Kung Fu Fever (1978)

Xiao shi fu yu da sha xing

Cast:

Dragon Lee is
Min Kyu Choi
Amy Chum
Ke Kao
Bruce Rhee
Chung Tien Shih

What the box says:

A training manual supposed used by Bruce Lee himself has mysteriously disappeared and is highly sought after by good and evil alike.

Plot:

Lu is searching for a book written by Bruce Lee about his secret martial arts technique.

At the same time several goons are looking for the same book elsewhere by attacking Master Ling Sha. He is taken to their boss, Mr. Lee. Ling Sha keeps denying everything about the book.

Around the world, in the USA, Ran wants Kwan to retrieve the book for him. However, Kwan refuses which leads to a fight. Ran finishes the fight by garroting Kwan.

Lu is told that Ling Sha has been captured.

Mr. Lee learns that Iron Head, top enforcer for his number 1 rival Shu Mu, is also after the book.

Rikki Chan, the second hero after the 1st got garrotted, gets a letter demanding he turn over the Bruce Lee book for Ling Sha. At the meeting, Rikki arrives without the book. Mr. Lee wants Rikki to get the book for him which leads to Rikki versus the thugs. After Rikki versus Lee, Rikki finds that Ling Sha was hidden in the car trunk.

Lu is searching Ling Sha's house for the book when goons try to break in. Lu versus the goons. She is to meet Mr. Lee. She doesn't want anything to do with him. Afterwards, Lu finds she's being followed by a goon and also her father. The goon threaten her to work for them or her and her fatehr are going to be "hurt."

Since, it's been awhile, Rikki gets into another fight which leads into a car chase where Ran, Shu Mu's top enforcer, crashes off a cliff.

Shu Mu fights Rikki. However, Rikki isn't in too good a shape until Lu rides up on her motorcycle to rescue him.

Goons grab Lu's dad.

Lu and Rikki finally find the book. Ran who survived his car cliff fall jumps in to fight Rikki who wins once again. Lu lkearns that her dad was kidnapped.

Later, Lu snaeks off with the book. Rikki reads the note she left him. However, Rikki's spider sense warned him so he switched the book beforehand.

At the meeting, Lu hands over the case. When opened, smoke fills the room, Lu runs out with her dad. Goons go after them. Dad contends with the goons as Lu has Lee. Rikki jumps in wearing the yellow Bruce Lee track suit... Fight is on...

Lee is fighting Rikki, Lu and her dad. Lu distracts Lee with her motorcycle. Lee heads off into the forest. Now Lu and Rikki have Lee. Lu gets injured leaving the fight down to one on one. Rikki versus Lee who gets finished off. Rikki and Lee walk off.

What I say:

Brucesploitation has nothing to do with Bruce Campbell. The idea that so many martial arts movies in the 1970s that try to market some martial artist as the "next" Bruce Lee. We had Bruce Li, Dragon Lee, and a veritable cast of everyone else but Chuck Norris. Bruce Lee's name was put into movies like Bruce Lee Fights From the Grave, Fists of Bruce Lee, and Image of Bruce Lee starring Bruce Li as a character Bruce Lee. However, that isn't the only thing of Brucesploitation, the number of movies or Bruce Lee footage pieced into documentaries like Fist of Fear, Touch of Death and Real Bruce Lee are only a couple of those.

This movie seems to be badly edited. How bad? A 6 year old could do a better job of this kind editing... This badly dubbed English version jumps between so many characters that keeping track of the characters is virtually impossible. Imagine Cannonball Run 2 without even any semblance of a plot but still with the lot of people racing and hi-jinks ensue. Maybe, the Hong Kong version made more sense. The problem with many cheap DVD packs with a number of movies is that most of them are the versions that are 3rd or 4th generation copies that look badly washed and faded.

Kung Fu Fever isn't good eough to want to be seen or bad enough for the sheer insanity of something like Fantasy Mission Force. This is the kind of movie you could do yourself the service of ignoring and watching one of Stephen Chow's movies: Kung Fu Hustle and Shaolin Soccer

Is there any kind of movie worse than being bad? Being forgettable...We invest our time in watching a movie. What do want for our return? Would knowing that the movie was better than mowing the yard? Try to not tear my reviewing movies too apart. Most movies have some redeeming qualitites. One of the good things about 1970s Kung Fu movies is every few minutes they break back to another martial arts fight. For me, the worst movie on this site is Massacre with all the "lets making the hero so wonderful" vibe.

Quotable Very Dubbed Dialogue
"You should have seen Rikki using my finger technique."
"Your Kung Fu's bad..."
"Ms. Lu lets share the uses of the finger technique..."
Morals of the Story
80% of Kung Fu movies in the late 1970s concern Bruce Lee.
A punching bag is a stress reliever.
Martial artists regularly hang out in cattle pastures.
Don't punch the top of a human skull.
In a fight, it is easy to spin opponents around until they fall over.
The interior of a skull changes color when hit.
Easy to punch a fist imopression into hardwood forest trees.