Own the rights?
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
Quincy M.E.: Touch of Death starts on the set of the 'new Bruce Lee' kung-fu film star Tad Kimura during the shooting of his latest picture, after a carefully staged martial arts fight sequence Kimura drops down dead. Los Angeles coroner Quincy (Jack Klugman) is called, the death of Kimura is more poignant & meaningful than usual as he was Sam's (Robert Ito) nephew. Initial examination suggests a heart attack while Lt. Monahan (Garry Walberg) finds a large bag of cocaine in Kimura's trailer, Quincy is unsure of the cause of death & has to perform an autopsy but Sam has followed traditional Japanese customs & taken Tad's body to his grieving father (Cho-Li Chi) who has forbidden an autopsy. Quincy is stuck in the middle, he doesn't want to hurt or upset anyone particularly Sam but he has to carry out an autopsy. Quincy insists & Sam resigns as once the autopsy is complete there are more questions than answers as usually people's liver don't just explode for no reason...Episode 10 from season 3 this Quincy story was directed by Alexander Singer & is one of those infamous camp classic Quincy episodes which when viewed today has so many unintentionally funny moments it's hard to take seriously but does provide 50 minutes worth of inoffensive fun. Apparently this episode was inspired by the mysterious death surrounding the real life kung-fu mega-star Bruce Lee after taking a headache tablet a few years earlier & the similarities are obvious to say the least, like a lot of Quincy episodes there's a moral message to Touch of Death in that you must obey local customs & live in the future rather than the past, now that's the boring bit out of the way there's lots here to laugh along with & entertain. The masked ninja assassin who attacks Quincy & breaks his arm before Quincy fights him off with a wine bottle, the hilarious scene when the fat guy from Goldfinger (1964) breaks the bricks using the 'vibrating palm' technique & the scene at the end as when the killer is revealed they decides to jump out of an apartment block window to fall 100's of feet to their death below! They didn't even open the window first either. If that wasn't enough Quincy gets a new lab assistant when Sam quits & she's a good looking girl named Lilly who then quits herself a few days later which means Sam can be reinstated after changing his mind, it's amazing how things work out eh?Touch of Death sees a few firsts in Quincy, we see the inside of Sam's apartment for the first (maybe only) time & not content with lab work during the day he has a mini lab set up in his living room, there's a martial arts fight straight out of a kung-fu flick & Quincy is attacked by a ninja assassin which I also believe was the first time this happened. The cheesy happy comedy ending is also much better than usual, after working with Lilly it turns out her coffee is terrible so as a leaving/marriage present Quincy & the boy's buy her a coffee maker! You get the irony? Pure comedy genius! There's no other words for it. The cast are alright here with a surprise appearance by Harold Sakata of the man with the razor brimmed bowler hat Oddjob from the James Bond flick Goldfinger fame, he's dubbed here in the most awful way possible & sounds ridiculous.Touch of Death isn't a great Quincy episode, the murder mystery isn't that great & the moral message is rather outdated but there are some truly classic so bad it's funny moments & while not as hilarious as the infamous Next Stop, Nowhere (1982) from season eight this is still pretty entertaining to watch.
You may report errors and omissions on this page to the IMDb database managers. They will be examined and if approved will be included in a future update. Clicking the 'Update' button will take you through a step-by-step process.
