Champ Against Champ (1979)

Champ Vs Champ

Cast:

Dragon "Yes, Dragon Lee Vs the 5 Brothers" Lee is Dragon Lang
Jang Lee Hwang
Gene Chan
Charlie Han
Bettrice Lau

What the box says:

A young man must face the challenge of his life by battling against an evil master who is out to eliminate all of his enemies.

Plot:

Dragon Lang is attacked by a number of goons.

Kai, the nearby evil mayor, has the goons guarding the pass. Besides being evil he's also paranoid and not too happy when he learns that Dragon has returned. Kai sends his talented goons to find the list of traitors that are held by Tai.

Tai has arranged his daughter, Sing, to marry Dragon Lang. Tai and his crew leave on a rebellion journey.

Dragon and his father meet on their trip before getting back to the village to prepare for Dragon's impending marriage.

The talented goons attack the Tai and his crew. Tai mamages to escape. Dragon and his father are trying to stay out of trouble when they find the wounded Tai. He wants the rebel list taken to the others.

Dragon is jumped by Kai's goons. Afterwards, Kai has Dragon, Dragon's dad, and Tai imprisoned. Kai offers to free Dragon and his dad if Tai hands over the rebel name list. Things aren't looking good when Tai's crew jump in to rescue Dragon and dad.

The mortally wounded dad wants Dragon to rescue Tai.

Dragon heads for Kai's lair and must handle the taleneted goons first. Unfortunately, Kai tosses a poison dart in Dragon's leg and leaves him to suffer the long and painful death.

Thankfully, for Dragon, Sing finds him later and has a doctor take care of him. However, Dragon isn't quite so happy about it when he discovers the doctor amputed the poisoned leg to save his life. Dragon later learns that Sing is Tai's daughter and his future wife. As Dragon mopes about the phantom limb, he recalls his Kung Fu master that told him of a great master who lost a leg and built a steel leg and developed the 18 Kick style. If that doesn't seem plot coherent, he learns that Sing is the granddaughter of Tai Kung who developed the 18 Kick style and has his blacksmith room to build a steel leg and learn the 18 Kick style, too...

One of Tai's crew reaches help, Yai, who agrees to go against Kai. However, on the way to Kai's town, the goons attack and kill Yai.

Let the steel leg construction and 18 Kick style montage of Dragon Lang ensue... He heads off to rescue Tai.. Reaching Kai's lair, he runs into the goons and a steel leg is quite an advantage for him...

Kai learns that one of the talented goons was killed. He sends a number of women to guard.

Dragon keeps wandering around and runs into a circus group jump him. When painted clowns toss streamers at one, you better start fighting... Afterwards, he walks into the Kai's women that teleport around him and turn invisible. It takes some time before Dragon eventually ties the women to a tree and heads on...

Dragon meets a pilgrim. They agree to help rescue Tai together until the pilgrim unmasks. It is one of the goons so another fight rages on...

Kai is told that no one has stopped Dragon yet...

Trudging on, Dragon is stalled when 2 more goon attack. Well, one guy spits fireballs from his mouth. However, Dragon finishes him. Dragon jumps up to rescue Tai from the lair. Tai heads off.

Dragon versus Kai. They escape the before the lair collapses. Outside Dragon rages against Kai before Dragon dispatches him and walks off...

What I say:

OK, a movie that starts off with Sho "Revenge of the Ninja" Kusagi introducing the movie as a host by demonstrating martial arts weapons kata is a bit of bait and switch when going over to Dragon Lee. The bait and switch is bigger once I realizes that Godfrey Ho directed it. He has made quite a few movies. Ho may be more known for the "cut-and-pasting" movies like Catman in Boxer's Blow, Catman in Lethal Track, and Robo Vampire. He would include an actor normally Caucasian and put scenes of the actor into scenes of old or unfinished Asian movies which gave us so many of the 1980s ninja movies like Ninja Destroyer.

It seems that Dragon's Kung Fu master in the flashback was Yai. Yes, the same Yai who was the help to go against Kai. Well, Godfrey Ho is known for recycling characters popping up like that and tangling bits of flashbacks, too... At the first, of the movie, Dragon's dad isn't with him at the first fight but appears with him soon afterwards.

Dragon Lee had several movies in the late 70s through the 90s. He may be known as one of the more famous of the actors who starred in some of the Brucesploitation movies like the Real Bruce Lee. Unfortunately, Asian movies may have taken a number of actors and tried to use them to replace Bruce Lee's death. While Bruce may have charisma and talent, these guys had less skill than the guy who had to talk in front of a high school class for a report. Well, Dragon had a few other movies: Dragon's Infernal Showdown.

There is no explanation of how certain people have powers like teleportation, invisibility, fireball vomiting, or circus fu. Well, losing a leg and forging a prosthetic steel leg to learn the secret technique of the 18 Kicks isn't given much more explanation. If your arranged wife happens to be the granddaughter of the martial arts master who developed the wise 18 Kick skill, just be thankful that skill will come in handy when you start the rescue mission which should get the revenge on those who poisoned your leg.

Most late 1970s martial art movies aren't known as martial art classics. Can you guess that this is another of the none classic movies? The dubbing in these movies isn't going to be known as high quality especially when the accents are either so high Australian for Paul Hogan to tell them to cut down or so Southern redneck as to sound home in a Nascar track.

Quotable Dialogue
"Eeeyahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh"
"Bring me some pork."
"You're bully, violent, bloodthirsty..."
"This old fat cow..."
"You long haired son of a she-goat!"
"He's got a steel leg..."
Morals of the Story
Chinese men talk in Australian accents when speaking in English.
Women can throw spikes of wind powerful enough to push men 30 feet away.
Martial arts needs classical music to be played in the background.
Metal hula hoops are weapons.
Chinese doctors must sound like southern rednecks.