Bruce Takes Dragon Town (1974)

Bruce Takes Dragon Town (1974)
aka Dare You Touch Me
Chinese Title: 誰敢動我
Translation: Who Dares to Touch Me?

 

Starring: Yuen Si-Wo, Li Chiang, Tsao Chien, Li Yi-Min, Lung Fei, Sun Yueh, Ko Fei, Pan Chang-Ming, Chang Yi-Kuai, Lu Bi-Yun
Director: Liu Hung-Sheng
Action Director: Pan Chang-Ming

 

I've seen this cited in some places as being the first Brucesploitation film, although that fact is certainly debatable. The film came out in 1974, the same year as Bruce Lee  - A Dragon Story, so it would certainly be in the running for that title. However, the original title presumes that it was meant to be your standard basher, and that the Bruce-y title was the decision of foreign distributors. Moreover, the last scenes of the film are set to Pino Dimaggio's "The Coronation" from Carrie, so I'm guessing that it was released as Brucesploitation in the States only as early as 1976, when the Brucesploitation sub-genre was already at its peak. That said, lead actor Yuen Si-Wo (Little Hero and Ape Girl) does do some Bruce Lee-inspired foot shuffling and western boxing in his final fight with Lung Fei, so the influence is definitely there, title notwithstanding.

This film takes the long road to being a Yojimbo clone. There are two rival crime bosses: Boss Chin (Tsao Chien, who appeared in over 230 movies over the course of 30 years) and Boss Wen (Sun Yueh, who plays the baker with the hots for Nina Li in The Pedicab Driver). Boss Wen's men have successfully stolen Boss Chin's merchandise, putting him at a competitive disadvantage. Realizing that he needs some real muscle on his team, Boss Chin decides to "hire" Daredevil Alan (Yuen Si-Wo) to his side, taking his sick mother as a "guest" on his premises to "sweeten" the deal. (note: Boss Chin is kind enough to see to her medical needs and pay Alan a good salary, but we know that if Alan tries to make a break for it, bye bye mother) At first Alan is successful in beating up Wen's goons and forcing him to show his hand. Then Wen finds out about the mother and sends his goons to sequester her, except that they kill her accidentally. When Alan finds out, he's going to get his revenge against both parties.

As a basher film, the fights aren't too bad. Fight choreographer Pan Chang-Ming didn't have a particularly illustrious career, but he did get to work with the Queen of Kung Fu, Angela Mao, on a couple of her Taiwanese films, namely Proud Horse in Flying Sand and Duel with the Devils. The choreography is better than anything you'd see in a basher starring Jimmy Wang Yu or Pai Ying, so take that as you will. Yuen Si-Wo does some decent kicks for this sort of film, tries some Western boxing at the end, but tries to do a sort-of stiff, economy-of-movement style of handwork (one reviewer called it a “rigormortis style of fighting”). The most talented member of the cast is easily Lung Fei, who plays Boss Wen's number one bodguard, who squares off with Alan at the climax. Most of the movie is fighting, and many of the fights go on quite long, both in real time and movie time. During climatic ambush, the two gangs start fighting about 4 am, when it's still dark, are still fighting at sunrise, and then are still fighting when the sun is high in the sky before it finally ends. Don't these people ever get tired...or have a threshold for getting hit with loud slapping sounds?