The Dragon Lives Again (1977)

Today's entry marks the first of its kind in this blog. I've always been a die-hard fan of martial arts films, but not all martial arts movies fit the B-Movie category. There are sub-genres of martial arts films, including sports/tournament movies, ninja flicks, and standard Shaw Brothers kung-fu films. To better explain which ones fit the bill, I'll give a small history lesson for the uninitiated.

The martial arts world was stunned in 1973 when Bruce Lee died at the age of 32.  He had just begun to make traction in America as an actor, having made Enter the Dragon which established his strength as a leading man in a US production. Fans in Asia already knew about this enigmatic and unique performer because of Fist of Fury, The Big Boss, and Way of the Dragon.  His unfortunate and untimely death left a serious void in a genre largely defined by his presence.

In a mad rush to fill that void, producers scrambled to find the "next Bruce Lee", hiring anyone and everyone who looked even a little like him. Monikers that sounded similar were assigned: Bruce Le, Bruce Li, Dragon Lee, and many others. The influx of new movies designed to whet the appetite of moviegoers were quickly and cheaply produced, often on the fly, with varying levels of quality. Fans of the real Bruce Lee, who had only been treated to a few movies during his meteoric rise, found themselves watching such films as Exit the Dragon, Enter the Tiger, Fist of Fury II, and Bruce Lee Fights From Beyond the Grave.

This proliferation even birthed a new genre: Bruceploitation. This group of films, in my opinion, falls well within the bounds of B-Movie consideration. Most of the examples from this genre are pretty awful. They were made for one purpose only; to capitalize on Bruce Lee's death. The irony is that in some cases, the stars were decent performers or martial artists in their own right. They were simply misled by directors who wanted to try to reproduce Bruce Lee. In today's example, the star is Bruce Leong, who belongs to that category. He was a great kicker, and had enough charm of his own that would have allowed him to be another martial arts movie star. Sadly, he was forced to imitate Lee, which he did very poorly. He doesn't even look like him.

The movie is called The Dragon Lives Again, aka Deadly Hands of Kung Fu. The basic plot is as follows: Bruce Lee dies, goes to Hell, and has to fight a series of bad guys from popular culture. They include Dracula, zombies, The Godfather (I'm not kidding), James Bond (still not kidding), and Clint Eastwood, whose appearance is inexplicable given he is not dead.  I should mention here that the actors playing these parts are all Chinese except Bond. This was made 20 years before British rule ended in Hong Kong, so anti-Brit feelings were still in full effect. Bond pretty much had to be a bad guy, and played by an Englishman.

Fortunately for Bruce, he has some help in the underworld, in the form of Popeye the Sailer Man, also played by a Chinese guy, which alone is worth the price of admission. This storyline blatantly took as many copyrighted characters as possible and threw them all together. From what I can figure, the only reason the movie makers didn't have their pants sued off is because of how copyright law doesn't apply when the material is clearly a porody. The film establishes its tone as a spoof right away, opening with a 007-style credit intro, with 'Bruce' fighting different characters in humorous ways, bringing to mind the opening of all the classic Pink Panther movies.

 

I watched this movie constantly wondering what pop culture character was going to turn up next, and where the plot would take it. We have the previously mentioned characters, plus the one-armed warrior (popular in multiple films in Asia), the blind old master (another Chinese cinematic archetype) and even Emmanuelle, the subject of European porn movies of the 70's. yes, Bruce Lee fights a porn star in the underworld. Nowhere else on earth will you say that sentence, I believe.

The ridiculousness of this movie actually is its selling point. You can't help but wonder what will happen next. Nothing is sacred, and nothing is politically correct. Also, you haven't lived until you've seen an Asian person try to pull of Eastwood.

The plot centers around Bruce encountering the gang of evil underworld inhabitants who all work for The Godfather. The evil gang is involved in a plan to overthrow the king of the underworld, who isn't Satan but a guy in a kingly outfit. Having Lucifer in this would tie it into a Christian belief system, which doesn't fit in Chinese movies. In fact, I'm not sure there's a hell in Buddhism, or if the underworld is called that simply because I watched an English dub, and that was the closest approximation. At any rate, Bruce becomes something of a local hero in the underworld, rallying everyone together to stand up for themselves. Apparently the dead have been brow-beaten by the Godfather and his undead thugs, and now they are taking stock in themselves and standing up to the man.

To be honest, this movie doesn't just enter the world of nonsensical craziness, it embraces it with unholy relish. The logic and overall style are so far off the deep end, you can't help but keep watching.  The only stuff I skipped over was the unnecessary nudity which popped up from time to time. The king and his concubine bathe frequently, and for no reason to support the plot. The Emmanuelle character tries to bed every male in the story, which is not only implied but shown a couple of times. If you wish to avoid gratuitous nudity as I do, you might want to keep the 'skip' button handy, as this movie does go there several times.

The fights aren't bad. Leong is a skilled martial artist in his own right, and pulls off some flashy kicks, actually better than most Lee imitators. He also is an amazing jumper, actually leaping over a couple of bad guys without wire work. He also choreographed all the action in this film, and handles humor in his fight scenes in much the way we're used to seeing Jackie Chan.  He also dazzles with the use of nunchucks, demonstrating great control. He looks as though he is actually hitting people when he is actually only coming VERY close.  Cinematography is so-so, and the sets are pretty generic, with decent coloring. The backgrounds are mostly red, highlighting the otherworldly tone.  Music is credited to Frankie Chan, although 95% of the score was pulled from other movies, most notably Enter The Dragon as well as the Bond films.

Bottom line, if you need to kill an hour and 20 minutes or so on mindless fun, this could be your ticket. I had a good time, save for the occasional nudity, which keeps it from being a movie you could watch with kids around.  This is available at the moment on youtube, though I don't know if it's in the Public Domain or not, so it may be pulled before long. It is also available as part of a 2-disc set called The Dragon Returns with other titles.

I give this 3 out of 4, keeping in mind that I am judging it against other Bruceploitation flicks.

DIDJA KNOW?

 



 Bruce Leong, also known by his proper name Siu-Lung Leong, was banned by the Chinese government, which exercises total control over film-making in Communist China. He went to China to appeal to the government to reverse the ruling, which offended fans in his native Taiwan. They stopped following him since he "sucked up" in their eyes, causing his popularity to fade by 1990. For years, he didn't appear in anything until showing up in 2004's Kung Fu Hustle as the bad guy.