Director: Matthew Mallinson
Year: 1980
Country: Hong Kong
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Kung-Fu
Plot:
As the world gathers for a new kung-fu display, participants from around the world converge in New York to determine a possible successor to Bruce Lee. As the competitors are getting ready for the competition and the hosts are filling everyone in on the life-story behind Bruce’s obsession with martial arts, this basic background into his history and obsession with martial arts sets the stage for the ensuing bout to determine the true successor to Bruce’s legacy.
Review:
Overall, the film is a pretty tough watch. Like most Bruceploitation efforts, this one tends to alter reality in an effort to present Bruce Lee as a mythical figure that’s far different from how normal life resulted. The use of overdubbing actual interviews of Bruce to attempt to pass off the story they’re trying to tell in their film as originating from his philosophy comes off as a cheap tactic to tell a fictional tale. The meta-aspect of trying to associate the real-life actors and performers into a mix between film reality and a fictional reality makes for a hard-sell when the film goes against established knowledge of Bruce and his fate for its own purposes. That makes for an even more disjointed tale when mixed with various clips of old-school kung-fu movies that are either used to showcase a younger Bruce’s fascination with the stories of his relatives or explaining why he developed an interest in martial arts against his family’s wishes. These changes are pretty insulting to his legacy while the different film-stock for these scenes allows for a lower-quality approach to slip through.
Moreover, the main factor in the film is that these clips and shorts tend to come off as incredibly bland and dull. If you’re able to get over the insult to his legacy that emerges as a result of the over-dubbing and rearranging of his history that this one does, then you’ll find that the lack of competent action really limits the appeal of the film. The supposed fights in the competition that signal the original purpose of the film are brief, underwhelming and done entirely comical in an approach that there’s very little of interest for those expecting a full-on action-fest. The clips from the samurai movie intended to showcase the legacy of Bruce’s family are a poor substitute since these are available as a separate film rather than be associated with this film. Getting to watch actual celebs like Fred Williamson and Ron Van Clief in action are somewhat enjoyable on that front but on the whole, there’s nothing else about this one that’s worthwhile.
Overview: 0.5/5
As a continuation of Bruce’s legacy, this one is an outright travesty and way too good to be considered an insult and disgrace to his history while those looking for an action film are better left looking for the main film used as flashbacks for Bruce’s grandfather. Avoid this thing at all costs and watch an actual Bruce movie one more time or one of his more respectful tributes instead of this thing.
This review was originally published on Asian Movie Pulse and is gratefully reprinted with their cooperation.
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