Bruce's Deadly Fingers (1976)

Bruce’s Deadly Fingers (1976)
aka Bruce’s Fingers
Chinese Title: 龍門秘指
Translation: Dragon Gate Secret Finger

 

Starring: Bruce Le, Michael Chan Wai-Man, Lo Lieh, Nora Miao Ke-Hsiu, Nick Cheung Lik, Yuan Man-Tzu, Chiang Tao, Tong Tin-Hei, Fung Ging-Man, Chiu Chi-Ling
Director: Joseph Velasco
Action Director: Cheng Kei-Ying, Wong Mei

 

Bruce Le’s first starring role in a Brucesploitation flick (I don’t count Big Boss 2, since it was a limited role from what I can tell) is a watchable, but mediocre affair limited by the lack of talent behind the camera. Basically, Lo Lieh plays a criminal gangster who’s looking for a martial arts manual written by Bruce Lee himself detailing the techniques of a special finger-based style (the dubbing has the characters referring to the manual as the “kung fu finger book” every. Single. Time.). He thinks it’s in the hands of Bruce Lee’s top student, Bruce Wong (played by Bruce Le), so he sends his men to kidnap the Family servant (the old guy from Enter the Dragon) and rough up his friends. Bruce Wong shows up in Hong Kong from the States and starts looking for it as well. Their paths do cross, although initially not because of the book, but because his sister’s deadbeat boyfriend was trying to sell her into prostitution to pay off his own gambling debts (the scuzz bucket goes as far as to promise her that after two months of whoring, she can stop and they can get married). Bruce Wong eventually teams up with two of his own students (including Cheung Lik) and an Interpol agent (Michael Chan Wai-Man) to take down Lo Lieh.

I find it interesting that when Bruce Le’s character does come into the possession of the book, the style depicted in it looks suspiciously like hung gar (Huang Kin-Lung studied hung gar, Bruce Lee did not). And yet, when Bruce Wong shows it off to his uncle, a wing chun master, the finger style looks like wing chun. My head is spinning. Bruce Le’s fighting style looks like the Little Dragon’s mannerisms with some hung gar thrown in for good measure. The problem is that Bruce Lee had the intensity and natural charisma to make jeet kune do’s more basic moves looks interesting. Huang Kin Lung/Bruce Le lacks the acting skill and innate charisma to overcome the sense of “sameness” that permeates his fights. Compare with Michael Chan’s fights (he mixes a basher style with some ying jao pai, or Northern Eagle Claw), which are a lot more assured and intense, and ultimately more interesting. It also doesn’t help that Bruce Wong is a jerk-off at times, like the time he hires a prostitute, asks her to keep her clothes on (it’s a ploy to get her pimp’s attention), but constantly talks harshly to her. Bruce Le resembles the real thing inasmuch as he keeps his Big Honkin’ Sunglasses on, but not to so much with them off. And the guy’s pink and yellow tank-tops are an eyesore. 

The movie picks up during the last 20 minutes, when he, Michael Chan and Cheung Lik storm Lo Lieh’s compound. Each man gets his chance to shine, fighting numerous knife-wielding henchmen, perennial movie heavies Bolo Yeung and Chiang Tao, and ultimately Lo Lieh. The final showdown between Bruce Le and Lo Lieh is a letdown, though. And the version I saw cuts off before the death blow is delivered. Boo sir. I say boo.

The movie also features some female exploitation that add nothing to the story, like when we see an unwilling prostitute (wearing absolutely nothing) be tortured both psychologically and physically by the guys dangling a little snake above her (I think they go so far as to rub it against her lady fields). There’s another rape scene with Lo Lieh’s men and some seemingly random women, set in a field where the bad guys have made a ring of fire with gasoline for reasons I don’t quite understand yet. Rape and torture as the means for titillation is not a good idea, which I’m sure was on the filmmakers’ minds when they made this.

So, if Bruce Lee was the Dragon and Bruce Li was the Tiger, what was Bruce Le? The leopard? The bobcat? The monitor lizard? If it were the former, then we could say that while Bruce Lee’s meme was “Enter the Dragon”; and Bruce Li’s meme was “Exit the Dragon, Enter the Tiger”; that Bruce Le’s meme would be “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?”