Fists of Bruce Lee (1978)

Cast:

Bruce "Numerous movies with Bruce Lee in the title..." Li is Lee Min-Chin
Lieh Lo
Yuan Chuan
Ping-Ao Wei is Outpuss
Lung Tang

What the box says:

"Fists of Bruce Lee" stars Bruce Li as a cop hired to install a security network but is forced to rescue his employer's daughter from some kidnappers.

Plot:

Lee Min-Chin is training and receives a message for a mission in Hong Kong. However, the guys he was supposed to meet were actually against him. Let the fighting ensue.

Aren't I smug? Later, he meets Master Lo who hired him to install a new security system in his mansion grounds.

Master Lo's assistant, Pu Chi Chan, shows Bruce Li, the surveillance expert, around how numerous traps have been set up.

Lets insult the memory of Bruce Lee... That night, Bruce heads off to meet a suspicious guy who wants him to turn down the mission. Bruce refuses and starts up another fight. Suddenly, John Lennon or a reasonable facsimile pops up to save the day..?. The guys from beginning of the movie want Bruce to help them kidnap Master Lo's daughter.

Next day, Bruce gets to work installing the security system, fighting with workmen, and inspecting the boss's daughter's room. Later, Bruce and the daughter head out and discover that the goons are chasing them. Fight is on once the Live and Let Die theme instrumental play before the James Bond theme. Crimelord wants the boss's daughter. Crimelord versus Bruce Li who is able to get daughter to safety.

Parking lot, the goons plan to eliminate the other group. Let the hits ensue. After finishing the rest, the crimelord heads to Lo's house and go to kidnap the daughter when Bruce Li arrives. The fight is on and Bruce Li versus the pseudo-John-Lennon.

Don't make anymore John Lennon jokes... Bruce starts commando raiding the rest of the goons.

Pu Chi Chan laves the boss's daugher and wants to get rid of Bruce Li. Crimelord betrays and takes off off with the boss's daughter. He wants to ransom the daughter to get some secret list from her father.

Bruce Li gets to the ransom drop. Lo sends a negoitiator in a non-Sam-L-Jackson fashion who wants to see the daughter before delivering the list. Of course, the negoitiator versus plenty of goons when Lo and Pu Chi Chan arrives. Pu Chi is allowed to marry the boss's daughter if he can rescue her. He claims he has the real list but the negoitiator kills him.

Now the negoitiator versus the crimelord when Bruce Li arrives and reveals he's actiually an Interpol agent. He handles the negoitiator when the mortally wounded Pu Chi Chan stabs the negoitiator.

Crimelord's top man is ordered to go after Bruce Li and refuses to do it. Crimelord shoots his own man. The top guy is an undercover cop. Bruce Li arrests the Crimelord.

What I say:

Yes, back to the Brucesploitation of the 1970s. After Bruce Lee's death, various actors tried to be the next action star. Typically, an Asian martial artists is hired for a movie and gets a Bruce Lee type name to be put on the title. Jackie Chan was even portrayed as the next Bruce Lee for a time until he started the more comedic-action movies. Bruce Le, Bruce Lei, Bruce K. L. Lea, Dragon Lee of Dragon Lee VS the 5 Brothers. Bruce Li seems to be more known for appearing in Bruce Lee the Invincible, Bruce Lee: the Man, the Myth, and Real Bruce Lee.

B-movie martial arts movies are a special genre. After the death of Bruce Lee, practically every martial artist tried to get into movies as the successor of the far more popular and talented Bruce Lee. If not at least, the number of actors that were touted as the successor of Bruce Lee like Dragon Lee, Bruce Li, etc has to be calculated using a formula like B_ruce = E * 2^L * c where B stands for the number of Bruce Lee wannabee actors, where E stands for the coefficient of Bruce Lee that can be found easily enough in any physics book, where L stands for the number of spellings of Lee such as Le, Li, etc, where c is the speed of light...

Do have the idea that the story was put together with of no real connection. Every so often, a fight breaks out. Undercover cop trying to be recruited by some crime gang that is trying to eliminate another gang. The kidnapping and negoitiator, and the crime gang memeber rapidly turning out to be an undercover cop, too is too hard to keep track of. Why were the 2 gangs fighting each other with one gang that looked like a fake John Lennon mercenary?

Finding where instrumental bits that are stolen for other movies is typically more known in for the Jaws, Star Wars, Star Trek, and other themes stolen in Turkish movies. That doesn't prevent it from other movies. The instrumental part of Live and Let Die was stolen to be used in this movie. That wasn't the only thing, later, they also took the James Bond theme too. The first one I do remember was a muzak version of Human League's I'm Only Human.

Quotable Dialogue
"Time for Master's medicine..."
"How's his liver?"
"So Pu Chi Chan is a girl?"
"Even worse, disgusting..."
Morals of the Story
Paranoid hypochondriacs are excellent patients.
Yellow track suit pants are stylish.
Blindfolded men are excellent martial artists.
Never fight in amusement park teacup rides.
Bombs are easily rolled around like bowling balls.
John Lennon was a 1970s mercenary in Hong Kong.
Granny glasses aren't martial arts weapons.