Hitch Magazine | The Art of Fighting

The Screaming Tiger

(1973)

**

I think Jimmy Wang Yu – star of such kung-fu films as Master of the Flying Guillotine – is underrated in the martial-arts movie world. Of course, part of the reason may be due to too many so-so flicks like The Screaming Tiger.

After being followed around by a guy with a bucket on his head and having his money stolen by a girl, Jimmy fights some sumo wrestlers. Then a lot of boring parts follow. Then the final 15 minutes or so is a cool – if drawn out – fight on a moving train, which moves to a bridge, then to the water below and finally to the edge of a waterfall, where you don’t have to wait too terribly long for the bad guy to fall over to his predictable death.

Black Samurai

(1976)

****

Al Adamson movies often mean slapdash editing, piss-poor blocking and lots of offscreen overdubs. This one has all that, plus Enter the Dragon’s Jim Kelly as the most certainly black but not really a samurai Black Samurai.

As an agent of D.R.A.G.O.N. (which could refer to Adamson’s pacing problems), Kelly ends his Mexico vacation early when fellow agents inform him of the kidnapping of his Asian girlfriend Toki (as in Token). She’s been nabbed by an evil white guy who’s deeply into the occult and the black arts. Kelly seeks to infiltrate this dude’s immense castle fortress, and his move of choice seems to be inflicting pain on other people’s scrotums. Seriously, I haven’t seen this much ball-kicking since Sly Stallone made that soccer movie with Pelé. Strangely, the occult guy has a high dwarf population among his teams of henchmen. I counted six of the little guys. And while it’s not fair, politically correct or even logical, it sure is funny!

To infuse a bit of Bond-age, Kelly gets a great scene where he jetpacks across the land. He also romances the ladies, like the mean prostitute named Synne (subtle!) and has his own theme song, though this one sounds very piano-barish. The film gets so ludicrous, Kelly trades punches with a huge bird! And then there’s some rattlesnakes thrown in for good measure, as well as vintage Adamson touches like the sound effects of an owl in a scene of broad daylight. All the while, you’ll be laughing and scratching your head, asking yourself, “This was based on a novel?”

Bruce Lee: The Man, the Myth

(1976)

****

The story of Bruce Lee has been told countless times onscreen through many cheap, rushed productions. This is another one, but surprisingly not the exploitative piece of trash we’ve come to expect from any post-Lee product using his name in the title.

Clone Bruce Li stars as the kung fu legend, and the film traces his days from a Seattle collegian shunning pot parties in favor of working out to a bonafide worldwide superstar. He beats anyone who dares oppose him, he dons his Kato mask for a scene, he magically acquires a wife (who looks like Blair’s retarded cousin from The Facts of Life) and two kids without any explanation, he beats up more and more people, he makes The Big Boss and Enter the Dragon, he trains using a supercomputer with various colored bulbs that administers electric shocks when he inserts his fists and fingers into its holes, then he gets a bangeroo headache and dies.

The film then shows actual footage of Lee’s funeral and burial before switching to outlandish fictional depictions of how some people believe Lee really died.

Champ Against Champ

(1983)

****

After a lengthy absence, young Dragon Lee returns to his hometown, but guess who doesn’t cotton to this idea? Damn near everyone! Thus, much punching and kicking ensues. But early on, Lee loses his leg in a scuffle (but see it tucked behind him?), so he fashions a new one out of steel. What does this mean for you, the viewer? One additional stock sound effect than usual.

Lee then takes on a host of baddies, including a man who breathes fire, a cave-dwelling evil guy who tosses magic flowers like darts and a quartet of circus clowns with their whirling ribbons of doom. Crazy! Like a fox! Another bag of kung-fu somethin’ from director Godfrey Ho.

The Image of Bruce Lee

(1978)

***

As far as I could tell, The Image of Bruce Lee is a modern-day action film about a cop who kinda looks like Bruce Lee (even going so far as to sport a Game of Death jumpsuit in the opening sequence) going undercover to bust a counterfeiting ring. But to tell the truth, it was hard for me to keep track of who the good guys and bad guys were.

But it’s still mildly entertaining, with martial arts superstar Bolo Yeung, a good dose of full-frontal nudity from some harlot and even a strip club scene scored to Bernard Hermann’s theme from Taxi Driver!