Tagline: The first American produced martial arts spectacular!
Curiosity: I love Brandon Lee’s movies, but my knowledge of his father’s work is minor at best. City Paper editor Drew Lazor showed me one where Lee fights Kareem Abdul-Jabbar with the sound off and RJD2’s Deadringer cranked up, but that’s about it. So, I figured I’d start here.
Plot: Three men – Lee (uh, Lee), Roper (John Saxon, Nightmare on Elm Street), and Williams (Jim Kelly) – enter a martial arts tournament hosted by drug lord/pimp/one-handed death machine Han (Kien Shih). Roper has debts to pay, Williams could use the adventure, and Lee is out to A) take down Han’s drug cartel and B) avenge the death of his sister (Angela Mao). He’s gonna have to fight an awful lot of guys to get there, though.
Thoughts: The DVD version I own includes scenes cut from the original edit, mostly of Lee expounding on Chinese philosophy. I’m glad they were included, as they allow the actor to briefly explain bits of his culture and fighting style in between dishing out whoop-ass for suckers. I dug the fighting more, though.
No offense to Kelly or Saxon, but Lee’s fight scenes are the film’s highlights. In fact, I was a little bummed that Lee never went up against Bolo Yeung of Bloodsport fame. Yeung instead goes up against Saxon, and while their fight is decent, it fades from the memory compared to Lee’s fluid hits. That said, “the other guys” provide entertainment of a different sort – B-movie excellence. Kelly feels like he just stepped out of a blaxploitation film – he’s got an afro, a love of kung fu, a voracious sexual appetite, and a
I was also struck by the final battle, in which Lee takes on Han in a room full of mirrors. It’s visually stunning, doubly so since the filmmakers didn’t have access to digital editing. Extreme care had to be taken to keep the camera out of the shots. Of course, I also enjoyed this non-violent face-off as well:
It’s nice to know Lee could be funny on occasion.
Reflection: OH HEY I LIKE ONE OF THE MOST FAMOUS MARTIAL ARTS FILMS OF ALL TIME.
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