Bruce's Deadly Fingers (1976)

Director: Joseph Kong Hung

Notable Cast: Bruce Le, Michael Chan, Lo Lieh, Nora Miao, Nick Cheung, Yuan Man-Tzu, Chiang Tao, Tong Tin-Hei, Fung Ging-Man, Chiu Chi-Ling, Bolo Yeung

Also Known As: Bruce’s Fingers

The one thing about Bruceploitation films is that either a) you completely buy into the cheesy concept and appreciate them for what they are or b) you don’t. Even as a massive martial arts cinema fan, sometimes the obvious low budget cash ins on Bruce Lee’s fame (and death) feel a tad out of place and occasionally disrespectful. At their worst, this is most definitely the case. At their best though, which is where Bruce’s Deadly Fingers tends to lean towards, it’s fun and exploitative entertainment that knows exactly what it is. In the case of Bruce’s Deadly Fingers, an all-star cast, some outlandish silly sequences, and a lot of tongue in cheek humor is what carries the film to being one of the better ones I have seen in the Bruceploitation movement. It’s still a rather hit or miss product, but for fans of the kung fu sub-genre this latest Blu Ray from VCI for the film is going to be a necessary addition to the martial arts fan’s collection.

Birth of the Dragon (2017)

Director: George Nolfi

Notable Cast: Phillip Ng, Xia Yu, Billy Magnussen, Jin Xing, Jingjing Qu, Simon Yin

When the word started spreading around online that the latest Bruce Lee focused film, one surrounding the events of his fight with Wong Jack Man and entitled Birth of the Dragon, it was not good. Fans were upset that the film seemed to treat the entire thing like an excuse to exploit Bruce’s fame and fortune and worst yet, neither Bruce Lee nor Wong Jack Man were the protagonists. It was actually a young white guy that was driving the story forward. Fast forward to a month prior to its release in theaters and producers stated that the film shown at festivals was just an early cut of the film and that this one, which was getting a wide release thanks to WWE and Blumhouse, would take fans’ concerns into account for a better movie. If that was the case, then I have no need to see the first cut of the film because Birth of the Dragon suffers from the exact same problems that fans were concerned with originally. The entire concept is flawed and no amount of Phillip Ng charisma, Xia Yu deadpan seriousness, or Corey Yuen fight work can save the film from simply being awkward. There are certainly moments when one can see some appeal to Birth of the Dragon, but it’s hard to get around the glaring flaws of the film on its foundational levels.

Edge of Fury (1978) - 2/5

It seems that when Bruce Li makes films that have no reference to the actual Bruce Lee that they aren't actually too bad, by trashy martial arts standards that is. Films like "Edge of Fury" prove that Bruce Li can actually stand on his own without the shadow of Bruce Lee looking over his shoulder. He's a damn fine martial artist in his own right and it's a shame he didn't make more films in the mold of "Edge of Fury" where he can be himself.

Bruce Li plays a chauffeur to a wealthy business man, unaware that he is one of Hong Kong's biggest drug dealers. When his boss gets caught and put to death, Li gets notice that he is supposed to deliver his will ONLY to his lawyer but the bosses widow (who has a fetish for getting massages with a vibrating dildo no less) and business partners will stop at nothing to get the will and his final drug delivery, even going as far to kidnap Li's girl!

Typical martial arts plot with plenty of good fight sequences provided by Li. The dubbing is unusually bad (what's with Li being dubbed with a British accent?) and the development between him and his girlfriend is incredibly weak, like in almost nonexistent. Then again who gives a shit about character development, this is a Bruceploitation film god damnit! The fights are great and that's all that counts!

If you like these type of trashy martial arts films (you know who you are) then I recommend "Edge of Fury" as it is a cut above most of the films in the notorious Bruceploitation subgrenre (especially those Bruce Lee biopics... barf). The DVD I have from Echo Bridge Home Entertainment is a watchable pan and scan VHS transfer (no doubt taken from the old Paragon VHS release). When I say watchable I mean people who can handle, oh my god, VHS quality! The phrase "VHS transfer" seems to be a death curse in today's high tech society so blu-ray enthusiasts need not apply. Hey I prefer crystal clear widescreen transfers as much as the next movie buff but for these rare films sometimes you have to take what you can get and watchable VHS transfers is fine for this cult film buff.

Written By Eric Reifschneider

Goodbye, Bruce Lee: His Last Game of Death - 2/5

Do my eyes deceive me? Is this a properly remastered Bruceploitation film in it’s correct widescreen ratio? Holy shit it is! Sure there are multiple DVDs of this trashy martial arts film available but Anchor Bay Entertainment was nice enough to unleash “Goodbye Bruce Lee: His Final Game of Death” in an amazing edition (that is currently out-of-print) that sheds crystal clarity onto the eyes of us fans. Though it may not be one of Bruce Li’s finest films, I’m still happy as a pig in shit to finally see one of his films with such a great presentation.

The plot is a strange one as Bruce Li basically plays himself as a martial artist who is hired by film producers to finish Bruce Lee’s unfinished epic “Game of Death” due to the fact Li looks an acts just like him. The rest of the film is the movie that was being filmed with Li going after goons who trick him into delivering money for drugs they kidnap his girl so he has to fight his way up a six story tower defeating a different boss on each floor in order to save her.

The set up for this film is bizarre as the first 1/4 is Bruce Li being hired to replace the dead Bruce Lee for his final film and the last 3/4 is the movie with in the movie without acknowledging the first 1/4. Confused yet? This film is known to confuse some but one just has to role with it.

I do have to give this trashy martial arts film credit as it tried to stay true to Bruce Lee’s original vision of “Game of Death” unlike the real film “Game of Death” which was finished by filmmakers in 1979 completely changing Bruce Lee’s original concept around. Even so this is still a rather poorly made martial arts film (is any Bruceploitation film truly well made?) though it tries to stay true to the Lee legend while at the same time exploiting his fame. The ending fight scenes with Li ascending the tower doesn’t hold a candle to Lee’s originals that he filmed for “Game of Death” but they are still entertaining, just more in a cheesy aspect.

Bruce Li fits the Bruce Lee role perfectly (not only does he look like Lee but he is also a great fighter, it’s just a damn shame he never got better scripts) and why the hell didn’t they hire this guy to play Bruce Lee’s character when they actually finished “Game of Death” in 1979? I mean it’s a given he was born to do so!

Though not a good film I still encourage even Bruce Lee fans to see it just to see what Lee’s original vision for the plot of “Game of Death” really was. Hell to be honest this film might even be better than the actually “Game of Death” minus the amazing fight footage Bruce Lee filmed before his untimely death.

Did I forget to mention Anchor Bay’s DVD is amazing? It just brings a tear to my eye that they planned to release other Bruceploitation films with proper transfers if “Goodbye, Bruce Lee” sold well but of course it didn’t. It would have been nice to have DVD editions like this for Li’s better films like “Exit the Dragon, Enter the Tiger”, “Return of the Tiger” and "Fist of Fury II".

Written By Eric Reifschneider

Young Bruce Lee, The - 1/5

Another year, another poorly made Bruceploitation biopic. How many of these biopics did they make for Christ sake? As you can tell from my rating this is another dud but thankfully the spirit of Bruce Lee blessed us with a slightly less crappy biopic than the last turd I had to suffer through that went under the name "Bruce Lee: A Dragon Story."

Unlike the other biopics I have seen this one begins with Bruce Lee (again portrayed by Bruce Li) as a small child and how he gets his ass kicked while trying to stick up for a girl so he becomes interested in martial arts. He grows into a martial arts master and the rest of the film meanders around with him getting into fights every so often to protect the woman he loves and while at the same time giving helpful advice to bring up the spirits of his best friend.

This film is completely inaccurate but then again we should not expect this to be true to history. If you want accuracy then go watch the big budget Hollywood film "Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story". If you want the Bruceploitation trash version of his life then you are at the right place.

The filmmaking is again very poor with sloppy zooms, bad acting, and a lumbering pace with emphasis on boring training sequences. I will admit I did lose interest a couple of times but like a true cult film fan I powered though it till the end, an ending that hastily ties up the events by showing actual footage of Bruce Lee's funeral in bad taste

Unless you live and breathe these Bruceploitation biopics then I say skip it. There are much more fun and interesting films this subgenre has to offer but sadly these cruddy biopics seem to be the most common and easy to find on DVD. Thankfully this is the last biopic I own so I can march on to review the last 5 Bruceploitation films in my collection that are thankfully original stories and not this biopic crap! At least the Full Screen transfer on my DVD was properly framed, which is a plus compared to a number of shoddy DVD releases in the genre I've seen thus far. Oh and the DVD cover again portrays a still image of the actual Bruce Lee from "Enter the Dragon" and not an image of actor Bruce Li, so don't get fooled into this actually being a true Bruce Lee film.

Written By Eric Reifschneider

Bruce Lee: A Dragon Story - 1/5

Oh boy what can I say on this Bruceploitation turd. For one thing this is probably the worst Bruceploitation film I have ever seen and considering the subgenre is 99.9% trash that is quite a statement. This "biopic" picture of Bruce Lee (starring Bruce Li in the title role) is both an insult to the Bruce Lee name and to fans of trashy martial arts films. Yes it's that fucking bad.

Being a biopic the film is based on "true" life events of the amazing martial artist Bruce Lee on how he rose to fame on TV and films, married an American women, cheated with a famous Chinese actress which then lead to his untimely death.

Like most Bruce Lee biopics which claim to be based on true facts, this one is no different and is completely inaccurate. Sure they get the basics right but the filmmakers take too much leeway with the material in order to make a more interesting and "action packed" movie. Some of these "freely adapted" scenes are quite unintentionally funny. For example is it is amazing how many groups of warriors challenge Bruce Lee throughout the film. The strangest is when Li and his wife are in America and suddenly a group of three samurai come up and after Li kicks the crap out of them he retorts "this is a awful place to live." Sure... that's exactly how it happened...sheesh.

The acting is dreadful and the filmmaking is absolutely the lowest common denominator. Great filmmaking is never an ingredient in Bruceploitation films but even for a Bruceploitation film this is bad. The directing is dilapidated and the editing seems to be done by a psychotic samurai warrior wheedling his blade around. I lost count on how many jarring edits that are so rough they seem to knock the viewer out.

The dialogue is cringe worthy and it matches the emotionless dubbing. The dubbing for director Wei Lo is by far the worst as he says such makeshift lines as "So What! Does that mean I'm not still a man!" The dubbing for Bruce Li is so drab that the character might as well been dubbed by Ben Stein.

I'm not a fan of biopic Bruceploitation films to begin with and the only one I've seen worth while is Bruce Lee: The Man, The Myth. The rest are pretty much crap and this very well might be the worst biopic, maybe even the worst Bruceploitation film ever made. There are much more enjoyable films in this interesting subgenre so my advice is to skip it.

Bonus Rant: There is a love song played on the soundtrack during emotional scenes between Bruce Li and his mistress and the filmmakers decided to subtitle the lyrics of the song in both Chinese characters and in English. Thanks to the films picture ratio being fucked up (yes again! This is the fifth DVD I've seen of a Bruceploitation film where the picture ratio is fucked up!) the subtitles end up being cut off on both ends. Damn you DVD companies and giving such trash movies trashy transfers!

Written By Eric Reifschneider

Return Of The Tiger - 2/5

It's been a while since I've viewed and reviewed a Bruceploitation film and what a better way to jump back into this wonderful subgenre than to watch "Return of the Tiger", Bruce Li's sequel to my personal favorite Bruceploitation 'classic' "Exit the Dragon, Enter the Tiger." Is it a true sequel? Well not really as Li plays a different character but it was advertised as a follow-up to that shameless martial arts magnum opus and most likely took its title by combining "Exit the Dragon, Enter the Tiger" and the Bruce Lee classic "Return of the Dragon." Despite not being a 'true' sequel, it was great to see 'Tiger' return in another enjoyable Buceploitation fest.

Rather than playing Bruce Lee's successor as he did in "Exit", this time he plays a secret agent that goes undercover with his female partner to take down two heroin drug rings by pulling a "Yojimbo" and playing each side against each other. Lots of and lots of mindless fight sequences ensue.

Bruce Li, my personal favorite of the Lee clones, is likable as ever but the unforeseen addition of brutish actor Paul Smith very well might be the best part. This 'Bud Spencer' of the rest of world cinema is mostly known for playing a sadistic prison guard in "Midnight Express" and Bluto in Robin Williams' "Popeye" and his appearance in a Bruceploitation film is enough to make anyone scratch their head. However he landed in this film I'm sure glad he did because he is a menacing looking bastard and surprisingly he able to hold his own in fight sequences with our clone.

Like "Exit the Dragon", I love the 'modern' urban 70's setting as opposed to a period setting and the filmmakers again utilize great locations for their fights such as abandoned factories. There was even an awkward fight sequence which included goons on motorcycles corralling in Li in a junkyard.

Typical with Bruceploitation films, some of the fight sequences go on for far too long, even fights that Li is absent and don't even add anything to the plot, then again what am I talking about? No one watches Bruceploitation films for plot! It's for fighting and trashy entertainment and "Return of the Tiger" delivers on that aspect. Our fighters even defy the laws of physics in very awkward moments, like jumping off invisible objects in thin air and doing fly kicks the length of a basketball court.

What's the worst aspect of this movie? No not the dubbing, though it is dreadful. No not the character development even though we get no back-story what-so-ever for our two secret agents, especially the women. No not the music which is actually good, no doubt because some of it is STOLEN from the James Bond movie "Live and Let Die" (what is with Bruceploitation films stealing James Bond scores?). Is it the DVD? You guessed it! Another bad transfer, surprise, surprise. The DVD I have is from Trinity Entertainment and like their release of "Exit the Dragon", they completely botched the picture ratio. When in full screen mode it's squished and in 16x9 mode everything is stretched. GOD DAMNIT! It was extremely annoying to watch the film this way and I had to beg my friend Bill to fix the picture ratio like he did for me for "Exit the Dragon."

Picture ratio problems aside I found this to be another entertaining trashy Bruceploitation film and it was refreshing to see Li play a role that wasn't Bruce Lee or his successor. I didn't quite like it as much as "Exit the Dragon, Enter the Tiger" but for fans of these trashy martial arts films "Return of the Tiger" is a must watch.

Written By Eric Reifschneider

Bruce Lee The Invincible - 2/5

Thank God! I sure hit a slump of shitty Bruceploitation films there for a while so it was refreshing to come back across a "decent" entry (decent that is by Bruceploitation standards). However this is not a typical Bruceploitation film. Other than the title this is just another B-martial arts film. The plot has no connection to the death of Lee, there are no references to Lee (again other than the title), and no one actually plays Bruce Lee.

Our film opens with some jackass causing trouble at a martial arts school. To avoid getting his ass kicked by his martial arts teacher, the ass decides to move to Taiwan. While in Taiwan our ass decides to build a casino and in turns becomes a wealthy man. He starts using his money and martial arts skills to push people around. He even has the balls to screw one of his workers wife and when discovered beat the shit out of some of his employees! Sick of screwing married women he eyes the one beautiful single woman in the village. It just happens the women is the cousin to a young fighter is sent from China to spy on the ass. When the woman becomes kidnapped, he sends word to his master and he with his right hand man (Bruce Li!) travel to Taiwan to put the jackass back in his place.

The plot is simple but enjoyable enough for a B-Martial arts film. The villain is a great jackass (as you couldn't tell from my synopsis!) which helps the film out. The one big problem I have is Bruce Li really isn't our main hero. He's kind of the sidekick to our main hero which happens to be the teacher. A Bruceploitation film where our Bruce Lee clone isn't the main hero? That is odd but he still has plenty of screen time and kick ass fight sequences. He is even strong enough to crush two dice in his fist to show that they are loaded! This guy is badass!

This B-film also has plenty "WTF" moments that will sure to make a few of us fans of the genre to raise an eyebrow. Fist is our two cousin characters have an awkwardly close relationship. I'm not sure if the same laws apply to cousins in China as America but they might as well get a fucking room! There is also a fight sequence towards the end where our heroic team is jumped by a bunch of China men dressed like Native Americans and throwing spears. WTF indeed. The moment that takes the cake however is where both our heroes have to fight a gorillas that jump out of the forest. It's obviously a guy in a bad costume but I can't figure out if the filmmakers intended it to be a guys in costumes or "real" gorillas. Whatever their intentions were it still comes out as silly sequences that will have any martial arts lover going "what the fu...".

As Bruceploitation goes this isn't bad but it does lack the shamelessness and bad taste of other entries into the subgenre. It kept my attention and even made me chuckle on a few occasions. It definitely reinstated why Bruce Li is my favorite of the Bruce Lee clones.

Bonus Rant: Again the title has NOTHING to do with the movie and the DVD cover art even has the balls to show a picture of Bruce Lee from Enter the Dragon fooling many people that don't know the history of Bruce Lee into thinking that this is a genuine Lee film. HA! Not me... I can see through all that bullshit. Is it sad that I actually bought the film not for the fact of being fooled it was a Bruce Lee film but for the fact it stars one of his cheap clones? I think not. Bring on Bruce Li!

Written By Eric Reifschneider

Bruce Lee Fights Back From The Grave - 1/5

Man what a fucking disappointment! Look at that title and poster artwork... can you get more cheesy, ridiculous and more in bad taste? I think not! I also love how the poster artwork is a complete rip-off of the album artwork for Meat Loaf's Bat Out of Hell. From this title and poster artwork I was expecting the mother of all Bruceploitation movies! The summery on the back of the box art even promised the Bruce Lee's friend has to fight the "black angel of death" in order for Bruce to rise from his grave! All this gave me hope I was going into one of the most entertaining B-films of all time... sadly the title and box art lies making this one pissed off cult movie fanatic.

The film opens promisingly enough with Bruce Lee's gravestone getting hit with a lightning bolt and Bruce jumping out of his 6' foot resting place, but that's the extent of "Bruce Lee" in the film. This opening has nothing to do with the rest of the film! The plot is just more forgettable revenge exposition. This time we have actor Bruce Lea (God I love these martial artists stage names!) traveling to Los Angeles only to find one of his friends has been killed. After his funeral he sets out to find his friends killers and finds a love interest along the way. This plot device has been used in what seems to be thousands of martial arts movies, and far better executed. One aspect I did find hilarious and unintentionally funny is that throughout most of the first act of the film, Bruce Lea wears a sheet around his neck hold a box of his friends remains. The kicker is the front of the box contains a picture of his friend! Lea walking around L.A. in this ridiculous get-up had me on the floor laughing! The rest of the film is typical poor filmmaking at its worst, surprisingly including poorly choreographed fights! If your making a Bruceploitation film the filmmakers at least should have the decency to include good choreographed fights!

This Bruceploitation gem is well known in the interesting subgenre but that's mostly due to its title and poster artwork. Trust me, this isn't nearly the cheesy "goodness" those two aspects promise! It may not be the worst Bruceploitation film ever made, but it is definitely bottom drawer material.

Bonus Rant: This film remains in public domain hell so there are shit tons of varying quality DVDs available. In my research I found the Echo Bridge Entertainment disc to be the "best quality" so that is the version I decided to purchase. It's also a company I tend to trust when it comes to cult films like Bruceploitation films. Sadly their DVD also royally sucks. First of all it's a direct transfer from a poor VHS copy (VHS blips show up every once in a while). That I can actually live with as I don't expect great picture quality when it comes to Bruceploitation trash. The part that bugs the shit out of me with this DVD is that the film is in the wrong aspect ratio! The film is in "full screen" but the image shows up squished making everyone look tall. Changing my picture on my TV to widescreen helps a little but it still isn't right. God I fucking hate DVD companies and their treatment for these trash martial arts films! I might as well paid less for a shittier DVD as no doubt all the different DVDs have the exact same shitty transfer with the wrong picture ratio!

Written By Eric Reifschneider

Legend Of Bruce Lee, The - 1.5/5

Beyond the unofficial sequels and rip-offs, there's another subgenre of the notorious Bruceploitation genre... and that is the biopic. Yes, The Legend of Bruce Lee is a so-called "biopic" of real life fighter turned-actor Bruce Lee's tragic short life. Considering this is a "Bruceploitation" film we can expect this cheap cash-in to be real fucking accurate to true events. If you can't tell I am being very fucking sarcastic.

The film opens with a woman holding a child while traveling on a barge. We then hear a ridiculous whistle on the soundtrack and a man states something to the effect that the child is special because of the of comet that passed over. The film is so god damn cheap they couldn't even show a cheap optical effect of a comet, they have to resort to a shitty whistle sound? From that moment I knew I was in for another forgettable Bruce Lee cash-in.

The rest of the plot is standard cheap martial arts thrills. We jump to our "Bruce Lee" character as a young adult (played by Bruce Le, and that isn't a typo) and the plot pretty much has him and his school chums get into a fight, Bruce going to his new martial arts teacher, getting another fight, etc. I've seen martial arts films like this a hundred times before and much much better.

This is my first experience with Bruceploitation star Bruce Le as all my previous ventures into the notorious subgenre have been with actor Bruce Li. Fans of this interesting genre tend to think Le is a better martial artist. This may be true but I find that Le lacks the screen presence of Li. Again it's hard to judge this by only one film but as is I would much rather watch a Li vehicle. This film also was just uninteresting and nothing in this film is true to the life of Bruce Lee, despite being a so called "biopic." You want a biopic film that follows true events, then go watch Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story.

Overall all we get is another forgettable, cheaply made martial arts film that's only claim to "fame" is that it's based on the true life of Bruce Lee. Apparently there were a number of these "biopic" Bruceploitation films, some even starring my preferred Bruceploitation star Bruce Li. Maybe it's just me but I prefer my Bruceploitation films to be a little more ridiculous, over-the-top, and in bad taste.

Written By Eric Reifschneider

Fists Of Bruce Lee - 1/5

A more appropriate title would be "Fisting Bruce Lee" as this abomination literally rapes the good reputation of the legendary fighter turned actor. I even went into this film expecting a poor Bruce Lee martial arts knock off and that's what I got but is far less enjoyable then other films in the notorious Bruceploitation genre.

This Bruce Li vehicle this time has our look-alike star as a secret agent going undercover as a security camera installer to bring down a major crime lord. While doing so he falls in love with his daughter and starts to have moral quarrels with himself while kicking the ass out of goons that pop up at every street corner.

This awful excuse for a martial arts film is a poor man's rip-off James Bond. It's so bad that's its even the white soaked excrement of "Black Eagle" which in turn is a poor man's rip-off James Bond. The first act of the film literally plays like James Bond film except on fast forward. The fast pace is not in the films favor as it is so poorly edited, written, and directed that one can't follow what the hell is going on. Who is he a secret agent for? It bounces around so much that one cannot follow. Bruce Li must have found something in the plot worthwhile because not only does he star in it, he also fucking directs it as well! A fighter turned director... no wonder the directing is so shitty. I'm talking about poor zooms, shaky pans, and sequences that are even out of focus. Come on Bruce! Was money so tight on this production that he had to pretend to be director as well? Thank God this is only one of two directorial jobs he took. The dialogue... oh the dialogue! One character even tells Bruce Li that "when we meet next time, we'll either be friends or enemies." What?! That's the most asinine statement I have ever heard! That's like saying while going into an elevator "next time we will either go up or down." NO SHIT! To top it off this film steals it's score from not one, not two, but three James Bond films. There is musical cues stolen from Live and Let Die, The Man With the Golden, and The Spy Who Loved Me. I think I burst a vein when I heard the awesome main theme to Live and Let Die during a chase scene. This film is so cheap and shitty that it even has the balls to steal scores from the very series it's ripping off!

I usually have a soft spot for these shameless Bruce Lee knock-offs as I enjoy their low-budget cheesiness but Fists of Bruce Lee is a step below the other films in the bunch mostly thanks to none-existent directing and plot flow. Go watch Exit the Dragon, Enter the Tiger or Chinese Connection 2 before degrading to this drivel.

Bonus Rant Part I: This DVD of this film has the absolute worst Pan & Scan from widescreen transfer I have ever seen! There are sequences with characters talking to one another but you can't see either of the characters because the pan & scan blows up the film between them! In order to make the titles during the title sequence fit the screen they even stretch the film so all the character's look ten feet tall!

Bonus Rant Part II: What is up with some of these Bruceploitation titles using the name "Bruce Lee" in the title? That's like calling The Beastmaster "The Biceps of Arnold Schwarzenegger" despite Arnold not being in the film. These titles are just annoying!

Written By Eric Reifschneider

Image Of Bruce Lee, The - 2/5

It's one thing for a Bruceploitation film title to call itself a sequel to a Bruce Lee movie (Chinese Connection 2) or even rip-off or reference another Bruce Lee movie title (Exit the Dragon, Enter the Tiger) but for a title to actually put the name "Bruce Lee" in it... well that's just a whole new low even by Bruceploitation standards!

Here we have another cheesy 70's urban martial arts film in the vein of Exit the Dragon, Enter the Tiger. The film opens with a rather unintentionally funny sequence with a man about to commit suicide by jumping off a building. In comes Bruce Li, a member of "special squad" (doesn't that term have the most attractive blah ring to it?), climbing up the building to save the jumpers life (Li is even adorning a yellow jump suit, no doubt a reference to Bruce Lee's yellow jump suit he wore in the few sequences he filmed for Game of Death). Hilariously while Li is trying to save the guy while jumping, he grabs his arm which just happens to be an artificial limb and it comes off! I've never seen a suicide sequence so unintentionally funny! Apparently the guy committed suicide because he was paid with counterfeit money for diamonds. So Li and another cop are assigned to the case to track down the counterfeiter (who is briefed to Li in an god awfully boring slide show presentation!). Lots of fights and unintentional laughter ensue.

I have to admit that Li and his partner have to be the WORST cops ever. It seems every time they are tailing a character they get caught and then a short fight occurs. I kid you not this happens over a half a dozen times! Li follows guy in car, gets spotted, fight ensues. Li taking pictures of compound in a tree, gets caught, then a fight ensues. Our cops even plant a microphone in a suspects motel room, but they leave the thing in plain sight! Come on guys! However our villains aren't all that smart either. When they meet a contact at the airport, the contact says she will be wearing big sunglasses. Some clue this is, everyone in the 70's wore big sunglasses! She even has the gale to put the sunglasses on very obviously in front of her contacts. It's so goddamn obvious that the most inept pedestrian could see there was some fishy meeting going on. The villains even pull a dumbass James Bond antagonist stunt by tieing up our cops in a room to die by gas, and then leave with no one watching the room to make sure they don't escape. Why didn't' they just shoot the bastards!

Overall the filmmakers seem to know exactly what they're making here. It's a Bruce Lee rip-off and they make no attempt to hide it. One character even tells our star Bruce Li that he should be a movie star because he looks exactly like Bruce Lee. Ironically I believe that's exactly how Bruce Li's career began with those very same words spoken to him. Fans of ultra cheesy kung fu cinema will find plenty to like but I wouldn't rank this better than Exit the Dragon, Enter the Tiger. That film has a little more flair in the directing and it was just overall more shameless entertainment.

Bonus Rant: One thing I did find strange about this film is that the American edit I have on DVD has no star or crew credits. There's an opening title card also showing the distributor and film rating, but no cast or crew credited. The end credits just simply say "The End". Hey guys, this may not be art but give the people credit where credit is due! They worked hard on this drivel!

Written By Eric Reifschneider

Chinese Connection 3 [Fist Of Fury III] - 2/5

Bruce Li returns yet again for one more sequel to Bruce Lee's classic The Chinese Connection (aka Fist of Fury) to round out a trilogy. Typical with franchises, even low-budget B-martial arts films, the series grows stale and Fist of Fury III (or Chinese Connection 3... sick of these alternate titles yet?) proves the simple plot of the first film wasn't strong enough to be strung out through a series of three films (god forbid 4 films if you count New Fist of Fury).

Chinese Connection 3 picks up not long after the events of Chinese Connection 2 with Bruce Li returning home after avenging his Brother's death and defeating the Japanese from taking over his martial arts school. Sadly trouble follows and Li strangely enough runs into some Japanese while walking through a field! A fight ensues, he easily wins and is re-united with his mother and younger brother. The Japanese are still upset that he destroyed their martial arts school and killed its instructors so they come up with a complicated plan to get revenge which includes building a Casino in his home town. Li in the mean time visits his uncle which runs a martial arts school and the Japanese put their plan forward by killing off his family members and getting Li accused of rape and murder. Not surprisingly Li sets out for revenge.

Li again is adequate and the fights are well staged but the dubbing is god awful and ruins any sort of emotion he could possibly emote. His character starts off the same calm and collected person he was in the last picture but by the end of the film he is completely psychotic, reminding me of Bruce Lee's high strung character of the original film. I really dug this as I never really felt that Li truly got angry in the last picture but the Japanese finally pushed him over the edge here! The rest of the cast is typical stock characters for B-martial arts pictures which of course includes the typical love interest.

The film overall seems poorly made, even for a B-picture. The editing, poor score, and novice directing don't add anything to a rather uninteresting plot. What's odd about this sequel is it gets away from the rival martial arts school aspect of the first two films. Sure it still has the Japanese as the villains but I missed the school rivalry portion of the plot. I guess this was the filmmakers way of making this sequel a little different but I just found the story completely uninteresting. I do however like the third act of the film when Li does go off the deep end and goes completely nuts to get revenge. His rage mixed with ominous rainy weather did get me more engrossed but the film strangely has too many climaxes. As soon as you think he beats the head bad guy, another one shows up and another fight ensues. It just became ridiculous after a while. I did find the idea of giving Li a sidekick to have potential but the filmmakers decided to go nowhere with this idea and the potential side-kick falls flat on his face.

I found this third entry worth a watch but overall it was just rather uninteresting. Perhaps with better filmmakers would this have been a rousing martial arts movie but as is it just left me a little hallow inside. Like usual with these post-Bruce Lee Bruceploitation films we get graced with an ultra shitty DVD of it in America. This DVD makes my DVDS for Chinese Connection 2 and Exit the Dragon look like Criterion releases! The film has horrible compression artifacts and the audio transfer that has high pitched cracking whenever a character talks. Perhaps with a actual good transfer of the film I would have enjoyed it more but for now I'm stuck with this shit DVD. Ironically the film is in a double feature with New Fist of Fury, that "other" sequel to Fist of Fury starring Jackie Chan.

Bonus Rant: When this film was released on VHS by Video Gems, they wrongly put the title Fist of Fury II on the video box art when it should have been a "III." This caused a whole lot of confusion among fans and I myself was confused when I bought it on VHS. They also must not have realized that Fist of Fury I & II were released in America as Chinese Connection 1 & 2 respectively so technically there was no Fist of Fury I or II! Dumbass video distributors just don't give these Bruceploitation films any respect!

Written By Eric Reifschneider

Exit The Dragon, Enter The Tiger - 2.5/5

Should I feel ashamed that "Exit the Dragon, Enter the Tiger" is one of my all time favorite guilty pleasure films? If I were a relative of Bruce Lee I would be appalled by this shameless cash-in on his death but thankfully I'm not and I can enjoy this cash-in for being one of the most entertaining B-martial arts films ever made.

The plot is extremely strange and literally uses many elements of Bruce Lee's real death for story devices. The film opens with actor Bruce Li visiting Bruce Lee (also played by Bruce Li) on the set of making "Enter the Dragon." Bruce Lee tells Li that he is his true successor and that he has been receiving strange phone calls. Lee than says, get this, "If I Die, find out why." Seriously I am not making this shit up! We are then given a collage of newspaper clippings of Lee's death and in the films most tacky move actually uses real footage of Lee's funeral. Li, appalled by the death of Lee, is bound determined to find out what really killed him and finds out that Bruce was being blackmailed by a drug lord to smuggle drugs. When Lee refused, he was murdered. I say again I am not making this shit up! Lee then single handedly takes on the drug cartel and fight after fight ensues.

Only in Hong Kong would such a disrespectful film get made but I can't help it.... I had a hell of a fun time with its tacky story. The plot is ridiculous and the dialogue is full of hilariously dubbed dialogue. Here is an example "There was a dragon. And here is a tiger. And we know that tigers don't travel alone. We're not afraid of the jungle." Bruce Li again impresses me with his martial arts ability and the film is filled with his talent. I do find it funny how Li is always lured away from urban areas into junk yards or abandoned factories for his major fights. The directing for the most part isn't that bad (compared to the dialogue) and director Tso Nam Lee gets some great shots, especially at the end of the film with a climatic fight on a shoreline with waves splashing over our hero and antagonist. I also enjoyed the urban, 70's environment (with a funky 70's score no less) as opposed to being a period piece like most other Bruceploitation flicks at the time.

Sadly "Exit the Dragon, Enter the Tiger" will never get respect as a good martial arts film mostly due to the fact the plot disrespects and insults the good name of Bruce Lee. Beyond that I had an great time with the solid fight sequences, bad dialogue, cheesy 70's villains and setting. Fans of martial arts B-movies should have a great time as long as they didn't know real Bruce Lee personally. This is Bruceploitation and its most shameless and most entertaining. Followed by "Return of the Tiger."

Bonus Rant: Like every other Bruceploitation film ever made, Exit the Dragon gets another poor DVD release. The picture ratio was all fucked up on the release I have from Trinity Home Entertainment. The film is letterboxed but everyone is stretched out in full screen mode and everyone is fat when I turned my TV to anamorphic widescreen. Thankfully my techwiz friend Bill comes to my rescue yet again and was able to fix it. It seems that the menu and the video file were both encoded to be 16:9 anamorphic widescreen, but the info bits on the DVD flagged them both as 4:3. Mistakes like this on DVDs just piss me off. Don't DVD companies have any quality control anymore?!

Written By Eric Reifschneider

Chinese Connection 2 [Fist Of Fury II] - 2.5/5

After the death of Bruce Lee a slew of imitators followed to cash in on his death. A number of films even got made to sequelize his few trend setting films. The Chinese Connection (aka Fist of Fury), arguably his best Hong Kong picture, inspired two sets of sequels after Bruce's tragic departure from this Earth. The first film was New Fist of Fury starring young and up-coming star Jackie Chan. The second was Chinese Connection 2 (aka Fist of Fury Part Two) starring none other than Bruce Li. It's highly debated among fans about what sequel is better but most, including myself, tend to go with Chinese Connection 2. I mean the filmmakers here had the balls to put a "2" in the title. To me that says they wanted to make a truer sequel as opposed to a film adding the trendy Hong Kong word "new" to an already popular film title.

The connection to the first film is actually a lot stronger than I expected. To be honest I was just expecting some trashy kung fu film with a Bruce Lee look-a-like that had no plot connection and just used the title just to cash-in on an already popular film. This is not the case. The film starts up right after the amazing ending to The Chinese Connection. For those of you that don't remember, Bruce Lee at the end of the film did an amazing jump kick at a group of policemen only to be shot down. This film begins with his character's funeral where-upon his girlfriend (covered with a hood, no doubt because they couldn't get the same actress) commits suicide on his coffin. Holy shit! Right away the film lets the audience know this isn't going to have the tongue-in-cheek moments that the original had. After his funeral it seems the rival Japanese school is still pissed off at the events of the first film and continue to kill members of Chinese martial arts school in order to shut it down. In comes Bruce Li as Chen Shen, brother of Bruce Lee's character Chen Zhen to save the school from the ruthless Japanese.

I came out impressed on the attempted continuity between this and the first Chinese Connection especially since this is essentially an "unofficial" sequel . Sure it opens with a rather clunky flashback sequence to the first picture using still photographs but after that it jumps right in to continue the story. Actor Chen Zhen returning also helped the connection playing the same teacher character here as he did the first time around. Still, despite this, there are some continuity errors. First of all the martial arts school looks NOTHING like it did in the Chinese Connection. The school in the first film was in an urban environment with cobble streets, street lamps, etc. but here the schools seem to be set in a rural area. I can't be too picky about this as no doubt the filmmakers weren't allowed to use the same sets the original was filmed on due to this film not being a Golden Harvest production. Other than that little quibble I can get past the other little continuity errors.

I was also impressed with actor Bruce Li and not for the simple fact he looks EXACTLY like the late great Bruce Lee. This was my first ever Bruceploitation film experience and I went into it expecting complete shit from its lead star who shamelessly made his stage name look similar to the guy he was replacing. To my surprise he's not a terrible actor, for kung fu film sake, and a damn fine fighter to boot. He definitely lacks the charm and eccentric fighting style of Lee but for a cheap clone, he's not bad at all. Now that I've seen many more films in the Bruceploitation subgenre I can honestly say he is my favorite of Lee's "clones". His character in the film is also the polar opposite of Lee's character in the original. Lee's character was always on edge like he was going to burst out in a psychotic rage and also hid from the law whereas Li's character is calm and collective, trying to figure out differences with words before fists while working with the law. I thought this was an interesting twist by the filmmakers to make his character different and not just some rehash but the Kung Fu lover in me did miss the psychotic episodes of Lee's high strung character.

The film however suffers from a low budget, clunky editing, and what seems to be a novice director who likes to use plenty of shaky zooms. The fight sequences are well choreographed but come nowhere near as good as the classic Lee battles of the original film. I also didn't feel threatened by the films Japanese villains. I truly hated the villains of the original but here they are just wishy-washy and I feel they were no match for Bruce Li's character.

Overall this is surprisingly not a terrible sequel to The Chinese Connection. The film could use some more flair behind the camera, better production values and characters but for the most part I came out being happily surprised the film was better than an average Bruce Lee rip-off. Bruce Li would actually return for one more sequel entitled Fist of Fury III (which was never retitled to Chinese Connection 3). That third film confusingly got released on VHS in America with the title Fist of Fury II on the box art by Video Gems despite this film being Fist of Fury II. It was a mistake on Video Gems' part and it caused a lot of confusion among martial arts fans wanting see the films in order.

Bonus Rant: It seems these Bruceploitation films never got respect when released on VHS and they still don't on DVD. The DVD I have is transferred from a washed out beat-up print which also seems to be cultivated from a few different sources (some scenes even look VHS sourced!). The film was also pan-and-scanned from its original widescreen aspect ratio and this extremely hurts the film. There were sequences where Bruce Li was pointing to some character off camera and I couldn't see what character he was pointing to! I wish some company would pick up these films, clean them up and give them proper release.

Written By Eric Reifschneider