed and choreographed, cheapening the otherwise decent choreography. Nonetheless, there isn’t enough action here to justify the movie’s existence and keep this from being one of Jackie Chan’s worst movies ever.

 

Fist of Fury III (1979)

(aka Chinese Connection 3; Jeet Kune Do the Claws and the Supreme Kung Fu; O Tigre em Fúria)

Starring: Bruce Li (Ho Chung-Tao), Ku Feng, Wei Ping-Ao, Bruce Tong, Michelle Yim, Fong Yau, Hong Gwok-Choi, Wang Lai, Choi King-Fai

Director: To Lo-Po

Action Directors: Wong Mei, Addy Sung

I’d like to think that Fist of Fury III was the victim (at least in part) of its 1979 release date. The kung fu movie landscape had changed a lot since 1977, especially because of Jackie Chan. The success of The Drunken Master meant that studios—both mainstream and independent—would try to cash in on that film’s success, cranking out kung fu comedy one after the other for low costs and potentially-high profits. Racist portraits of the Japanese still existed, but had become moot the year before with Lau Kar-Leung’s balanced take on the Chinese/Japanese conflict in Heroes of the East. With Jackie Chan becoming the big thing, Brucesploitation on the whole was quickly turning into an anachronism.

The post-Drunken Master mentality shows up here in the form of a bungling brother to Chen Shan (and, by extension, Bruce Lee’s Chen Zhen), played by the usually-reliable Hon Gwok-Choi (Call Me Dragon and Running on Karma). It ends up cheapening what is already an underwhelming film and dealing a blow to the original film’s power that even the lackluster New Fist of Fury wasn’t guilty of. Alas, that is but one of the film’s many sins.

 We open with a brief fight between Chen Shan, who’s returning to his home in Macao following the events of the last film, and some Japanese baddies led by the local interpreter for the Japanese (Wei Ping-Ao, essentially reprising his role as Wu from Fist of Fury). After whooping them, Chen comes home and promises his blind mother (Wang Lai, who made some 200+ films in her career, including gems like Hong Kong Emanuelle ), that he’ll never fight again. That’s a bit drastic, considering his speeches about sticking up for yourself in the previous entry. His worthless brother is on hand to get into trouble, which will eventually come back to bite the family in the arse.

 Chen Shan goes to visit his uncle, the owner of the local hung gar school. I’m guessing that “uncle” is only a friendly term, since uncle’s daughter (Choi King-Fai) has decided to spurn her engagement to the school’s top student (Bruce Tong of Shaolin Temple) in order to flirt with Chen Shan. When the local Japanese school resolves to open a casino in town, their leader (Broken Oath’s Fong Yau) declares that Chen Shan needs to be wiped out in order to avenge the death of Miyamoto, villain from the first film. Unfortunately, their political clout in Macao is less than it is in Shanghai, so they’ll have to operate a little less openly. The Interpreter suggests that they use the love triangle to pit the Top Student against Chen Shan.

 This leads into a bizarre tangent where Chen Shan catches Top Student fighting with a father-daughter pair of traveling martial artists (the daughter is played by Michelle Yim, of Passage of the Dragon). Chen Shan bests him in a duel, which pisses Top Student off even more.  Chen Shan takes the dad n’ daughter home, where his mother nurses the ailing father back to health. Meanwhile, an increasingly distraught Top Student finds himself turning to alcohol to deal with the fact that his fiancée doesn’t care for him anymore. One evening, Interpreter shows up and spikes the guy’s wine with some aphrodisiac, which causes him to almost rape his master’s daughter. Obviously, this gets the guy kicked out of the school.

 A reel from the version I watched went missing at this point, so I’m not entirely sure what happens. I’m guessing that Top Student kills his master and frames Chen Shan for it, who is thrown in jail. I’m also guessing that the real identities of the father-daughter pair are revealed, since it was hinted at before that they were in Macao to resolve some special business. Anyway, the master’s daughter commits suicide while Top Student is having another random fight with father-daughter pair. The next day, Worthless Brother tries to pick a fight with the Interpreter, leading to his getting beaten to death by the Japanese. Chen Shan’s mother subsequently dies of grief. Chen Shan is let out of jail almost effortlessly by father-daughter pair and as soon as he finds his dead family, he’s going to want to get revenge.

 The script here is just a mess, from the inconsistent characterizations to a main villain (Shaw Brothers veteran Ku Feng) who doesn’t even show up onscreen (at least in the version I saw) until the final fight itself. That in itself makes the bad guys even less compelling than Chen Sing and his daughter in New Fist of Fury. Moreover, the Fist of Fury franchise is a patriotic (if slightly racist) one. It’s about one man standing up for his people in the face of tyranny and foreign imperialism. In this movie, however, the villains here do very little oppressing and their plan to get revenge on Chen Shan via a love triangle is rather silly and petty, rather than the sort of thing to get audiences riled up. I also didn’t appreciate how the father-daughter duo disappear from the movie after freeing Chen Shan from prison, despite the fact that their kung fu is actually pretty good.

 It doesn’t help that the fight scenes are choreographed by 3^rd string choreographers Wong Mei (Bruce’s Deadly Fingers and Bruce Li in New Guinea) and Addy Sung (Bruce Le’s Greatest Revenge). Fist of Fury 2 didn’t represent Tommy Lee’s best work, but it was obvious he was trying for more than your garden-variety Bruce Lee imitation, which worked a lot in the movie’s favor. Unfortunately, Wong and Addy had histories far too steeped in the Brucesploitation genre to break out of type, and Ho Chung Tao ends up back in the garden with some uninspired Bruce Lee-esque posturing and whooping. The action is made even worse by the liberal undercranking applied to a number of the one-vs-many fights.

 Things get even worse once we reach the finale, since the filmmakers liberally rip off Fist of Fury II, from the villain killing his interpreter right down to the final shot of the villain committing seppuku. A lot of the characters’ moves feel borrowed from the Bruce Li/Lo Lieh fight from the last film and the only moment of fighting freshness comes when Bruce Tong shows up to briefly tango with Ku Feng. Nothing about the fight is all that original or interesting, ending an already uninspired movie on a bland note.

[ShaOW!linDude]

Regarding New Fist of Fury:

5 hours ago, DrNgor said:

Jackie Chan acquits himself well, especially during his fight with Cheng Siu-Siu, where he uses some more acrobatic moves and drop kicks. He even uses some praying mantis techniques, which Chan never used in his movies, since he mainly focused on southern Chinese styles. Unlike Bruce Lee’s Chen Zhen, Chan’s Helong spends both of the two final fights as the underdog, which was a questionable decision since it undercuts a lot of his physical talents.

Chan Sing is also solid, using his usual tiger claw technique (despite playing a Japanese villain) and sai swords. Cheng Siu-Siu, who plays Okumura’s daughter, kicks pretty well, although her jump kicks are obvious wire/trampoline-assisted... Where the fighting really falters is those moments where Chan tries to ape Bruce Lee with the slow motion hand movements, which look extremely silly, and the use of the nunchaku at the end. Both are badly-filmed and choreographed, cheapening the otherwise decent choreography. Nonetheless, there isn’t enough action here to justify the movie’s existence and keep this from being one of Jackie Chan’s worst movies ever.

Honestly, the only good thing about this movie is the end fight, and of Chan's early work, it's actually one of my favorites. Had never thought about the fact that he uses Mantis style in this and nowhere else. (I'm thinking I remember him resorting to the hand motions in a couple of other very brief instances, but I couldn't tell what film(s), and I'm probably wrong anyway.) I do love his use of the 3 sectional staff as opposed to the nunchucks against Sing's double sai. I find that to be a solid weapons fight. Oh, did Chan look soooo enthused to mimic Bruce Lee's psychedelic tracer arm effect for this? Poor guy.

As for Fist of Fury 3...yeah, I'll be giving that one a pass.

[DrNgor]

On 29/09/2017 at 7:02 PM, ShaOW!linDude said:

As for Fist of Fury 3...yeah, I'll be giving that one a pass.

It's not Ho Chung Tao's best moment.

On 29/09/2017 at 7:02 PM, ShaOW!linDude said:

Oh, did Chan look soooo enthused to mimic Bruce Lee's psychedelic tracer arm effect for this? Poor guy

Yeah, that was an embarrassing effect in that film. Poor Jackie, indded.

[DragonClaws]

On 29/09/2017 at 5:04 PM, DrNgor said:

New Fist of Fury (1976)

(Aka Nova Fúria do Dragão; Shaolin Contra os Filhos do Sol; O Regresso do Invencível)

Not one my favorite old school movies, but I like how Chan goes from an inept clumsy charatcer, to a serious fighting machine by the finale.

On 29/09/2017 at 5:04 PM, DrNgor said:

Fist of Fury III (1979)

(aka Chinese Connection 3; Jeet Kune Do the Claws and the Supreme Kung Fu; O Tigre em Fúria)

Not one of Ho Chung Tao best as you pointed out, so generic I cant recall much about it. A good friend of mine on the forums sent me a copy, so I might have to re-watch soon.

You are brave @DrNgor, taking on so many of these old FOF knock-off so close together.

Have you got round to watching Return Of Bruce yet?, thats anohter one I don't recall much about. There'sa FOF knock-off that I've ben trying to recall all weekend, but I just cant remember the title. It featured none of the main three clones, and I'm sure it was a Taiwanese or Phillipine production.

[DrNgor]

Ninja Over the Great Wall (1987)

Aka: Shaolin Fist of Fury; Fire on the Great Wall

Starring: Bruce Le (Huang Kin-Lung), Yasuyoshi Shikamura, Li Ning, Yue Hai

Director: Bruce Le

Action Director: Bruce Le

Ninja Over the Great Wall represents something of an achievement for Brucesploitation actor Bruce Le. After more than 10 years of Brucesploitation that were by turns bland and forgettable or sleazy and forgettable, he finally got it. He finally understood what was necessary to make an honest-to-God good film. He finally learned something about the power of images that weren’t naked Eurosmut starlets, and finally honed his skills to be able choreograph fights that would not be completely forgotten 15 minutes after the movie ended. Things just clicked for him in the late 80s, when he was making an honest effort to be seen as a legitimate filmmaker. As it stands, Ninja Over the Great Wall is quite possible the best Brucesploitation movie I’ve so far seen, even if there are others out there that might be a lot more fun to watch.

The film opens in 1931 in the Northernmost regions of China, probably around Manchuria. A contingent of Japanese troops arrive in some random village and just start opening fire on the villagers for no reason whatsoever. After witnessing the murder of his mother, kung fu expert Chi Keung (Bruce Le) takes his girlfriend Yip and makes a break for it. The butt of a Japanese rifle makes short work of their flight, and Chi Keung is put on a truck with the rest of the surviving men of the village. They’re taken out of town, systematically slaughtered, and thrown into a mass grave. Yip finds Chi Keung, who’s barely alive, and escapes with him to Beijing. The entire scene is played out with the minimum of dialog, with Le wisely letting the imagery, especially that of the two protagonists walking through a literal boneyard, to make it to safety.

A year later, Chi Keung is working as a rickshaw puller in Beijing when he meets Master Yeung (Yue Hai, of the Shaolin Temple films). Keung has been challenged to a duel by Shojiro (Yasuyoshi Shikamura, also known as Luk Chuen), the son of the Japanese ambassador based in Beijing. Shojiro is a powerful, but idealistic martial artist, who believes in things like mercy and fairness, much to his father’s disapproval. His dad thinks that the duel is a bad idea, so he sends his ninja army to fix Master Yeung. Chi-Keung saves the Master’s life and comes into his good graces. Later on, Master Yeung loses the duel to Shojiro, and later dies after being poisoned by the ninja bodyguards.

Chi Keung is enraged by the treachery of the Japanese, and takes on Shojiro, giving him a sound thrashing. Shojiro retreats to Japan to hone his Bushido skills, while his father lets loose his ninja army to wipe out the rest of the Chung-Hwa School and kill Chi Keung as well. Chi Keung escapes and makes it to a settlement along the Yellow River, where he trains for the inevitable rematch with his Japanese adversary.

The truth is that the film revolves mainly around the rivalry between Shojiro and the Chinese masters, exemplified by both Chi Keung and Master Yeung. As a result, there are several subplots that pop up and simply disappear without being mentioned again. We discover that the archtypical Chinese interpreter is actually the uncle of Yip, Chi Keung’s love interest, but that fact never facts into the story. There’s also a love triangle sidestory involving Chi Keung, Yip, and some girl who lives in the Yellow River village, but that’s resolved in a simplistic manner. Also, there’s a bit about the top student of the Chung Hwa school travelling to the South to rally up the kung fu masters to oppose the Japanese, but once he leaves, that’s never mentioned again.

The film also suffers from some bad editing, mainly during a 10-minute interval in which Chi Keung faces off with the ninjas in four or five consecutive fights. No explanation is given for the change of scenery or time of day in between the fights, especially when Chi Keung is suddenly in the snow fighting off ninja dressed in white. Moreover, once the ninja off the students of the school, we never see Chi Keung’s reaction to it.

But I’m willing to forgive those flaws because the rest of the movie is handled so well. Unlike so many other Brucesploitation movies I’ve seen, this actually *feels* like a real movie. The emotions are real, the characters feel like people, and the production values are better than your average Brucesploitation romp. I’m pretty sure that much of the film was made with Mainland money, considering the cast and the location shooting. When you get right down to it, this film feels like a respectable marriage of the Brucesploitation, Ninjasploitation and Mainland wushu film genres.

Interestingly enough, even the villain experiences some degree of character development. Shojiro has the typical Japanese desire to prove that Bushido beats Kung Fu, but he wants to do it in an honorable way and believes in a fair fight, much like Norman Tsui’s character in Duel to the Death. This is one of the few films I’ve seen where the villain gets beaten, and then retreats to train for the climatic fight. By the end of his training, Shojiro has absorbed his master’s teachings that showing mercy is not part of Bushido, making him all the more dangerous as a foe.

I’m pretty sure that the opening massacre has a lot to do with the revelations in the 1980s of the activities of infamous Unit 731, the prisoner camp in Manchuria where Japanese doctors and scientists performed some of the most horrible experiments on record on living people (most of whom were Chinese). Huang Kin-Lung must have had strong feelings about these hideous acts that came to light, as he also directed the film Comfort Women, which is about prostitutes being sent to Unit 731 after contracting venereal diseases. I get the feeling that Bruce Le wanted to show to the world just how bad things got in China during the Japanese occupation.

The action is pretty solid for the most part. Huang Kin-Lung eschews much of the hopping, nunchaku-swinging, whoop-whooping, and nose-thumbing that defined so many other of his films. He uses a lot of reverse punches and his kicks are higher and more powerful than those sloppy low-altitude boots that cheapened the action in Clones of Bruce Lee, for example. Yue Hai gives us some tai chi and other internal styles during his big fight with Shojiro. On the weapons front, Bruce Le shows off his sword skills with the katana in several of the fights, wielding it like a Chinese jian, and then opting for a pair of escrima-esque poles for the final fight.

I’d say the big flaw in the action is the final fight. It starts really good (by Bruce Le standards, anyway), with two fighting with weapons. It reminds me a lot of the final fight in Fearless to be honest. In fact, there are several scenes (the poisoning, Shojiro’ reaction to his father’s treachery) that remind me of Fearless. When the two switch to hand-to-hand fighting, it goes well. But then, the two are quickly reduced to haymakers and reverse punches, without any interesting choreography to complement it. The two fighters just mindlessly wail on each other until both are tired and bloody. A little more choreography from Huang Kin-Lung would’ve been nice. But despite that and those flaws, I still think this is Bruce Le’s best contribution to cinema.

[DrNgor]

3 hours ago, DragonClaws said:

You are brave @DrNgor, taking on so many of these old FOF knock-off so close together.

 

I watched these films to prepare for a Fist of Legend write-up I'll be doing soon. Sometimes to express how much we like a film, watching other attempts to do the same thing helps us understand why we like it so much.

[Killer Meteor]

Quote

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.

Although the English dub calls him "Bob", aside from a stray line, the Chinese version does indeed call him "Shao Lung"/"Bruce"

[DrNgor]

2 hours ago, Killer Meteor said:

Although the English dub calls him "Bob", aside from a stray line, the Chinese version does indeed call him "Shao Lung"/"Bruce"

I do love the idea of Bruce Lee inventing jeet kune do because he couldn't beat Legendary Superkicker Hwang Jang Lee otherwise.

[DragonClaws]

21 hours ago, DrNgor said:

On 01/10/2017 at 5:30 PM, DragonClaws said:

 

I watched these films to prepare for a Fist of Legend write-up I'll be doing soon. Sometimes to express how much we like a film, watching other attempts to do the same thing helps us understand why we like it so much.

The FOF cash-ins could be a whole little sub-genre of their own. There's a lot of Hng Kong movies that use the same formular, that dont feature a clone in the lead role.

 

21 hours ago, Killer Meteor said:

Although the English dub calls him "Bob", aside from a stray line, the Chinese version does indeed call him "Shao Lung"/"Bruce"

I think for legal reasons, some of these Brucepoitationer's started to use other names. Didnt Linda Lee and the Estate clamp down a bit on these movies at some point in the 70's??. Ho Chung Tao is playing Bruce Lee in all but name in Soul Brothers Of Kung Fu.

[Fist of the Heavenly Sky]

Image Of Bruce Lee/Storming Attacks  (1978)

Original title: Storming Attacks

Director: Richard Yueng Kuen

Fight choreographer- Wong Mei & Sham Chin-Bo

Starring- Ho Chung Tao (Bruce Li) , Han Ying Chieh, Tsen Shu-Yi, John Cheung, Mark Cheung, Bolo Yeung,

It had already been five years since the Little Dragon had ascended to the next life, yet film companies were continuing to "capitalize" on his image all this time later. I put "capitalize" in quotes because very few if any of these companies were even remotely competent when it came to emulating the aesthetics for any of Bruce Lee's major adult films. Talk about sheer inconsistency too; we got plenty of sequels-that-no-one-asked-for-and-make-no-sense and kinda-but-not-really-remakes of Fist of Fury, Enter The Dragon and Game of Death, and (at least to my knowledge) nothing rehashed from Big Boss (The "sequel" simply doesn't count. Moving on) and Way of The Dragon. Seriously, it's not really that hard to craft a mindless yet fun Saturday afternoon kung fu basher, and yet the lot of the Bruceploitation titles always seem to fail miserably on that respect. Anyway, enough rambling for now.

So here we have yet another "Brucesploitation" that actually doesn't have much of anything to do with Bruce Lee, unless you count Ho Chung Tao very briefly donning the yellow jumpsuit that everyone and their grandmothers know about already. And also a painfully hamfisted and useless remark in the English dub. 

Out of all the countless 'Bruce Lee imitator' films that were churned out, THE IMAGE OF BRUCE LEE is neither a good film or a bad one – just a barely tolerable effort that'll be entertaining for those who happen to be fond of these pseudo-knockoff movies of the Little Dragon. For once, Ho Chung Tao isn't being suffocated by needless demands to play a walking parody of Lee. Here we get to see him play a role that does not require him to re-emulate one of the countless well known publicity shots of Bruce. That is, no shrieking war screams and no random claw scratches in his body.

This one follows the thematic of ETD, in that the movie adopts a James Bond-style espionage plot as the good guys head off against a sinister drug enterprise, but it's all a simple excuse for a series of kung fu brawls, as there is no serious attempt at providing consistency to the narrative. Out of all the Bruceploitation flicks I've watched, this has got to be one of the most action-packed, and the last half an hour is essentially one big showdown. It's a shame, then, that the choreography is quite mediocre and the fights are rather stilted and wooden. I'm not sure if Han Ying Chieh also served as the choreography director in this one, but considering how lifeless and bored the actors seem to be in the fighting sequences, it's rather unlikely. Only Bolo Yeung delivers anything resembling a strong performance as far as the brawling goes. In fact, Bolo is one of the only two remarkable characters in the movie besides Tao, as the former takes a liking for showing off his glamorous (At least by late 70's standards) sense of fashion, seemingly as if he learned his cosmetic chops directly from the Little Dragon when he was still alive.

For what it's worth, the battles do make good use of it's set pieces, especially the final brawl at a dilapidated building and a beach. The obligatory moments of Bruceploitation sheer lunacy are still here – the opening scene, in which Tao climbs a building (in Bruce Lee's trademark yellow gym suit from GOF, apparently just to fill his imitation quota) in an attempt to rescue a guy attempting suicide, only for him to fall when he loses his prosthetic arm, is a classic. And yeah, it doesn't have any actual impact in the storyline (or lack thereof), not even a passing mention of it by any of the characters. 

It would appear that the producers took a cue or two from the lurid content in Big Boss and ETD, because this is also one of the most risqué kung fu flicks I've witnessed, as co-star Dana, a Shaw Bros actress known for her erotic roles, frequently sheds all of her clothing for plenty of showcasings of her porcelain-like birthday suit. I feel I should point out that the nudity is presented in a surprisingly unerotic way, and they also happen at the most random parts for no rhyme or reason. Not to pull a Tang Lung here, but at least in the context of action movies, if sudden nudity isn't related to and/or doesn't influence the overall narrative, it's just obnoxiously gratuitous for the sake of gratuity. I suppose such observation is rather moot for an exploitation movie, but it's still offputting. There's also a moment when Tao breaks into Han Ying Chieh's (who plays the villain) apartment and briefly flips though an album of pics of naked chicks in it, apparently in a non-so-subtle reference to the titular "Big Boss" from '71 that was also played by Chieh, and who also lusted for young women and enslaved them in a prostitution ring.

Overall, Ho Chung Tao's performance in here was a vast improvement compared to previous outings. While his fighting here is hardly phenomenal, e's got quite a bit of energy in here, performing a ton of malabarisms throughout the running time. He also had natural charisma of his own which helped him stand out from the awful "Bruce Li" persona that he was trapped with for much of his career. THE IMAGE OF BRUCE LEE isn't a good flick, not even average, but not even remotely as insulting as the vast majority of the Bruceploitation crappola in exist. It's worth a watch for the sake of curiosity.

[Killer Meteor]

" I’ve read in several places that Bruce Lee did most of the work on his Lo Wei films, while the director just lounged about and slept. If that’s true, that may explain why the two films are so drastically different, despite boasting similar themes "

 

Lo Wei's Shaw output has some impressive wu xia, in particular Dragon Swamp and Vengeance of a Snow Girl. His GH output from 1973 onwards is dull as anything - his Wang Yu films are cataleptic.

 

He only seemed to get his groove back for Dragon Fist.

[Killer Meteor]

Here's my New Fist of Fury review from a few years ago

 

In 1972, Lo Wei hit his peak with the Bruce Lee film Fist of Fury. Sadly, he seemed to lose his touch almost immediately and his next few features were stodgy and dull, lacking the creative spark that had been present throughout his Shaw tenure and early Golden Harvest features.

One can hardly blame Lo for attempting to re-visit past glories when he started his new production company off with a sequel to his biggest hit. And, to his credit, Lo didn't just do the obvious and go and copy the first film.

Not that you'd know this by reading Jackie's "autobiography" in which he claims he was playing Bruce Lee's brother and that Lo directed him to play a "screaming demon of vengeance". Indeed, it's a pity that wasn't what happened with Jackie. Instead, it happened with the same year's Fist of Fury II, a Taiwanese indie in which Bruce Li played Bruce Lee's brother and pretty much played a demon of vengeance. And derivative as it was, that film really puts Lo's official sequel to shame.

In New Fist of Fury, Jackie plays a young Taiwanese thief called Ah Lung, who not only doesn't know kung fu but doesn't WANT to learn kung fu – he even knocks himself silly with the iconic nunchakus. Unbeknownst to him, his estranged mother is a concubine for the Japanese occupiers, and Ah Lung, why, he just hates the Japs. Our hero, ladies and gentleman.

I seriously have no idea where Lo Wei was going with this. Normally a hero's refusal to use his kung fu is the result of a sacred oath, or a Christ-like devotion to peaceful solutions. But when the refusal is down to stubbornness and idiocy, that's Hon Kwok-Choi sacrificial lamb territory, not heroes, not a new star destined to be the Next Bruce Lee.

I've often wondered if the character was originally meant to just a supporting role and Lo Wei beefed up the character once he saw Jackie's star potential, without doing the necessary damage control. Anyway, the film's real star is the lovely Nora Miao, who flees to Taiwan from Shanghai. Interestingly, the inital setup of the film seems derived from Hapkido, with Angela Mao being played by Nora. Sadly, instead of Sammo we get Chiang Kam and in place of Carter Wong we get some plank of wood. An Angela Mao style kung fu film with Nora Miao as the lead would have been pretty awesome, I wish I was watching that instead. Lo Wei reprises his role of the Inspector from the previous film, and whilst it's a good performance, he was unceremoniously cut from 2 different reissues. Han Ying-Chieh, understandably not reprising his role from the previous film, is also on fine form and, like Nora, is far better a leading character then the film's supposed hero.

In the villian's corner, Chen Sing plays Okumura. Whilst a fine performance and a quite decent character, one does again have to wonder what we're supposed to make of this character. He starts off as seemingly a perfectly reasonable chap, interested in uniting the local kung fu schools (under his name, but then what else is new?). Even when some idiot rebels trying to kill him, he doesn't go on a rampage of murder; he merely has his gorgeous daughter (Chen Siu-Siu) rough up some suspects, and then he invites them to dinner! Heck he doesn't even kill Nora's grandpa, the old fool gives himself a heart attack over a bit of nationalistic teasing.

Eventually (like 70 min into the movie!), Okumura suddenly remembers he is the bad guy and destroys the new Ching Wu school sign (the dastard!), Ah Lung suddenly remember he is the hero and has the sign repaired and returned (but only once the villains are out of the way), and poor Nora goes nuts, has flashes to photos of Chen Zhen (or rather photos of Lee from Enter the Dragon) and decides that Ah Lung is just like Chen Zhen...because he brought back a sign? I thought Chen Zhen smashed them.

Ah Lung proves ridicously adept at kung fu in a matter of days (can't hurt that he works out to Tangerine Dream's Rubycon). Meanwhile, the Japanese authorities get tipped off (by whom we never find out) that there are rebels at the Ching Wu School. Said rebels are the most feeble bunch ever; a few old guys sitting in the attic doing NOTHING AT ALL! They escape and the Japanese decide to finally lay down the law before a rebels does, you know, anything.

The resulting meeting of all the local kung schools could have been the setup for a no-holds barred royal rumble, but given the resulting fights are no more then 3 people at the most, they might as well have stayed at home. Okumura is getting into his villain phase by having the losing kung fu schools be butchered once they leave the dojo, but none of the heroes know that, so when Jackie finally wins a fight at the 11th hour by killing Okumura's daughter by kicking her in the chest...dude, that's harsh. Besides, it means we didn't get to see Nora Miao in a catfight with Chen Siu-Siu. I wish I was watching that instead.

Anyway, the final fight between Jackie and Chen Sing is pretty damn awesome, starting off bare-handed then going to Jackie using the three-section staff against Chen Sing's sai. Sadly, unintentional hilarity pokes its head in, when Jackie tries the "Fist of Fury", the blurry hand technique Bruce tried out in the original...

And the final ending apes that of the original but rather than being a testament to sacrifice and the power of the individual, it is instead an ode to bone-headedness and failing to think things through.

Rather like the film actually...

4/10

[De Ming Li]

@DrNgor  Great reviews! I watched The Real Bruce Lee at the end of 2003 on VHS (incidentally it was from watching this that ignited my whole interest in martial arts films in general) and Dragon Lee's mannerisms in it were some of the most hilarious moments I've seen anybody do on film ever. I remember laughing uncontrollably for a good 15 minutes after the film had ended and simply coming to terms with what I had just saw. But yeah, the film overall was quite weak and the awful English dubbing (bad even by the standards of the day I reckon) just made it funnier. The highlight for me was the end fight between Lee and Gruber which lasted a good while and reminds of the end fight in The Big Boss between Bruce and Han Ying Cheh. It was still very fun to sit through I must say!

 

@Fist of the Heavenly Sky  Good review on Image of Bruce Lee, I watched this two years ago and remember being quite disappointed, I really wished Bolo would have lasted close to the end but his character's death just appeared random to me. The plot was quite cliched and I just think that Bruce Le might have done just as good a job here as Ho Chung Tao.

[DragonClaws]

Re-watched this Huang Kin-Lung(Bruce Le) actioner over the weekend. Kung Fu Fan follower/readers, can access my rambling, by clicking on the link below,thanks.

Edited November 15, 2017 by DragonClaws

[Killer Meteor]

On 28/09/2017 at 12:32 PM, DrNgor said:

Fist of Fury 2 (1977)

 (aka Chinese Connection 2)

 

 

One odd thing that links Fist of Fury 2 and 3 - both have Bruce Li's buddy be played by an actor who appeared as a "Japanese" fighter in the original - Sham Chin Bo in 2 and Hon Kwok Choi in 3.

[DragonClaws]

Recently got through re-visiting Mission For The Dragon, any Kung Fu Fandom readers who would like to read my thoughts on this one, can simply click on the link below, thank you.

[TheKungFuRobber]

Hello my dear friends, and a very happy new year to you. As know I am a huge fan of the Bruceploitation subgenre, so here is my verdict on the 1975 Shaw Brothers classic "The New Game of Death" 

When we think of 'bad ' kung fu movies, we all tend to have different ideas. Some think of those terrible Asso Asia films which were mostly rejected Korean movies bought and released as new movies for the Western market, often given terrible dub tracks and with some very common faces, including Dragon Lee  and Hwang Jang Lee, or perhaps you may be old enough to remember the period Bruce Lee passed and Bruce Lee imitations quickly became common place in the martial arts film market in the West, with low budget drive in theatres screening films such as "The Clones of Bruce Lee" and "Bruce Lee's Secret", or even higher budget attempts to cash in on Bruce Lee's passing such as Lo Wei's "New Fist of Fury", which starred a young Jackie Chan in one of his more forgettable roles, and for good reason too. These films are notoriously hated by fans, and seen as milking Bruce Lee's legacy. However, this review is for a movie which not only belongs to the Bruceploitation category, but is also a surprisingly entertaining film with some top notch cinematography and a cracking soundtrack. Enter Ho Chung Tao (better known as Bruce Li), a then 25 year old Taiwanese martial artist who had been a soldier in the Taiwanese military and trained in gymnastics for years. He had little experience in filmmaking, and landed himself in the lead role for The New Game of Death (AKA Goodbye Bruce Lee: His Last Game of Death), his first major starring role. This film was directed by Lin Ping, who also wrote and played an extra in the film. Lin had little experience in film directing before this, as can be seen in the film's rather unusual but still perfectly coherent narrative. The film has pretty high production values too, being produced independently in Taiwan and financed by Shaw Brothers studio. The film stars Ho Chung Tao as a young man who unwittingly gets wrapped up in a money scam. When he refuses to give the cash back, the bad guys kidnap his girlfriend and hold her hostage in the Tower Of Death. Once there, he is given two options. Watch his girlfriend get thrown off the top or fight various martial artists on 7 different levels to win his girlfriend back. The plot is inspired by Bruce Lee's unfinished Game of Death movie, and being produced in 1975 many believed that Game of Death was never going to be completed. After all, it wasn't until 1976 that the rights of the completed footage had been secured by Raymond Chow's Golden Harvest company, and this movie was also the reason why the 1978 version of Game of Death bears virtually no resemblance to the story Lee had come up with for the film, but that's a story for another day. The martial artists Ho is pitted up against are a mix of American and Chinese martial artists, who had mostly gone into obscurity after this film which is a damn shame because this film showcases their skills superbly, all choreographed by Ho Chung Tao himself. In a sword duel with a Japanese challenger on the fourth floor of the tower, which has some great sword skills on display as well as some physical comedy involving the swordsman going insane and Ho leaving, which is refreshing for a Shaw production, not to mention the brilliant Nunchaku battle with the Indian challenger. The final boss is played by none other than the legendary Lung Fei, who many will remember as 'Betty' from Steve Oedekerk's Kung Pow: Enter the Fist, a film which uses footage from Wang Yu's Savage Killers. As expected, Ho's great acrobatic skills combined with the feirce bone breaking blows from Lung Fei are very satisfying, as the end duel juxtaposes the Ho trying to save his girlfriend as thugs attempt to throw her over the Tower while trying to fight to save his own life in a suspenseful duel containing some great hand on hand combat. The film's soundtrack has an awesome funk track which greatly matches the upbeat 70's tone of the film. This film is the ultimate homage to the Game of Death phenomenon and arguably Ho Chung Tao's best work, a diamond in the rough. It's just a great shame that this awesome film was obscured in the shadow of the dreaded Bruceploitation subgenre, as Ho has some real talents to showcase. Another film worth checking out after this one is The Chinese Connection II with Ho Chung Tao, another personal favourite of mine with some surprisingly good acting and hard hitting fight scenes.

[One Armed Boxer]

15 hours ago, TheKungFuRobber said:

Hello my dear friends, and a very happy new year to you. As know I am a huge fan of the Bruceploitation subgenre, so here is my verdict on the 1975 Shaw Brothers classic "The New Game of Death" 

Just an FYI, I re-located the thread here from the January & February Mutual Review thread.  Great review!

15 hours ago, TheKungFuRobber said:

Some think of those terrible Asso Asia films which were mostly rejected Korean movies bought and released as new movies for the Western market

Not sure what you mean by 'rejected Korean movies'.  The Korean movies Asso Asia distributed internationally weren't rejected, they were original Korean productions shown in Korea, however were cut up and re-edited by Godfrey Ho and co. for international distribution, often with a different storyline and always dubbed into English.

15 hours ago, TheKungFuRobber said:

This film is the ultimate homage to the Game of Death phenomenon and arguably Ho Chung Tao's best work, a diamond in the rough.

This statement makes me curious to check this one out, as I've always overlooked it in the past.  My favourite Ho Chung Tao movie has always been 'The Gold Connection' (sometimes known as 'The Iron Dragon Strikes Back'), closely followed by 'The Chinese Stuntman', so if the action in 'The New Game of Death' tops both of them, then count me in.

[TibetanWhiteCrane]

I had to watch New Game of Death in three sittings as I just couldn't get through it all at once.... and I like Enter the Game of Death, so I'm not adverse to GOD rip-off flicks.

Edited January 4, 2018 by TibetanWhiteCrane

[DrNgor]

18 hours ago, TheKungFuRobber said:

so here is my verdict on the 1975 Shaw Brothers classic "The New Game of Death" 

According to the HKMDB, this is a Taiwanese flick. Is it Shaw or Taiwan, or both?

[One Armed Boxer]

1 hour ago, TibetanWhiteCrane said:

I had to watch New Game of Death in three sittings as I just couldn't get through it all at once.... and I like Enter the Game of Death, so I'm not adverse to GOD rip-off flicks.

Well, that's a polarizing opinion.

12 minutes ago, DrNgor said:

According to the HKMDB, this is a Taiwanese flick. Is it Shaw or Taiwan, or both?

Answered in @TheKungFuRobber's review dude - 

19 hours ago, TheKungFuRobber said:

The film has pretty high production values too, being produced independently in Taiwan and financed by Shaw Brothers studio.

 

[DragonClaws]

45 minutes ago, One Armed Boxer said:

Well, that's a polarizing opinion.

While it's good to hear @TheKungFuRobber enjoyed the movie a lot, I wouldnt recommend it personally. Unless you are a Ho Chung Tao completist, the best part of the film is Candys King Of Kung Fu song.

Great review by the way  @TheKungFuRobber.

[TheKungFuRobber]

8 hours ago, One Armed Boxer said:

Just an FYI, I re-located the thread here from the January & February Mutual Review thread.  Great review!

Not sure what you mean by 'rejected Korean movies'.  The Korean movies Asso Asia distributed internationally weren't rejected, they were original Korean productions shown in Korea, however were cut up and re-edited by Godfrey Ho and co. for international distribution, often with a different storyline and always dubbed into English.

This statement makes me curious to check this one out, as I've always overlooked it in the past.  My favourite Ho Chung Tao movie has always been 'The Gold Connection' (sometimes known as 'The Iron Dragon Strikes Back'), closely followed by 'The Chinese Stuntman', so if the action in 'The New Game of Death' tops both of them, then count me in.

I'd actually like to check out The Gold Connection. I've already seen The Chinese Stuntman and really enjoyed it, but I haven't seen The Gold Connection. Where can I locate a good version on Home Media? 

Also, I am aware that many of the Asso Asia movies were original Korean productions, some of which are actually very good movies if you can hunt down their native language counterparts. I really enjoyed 'Hard Bastard' with Hwang Jang Lee. Asso Asia made a huge hackjob of that movie for sure. Unfortunately though many of the original versions of these movies are lost, which is a shame because there are some decent kung fu movies among them. 

Edited January 5, 2018 by TheKungFuRobber

[DragonClaws]

 

Got my old school Kung Fu fix this week, in the form of Dynamo. Please click on the link below, for old school inspired ramble.

Edited January 22, 2018 by DragonClaws

[Killer Meteor]

On 28/09/2017 at 12:32 PM, DrNgor said:

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

 

I've noticed Lee Tso-Nam is credited as director on several websites, but he isn't credited at least on the English prints, just Jimmy Shaw.