Bruce
and the Shaolin Bronzemen (1977)
aka:
King Boxer II; Enter the Game of Shaolin Bronzemen; Bruce's Last
Battle
Chinese
Title: 神龍猛虎
Translation:
Divine
Dragon and Fierce Tiger
Starring:
Bruce
Le, Lita Vasquez, Nick Cheung Lik, Ruby Anna, Nona Herrera, Vivian
Velasco, Ernie Ortega, Pidoy Fetalino, Tsing Tong-Tsai, Ruben
Ramos
Director:
Joseph
Kong
Action
Director: Bruce
Le(?)
Another
Filipino film starring Bruce Le is notorious for its general
ineptness and complete randomness. The film starts with Bruce Le
performing the Five Animals Form to a red background. It then
switches to Bruce Le doing the same Five Animals form in front of a
waterfall. His master informs him that his training has ended and
that his mission is to take one-half of a silver coin to a certain
Mr. Santos. The silver coin is one half of a map to a treasure that
was buried during World War II when the Japanese were occupying the
Philippines. One party that wants the treasure if a criminal
organization led by Ms. Oki (Lita Vasquez, of Treasure
of Bruce Lee and Target
Shaolin Master).
She sends a hired fighter (Nick Cheung Lik) to fight Bruce, whose
character is named Wong Chan-Lung. They meet a couple of times
throughout the film, but Cheung Lik doesn't do anything.
Anyway,
Chan-Lung eventually makes it to Mr. Santos's house, where the he is
being beaten to death by a pair of dwarves. Chang-Lung scares the
dwarves away and takes Santos's daughter, Vivian (Vivian Velasco,
of Treasure
of Bruce Lee)
under his wing. He takes her to her aunt's house while he goes
searching for Ms. Oki. This leads to a series of random encounters
with a tribe of dwarves armed with sickles, the Shaolin Bronzemen
(who show up and then disappear with no fanfare), and a fat lady
masseuse who tries to kill Chan-Lung during a random moment of
relaxation. They find the treasure, but it's already empty. Vivian is
kidnapped by Ms. Oki's dwarf henchman and Wong eventually gets
kidnapped, too. They are rescued by Vivian's friend, Nina (Nona
Herrera, of Treasure
of Bruce Lee),
who pops up into the movie for...no reason. So, Ms. Oki responds by
sending her dwarf minions to murder Nina and Vivian, resulting in
Wong Chan-Lung going to Oki's house and slaughtering her and her
martial arts minions...
Okay, so what was this movie about? I
don't know. Ms. Oki immediately sends her henchmen to stop Wong
Chan-Lung as soon as he finishes his training. How does she know
about him. If she actually stole the treasure before it was dug up by
the heroes, why does she even need to stop them. Theoretically, Wong
and Nina would find the treasure and then not know who stole it, and
that would be that. I mean, by attacking Wong Chan-Lung, Oki was
opening herself to Righteous Kung Fu Justice later on.
And of
course, the succession of scenes of Wong fighting the dwarves, the
Bronzemen, the masseuse, and then Oki herself on a beach have no
narrative build-up or establishing of how or why he got there, why he
changed his clothes, or what it has to do with the scene before it.
It is worse than Sister Streetfighter,
where Etsuko Shihomi always was snooping around a place just in time
for a fight to break out. And of course, there is the whole bit about
Nina and what her character has to do with anything. Even better (or
worse): the film was dubbed not by the Usual Suspects in Hong Kong
and Taiwan, but a Filipino dubbing company, so all the characters
speak English with Filipino accents, which makes it harder to
understand the dialog.
The fight scenes were probably staged
by Bruce Le himself and are just okay. Le himself looks pretty good
in his fights, although the Filipino stuntmen are a lot more static
than their Hong Kong/Taiwanese counterparts. The fight with the
titular Bronzemen is pretty good, even if it has nothing to do with
the moving surrounding it. I'm sure that B-movie enthusiasts will
love the midget fight on general principle. What did the Medved
brothers say? "Making fun of this movie is like kicking a
dwarf?" Bruce Le doesn't plenty of that here. He also beats a
flamboyantly-gay Yes Man to death like he did in Return
of Bruce.
The final fight has him beating up lots of stuntman, a Japanese
fighter played by Ernie Ortega (Bruce the Super Hero and The
Bloody Hero),
and finally Lita Vasquez herself. It's fun and stupid, but most
viewers will probably just focus on the latter. And
I can't blame'em.
Return
of Bruce (1977)
aka The
Dragon Returns
Chinese
Title: 忠烈精武門
Translation:
The
Gate of Loyalty and Bravery
Director: Joseph Kong
Action Director: Bruce Le (as Kenneth Rivero)
Filipino film that was later edited into Concorde of Bruce (1982) aka Ninja vs. Bruce Lee. This one catches flack for being nonsensical, which I cannot argue with. Taiwanese star Meng Fei shows up for two scenes, including one absolutely random shapes fight, and then disappears from the rest of the film (even after events that would call for his return to the story). Heck, the climax completely not only opens a plot hole the size of the fat guy Bruce fights in the cemetery, but it introduces a completely new main villain (played by Lo Lieh) for...reasons?
Bruce Le plays Wong Lung, a Chinese guy from Hong Kong who comes to Manila to stay with his uncle. He learns that his uncle has since moved from his last reported address and just starts wandering around until he meets this orphan boy. The two are enjoying a meal when a girl* runs into the restaurant being chased by human traffickers. Wong Lung rescues her, thus bringing upon him the ire of the gang (including a guy some flamboyantly gay that he makes Wei Ping-Ao's character in Way of the Dragon look like a total Alpha Male). We also learn that the head of the gang's girlfriend, Lisa (Elizabeth Oropesa, who has racked up over 200 credits in her 50 years of acting), is actually an undercover cop working under Meng Fei. The head of gang also has his buyer (Protacio Dee, of Tiger Force and Bruce the Super Hero) and that guy's two Caucasian bodyguards staying at his place for an unspecified amount of time until they can move the girls.
Anyway, for reasons that are never explained--and would probably not make sense if they were--Boss Man cannot finish the deal of selling the girls to his buyer until he finishes some pending business with the local kung fu school, run by Nick Cheung Lik. Coincidentally, Nick's sister is the girl whom Wong Lung saved at the restaurant. And they are both the children of Wong Lung's uncle, whom we learn has been murdered by the gang. Wong Lung and Nick get into a number of fights with the gang, until Wong Lung accidentally kills one of their enforcers at a fight in a cemetery. Wong Lung is about to turn himself in to the authorities when the gang brings in a Japanese fighter (James Nam) to shore up accounts with the kung fu school. At that point, Wong Lung goes from "remorseful over killing" to "eliminate the bad guys with extreme prejudice."
What happens to Meng Fei's character? Why is the gang so interested in the kung fu school? Why can't they finish the deal with the buyers without resolving the kung fu school issue first? Why doesn't the police step in and arrest the bad guys after Lisa frees the girls near the end? All of those questions go completely unanswered in this movie. Instead, we get lots of fight scenes and Bruce Le going all vigilante at the end. The fights were staged by Kenneth Rivero, which apparently a pseudonym for Bruce Le himself. The fights were generally pretty simple in execution: Bruce (or Meng Fei or Nick Cheung Lik) gets attacked by one Filipino extra, he blocks a punch or two, punches the guy, the guy falls down, time for the next extra. Some of the one-on-one fights are more involved, like with Ruben Ramos (who uses a faux-Praying Mantis style), Chiang Tao (snake fist), James Nam ("karate" and katana blade), and Lo Lieh (the evil "Red Palm"). Those are choreographed reasonably well, especially by Bruce Le standards. I like watching Cheung Lik in action, he has some solid kicking skills. Although we see Bruce Le training with nunchaku and a snake spear, he never actually uses weapons in the fight sequences. Boo.
As a Bruce Le film, this is reasonably entertaining fight-fest. It doesn't make much sense, but the fights come at a reasonable clip and I've seen Le do worse than this.
My
Name Called Bruce (1978)
Chinese
Title:
霹靂龍拳
Translation:
Thunder Dragon Fist
Starring: Bruce Le, Cheung Man-Ting, Chiang Tao, Tong Kam-Tong, Kim Ki-Joo, Im Eun-Joo, Steve Mak Fei-Hung, Choe Seong-Gyu, Kim Ki-Beom, Lee Hang
Director: Joseph Kong
Action Director: Steve Mak Fei-Hung, Tong Kam-Tong, Lee Hang
In addition to Return of Bruce (which I reviewed above), this film was also incorporated into 1982's Concorde of Bruce, aka Ninja vs. Bruce Lee. This film actually tries to tell an actual story, even if it falters at doing so. Here we have a crime drama involving antique smuggling. The movie opens with a gang of robbers acting like agents from the South Korean equivalent of the CDC storming an antique score with some story about a deadly virus in the area. They convince the owner, Baldy (Kim Ki-beom), to get an emergency vaccine injection, which promptly knocks him out. They steal a priceless (and unaccounted for in the books) vase and bring it to their broker, Tiger (Choe Seong-gyu?), who hired them on behalf of another gang. That gang is led by Nifty (Chiang Tao), who show up to collect the vase dressed in ersatz KKK masks. They beat up the thieves, leaving only the leader (Kim Ki-joo) alive.
The cops arrest him, but he won't snitch on his deceitful employers. The police chief (Yoon Il-joo) assigns Sergeant Lee (Im Eun-joo) to the case. Nifty orders his men, led by Lee Hang, to murder Tiger now that the police are following him. He gets ambushed twice, but is ultimately rescued (and arrested) by Sergeant Lee. Tiger becomes an informant for the police. About the same time, "Bruce" (Bruce Le) comes to South Korea from Hong Kong and starts asking around the various antique shops for Slasher (Kim Wang-guk), Nifty's middle man. Meanwhile, Sergeant Lee is trying follow Nifty's female client from Manila, Vivian (Cheung Man-Ting). Bruce eventually befriends Vivian and she starts to fall for him...or at least does so to manipulate him into stealing the vase for her. But Nifty isn't a powerful figure in the world of antique smuggling for nothing...
The main problem with My Name Called Bruce (besides the grammatially-awkward English title) is that the story is a bit dull. I mean, it has a story of sorts: A priceless antique vase is stolen. The police try to find the potential buyer and follow her to the man behind the smuggling ring. Meanwhile, a wild card figure of questionable allegiances shows up looking for the same person, albeit for murkier reasons. The two parties ultimately team up to take down the bad guys. The main problem is that the story is not told in a way that feels suspenseful. There is no ticking clock to the moment the vase will switch hands and will thus be (theoretically) lost forever. So it feels like the villains are just standing around doing nothing while Bruce and the police draw closer and closer to them. And that makes for a boring film whenever the fists aren't flying.
And sadly, the fists don't fly often enough. The fight scenes were staged by Mak Fei-Hung (who later went to the Mainland to choreograph Arhats in Fury), Tong Kam-Tong (who plays Chiang Tao's right-hand man and also choreographed Bruce and Shaolin Kung Fu 2), and Lee Hang (Crack Shadow Boxers). Since this is a Korean co-production with a mostly-Korean cast, most everybody is trained in Taekwondo and the fights are especially kick-heavy. Actress Im Eun-joo had a solid filmography of South Korean kung fu movies and she does reasonably well for herself, especially in the last 15 minutes. Heck, even Bruce Le does better kicking in this movie than he does when he's choreographing himself. The only time the film really gets into shapes choreography is when he faces off with Chiang Tao at the end and Le starts doing some over-the-top Eagle Claw fighting. It's just a shame that there wasn't more of this.
Bruce
vs. Bill (1981)
Chinese Title:
龍虎爭霸
Translation:
Dragon and Tiger Struggle For Domination
Starring: Bruce Le, Bill Louie, Fung Yun-Chuen, Chiang Tao, Lau Yat-Fan, Tin Ching, Andy Lam Kwok-Wah, Ma Chang, Alexander
Director: Lam Kwong-Cheung
Action Director: Bruce Le(?)
I used to see the VHS for this one for rent at Hollywood Video on the Miracle Mile in Stockton, CA back in the 1990s. I never rented it because I was generally sticking to my comfort zone back in those days: Tai Seng releases, Revenge of the Ninja, etc. Watching it almost 30 years later, do I regret for not watching it earlier? No, not really. I sorta wish I had been more open-minded at the time, but whatever. This is a standard Brucesploitation film: not great, not God awful. Just there.
Bill Louie plays Wang Piao, a waiter living in...some period. I've seen one review suggest that this is set during the final days of the Qing Dynasty when Sun Yat-Sen was planning his revolution. There is talk of fundraisers in order to raise money for the good of the nation, but all the cars are from the 1970s and Bruce Le's character is wearing bell bottoms, but I really can't tell you when this is set. In any case, there is a safe filled with a million dollars and some shady types try to steal the key from one of the fundraiser guys. He is assaulted in a dark street at night and saved by Wang Piao. The guy bleeds out from getting his hand chopped off, but he gives the keys to the safe to Wang Piao and tells him to give them to Sun Kung.
The people after the keys are led by a foreigner named Tommy (Alexander, of The Dragon Lives Again). They show up at Wang Piao's restaurant and try buy the keys off of him, but he refuses. Tommy sends a bunch of beggars to kill him, but he beats them up, getting the attention of a wandering hitman, Chang (Bruce Le). Chang thinks he's abusing the disabled and the two fight. Tommy tries to get Chang to work for him and fight Wang Piao. They get into some fights before Tommy betrays Chang and the two have to team up to survive Tommy's army of hatchet-wielding killers. There are some traitors and some unfortunate deaths, but the two eventually team up again to beat Tommy's killers, played by Chiang Tao and Ma Chang.
There is a lot of action in this. Bruce Le is his usual self (Bruce Lee imitation mixed with some Hung Gar); I'm guessing he choreographed this, of which he does an adequate job. Bill Louie is an interesting character. He was a Chinese-American martial artist best known for founding the Chinese Goju-Ryu style of karate. Goju-Ryu was a combination of Okinawan Naha-Te (traditional fighting styles) and Chinese kempo/chuan fa, specifically derived from Fujian White Crane. What Bill Louie did was to study numerous Chinese styles and incorporate even more Chuan Fa into the Goju-Ryu he also learned. So Chinese Goju-Ryu is basically Okinawan karate with an extra helping of Animal forms. Louie looks better than Le does here, which is sorta funny. But his kicks look better than Le's and his punches pack more power than Le's. so there's that. Their fights aren't bad from a choreography perspective. The final fights are very brutal, so some might enjoy the harder edge there. This is not Bruce Le's best, but it's far from his worst.
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