The Black Dragon's Revenge (1975)

There was much money to be made from Bruce Lee's death* for sure. In this film Ron Van Clief goes to HK to discover the truth about Bruce's death with the help of his friend Charles Bonet. However his method of investigation leaves a lot to be desired, some basic questioning and lots and lots of random fighting.

Meanwhile another group are also trying to find out the truth, and they also get into lots of fights. The bad guys want to stop the truth getting out of course. What is the truth about Bruce Lee's death? Well that is never made clear though every conspiracy theory under the sun is given an airing, amid the endless fights.

Well the story is nonsense but the martial arts is decent. It is also great to see so much of HK in the 1970s.

* Though of course we all know his death was faked and really he was recalled to the Shaolin Temple.

Treasure of Bruce Lee (1979)

Bruceploitation films are not always bad, some indeed are pretty good even if they are shameless cash-ins on Bruce Lee's name, but Treasure of Bruce Lee is pretty mediocre. Master Chen is training four pupils including Bruce Le. With the Japanese poised to invade China, Master Chen knows the importance of his ancient skills, details of which are kept in a book... which the Japanese led by Vivian Velasco are desperate to get.

Master Chen challenges his four pupils to protect the book, though one of them Cha Ya-Fan turns out to be a traitor. So far so good (if unsurprising) but then the film makers decided to splice in footage from another Bruce Le film which throws everything into confusion...

So it could have been a reasonable martial arts film but everything just goes wrong. The scenes showing kung fu training though is interesting. Everything else is... not so much.

Day of the Panther (1988)

There haven't been many Australian martial arts films but this is one of them and while largely unexceptional is a fun enough ride.

Jason Blade (Edward John Stazak) is a top martial artist and special branch officer in HK who comes to Perth after his partner Linda (Linda Megier) is killed investigating the criminal Zukor (Michael Carmen) by his head henchman Baxter (James Richards).

Blade joins Zukor's gang as part of his plan to get close and finally get revenge. The Perth police meanwhile want him out of town as Zukor is an important man, and a drug lord...

Well forget the plot it isn't really important. Or the (lack of) acting. These kind of films are about the fighting, and there is a lot of it. Some of it is pretty good too amid the mostly ill-judged tomfoolery and awful 80s fashions. Stazak is a pretty good fighter, which is just as well as he isn't that good an actor.

Way of the Black Dragon (1979)

Allison (Cecilia Wong) is a young Thai girl who is kidnapped by gangsters and trafficked to HK. She is just one of a number of poor girls sent to HK as drug mules and then sold to a grim life of prostitution or as wives to unsuspecting locals. Allison's fate is the latter and she is to become the wife of local worker and kung fu expert Chen (Carter Wong). When Chen finds out the real reason Allison was in HK he wants to help her get back home to Thailand (and marry her for real) but she'll also need the help of US agent Bill (Ron Van Clief)...

Along with Allison's brother Hsiao Ho (who just so happens to be a handy fighter too) our heroes work to bring down the evil syndicate led a rather laughable gwailo villain. There are a lot of fights, many of them rather random (the film makes little sense of course). The film starts off rather slow though improves a lot when Van Clief finally makes an appearance about half way through the film. The action then comes pretty thick and fast.

Sometimes sleazy, often violent, none of the film really makes a lot of sense but for a chopsocky 70s martial arts action film it does the job. The quality of the film making is rather suspect but the terrible dubbing makes the nonsense entertaining.

Enter the Game of Death (1978)

Shameless Bruceploitation, it even rips off music (and much else) from real Bruce Lee films. This film starring Bruce Le is based on Game of Death's original concept...

The Chinese resistance need a document detailing Japanese plans of invasion, the document is hidden on the top floor of a tower, each floor guarded by specialist kung fu fighters (even a snake man). Bruce Le goes in, wearing a jump suit (where have we seen this before)...

Although terrible in many ways with the meagre story just a skeleton for a lot of fight scenes, the film is entertaining especially as Bruce Le tries to squeeze in as many Bruce Lee-isms as he can. The film is a kind of mash-up of the greatest hits of the Bruce Lee canon. The numerous fights with the always excellent Bolo Yeung are a highlight.

Fist of Fury (1972)

For this blog's five hundredth review the first martial arts film i ever saw, it was life changing...

Enter the Dragon was the breakthrough hit for Bruce but Fist of Fury remains the classic martial arts movie, and the classic Bruce Lee film. The story is fairly simple and nationalistic in parts and seldom subtle. Set in Shanghai before the Second World War, the teacher of a Chinese kung fu school is poisoned. His star student Bruce Lee returns home to investigate what happened to his teacher and doesn't have to look far to find out it is the evil Japanese led by Mr Suzuki (Chikara Hashimoto) who have killed him...

The story plays heavily on the racial prejudice the Chinese suffered in Shanghai in the early twentieth century. Bruce is set on revenge and is willing to pay the ultimate price to achieve it. Therefore the story is pretty predictable. But this is not a film for story telling it is a film for action.

The action is out of this world, the fight scenes in the Japanese bushido school are quite simply perfect examples of martial arts action. Perfectly paced and truly explosive. Scenes such as Sick Man of Asia at the start and Bruce fighting with his nunchakus have become iconic. It is a great film but incredibly violent as you might imagine.

It was the first martial arts film I ever saw, I started with one of the best.

Death Promise (1977)

Low budget 70s martial arts antics.

Residents at an apartment block are under pressure from unscrupulous landlords who want to kick them out so they can make millions from selling the land. The landlords happily use every dirty trick they can to try and kick out the residents (like releasing rats in the block and even burning it down) as they are evil.

Louis (Bob O'Connell) is leading the residents against the landlords but when he is killed his son Charley (Charles Bonet) decides to use his knowledge of the martial arts to get revenge amid much awkward violence...

So it is complete nonsense and looks like it had a budget of about $5 but is a lot of (unintentional of course) fun. Most of the fighting looks like kids pretending to be Bruce Lee but that's OK, if you are going to copy someone copy the best!

Kill and Kill Again (1981)

Low budget martial arts films of the 1970s and 1980s seldom made much sense but this South African film takes that to another (low) level...

Dr Kane (John Ramsbottom) has developed a way to produce gasoline from potatoes, a side effect of this is a powerful mind control drug. A criminal mastermind called Marduk (Michael Mayer) kidnaps Kane and wants to use the drug to create a perfect society of slaves and take over the world!

Martial artist Steve Chase (John Ryan) is recruited to rescue Kane and stop Marduk. He assembles a motley crew of martial arts stereotypes (big guy, zen master, jokey guy) and they head off to take on Marduk and his army of goons in matching t-shirts...

The film is complete nonsense, the action comes thick and fast but is fairly light. The tone is fairly jokey and heavily cheesy. Even for films of this genre it has so many plot holes and unexplained elements as to defy belief. It is watchable just because it is so so strange and terrible.

They Call Him Chop Suey (1975)

They Call Him Chop Suey (also known as "Sudden Kill") is an enjoyable Filipino Bruceploitation movie starring Ramon Zamora (the Filipino "Bruce Lee") as Chop-Suey.

Chop-Suey is a kitchen worker in HK who returns to Manila after his uncle dies. Chop-Suey is obsessed with Bruce Lee but unlike some films with similar characters Chop-Suey actually is pretty good at kung-fu...

Chop-Suey starts working for his auntie at a struggling Chinese restaurant, struggling for customers and the onerous protection cash demands from mobster Mr Jackson (Romeo Rivera). Very soon Chop-Suey is fighting the mob and catching the eye of Jackson's girl (Jennifer Kaur)...

The story line makes little sense but it is just a vague framework to hang on a number of very acceptable action set pieces. There is some goofy humour in the film though also some pretty brutal violence, some the characters are a bit rape-y too. It is an unholy mix which just about manages to keep your attention.

Bruce Lee Against Supermen (1975)

James Ho starred in a number of cash-ins (sometimes known as "Bruceploitations") on Bruce Lee's name and the worldwide phenomenon of kung fu movies in the 1970s, billed as Bruce Li. In this film he even appears as Kato, the character Bruce Lee appeared as in the Green Hornet!

Dr Ting has developed a formula which could revolutionise food production. Naturally the Mob want that formula for themselves so try to kidnap Dr Ting and his daughter Alice (who is Kato's girlfriend). To fight the Mob (who have "Superman" (Lung Fei) in their ranks and a group of mimes) and Kato enlists his friends who are apparently superheroes... or wear masks and capes anyway.

The film has plenty of decent (but not exceptional) martial arts fighting but the plot leaves a lot to be desired. In fact the film makes no sense whatsoever. Now of course coherent and multi-layered plotting is not the point of films like this but it could have done with a little more direction to be honest. Dr Ting gets kidnapped then rescued then kidnapped again he must not know if he is coming or going by the end. The soundtrack includes prog rock and Kraftwerk, but that's not the weirdest thing about this movie.

Enter the Dragon (1973)

For this blog's two hundredth review another of our all-time favourite films...

Enter the Dragon was Bruce Lee at his zenith, his breakthrough into international pop culture and cinema. Alas he died not long after completing the film so was never able to capitalise on the buzz it created - as indeed it did. The kung-fu craze in the 70s and beyond was largely due to this film.

Enter the Dragon took martial arts films out of their traditional Chinese mindset (though it is still set largely in Hong Kong) and added Western action elements. The result is fantastic, and also pretty epic in it's 70s-ness.

Bruce Lee is hired by British intelligence official Braithwaite (Geoffrey Weeks) to join a martial arts tournament by Han (Shih Ken) to gain intelligence on Han's suspected drug smuggling and other criminal activities. Joining Lee in this tournament are gambler Roper (John Saxon) and Williams (Jim Kelly) who both have different reasons for being there but get drawn into the game between Lee and Han. Of course it all ends in an epic fight.

The storyline isn't much to get excited about (though if you like i did once review the novelisation) but the action is intense, mixed with cool early 70s funky style. It also has a final showdown in a hall of mirrors.

The Leopard Fist Ninja (1982)

The funny thing about Leopard Fist Ninja is that it doesn't actually include any ninjas...

Much of the film is a reasonable but unexceptional kung fu film set in the mysterious Chinese past... apart from the random appearance of the occasional black and white fighter.

The plot is (as you might expect) a bit hard to follow and not exactly original. The Japanese (who are evil of course) had invaded our heroes' land when they were children and killed their parents. Then they are sent to learn martial arts so they can avenge them. Et cetera...

Of course these films are generally not viewed for the story (which is just as well) but for the fighting so luckily there is a lot of fighting in the film and it isn't bad action at all.

As a film Leopard Fist Ninja is OK though adding "ninja" to the title was obviously a cash-in on the 80s ninja craze and seems a bit silly. The film was directed by Godfrey Ho (which explains the ninjas) though he didn't do his infamous trick where he spliced the film with footage from another completely different one. Which in this case is probably a shame.

Tiger On The Beat 2 (1990)

Tiger On The Beat was an excellent HK action movie starring Chow Yun Fat and this sequel is... well not really a sequel at all. In fact as far as I can tell it has nothing at all to do with the original.

The only connection to the first movie is that it also stars Conan Lee (though not playing the same character) and is a crime/action film set in HK. It's not a bad film by any means though it is a bit disjointed.

There is a plot (of sorts) involving an error prone HK cop (Danny Lee) and his lazy American born nephew (Conan) who is visiting him, plus a prostitute (Ellan Chan) and a stolen ring. Don't let the plot worry you too much though, it is often fairly incidental in these kinds of films.

The first half of the film has that strange though enjoyable HK movie mixture of comedy and ultraviolence and the usual goofy characters.

In the second half though the action ups a gear and the final action showpiece is pretty spectacular (martial arts on a bus, i loved that obviously). Tiger on the Beat 2 is enjoyable if uneven film and not that original, it probably would have been better to have given it a stand alone title but lets not worry too much about that.

American Ninja (1985)

Ninja films were all the rage for a time in the 1980s, this might be considered the high point of the genre. At least it looks like it had a budget of more than 20p.

The story is fairly basic: it starts a boy who has grown up on the wrong side of the tracks (Michael Dudikoff) but is now in the US Army gets tangled up with ninjas but has their skills himself. He is later found to have been bought up by a Japanese soldier/ninja but has forgotten his past due to amnesia (of course).

Meanwhile a black marketeer is stealing US Army weapons and hiring ninjas. Now it falls to our hero to save the day of course. So that's the story, naturally it is just a flimsy framework for a good deal of martial arts action. The action is often pretty decent and the film seldom has chance to get boring.

Naturally it is also pretty cheesy, especially when viewed nowadays. I particularly liked the evil ninja who had laser guns and mini rocket launchers.

Street Fighter (1994)

Movies based on video games are usually problematical (i.e. rubbish), Street Fighter however is quite good. Maybe because it is based only very very loosely on the game (much to the annoyance of many fans of the game).

It stars Jean Claude Van Damme as the head of a special forces unit (which includes amongst it's number Kylie Minogue - worth the price of a ticket alone for that casting) fighting brutal warlord Bison played by Raul Julia.

Julia makes the film to be honest, his portrayal of Bison is hilarious with many funny lines. The film is chock full of humour in fact, and plenty of weirdness too.

The plot? Well it involves Bison trying to take over the world with super soldiers and a mostly crew of video game characters such as Byron Mann's Ryu are trying to stop him. The plot is nothing special, it's just a fairly flimsy framework upon which to hang lots of one-liners and martial arts action on. It really shouldn't work, somehow it does.

Hawkeye (1988)

Hawkeye is a ridiculous movie but despite shoddy acting, a plot that veers between nonsense and incoherence, and poor camerawork it has a strange kind of magic that makes it worth watching.

It stars George Chung as a Las Vegas police officer who has a weird way of enforcing crime (basically shooting everyone including the victims). He is teamed up with Troy Donahue who is supposed to keep George on the straight and narrow though that doesn't last very long.

The two cops are pitched against the yakuza and mob, mayhem ensues of course. A series of action set pieces follow which make little sense (though with some decent martial arts at times) and includes a random appearance by a bazooka. Well it is that kind of film, complete nonsense and hilarious (not always intentionally).

Shatter (1974)

An attempt by Hammer Films to cash in on the early 1970s martial arts craze, Shatter stars Stuart Whitman as Shatter, an assassin who is double crossed when trying to collect his money after a successful hit in Hong Kong. He ends up on the run and being menaced by... basically everyone including the security services led by Peter Cushing.

Along the way Shatter is helped by kung-fu master Ti Lung and love interest Lily Lee through a series of fights (the fights are actually pretty good) until he gets his dollars... or gets killed.

Well the plot isn't very complicated and the story is stretched out a bit but the overall film isn't bad at all though a bit ridiculous. The main problem is Whitman looks too much of a wreck to be a supposedly top-notch hitman who can survive fighting the mob and everyone else (luckily Ti Lung does most of the fighting for him). Still if you can suspend disbelief long enough then the film is enjoyable. The nostalgia for HK is strong with this one.

Gymkata (1985)

Well it stands to reason doesn't it? Gymnastics and martial arts are a match made in heaven. Let's make a film about it...

Gymkata is a very odd film and definitely in the "so bad it's good" drawer with plenty of unintentional humour. An actual Olympic gymnast Kurt Thomas was bought in as the star (and truth be told he is a non-actor but you will see a lot worse acting in these kinds of films by people who are supposed to be professionals). Our hero is sent into a tiny Central Asian country where the US wants to put a satellite monitoring station. The reason a gymnast martial artist and not a diplomat is sent in is because this little country gets foreign visitors to take part in an extreme endurance event chased by local warriors. A cute custom though as it results in most entrants deaths it can't be doing much for the tourism industry.

Win the event however and you are granted your wish, and hence a satellite base. Which is why the US sends in Kurt Thomas and not Casper Weinberger who I suspect is not that good at kung fu.

So that's what the film is about and it is all very silly. The Central Asian country is basically still in the Middle Ages and a very dangerous land full of grotesque stereotypes and freaks. The action is good though but the gymnastics part of the film is a bit contrived, remote villages just happening to have a pair of parallel bars...

Stoner (1974)

Dating back to the early 1970s when Bruce Lee was still fresh in people's minds and kung fu and martial arts was big business worldwide (or at least the current in-thing) comes Stoner, starring George Lazenby. Bruce Lee was apparently originally set to star in this fairly standard but slightly odd film but after his untimely death it was decided to make the film anyway. Angela Mao was bought in as George's co-star. Let the hard kung-fu action begin!

There is a kind of plot, something involving an evil gangster mastermind (who has an excellent rotating desk) creating explosives and drug smuggling in his (evil of course) underground lair but the plot is just a bare frame on which to hang a sequence of pretty excellent fighting set pieces.

The result is undeniably cheesy, fairly confusing but also pretty entertaining. It is a 70s period piece and perhaps nothing that original from the time but worth seeing all the same. After all how many HK kung-fu movies had an ex-James Bond in them?!

Ninja Terminator (1985)

What's this film all about? It just doesn't make sense! It's like two separate films merged into one! Well funny you should say that...

Godfrey Ho was notorious for creating "new" movies by splicing together footage from obscure Asian martial arts films with new footage including Western actors, often those films are awful and completely incoherent but Ninja Terminator somehow works.

What makes it magic no doubt is the 1980s cheese, including tiny robots sent to give warnings, a Garfield telephone and ninjas teleporting their way through a fight scene.

The "other" film stars Jaguar Wong and has some really tasty kung fu action, with amazing fight after amazing fight. Really this film is all about fighting, take the fighting out of this film and you'd have about 5 minutes of footage. The splicing has been very well done so at times you do feel the film was all made in one go.

The ninja part of the film, with Richard Harrison as the main "ninja", leads up to an excellent conclusion. I have to say this is in my top 10 movies and my favourite ninja movie. I'm sure we all have one?