Yang chun da xiong (1977)

User Rating:

4.6/10   

Directors:

Wah Chan
Chang Chee

Writers:

Wah Chan (writer)
Hsin Yi Chang (writer)

Release Date:

September 1981 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Action

Plot:

Bruce Li plays a young kung fu expert (and waiter) who is trying to live peacefully in San Francisco with his marital arts-challenged friend. But they run afoul of some American thugs, and the fight is on...right! |

Plot Keywords:

Martial Arts | Independent Film

Cast

Bruce Li	...	Bruce
Carter Wong		(as Wang Chia-Ta)
Chang Kuei
Chi-Min Chin
Alan Ellerton	...	Red and yellow fighter
Jang Lee Hwang	...	Ching Yun-Cheh (as Wang Chang-Li)
Yi Pin Our
Lin Shao Hu
Robert Kerver	...	Mr. Grace
Roy Horan	...	Charlie
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Charles Bonet
Phil Cohen	...	White and Brown fighter
Ching Chin Min
Dan Schwarz
Greg Talovic	...	Robert
Betty Ting Pei
Ping-Ao Wei	...	Wu Chi

Also Known As:

A Dragon Story
Bruce Lee's Deadly Kung Fu
Bruce Lee's Secret
Bruce Lee: A Dragon Story (USA)
Bruce Li's Jeet Kune Do
He's a Legend, He's a Hero
Master of Jeet Kun Do
Story of the Dragon (USA) (video title)
Wing Chun Big Brother (USA)

Runtime:

Spain:91 min

Country:

Hong Kong | Taiwan | USA

Language:

Cantonese | English

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Spain:18 | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | UK:18 | USA:R | Germany:16

Company:

Golden Sun Films

Way of the Dragon meets The Big Boss rip-off

Bruce Lee's death caused a large enough shadow on the kung fu martial arts movie world that, for some obsecure reason, film-makers wanted to continue making films that "had" bruce lee in them - for their own ends.

Of course this lead to disastrously bad Bruce Lee imitators (i.e. Bruce Li, Dragon Lee, etc) that would some regard as just lambasting and insulting to the Bruce Lee name - fortunately there was one Bruce Lee imitator (Sammo Hung) that would make a film worthy of Lee himself in the film "Enter the Fat Dragon".

Anyway, to this film. Firstly, if you've seen The Big Boss and/or Way of the Dragon you'll soon draw parallel's to the plot and the general feeling that you've been seen it all before.

I won't go into the plot, because basically its the same as Way of the Dragon (hero works in resturant that is taunted by some big boss type karate school with all the racial stuff thrown in).

The general 70s cliche of bad kung fu movies is apparent throughout this film, you don't know whether to laugh or cry at the clothes, the acting and the dialogue. Perhaps the worst possible example is the fact that every other character (barring a majority of the chinese) are called bob - I'm not kidding!

Admittedly, the fight sequences aren't too bad - but when you consider the only person to make a dent to the hero is veteran Hong Kong Bad guy Hwang Jang Lee you have to question the sanity of this film...why bother remaking way of the dragon when its already done?

Now of course there are silly moments throughout the film which beggers belief - why does Bob 'Bruce Lee' (the hero) who knows of Bruce Lee's paradigm of "kung fu is like running water" only become to remember of it when he's beaten. Not only that, as soon as Bob finds out what the secret is, he becomes Bruce Lee - doing war cries, doing that thing with his nose - all because he's discovered "kung fu is running water!"

Another example is this: Bruce Lee tried to step outside kung fu's barriers (this is why he wore the yellow/black jumpsuit in Game of Death) and would follow that philosophy - yet Bob 'Bruce Lee' dresses in a typically traditional kung fu styled uniform and fights the big boss bad guy who wears trainers...

Anyway, philosophy aside, this is a very bad film that tries to cash in on both Way of the Dragon and The Big Boss - the highlights are no doubt the numerous fight sequences - however they always seem to be the same thing (i.e. bunch of fighters gets hurt - their teacher goes and kicks butt, but ends up half dead - his teacher/pupils go along and fight and get beat up and then their...well you get the idea)

Perhaps the humorless resturant scenes or the unintentional comedy of a small kid manages to do special tricks with a nunchaka and uses it makes it worth seeing, I dunno - I'd personally rather see the original, enigmatic Bruce Lee in action.

Overall: 1/10 (avoid...please!)