AKA: Fist of Death

Director: Wu Chia Chun

Co-director: Choe Dong-Joon

Cast: Kim Tai-chung, Lee Siu-Ming, Wang Pao-Yu, He Ying, Chang Il-Sik, Eagle Han Ying, Ma Sha, Chen Shan, Baek Hwang-ki, Park Yong-Pal

Running time: 90 min.

By Ian Whittle

You’d think a film featuring a Bruce Lee clone AND a Jackie Chan clone (not to mention maverick exploitation producer Dick Randall’s name on the credits) would be a lot of fun, but well, no, it’s not.

In a way, this is a Fist of Fury knock-off with the Jing Wu school vs the… well, the dialogue says “YMCA” but the logo on the school is clearly YMGA! Either way, the masters of both schools get bumped off, although the expected school vs. school rivalry peters out fairly early on as it’s blatantly obvious some no good gangsters are behind it, in order to get a document, for reasons that seem to have slipped everyone’s minds until it’s mentioned with less then 10min to go – and I swear this is what they say:

“Master always said that document was important. It has a list of the YMCA members, also a treasure map. If it fell into the wrong hands, it would be too terrible to comtemplate!”

Yes, well, I’m sure the YMCA wouldn’t want people to know they were involved in this mess too!

Anyway, it takes us a good 15 min before we get to see our Bruce Lee clone, although a title card at the beginning assures us of his credentials. And look, it’s none other than Kim Tae-Chung (credited as Tong Lung), late of Game of Death and Tower of Death (and later of No Retreat, No Surrender). It’s just as well the title card was there, as he looks nothing like Bruce Lee at all except when he bugs his eyes in moments of stress. As an actor, he’s not awful and is good looking enough, but yeah, you can see why they used that cardboard cut out in Game of Death!

Lee Siu-Ming (credited as Jackie Chang), playing “Jackie” and seemingly cast because his nose was reasonably big, comes off surprisingly well in his intro, exhanging in a wacky brawl using a rickshaw as a weapon. He doesn’t really get much later chance to shine, but at least his scenes are less po-faced.

The two characters wander in and out of each other’s plotlines at regular intervals, but there’s little to hold the attention aside from some fun fights. Sadly, the film comits further cinematic crimes by ignoring the likes of Eagle Han Ying and Chen Shan, and reserving the main villian role for Hei Ying, who is a boring actor, and spends most of his fight scene teleporting and disapearing in tricks that are probably meant to evoke the then current ninja fad but are more likely to remind you of a school production of The Wizard of Oz. And the end fight ends abruptly with a freeze frame denying us from seeing the final death blow! Honestly!

Ian Whittle’s Rating: 3/10