Bruce Lee vs. Gay Power (1975)
Aka Kung Fu Contra as Bonecas
Starring: Adriano Stuart,
Helena Ramos, Maurício do Valle, Luely Figueiró, Nadir Fernandes, Célia Froes,
Edgard Franco, Fábio Rocha, Walter Stuart, Lucimar Vilar
Director: Adriano Stuart
Action Director: Cladson de Oliveira
Silva
To understand Bruce Lee vs. Gay Power, its creation and the plot, one must know a
little bit about Brazilian history. What many people outside of South America
don’t know is that Brazil is certainly NOT one big rainforest. While most of
its territory is indeed located within the tropics, it’s home to a lot of
different climates and biomes, from different types of tropical rainforest to
the cerrado (sort of a tropical savannah) to even some semi-arid regions in the
Northeast. The latter region is where I served my mission. From 2001 to 2003 I
was a missionary in the state of Paraíba, located on the Eastern tip of all the
Americas. From the coast to about 100 km inland, the climate is something along
the lines of humid subtropical. However, once you cross the Borborema
mountains, you’ll soon find yourself in a near desert-like region known as
“Sertão.”
During most of Brazil’s history, the major
political power focused itself in the Southeast as the result of a local
economy based on gold, precious stones, and coffee. It was only after the
collapse of the coffee industy that the government finally decided to start
industrializing—much to the chagrins of the coffee barons in the southeast who
held much of the political power. When the government began a rapid process of
industrialization, much of the focus was on the Southeast. Why? Because the big
urban centers in the Southeast was where the money was. The Northeast, to a
certain extent, was essentially left to its own devices as the government often
endorsed policies that strengthened the economy and industry in southeastern states
like São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and Minas Gerais. The seat of power in the
Northeast continued to lie with the plantation owners and big agricultural
producers.
There was a certain political system in
practice in the Northeast known as coronelismo. Basically, the important
government positions were held by plantation owners and their friends and
family. These owners designated themselves as “colonels” and would often buy
loyalty from the lower class people in their jurisdictions (i.e. “if you vote
for me, I’ll buy new pairs of shoes for everyone in your household”), or simply
just gain their votes via threats and intimidation. As I understand it, this
system still exists today outside of urban centers in much of the NE, albeit in
a slightly modified form.
The cangaceiros arose during this time, who
have since become romanticized as brave, heroic vigilantes who fought against
the corrupt and greedy colonels. Basically bands of robbers and murderers, the
cangaceiros often focused their raids on the rich plantations and farms,
kidnapping the colonels and raping their women, frequently at the behest of
another colonel. Some groups, however, were nothing more than common thugs who
waylaid anybody unlucky enough to be travelling on their roads, be they associated
with colonels or not. One might compare the cangaceiros to the Japanese ninja,
as they were a despised social class who used their knowledge of the caatinga
(which refers to the vegetation of the arid regions of NE Brazil) to their
advantage and were often hired to do the colonels’ dirty work, such as debt
collection and raids on rival colonels. These days, people tend to look at them
the way people look at Robin Hood, rather than cold-blooded thieves, killers,
and rapists.
While movies about the cangaceiros have been
made since as far back as the 1930s, the genre really hit its stride in 1953
with the success of the film O Cangaceiro. It set the stage for
dozens of movies to be made about the subject and the genre continued strong
until the end of the 1960s. Some of the better entries in the genre apparently
include A Morte Manda no Cangaço and Corisca, O Diabo
Loiro. Even exploitation auteur Osvaldo de Oliveira, who made films so
smutty that they’d give Jess Franco pause (and who worked on Kung Fu Contra as
Bonecas as the director of photography), made a cangaceiro film called O
Cangaceiro Sanguinário. Supposedly it focuses on the violence and sex more
than the story, but I guess that was to be expected.
It was also at the end of the 60s—1968 to be exact—that
the Brazilian government, then a right-wing military dictatorship, passed a law
obligating Brazilian theaters to show a quota of domestic films. This led to an
explosion in Brazilian cinema, now that audiences were given a steady diet of
local fare to feast their eyes and ears on. Low-budget filmmakers found funding
through local small businesses, especially those located in downtown São Paulo
in a region known as the “Boca de Lixo” (trans. “Trash Mouth”). The Boca de
Lixo had traditionally been the spot where Hollywood studios had set up their
Brazilian offices back during the 1930s and 1940s. With as many theaters in the
region as there were, Brazilian B-movies found a home and a built-in audience
for their movies, now that foreign competition had been drastically reduced
(places that didn’t show Brazilian films were shut down by the government).
The “Boca de Lixo”—referring to both the
region where the films were shown and the filmmakers working out of the
region—was best known for a local genre known as pornochanchada, which
basically amounted to erotic comedies that featured copious female nudity, but
little actual sex. However, filmmakers in the Boca de Lixo also produced films
in the horror, cangaceiro, martial arts, and adventure genres. It was during
the 1980s that the censorship imposed on the filmmakers by the dictatorship
began to loosen, which meant that the adult films went from pornochanchada to
more softcore fare, while changing audience tastes led to a decline in the
popularity of cheap B-movies. The advent of hardcore porn following the end of
the military dictatorship meant the end of the Boca de Lixo as a haven for cult
movies. Ironically, the nail in the coffin for the Boca de Lixo was the
Japanese arthouse/hardcore porn film In the Realm of the Senses.
After that movie was literally forced on the theaters for “cultural” reasons,
the fate of the Boca de Lixo was sealed as a region devoted only to
pornographic films.
Bruce Lee vs. Gay Power was produced in 1975 at the height of the popularity of the Boca
de Lixo. It aims to satirize both kung fu films, which were growing in
popularity at the time, and the cangaceiro genre, which had seen its peak
during the previous decade. As far as I’m concerned, the film is an abject
failure at doing both, mainly because of Adriano Stuart’s listless direction
and incompetent editing. I mean, for a film in which relatively little actually
happens, 97 minutes is a rather long running time. To be perfectly honest, the
film has no business being longer than 80 minutes. But we’ll get to the
problems with pacing in a little bit.
The movie starts off with our hero, Chang
(played the director, Adriano Stuart) wandering around the desert in the
hinterlands of Pernambuco. The film never states outright—at least not that I
caught—that the setting is Pernambuco, but Chang states later on that he’s half
Chinese and half Pernambucano (with Australian and Korean grandparents…Har!),
so I assume that the film is set there. Chang is dressed sort of like Caine
from the old Kung Fu series, albeit with a certain twist: under his brown
jacket is a pink midriff with the words “Kung Fu” emblazoned on it. This is the
first of many attempts to ambiguously portray our hero’s sexuality. Anyway,
Stuart must’ve really enjoyed the desert, since it takes him a good 25 friggin’
minutes before he reaches civilization and starts participating in the what
little plot there is.
Meanwhile, in some Podunk town out in the
sticks, a Chinese guy and his Brazilian wife go to the local general story to
pick up some items. In this komic segment, the Chinese guy makes his order in
Chinese, and then the Brazilian man at the counter plays some device that looks
like an old tape deck, which translates the order to Portuguese. I find it
interesting how many language jokes like to base themselves on the premise that
every language EXCEPT the language in which the joke is being told is 100X more
efficient, and thus a person can speak a couple of words and it’ll translate
into a whole paragraph in the listener’s language. Said interracial couple is
being spied on by the right-hand man of the local cangaceiro captain (who’ll be
played by Maurício do Valle of As Meninas Querem…As Coroas Podem and Black
God, White Devil).
Yes Man goes back to the camp and informs his
boss, who’s in the middle of being straddled by one of the girls at the camp,
of the big purchase being made. The captain, whom we’ll call “Capitão” orders
his men to attack the Chinese man’s van. They surround it and order the couple
to get out of dodge. Suddenly, one of the cangaceiros blows the man away with
his rifle. The wife then takes a bullet herself. Their daughter, who was inside
the family shack when that happened, steps out and starts grieving over her
murdered parents. Capitão thinks said daughter is pretty and makes it his duty
to rape her and, as we’ll find out later, kill her. Unfortunately for our
villains, that happens to be the family of Chang, who’s still lollygagging
about the desert. Later in the film there’s a bit of “humor” worthy of a Hong
Kong film in which the heroine informs Chang that the Capitão had his way his
sister, doing everything he wanted to her, and even things he didn’t want to
do. Whatever that means.
The next victims of the cangaceiros are an
old man and his daughter, Maria (Helena Ramos, one of the Boca de Lixo’s
biggest starlets, who showed up in films like Roberta, a Geixa de
Sexo and A Mulher Objeto), who are working at a stable or
something. Much like Chang’s family, the cangaceiros shoot the man and try to
rape Maria. Unfortunately for them, Maria is a martial artist and a fight scene
breaks out. Although outnumbered, Maria is able to hold her own for a while
until the thugs finally overpower her. It’s then that Chang finally
arrives—after a random scene in which kids throw garbage at him and call him
the Portuguese equivalent to “queer”—and dishes out the kung fu justice to the
cangaceiros.
Chang helps Maria bury her father and she
decides to stick by his side, his withdrawn demeanor notwithstanding. However,
despite having lost her father a few hours (or so) before, Maria suddenly feels
her juices flowing and starts coming on to Chang. Chang just sort of ignores
her, although when he gets to leave and look for his family, Maria hops on his
back and he gives her piggyback ride across town (I’m just telling you how it
is, I didn’t write this stuff). That evening, Chang learns the truth of his
family’s fate, which naturally makes him swear revenge against those
responsible…but not before he gets some “Thank you” fellatio from Maria (which
is implied, not shown).
The next day Chang and Maria head into town,
where Chang gets into an argument with the adopted son (whom I think is Edgard
Franco, another veteran of sleazy films like Escola Penal de Meninas
Violentadas and As Meninas de Madame Laura) of the Colonel
that the cangaceiros are in cahoots with. This is also the scene that
introduces another character in the form of the Colonel’s daughter, Rosa (whom
I sure is Nadir Fernandes of O Sexualista and Adultério,
Regras do Jogo), who’ll participate in a subplot to this movie that I’m
still not completely sure what it has to do with anything. Chang is arrested
and thrown into jail, leaving Maria to come up with a way to bail him out.
Said opportunity arises, yet in a rather
strange way. You see, in town there’s a bar/brothel called “Julina’s,” owned by
a woman named Julina (played by Garimpeira do Sexo’s Célia
Froes, although it might be Inferno Carnal’s Luely Figueiró).
Capitão and his gang invade the brothel. While the latter get drunk and have
random naked musical numbers with the girls (including Lucimar Vilar, who
showed up in Adriano Stuart’s Jaws parody, Bacalhau), Capitão goes
up to visit Julina, who’s in bed with whom I think is the equivalent to a
sheriff’s deputy. Capitão kicks the guy out of the room and sleeps with Julina.
The hapless deputy guy goes back to the jail, where the constable puts him in
charge of watching over Chang’s cell. Maria shows up and starts seducing the
guy, which puts him in the right position for Chang (through the bars) and
Maria to beat the snot out of him. Chang gets out of his cell and the two head
down to Julina’s for an extended brawl with the cangaceiros, during which it
becomes clear that Maria is doing far more of the kung fu heavy lifting than
Chang is. Must be a komedy thing.
During this time there’s a random aside in
which the Colonel’s adopted son tries to seduce Rosa. The Colonel is against
it, which guarantees that he’ll get a machete in the gut before the scene is
over. At that point, Rosa goes over to Julina’s to become a quenga (i.e.
a prostitute), since her father had made the declaration “I’d rather my
daughter work at Julina’s than to be your wife.” I guess you gotta honor your
father’s wishes, right? While the gay transvestite waiter is showing the girl
around, they happen upon the room where Chang and Maria are interrupting their
coitus so Chang can practice his mini saxophone (not a euphemism). Apparently
both Chang and Rosa are attracted to each other, although this subplot is a bit
harder to explain. When Chang and Maria leave the brothel—I guess I should
point out that Julina is Maria’s mother—they run into the adopted son guy.
Chang kills him with a hatchet and that’s that.
At this point, a bunch of local Colonels and
constables, plus the town mayor—who’s a cowardly black guy in a top hat—decide
to lead a final raid on the cangaceiros. There’s a big Old West-style standoff
between the two parties, with the cangaceiros getting the upper hand until
Chang and Maria show up. The fight becomes a kung fu free-for-all and the
cangaceiros, though armed, are ultimately beaten in personal combat. Maria goes
after Capitão, only to take a bullet in the chest when she reaches his camp.
Chang shows up a few minutes later and fights with Capitão a little before
stabbing him to death.
We now reach the last 10 minutes, which are
interminable as the first 25. End movie, end!!!! Chang takes Maria back to her
mother, who laments her daughter’s death. Chang says his last goodbye to Maria
via a passionate kiss on the mouth, that Maria surprisingly participates in,
despite being dead (“She’s only dead from the neck down,” says Chang). The
insensitive bastard then tries to consummate his love with Rosa, only to find
her in bed with a John (“I got tired of waiting,” she declares). Chang heads
back for the desert, only to find the gay transvestite waiter waiting for him.
The two leave the town, hand in hand. The end.
I guess the first think I should address is
the level of sleaze in this movie. There isn’t a whole lot of trashiness on
display, to be perfectly honest. I mean, considering the filmographies of the
actors involved—most of the actors had their entire careers based around
smut—this film is relatively tame. Despite the title, there is no gay sex on
display; I’m pretty sure the dictatorship never would have allowed it. There
are two instances in which a guy rubs another man’s behind, but it never gets
more explicit than that. There three brief instances of female nudity. Lead
actress Helena Ramos gives the audience a glimpse of her boobs in two scenes
and Lucimar Vilar shows her stuff during the random song number. The sex tends
to be brief and PG-13 level at the most, with the oral sex and rape being
implied, not shown.
And that brings up the actual title of the
film—in both English and Portuguese. The Portuguese title of the film
translates into “Kung Fu vs. the Gays.” The fact of the matter is that the
cangaceiros are decidedly not gay. There are some hints that Capitão’s personal
Yes Man may be the Smithers to his Mr. Burns, but it’s never stated explicitly.
While the cangaceiros do wear pink and purple, their taste is most definitely
in women, even if it’s through rape. The same goes for Capitão. He occasionally
acts a little fey, complete with a girly excited laugh, but he has sex with no
less than three women (one through coercion) and is always surrounded by them
while at the camp. There’s one scene with him and the Smithers in a tent that
may be considered ambiguous, but otherwise they’re all heterosexual.
Where the real ambiguity comes in is in
Chang’s character. His character starts out very ambiguous with regards to his
sexual preferences and by the end, it’s pretty clear that he’s a bisexual, if
not actually gay. Despite his pink shirt, he initially harasses the gay waiter
when he arrives at Julina’s and seems to enjoy having Helena Ramos go down on
him. Then there’s that whole bit with the blonde girl played by Nadir
Fernandes. But if you pay attention, he’s rather unresponsive to Helena’s
attempts to kiss him, both during their first tryst and again at the brothel.
Further ambiguity is thrown in when he takes it upon himself to spank the gay
waiter and his spanking slowly grows into a caressing. When you look at the
end, that is, Chang getting together with the waiter, one may see his final
kiss on Helena Ramos’s mouth as a farewell not only to her character, but to
his heterosexuality as well. The bit in the blonde girl’s room was just the
final nail on the coffin.
I personally found the most fascinating
character to be Maria. She’s a loyal, take-charge type of woman who doesn’t
think twice about getting her hands dirty while hitting the cangaceiros with
the whole loaf of kung fu. In many ways, her character is more proactive than
Chang, in more ways than one. It’s Maria that initiates all the sex between her
and her partner, which sort of puts her in the Hollywood category of female
heroines where sex is a major part of the character’s appeal. And yet, it’s
Maria who hatches the plan to spring Chang from jail, who’s the first to go
after the Capitão at the end, and who doesn’t take a break from the fighting
during the brothel brawl. All those contribute to her becoming the most likable
character in the movie and it makes it a shame that she doesn’t see a happier
ending.
Unfortunately, not even Maria can make the
movie easier to sit through. Too many scenes drone on and on, just sucking what
little life there is out of the film. And then there’s the humor. Most of the
comedy is silly and unfunny, save a few lines here and there. Casting a black
man to be the mayor seems progressive, but feels racist when you see him being
portrayed as a gutless coward comic relief. I suppose audiences may have felt
that Chang’s speaking in the third person was funny back in 1975, but it isn’t
today. There are some soccer references that only Brazilians (or people who
have lived here for a while) will understand, such as the law enforcement
arriving at a shootout waving the Corinthians flag (NOTE: the Corinthians is a
popular soccer team in São Paulo). I think it’s a failed attempt at a joke,
especially since most people today see the Corinthians fan base as little more
than a bunch of lower-class thugs and hoodlums. It would’ve made more sense to
make the cangaceiros Corinthians fans instead. There’s quite a bit of mileage
out of the getting-hit-in-the-balls gag, which is to be expected in a movie
like this.
While we’re on the subject of hitting,
there’s the fighting, which is choreographed by Cladson de Oliveira Silva. I’m
guessing Cladson was the head of the local capoeira school and was hired on the
basis of being the only person in the area who knew martial arts. In 1975,
there were three schools of choreography in Hong Kong films. There was form-based
traditional kung fu, which was championed in Shaw Brothers films like Shaolin Avengers and the like. There was the blossoming Brucesploitation genre
starring the likes of Bruce Li and Bruce Lai. Finally there was the basher
style of choreography, which was choreographed punching and kicking, but tended
to downplay authentic techniques. Sammo Hung and Angela Mao were the best at
that, while Jimmy “the” Wang Yu and his wildly flailing arms stood at the other
end. Cladson’s choreography is a rung or two below Jimmy Wang Yu’s fighting.
It’s clumsy and sloppy, with punches being your typical Mississippi haymakers
instead of more precise strikes. Kicking, which is abundant, rarely goes above
waist level. Some of the stunt men are capoeira stylists—the end credits
mention a capoeira school as being part of the action direction. It’s clear
that Helena Ramos isn’t a martial artist, but she really puts a lot of gusto
into her fight scenes and it’s obvious she’s having fun doing so. Adriano
Stuart is a lot more athletic, and is able to perform a few jump kicks and leg
locks, although he’s no Legendary Superkicker Hwang Jang Lee…or even Andy Lau
for that matter. I’m pretty sure I could a find a few early 1970s bashers that
have worse fighting than this film. I suppose it’s better than the obscure
American film Karate: Hand of Death, for whatever that’s worth.
Compared to films today, well, at least you can see the action. Oh, and I
suppose we should give this movie credit for being a kung fu parody (sort of)
three years before Jackie Chan made Half a Loaf of Kung Fu, Snake in the Eagle’s Shadow, and The Drunken Master.
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