- Year: 1978
- AKA: King of Kung Fu
- Super Starring: Bruce Le
- Co-Starring: Cheung Lak, Lam Kum Fu, Yang See (Bolo Yeung), Lee Hoi San
- Directed by: Joseph Velasco
- Running time: 88 minutes
The movie opens with gwailo Keegan talking to Kawasaki and Wang about some mysterious missing Chinese document. Oh great, yet ANOTHER movie plot involving some sort of document everyone wants to get their hands on.
Next we see Bruce out in the forest punching some tree as he's training. I guess Bruce isn't an avid environmentalist. Then out of nowhere some Japanese fighters and Bolo show up and start fighting with him. No small talk first? Bruce easily handles the lackeys and throws one of them on Bolo's sword before making his exit. This whole scene feels totally cut and paste from another movie, but I guess they needed some filler to stretch out the running time.
Suddenly we're taken to a ring with Bolo fighting an opponent that ends with Bolo breaking the guy's neck. Bolo takes on fighter after fighter, defeating all of them. Then Bruce steps in the ring and after a lengthy bout, Bruce locks Bolo into a submission hold and chokes him out and wins the match. Now that Bruce has proven himself to be a strong fighter everyone wants to hire him including Keegan, Kawasaki, Wang, and Lisa, but Bruce won't be having any of that.
While out for a jog in his yellow black striped jumpsuit, Bruce is surrounded by a gang of shirtless foreign fighters. They ask Bruce to join them, but he refuses, and well you know where this is going. Being foreign you know that they can't fight and Bruce beats them all down and strolls away.
Lisa works for Keegan, but is really a double agent who is really working for the secret Chinese organization the Blue Robe. She meets with Bruce who just had a flashback about his cousin who was raped and killed by the Japanese. She convinces him to help her get back the document from Wang who is planning on selling it to the Japanese for $3 million US.
The whole up until now hasn't been anything special with nothing extraordinary happening, but now it starts to pick up. Lisa learns that Wang has the document hidden on the top floor of a tower. The tower is guarded by a gang of fighters and each floor of the tower has a skilled fighter on it. Bruce and two of Lisa's compatriots arrive at the tower. Lisa's friends fight some generic henchmen while Bruce enters the tower.
The fighter on the first floor is a monk played by Lee Hoi San, just like his character in Tower of Death. Bruce's fight with him is the longest fight movie, and for some reason all other fighters seems to get easier. The second floor fighter is the strangest and is the best 5 minutes of the whole movie. The guy is surrounded by snakes and when Bruce enters the room, he starts throwing snakes at Bruce. After Bruce starts beating him, the guy grabs a snake and bites it's head off! He spits out the head and starts spraying blood at Bruce, and the snake is gushing blood like a garden hose. Cut to a shot of Bruce with a shocked "What in the FUCK?!!" look on his face. Haha...classic. The third floor holds a white haired nunchuk fighter whose seems to use his nunchuks for extinguishing his room full of candles. The fourth floor holds two fighters, one dressed in black and another dressed in white. The fifth and final floor is a bearded mop topped fighter who is a total disappointment. For the top floor I was expecting a more extravagant fighter. They should've had the snake guy on there!
Wang has already left the tower with the document to meet the Japanese. Strange thing is that the top level of the tower is ground level! Must be one of those new horizontal towers. Wang meets with Kawasaki who instead of paying him, just kills him and takes off with the document. Bruce eventually catches up with him and kills him and Bolo. Did I mention that Kawasaki was the one who raped Bruce's cousin? Lisa who has gone ahead with the document is captured Keegan and his army of foreign fighters. Bruce fights them all as he chases after Keegan, Lisa and the document. Bruce faces off against one extremely resilient black fighter. Bruce keeps beating him down, but he just get right up only to be knocked down again, and again, and again, and all this is in slow motion...talk about tedious. Bruce catches up to Keegan who actually manages to land a few punches on Bruce. He must've been tired from beating up 25 or so fighters previous to Keegan. Not to worry, he beats Keegan and the document is saved. The movie ends with Lisa thanking Bruce who then walks off.
Not a bad Bruce Le film, but I just wish the entire movie had been like tower sequence. It was cheesier and more over the top than the rest of the film. Bruce is in Bruce Lee mode with the nose thumbing, posturing and posing, and screaming. Not only that Bruce spends half the movie dressed in his yellow jumpsuit. I'm guessing the movie takes places in the 30's prior to WWII, yet Bruce has the fashion foresight to wear the yellow jumpsuit and sneakers. Once Bruce leaves for the tower, the movie non-stop fighting, or rather "NON-STOP MARTIAL ARTS ACTION" as advertised on the box. Speaking of the box, the catalogue number for the VHS from Best Film & Film is #666!!! Yes, the sign of Satan, shocking, scary, but insignificant none-the-less.
Typical Bruce Le fare, which could've been much better if the opening half had been as much fun as the last half. Still, the entire movie can't hold a candle (what does that mean anyway?) to the Snake Guy sequence. I'm recommending you see this movie just for that part alone and I guarantee you won't be disappointed.
"Reviewed" by Keith.
