IMDb RATING
5.2/10
322
YOUR RATING
Bruce Li plays a young kung fu expert (and waiter) who is trying to live peacefully in San Francisco with his marital arts-challenged friend. But they run afoul of some American thugs, and t... Read allBruce Li plays a young kung fu expert (and waiter) who is trying to live peacefully in San Francisco with his marital arts-challenged friend. But they run afoul of some American thugs, and the fight is on...right!Bruce Li plays a young kung fu expert (and waiter) who is trying to live peacefully in San Francisco with his marital arts-challenged friend. But they run afoul of some American thugs, and the fight is on...right!
Carter Wong
- Mr. Liu
- (as Wang Chia-Ta)
Jeong-lee Hwang
- Ching Yun-Cheh
- (as Wang Chang-Li)
- Directors
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Featured reviews
Bruce Lee's death caused a large enough shadow on the kung fu martial arts movie world that, for some obsecure reason, film-makers wanted to continue making films that "had" bruce lee in them - for their own ends.
Of course this lead to disastrously bad Bruce Lee imitators (i.e. Bruce Li, Dragon Lee, etc) that would some regard as just lambasting and insulting to the Bruce Lee name - fortunately there was one Bruce Lee imitator (Sammo Hung) that would make a film worthy of Lee himself in the film "Enter the Fat Dragon".
Anyway, to this film. Firstly, if you've seen The Big Boss and/or Way of the Dragon you'll soon draw parallel's to the plot and the general feeling that you've been seen it all before.
I won't go into the plot, because basically its the same as Way of the Dragon (hero works in resturant that is taunted by some big boss type karate school with all the racial stuff thrown in).
The general 70s cliche of bad kung fu movies is apparent throughout this film, you don't know whether to laugh or cry at the clothes, the acting and the dialogue. Perhaps the worst possible example is the fact that every other character (barring a majority of the chinese) are called bob - I'm not kidding!
Admittedly, the fight sequences aren't too bad - but when you consider the only person to make a dent to the hero is veteran Hong Kong Bad guy Hwang Jang Lee you have to question the sanity of this film...why bother remaking way of the dragon when its already done?
Now of course there are silly moments throughout the film which beggers belief - why does Bob 'Bruce Lee' (the hero) who knows of Bruce Lee's paradigm of "kung fu is like running water" only become to remember of it when he's beaten. Not only that, as soon as Bob finds out what the secret is, he becomes Bruce Lee - doing war cries, doing that thing with his nose - all because he's discovered "kung fu is running water!"
Another example is this: Bruce Lee tried to step outside kung fu's barriers (this is why he wore the yellow/black jumpsuit in Game of Death) and would follow that philosophy - yet Bob 'Bruce Lee' dresses in a typically traditional kung fu styled uniform and fights the big boss bad guy who wears trainers...
Anyway, philosophy aside, this is a very bad film that tries to cash in on both Way of the Dragon and The Big Boss - the highlights are no doubt the numerous fight sequences - however they always seem to be the same thing (i.e. bunch of fighters gets hurt - their teacher goes and kicks butt, but ends up half dead - his teacher/pupils go along and fight and get beat up and then their...well you get the idea)
Perhaps the humorless resturant scenes or the unintentional comedy of a small kid manages to do special tricks with a nunchaka and uses it makes it worth seeing, I dunno - I'd personally rather see the original, enigmatic Bruce Lee in action.
Overall: 1/10 (avoid...please!)
Of course this lead to disastrously bad Bruce Lee imitators (i.e. Bruce Li, Dragon Lee, etc) that would some regard as just lambasting and insulting to the Bruce Lee name - fortunately there was one Bruce Lee imitator (Sammo Hung) that would make a film worthy of Lee himself in the film "Enter the Fat Dragon".
Anyway, to this film. Firstly, if you've seen The Big Boss and/or Way of the Dragon you'll soon draw parallel's to the plot and the general feeling that you've been seen it all before.
I won't go into the plot, because basically its the same as Way of the Dragon (hero works in resturant that is taunted by some big boss type karate school with all the racial stuff thrown in).
The general 70s cliche of bad kung fu movies is apparent throughout this film, you don't know whether to laugh or cry at the clothes, the acting and the dialogue. Perhaps the worst possible example is the fact that every other character (barring a majority of the chinese) are called bob - I'm not kidding!
Admittedly, the fight sequences aren't too bad - but when you consider the only person to make a dent to the hero is veteran Hong Kong Bad guy Hwang Jang Lee you have to question the sanity of this film...why bother remaking way of the dragon when its already done?
Now of course there are silly moments throughout the film which beggers belief - why does Bob 'Bruce Lee' (the hero) who knows of Bruce Lee's paradigm of "kung fu is like running water" only become to remember of it when he's beaten. Not only that, as soon as Bob finds out what the secret is, he becomes Bruce Lee - doing war cries, doing that thing with his nose - all because he's discovered "kung fu is running water!"
Another example is this: Bruce Lee tried to step outside kung fu's barriers (this is why he wore the yellow/black jumpsuit in Game of Death) and would follow that philosophy - yet Bob 'Bruce Lee' dresses in a typically traditional kung fu styled uniform and fights the big boss bad guy who wears trainers...
Anyway, philosophy aside, this is a very bad film that tries to cash in on both Way of the Dragon and The Big Boss - the highlights are no doubt the numerous fight sequences - however they always seem to be the same thing (i.e. bunch of fighters gets hurt - their teacher goes and kicks butt, but ends up half dead - his teacher/pupils go along and fight and get beat up and then their...well you get the idea)
Perhaps the humorless resturant scenes or the unintentional comedy of a small kid manages to do special tricks with a nunchaka and uses it makes it worth seeing, I dunno - I'd personally rather see the original, enigmatic Bruce Lee in action.
Overall: 1/10 (avoid...please!)
Hey, I've seen my share of kung-fu garbage, and this film is something I wasted a good boring Monday night on. Expectingly nothing but garbage, I just popped in the tape and thought I'd just let it run. To tell the truth, it's surprisingly decent. Bruce Li is no Bruce Lee, but he's certainly the best of the imitators, and this film is one of his better moments.
Another of those bad-yet-enjoyable films. Worthwhile if you're a kung-fu / Bruce Lee fan though.
7 / 10
Another of those bad-yet-enjoyable films. Worthwhile if you're a kung-fu / Bruce Lee fan though.
7 / 10
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.
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.
The man martial-arts filmmakers could never let go! How many Bruce Lee "wannabes" have there been? This time around Bruce LI explodes onto the screen portraying, who else, BRUCE (not Lee, nor Li, just Bruce)! Sure there have been many to copy the frenetic and amazing Bruce Lee - few have succeeded, many have failed. In "Bruce Lee's Secret" (as it was titled when I saw it), at least the director(s) had the sense to make it about the fighting; the more involved, the better! Bruce Li is a waiter in San Francisco, minding his own business, when, out of nowhere, American kung fu thugs want to make trouble for Li and friends. Who cares - watch this one for the plentiful martial arts action. If you are a fan of the bad dubbing found in most of these films, you will get a 'kick' out of the insanely poor vocal choices. Lots of action, lots of fun - just enjoy!
Did you know
- ConnectionsReferenced in Bruce Lee, the Legend (1984)
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Languages
- Also known as
- Bruce Lee: A Dragon Story
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
- Runtime
- 1h 31m(91 min)
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 2.35 : 1
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