Bruce and Dragon Fist (1977)

Bruce and Dragon Fist (1977)
Korean Title: 맹룡노호
Translation: Blind Dragon
Chinese Title: 鷹爪小子
Translation: Eagle Claw Kid

 

Starring: Bruce Le, Chiang Tao, Lee Hang, Choe Mu-Ung, Park Dong-Yong, Sim Sang-Hyeon, An Gil-won, Kim Min-Jeong
Director: Shim Wu-Seob, Zackey Chan Ngai-Wai
Action Director: Tong Kam-Tong

 

After establishing himself as a Brucesploitation actor the previous year, Huang Kin-Lung soon found himself working in Korea for a number of Hong Kong/South Korea co-productions. The most well known of those were the Bruce and Shaolin Kung Fu films. Bruce and Dragon Fist, released at the tail-end of 1977, is an unremarkable South Korea potboiler, serving as an example of the strengths of working in Korea (local ancient architecture, entire casts of tae kwon do stylists) and the weaknesses (low budgets, bizarre humor, threadbare sets, and an overall feeling of murkiness).

In yet another film that pits the Chinese against the Japanese, our hero is a Korean tae kwon do expert, Min-Gyu, 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, including Sensei Sujuki (Sim Sang-Hyeon, of Viper and The Fierce One). Min-Gyu faces off with the Japanese at a martial arts tournament, and whoops their top fighters quite soundly. I should point out that during this sequence, all of the tae kwon do students are wearing white gi with blue trim, like Kim Kaphwan from SNK’s Fatal Fury game series.

The Japanese won’t take this insult sitting down, as it means a loss of interest in their dojo. They decide to get revenge by kidnapping his wife (Kim Min-Jeong, of Champ vs. Champ and Dynamite Shaolin Heroes), who's just arrived from Korea. While Min-Gyu is busy drinking away his sorrows, an undercover cop, Sgt. Chen (Bruce Le), arrives disguised as a beggar. Chen finds out who the kidnappers are and helps our hero find those who hired them, while trying to catch a notorious killer who is also involved. Said assassin is played by Executioners of Shaolin’s 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. Seriously, this character, the Devil of Shaolin, spends more time in the sack with his lover than he does fighting.

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. While fight choreographer Tong Kam-Tong had a prolific career as a stuntman, he only headline a handful of films as an action director, three of which were in the Brucesploitation genre. 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. Both the “karate” and the tae kwon do students perform their kicks with speed, height and quickness. Too bad the decent choreography is marred by the pan-and-scan in the version I watched. And for the record, there is no real “dragon fist” kung fu in this film, although Bruce Le does some hung gar as per his original training.

Bruce Le mainly goofs off in his earlier fights, fighting “by accident” with his knapsack. Only in the last 15 minutes does he really step forward. The big climax is a dojo fight, which is when he really turns up the volume on the Bruce Lee imitation. Even then, his co-star’s tae kwon do skills outshine his Bruce-ing around. While both Bruce Le and his colleague get a solid showcase for their skills, the finale is marred by the excessive use of undercranking, rendering much of the fight pretty silly.  There is a fair amount of suspense at the finale, as the directors are able to convince us the viewer that Min-Gyu’s wife really is in danger: she spents the better part of fifteen minutes being sexually assaulted by a mute hunchback to the theme of Jaws.

Only the staunchest of Bruce Le fans are likely to enjoy this on any level, and that's a niche-within-a-niche that must be shrinking by the day. While some viewers will appreciate some of the fighting, the low production values, rampant misogyny, hammy acting from Bruce Le and generally murky photography will probably turn most viewers off.