Kung Fu - the Invinsible Fist (1972)

Dragon and Tiger Ways
The Good and the Bad
Tiger vs. Dragon

Cast:

Sing "Don't hold Bruce Lee the Invincible against me.." Chen is Captain Lee
Yasuaki Kurata is Captain Jai Tai
Irene Ryder is Anna
Yuan-sheng Huang
Wai-Man Chan

What the box says:

A Chinese officer investigating a slave trade ring discovers much more when he learns the Japanese are to invade China utilizing the slavers' connections. Star Chen Sing.

Plot:

In Japan, Captain Jai-Tai is recruited by the Special Chief of military operations. He is to infilitrate China and retrieve several maps of Chinese military base locations before an invasion of mainland China.

Now, I'll demonstrate my 'sack of kitten drowning' evil...

In China, Captain Lee Chang is studying martial arts before asking to go undercover for a police mission to catch a new gang that is heavily in the human slavery racket.

Why do you keep saying I look like Sonny Chiba?

In Shanghai's dock, Jai Tai and his partner are talking with the gang leader: Mr. Lin, who is sure this is just some sort of illegal business deal. Gang guy decides to demonstrate his evil by picking a fight with the shoeshine guy. Couple of the hero types jump in to help the shoe shiner.

This is what we call a fight... Undercover cop handles the gang and tells Lin how he wants to join the gang when Lee walks up to look for a job, too. Lee demonstrates his Kung Fu.

Lin is impressed by them.

Why I'll hire you for my criminal gang if you can walk as cool as anyone in a John Woo movie... They spot Jai Tai and the inherent uncanny sense is kicked in...

At Lin's mansion, Lin has brought out a guy that is accused to a be a police spy. Lee is to demonstrate how to handle police spies. Lee stabs the guy who broughtly gets up. Lee claims he recognized the knife was a fake.

That night, Lin has a party and brings in some girls. Undercover cop and Jai's partner get in a fight in Anna, the Russian girl. Jai Tai orders his partner to quit. Anna and Undercover walk off. Out of distance, he gets her away from the gang.

The next day, Captain and his partner discuss Jai Tai. They don't know anything about Jai espionage mission.

Elsewhere, Jai Tai talks with Lin. Jai is sure that Captain and his partner are police spies.

Captain and his partner are told about the next shipment of human smuggling. Captain is positive it is some sort of trap to entrap them. His undercover partner sneaks off and tells Anna to report about the shipment to the police. She reveals that her friend Little Joker is searching for his missing sister and is sure the gang got her.

That night, the gang crates up a number of girls. Lin delays the shipment for a test and switches the crates with those set with bombs. If the police open any of them, that'll mean that Lee and his partner were police spies.

Anna and couple of her friends manage to overhear Lin's plan. They head off to warn the police.

The next day, Little Joker, one of Anna's friends, pick some guy's pocket and finds a map. Lee sees the map and realizes its of Chinese bases. He tries reporting to the polcie about the Japanese spy ring which they don't believe in. Lee learns that Jai Tai is a Japanese spy.

Lee chases after Jai. Let the fighting begin. Jai's partner drives up and runs into Lee several times but that doesn't seem to stop him. Jai and his partner drive off but Lee grabs on top of the roof. Partner slows Lee by fighting him. Jai drives off.

Little Joker chases after Jai before their fight. Jai wounds him and heads off.

Undercover versus Jai's partner who is finally dispatched.

Jai runs to meet the retrieval boat but is sort of delayed when Lee appears on the boat. Lee versus Jai once more with martial arts before breaking out the sais and clubs.

This is real...Quit playing like you're Raphael, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle... Lee finally get Jai and the maps.

Undercover partner and Anna are checking on Little Joker who is mortally wounded. He asks that Lee find his sister. They agree to find her, and he dies.

What I say:

Most people aren't really that concerned with widescreen and full screen. In bigger movies, it can be seen pretty easily like Seven Brides for Seven Brothers would only show 3 of the 7 in the pan and scan view. Kung Fu - the Invisible Fist does have some of the most cut credits when "Producer" is cut down to "ducer" you get that notion. Besides the screen mutilation, there is also the cutting so you have no idea who some of the characters are that just pop up. Other times, characters appear to have conversations that probably had some importance in the original version.

Near the end, the chases and fights do lead up to a kind of musical score that has that instrumental Shaft vibe or the 1970s cop theme feel. Well besides the cop theme, the chase didn't quite have the Bullet or Streets of San Fransisco action but was still more impressive than most would expect in something like this.

Can't say the fight scenes will be that impressive as anything by Bruce Lee or stylized as the newer martial arts movies. Most of the fights are the martial arts version of any bar fight in a Western without the broken bottles of chairs.

The big question is the movie originally so disjointed or is it because of the dubbing. The Chinese and Japanese were about the happy as the USA and the USSR. A military officer going undercover with a cop to infilitrate a gang that just happens to be dealing with a Japanese spy. Was the original version really set to be about a Japanese spy retrieving Chinese military locations before the invasion in World War 2? Think the dubbing just was done to make it set as a period piece.

Finally, a martial arts movie from the 1970s that doesn't have either Bruce Lee's secret training techniques Kung Fu Fever or just the plain "Brucesploitation" of Bruce Lee Fights Back From the Grave or the pseudo-documentary vibe of so many of them. OK, the big reason is that this movie was made before Bruce Lee's death. How the English-dubbed version didn't try to "Brucesploit" it is the great mystery.

Quotable Dialogue
"Captain Jai-Tai, you've shown your discipline, now show your strength!"
"Captain, you've been referred the 'Hungry Tiger'. I think it's time we let the Tiger loose..."
"You unclean them now, take every bit of polish off them..."
"You were sent up here to look for the white slave ring not a spy ring..."
Morals of the Story
Beating a guy with a stick builds discipline.
Bayonette fighting along with martial arts requitre protective gear.
Shoe shine brushes are more slippery than banana peels.
A fedora can be a deadly weapon.
It is easy to convince police not to raid places when explaining how cargo containers are full of bombs.
Kicking and punching generate large 'whooshing" noises.
Cars should be able to easily drive down stairs.