The Dragon Lives (1976)
aka King of Kung Fu; He's a Legend, He's a Hero
Chinese Title: 詠春大兄
Translation: Wing Chun Brother
Director: Wang Hsing-Lei
Action Director: Huang Kuo-Chu
Strange biopic from Bruce Li--one of five he made between 1974 and 1976--that jumps around tonally. Bruce heads to San Francisco as a young man and then hitches a ride, hobo-style, to Long Beach for the infamous Long Beach International Karate Championships, which is portrayed like the tournament scene in Master of the Flying Guillotine. Bruce takes on the heavyweight boxing champion and wins, which earns him a place on "The Green Hornet." When Bruce has a dispute with the director of the latter's insistence that he wear a queue, Bruce heads back to Hong Kong and becomes a movie star. He has an affair with Betty Ting Pei (Chen Su-Chen) and starts training himself to death, especially when he gets invited to work on a (fictitious) film co-starring the aforementioned boxer.
Bruce Lee - A Dragon Story was more accurate, but had so little action that American distributors had to splice in fights from Superior Youngster and Little Superman. Young Bruce Lee really just did its own thing. This one pays lip service to events in Bruce Lee's life, and jumps back and forth in tone between happy-go-lucky, somber (whenever he's pondering the treatment of Asians in Hollywood), and even dark (whenever he's over-training himself). The recreations of fights from his movies are better than those in Dragon Story, especially the Fist of Fury dojo scene. Strangely enough, the movie ends with him having sex with Betty Ting Pei: Yep, a kung fu movie whose climax is also the lead actress's.
All that said, you're better off sticking with Bruce Lee's Secret and Bruce Lee - The Man, the Myth.
Bruce and Shaolin Kung Fu (1977)
Aka: Ching Wu & Shaolin Kung Fu; Fist and Fury Part 2; Bruce and Shao-Lin Kung Fu
Chinese Title: 達魔鐵指功
Translation: Demonic Iron Finger
Director: James Nam, Cho Seok
Action Director: Tang Tak-Cheung
I think some consider this one of the better Bruce Le films out there, alongside Enter the Game of Death and Clones of Bruce Lee. This is arguably one of the more competent films he made, sticking with the familiar Fist of Fury template. In some territories, the film is known as Fist of Fury Part 2 and is presumably set at a time after the events of the original in which the Ching Woo school has spread beyond Shanghai and is actually doing quite well for itself. Le plays Ching Ling, one of the top students of the Ching Woo School, who has been up in the mountains practicing kung fu with a Shaolin master (Chan Sing, in an extended came). Upon finishing up his training, Ching Ling and his friend, Kang Jin (Nick Cheung Lik), return to Shanghai, where things are heating up under the command of Japanese General Yae Ho (Bae Soo-cheon, in yet another scenery-chewing performance). Yae Ho and his advisors want to eliminate kung fu schools in China in order to put down any possible rebellion. The General has his son, a lieutenant in the Japanese army and a karate master, is tasked with defeating Chinese martial arts.
When Ching Ling comes back to Ching Woo, he finds the school in shambles. He challenges the Lieutenant to a duel and humiliates him, resulting in the latter committing hara-kiri. Now a persona non grata in Shanghai, Ching Ling departs for Korea, which is already a Japanese colony. He hooks up with Master Po Sai Lam (James Nam), a martial brother of Ching Ling’s master. He starts learning Taekwondo and a special fist style. Meanwhile, the Japanese send a group of killers (including Chiang Tao and Bolo Yeung) to Korea to look for Ching Ling. Lots of fights break out. When the General arrives in Korea for a military conference, Ching Ling and Master Po’s daughter (Kim Jeong-ran), try to assassinate him.
There is quite a bit of fighting, staged by Tang Tak-Cheung (best known for Tiger Over Wall and Kung Fu Zombie). As usual, Bruce Le tries to mix his Bruce Lee impression with his own hung gar training. I don’t know why, but his shtick in movies often grows old very quickly. He’s a decent athlete, but if he doesn’t have a good choreographer, his fights easily get repetitive. I think it has to do with the fights themselves often about dodging and evading, instead of complex exchanges of techniques. Obviously, a style like hung gar lends itself out to elaborates shapes fighting, but Le tries to do something a little more “Bruce-y” with it and it just doesn’t work.
Bolo Yeung fights with a strange gorilla style (which I assume is the inspiration for the German title, “Die Gelbe Gorila” – The Yellow Gorilla), but it’s not particularly interesting. Kim Jeon-ran, best known for playing Jackie’s tomboy friend in Snake and Crane Arts of Shaolin, does some good fighting, especially when she’s trying to murder a room full of military officials. Nick Cheung Lik’s talents are completely wasted, unfortunately. Chan Sing fares better, getting a fight with Chiang Tao and his goons and showing off both his signature tiger style and a smattering of crane, too. Too bad he didn’t get more fight time in the film.
The penultimate fight pits Bruce Le in a lengthy duel with Chiang Tao, which is broken up by frequent running (almost more than Little Godfather from Hong Kong). He finally defeats him by attacking a bunch of pressure points, which was the basis for his training at the beginning of the movie. His final match is with a pair of white-haired fighters armed with metal poles with detachable claws at the end. It’s at this point that Bruce gets to use nunchaku as we expect in this sort of film. In one loopy moment, the two fighters (I think they’re father and son) stand behind one another and start waving their arms and ducking and weaving in an attempt to confuse Bruce. Bruce and Shaolin Kung Fu is a pretty decent, if unoriginal film. On a sliding scale of Bruce Le films, that would put it somewhere as a three (out of five). The film ends in an obvious nod to the original Fist of Fury, but a sequel was made the following year.
Return of the Tiger (1977)
Chinese Title: 大圈套
Translation: Big Trap
Starring: Bruce Li, Angela Mao Ying, Chang Yi, Blacky Ko, Lung Fei, Hsueh Han, Cheng Fu-Hung, Wang Chi-Sheng, Wang Yung-Sheng, Hsieh Hsing
Director: Jimmy Shaw
Action Director: Hsieh Hsing
The film starts off promisingly: the credits are set over the training regimen of a bunch of men inside of a gym. Angela Mao then enters the place and beats everyone up for several minutes, Hapkido-style. We then learn that she's working for Chang Hung (Bruce Li), who has a beef with the owner of the gym, Paul (Paul L. Smith). He says that Paul killed his dad and he wants him to shut down his gym and film studio. Paul has his number one flunkie, Peter Chan (Chang Yi), talk to Chang Hung into switching sides, but to no avail. Chang Hung gets the attention of Paul's rival, the crime boss Sing (Lung Fei), who tries to woo Chang Hung to his side.
He has Chang Hung fight Paul's bodyguard, Tom (Cheng Fu-Hung, who spends the film wearing a sweatshirt with 'TOM' embroidered on it), in order to prove his worth. He sort of joins Sing's gang, but we find out that he is actually a hitman hired by Paul to eliminate Sing, and so the blood vendetta with Paul is just a ruse. But both sides, who turn out to be rival heroin dealers, start to get suspicious of Chang Hung. And Paul tries to sell his unsold heroin stash (to quote Chris Rock: "People don't sell drugs, drugs sell themselves") to Sing, leading in a huge brawl. And then it turns out that Chang Hung and Angela are actually working for the law. A big brawl, replete with double crosses, ensues.
Compared to a lot of kung fu films from the period, it is interesting that there isn't a whole lot of action in this. There is a Yojimbo quality to the plot, with Chang Hung kinda-sorta playing both groups against each other, although even if Chang Hung didn't get involved, both sides would've suffered mutually-assured destruction by the end. It takes about 30 minutes for Bruce Li to have his first fight scene. There was a nice dojo sequence, with Huang Kuo-Chu doing some great kicks. Bruce Li has a brief scuffle with choreographer Hsieh Hsing, who plays an assassin hired by Sing. He then fights some would-be motorcycle assassins, led by Blackie Ko in a mullet. The finale is a huge free-for-all. It is interesting watching Chang Yi, always the intimidating villain, getting manhandled by a burly white guy. Bruce Li's scuffle with Paul L. Smith is long and brutal, full of found objects being used as weapons. Angela Mao is wasted in the finale, unfortunately. She should've gotten a good throwdown with Hsieh Hsing and Lung Fei.
Edge of Fury (1978)
Aka: Blood on His Hands
Chinese Title: 撈家撈女撈上撈
Translation: Fishing for the family, fishing for the daughter, fishing for the top
Starring: Bruce Li, Michelle Yim, Gam Ming, Dana, Yasuaki Kurata, David Cheng Dai-Wai, Wai Lit, Kao Yuen, Ng Tung
Director: Lee Tso-Nam
Action Director: Gam Ming (Tommy Lee)
Bruce Li plays Fong Pao (or Ah Fong), a kung fu expert and chaffeur for a tycoon named Mr. Chun (Pak Man-Biu, of The Blade Spares None). One day, Fong is at work when he is visited by the police. Chun has been arrested in Thailand for drug smuggling and the police need to question Fong to see how much he knows about his boss's activities. The answer is "Very little." However, that doesn't stop the neighbors from talking smack about Fong and mistreating his mother, those lazy talebearing bitches. Fong is assaulted by Gau Jai (Tommy Lee), who was Chun's second-in-command. Initially, the question revolves around "What do you know and how much did you tell the police?"
At this point, the film breaks off into three stories. One of them revolves around Fong Pao's travails as people turn their backs on him because he worked for a criminal. A second subplot revolves around Chun's widow (Dana, of Inframan and Storming Attacks)--the guy is eventually executed--and her attempts to get her hands on her husband's will. She wants all of his assets to share with her lover, played by Wai Lit. Finally, Gau Jai and Chun's business partner, Mr. King (Yasuaki Kurata, of Win Them All and The Angry Guest), are trying to find where Chun used to hide "the stuff." They are convinced that Fong Pao knows and Mr. King even goes so far as to employ Ah Fong in order to get the information out of him. When he insists that he doesn't know, Gau Jai kidnaps Ah Fong's girlfriend (Michelle Yim) in order to force him to talk.
Edge of Fury is a very talky film. And there is no real interaction between the two main story threads of the missing "stuff" and Dana trying to get her hands on her husband's wealth. I think most viewers will be impatiently counting down to the next fight scene or wondering if Dana will doff the duds--there is a shot of her from behind a shower box and later where she tries to seduce the guy administering her husband's estate (Kao Yuen, of Fingers that Kill and The Blind Boxer).
The action is just okay. Lee Tso-Nam and Tommy Lee had obviously done some great work together: The Hot, the Cool, and the Vicious and Challenge of Death, to name two. Tommy Lee and Lee Tso- had worked with Bruce Li on Fist of Fury, Part II and did a pretty good job there. Edge of Fury is all three men working below their respective potential. Li's fighting is in Bruce Lee imitation mode, but the way he maintains a pose after punching or kicking someone is just distracting here. Tommy Lee can't seem to decide if he wants to choreograph a Bruce Lee imitation, traditional shapes, or early 70s basher style. His work is all over the place here. The finale with Yasuaki Kurata is brutal, but sloppy. Both men have done far better work in other movies. The entire film consists of talented people working at their most mediocre...not their worst, but their most average.
