Bruce and Shaolin Kung-Fu (1977) – A Movie A Day 2021 #57
Bruce and Shaolin Kung-Fu (1977) – A Movie A Day 2021 #57
I’m back with another $1 kung fu DVD, and back with another Bruceploitation movie. If you’re wondering what Bruceploitation is, I wrote a little bit about it in my journal entry for Bruce vs. Bill, so go check that out. If you did read that entry, then you’ll already be little familiar with the star of today’s movie of the day, Bruce Le. Trying to track down the exact date of release for today’s movie, Bruce and Shaolin Kung-Fu, is a little tricky, because I’ve seen multiple dates listed across various sites, and there are at least two movies starring Bruce Le with this exact same title in various markets. It’s another instance of people naming kung fu movies whatever they wanted to in order to try to grab people’s attention.
If I’m looking at the correct information on the Hong King Movie Database, then the Google translation for the original Chinese title is Dharma Iron Finger Skill, but various English titles include Ching Wu & Shaolin Kung Fu, Fist of Fury Part 2, and the title on the DVD I have, Bruce and Shaolin Kung Fu. To complicate matters, there’s another movie that is sometimes billed as a sequel to this with multiple similar titles, but some places have its year listed as being released prior to this movie. That’s not completely uncommon. The U.S. releases of Jackie Chan’s Operation Condor I and II were titled backwards from the original release order of the Armour of God movies which they were originally titled. But anyway, back to today’s movie.
Bruce and Shaolin Kung Fu stars Bruce Le as Lee Ching Lung. So once again, the title is referencing the actor and not any character in the movie. Lee is a powerful martial artist and one of his master’s top students. One day, the Japanese military invades China and starts shutting down all of the martial arts schools and killing anyone who resists. Lee’s brother is killed, so Lee attempts to get revenge. Lee fights one of the Japanese military leaders and succeeds in defeating him, and the humiliation of defeat combined with his father’s disappointment causes the Japanese fighter to commit ritual suicide. The man’s father, the general of the Japanese troops, gathers a group of the best Japanese fighters to hunt and defeat Lee, so Lee escapes to South Korea where he begins to train with a friend of his master’s. Lee is quickly found though, and that leads to an increasingly dangerous series of battles.
The story here is very similar to Young Hero which I wrote about yesterday, but I enjoyed today’s movie a little more. Part of that is because I like the main character Lee a whole lot more than I liked the main character of Young Hero. Also, the hero’s female counterpart in Bruce and Shaolin Kung Fu doesn’t meet as much of a downer ending as the female lead did in yesterday’s movie. At least, I don’t think she did. The ending of Bruce and Shaolin Kung Fu is bizarrely depressing, and it makes me think that the fates of certain characters might not be very good despite seeing them alive in their final on-screen moments.
The fights in Bruce and Shaolin Kung Fu are fun mostly from a character perspective. As I’m writing this I can’t recall any specific scenes with neat set pieces of really amazing moves, but overall I enjoyed all the action. Bruce Le seemed to blatantly display lot more of Bruce Lee’s mannerisms in this movie than he did in Bruce vs. Bill, so that was fun. Also, one of the bad guys is Bolo Yeung, and I love that guy. Bolo Yeung is a huge body-builder looking guy, and he tends to play despicable bad guys. If you’ve seen Bloodsport, he’s the main bad guy, Chong Li. He doesn’t have a ton of screen time in Bruce and Shaolin Kung Fu, but the time he has is memorable.
Other than that, this is a pretty average kung fu movie. Fun for a late-watch, but nothing spectacular. It does make me want to check out more Bruce Le movies though.