Spirits of Bruce Lee (1973)

Spirits of Bruce Lee (1973)
Aka: Angry Tiger
Chinese Title: 猛蛟閗地蛇龍女
Translation: Fierce Snake and Dragon Girl

 

Starring: Michael Chan Wai-Man, Sun Chia-Lin, Ku Wen-Chung, Chan Fei-Lung, Phairoj Jaising
Director: Heung Ling
Action Director: Tony Ching Siu-Tung (credited as Ching Tung-Yee)

 

I suppose you can divide Brucesploitation films into at least two sub-groups. One group would be the films starring the Bruce Lee imitators—Bruce Li, Bruce Le, Dragon Lee, etc.—that were almost guaranteed to revolve around the promise of seeing the actor imitate the real Bruce Lee in some way. The other group would be the movies that were otherwise normal kung fu films that got a Bruce-inspired name change by overseas distributors in order to make a few extra bucks. As a result, 1974 Taiwanese film Dare You Touch Me became Bruce Takes Dragon Town. The 1976 South Korean film Visitors in America became Bruce Lee Fights Back from the Grave. And this film, a Hong Kong film produced in Thailand, went from being Angry Tiger (or Arrogant Tiger in Thai) to being Spirits of Bruce Lee in the West.

Michael Chan Wai-Man (Broken Oath and The Deadly-Breaking Sword) plays Chan, a jewelry dealer from Hong Kong who travels to Bangkok looking for his brother, whom he hasn’t heard from in over a year. A muay thai-fighting local (Phairoj Jaising, of Killer in the Dark and Tears of the Black Tiger) helps Chan find his brother’s last address. The owner of the building, a fellow Chinese, tells him that his brother disappeared some time before. The next evening, the owner invites a Chinese restaurant owner, Mr. Wong (veteran actor Ku Wen-Chung, of The Golden Sword and Black Magic), over for drinks. Mr. Wong offers Chan a place to stay with him, his hot daughter (Sun Chia-Lin, Fist of Shaolin and Eagle’s Claw and Butterfly Palm), and his morbidly-obese son (Chang Fei-Lung of Fingers That Kill and Ten Tigers of Shaolin). Chan learns from the son and daughter that his brother is dead and swears to find those responsible.

If I could say anything about this film, I’d say that it’s slow. After a couple of fights in the first five minutes, the film slows down for scenes of people talking, drinking, talking some more, Michael Chan trying to emote, more talking, and more drinking. It takes almost thirty minutes for Chan to discover that his brother is dead, something that we the viewers learn in the first scene. Director Heung Ling had a limited career, directing two more films: Deadly Snail vs. Kung Fu Killers and Mantis Combat. The term “deadly snail” seems to define the man’s career, as this film takes forever to really get going. And even when it does, it never fires on all cylinders. I mean, this is a film where the main bad guy is killed at the beginning of the climax.

Speaking of climax, the action never satisfies, despite having all the potential to do so. The credited action director is Ching Tung Yee, which is actually the real name of Tony Ching Siu-Tung, one of the most creative action directors to grace the Jade Screen. Ching was at the beginning of his career at this point, having worked on only two or three movies before. As such, the fighting is typical early 70s “basher”, with Michael Chan using a mixture of Bruce Lee-inspired moves and some interesting, if low, kicks. In his favor, he hits with more power and snap than a lot of other kung fu actors outside of Bruce Lee. This is understandable, considering that he was a real-life boxing champion and a former Triad, and thus had experience in brawls and knife fights. Everybody else, mainly Thai extras, use Thai boxing, complete with knee strikes and clinching. Unfortunately, they come across as uncoordinated and weak in this particular film.

The film falters more than it already had during the final fight. Our four heroes—Michael Chan and the restaurant family—storm the villain’s mansion. Most of his men have the day off, apparently, so the fight starts with our heroes fighting the main bad guy. He’s more than a match for them, but Michael Chan eventually gets the drop on him and defeats him. Then the rest of his henchmen show up, and a big group brawl breaks out. While the Sun Chia-Lin and Chan Fei-Lung fight the lackeys, Michael Chan fights a Japanese karate fighter, because it was 1973, and of course there was Japanese opponent; and some Thai cowboy armed with a bullwhip. Neither of those two scuffles are particularly impressive, despite Chan’s aforementioned intensity. In the end, the bad guys are arrested, the good guys walk away in bittersweet victory, the film ends suddenly, and you the viewer lament the good name of Bruce Lee being pasted onto mediocre cinema like this.