Bruce Lee's Deadly Kung Fu

In this film we see Bruce Lee wanna-be Bruce Li tackle an army of thugs(who just happen to look like a bunch of bad rejects from a 70s Disco special) lead by Mr. Grace(who just happens to resemble John Travolta if he were fat and had a scar on his face). The fights are pretty good but seriously lack credibility. In any case, this movie is very humorous to watch but the humor isn't of the intentional type. Good fun if you like this sort of thing.

This review is for BRUCE'S DEADLY KUNG FU aka BRUCE LEE'S SECRET. This is the one where he is a waiter at the beginning of the movies, 3 guys at a table hassle him and another employee, he pours lots of pepper on thier chicken, and a fight breaks out.

The movie is cheesy, the fight scenes mediocre, and the acting is poor. Add in many annoying characters such as the woman who owns the restaurant, the children of the shipyard owner, a very whiney kid, and buffoonish rivals and the film just drags on.

If you are looking for a biopic this is not it. No accurate information about Bruce Lee. It is basically a play on his name to sell a bad movie.

The above-mentioned line is in the italian version of this involuntarily funny movie, I don't know the english or original version, but it's a no-nonsense question one of the badguys ask for. Tons of outdate fistfights between Bruce Li/Ho Tsung Tao, his companion Carter Wong (Big trouble in Little China) and tehe usual mobsters. Korean Hwang Jiang Li pops-up with a ridicolous cloak for a fight against the fake Lee.

NOTE: This review is for BRUCE'S DEADLY KUNG FU aka BRUCE LEE'S SECRET. The previous one I wrote below was for BRUCE LEE: A DRAGON STORY. Apparently, lots of Bruce Li's films have several names for some reason....

Hmm, this movie's is in middle of the road. Sure it's nothing as sloppy as FISTS OF BRUCE LEE, but not up there with CHINESE STUNTMAN or BRUCE LEE: TRUE STORY. Poor jobless Bruce is down on his luck looking for work. The restaurant scene has Bruce utilizing the Deadly Pepper attack. Very odd. Bruce kills time working out at home much to the dismay of his friend. The biggest laugh in the film comes when the two try to avoid their neighbor referred to endearingly as the `Dragon Lady'. Bruce becomes Bruce the Box Mover and is berated by a toddler. You've got lots of scenes of thugs pulling the "run away!" technique and scenes of dojos, storage docks, and lots of low budget locations. Carter Wong shows up and actually plays a decent role.

Overall, BRUCE LEE'S DEADLY KUNG FU is not bad, but not Bruce Li's best. Will Bruce sell out to Mr. Grace? Who is the guy wearing that FABULOUS cape? See it yourself to find out.

As with a lot of the Chinese fung fu movies from this era, this film goes under many different names. To add to the confusion, there were two different movies, from the same year, both starring Bruce Li, and both focusing on an autobiographical story of Bruce Lee. Because of this confusion, about half the reviews for this title are reviews of one movie, while the other half are reviews for an entirely different film. In fact, it's so confusing that even imdb has melded the two films together, so that a separate page for the OTHER movie doesn't even exist. I am not making this up. It's difficult to explain this but, here it is; if you saw a movie where Bruce is a waiter who serves a dish loaded with pepper, to a group of abusive morons in a restaurant, and there is a screaming, whining little kid who wants to be a Kung Fu fighter, than you have seen "A Dragon Story." If you saw a more straight forward biography of Bruce Lee, that documents his life by showing him going from a waiter to an actor to an action star, than you were one of the lucky ones to have seen "Bruce Lee: A Dragon Story." Lucky because that one is the superior film. The former movie is just sub-standard, generic fare that doesn't attempt to tell anything about Bruce Lee. Rather it just presents a character who happens to live in San Francisco and just happens to be a waiter, who after a power struggle with a rival gang, opens his own school. Basically little more than a showcase of some (admittedly spectacular) fight sequences. Of course this is important, but for viewers who want a decent story to accompany the action, this one is strictly generic and forgettable stuff. And that screaming little kid has way too much screen time, and is very irritating and corny. Like a lot of other people here, I was searching for the other movie, the one that features Latin martial artist Charles "La Pantera" Bonet, from "Black Dragon's Revenge" and "Death Promise." When I see this movie I will return and create a separate review for it. As a fan of Bronx native, and first Latino Kung fu star, Charles Bonet, I am looking to see all of his films. He's in the OTHER "Story of the Dragon." I hope this clears up some confusion.