REVIEW
Everyone was bitten by the Bruce Lee bug in the mid-seventies and Joseph Kuo was no exception. This shameless, yet equally offensive rip-off of Fist of Fury cannot begin to match Lee's classic, but lead Man Kong Lung makes a valiant attempt to fill his shoes.

As some of the grooviest opening music for a kung fu film plays, the film begins as Japanese from the Musashi martial arts club begin harassing a Chinese gal who is waiting on them in a restaurant. As the employees' attempt to politely dissuade the amorous fellow fails Lang Hsiao Hu (Man Kong Lung), a cook beats the tar of them. Unfortunately, even in victory he manages to treat them just as poorly as they treated the Chinese. This tit-for-tat mentality infects the mind of the Japanese club leader who goes in search of Man. This leads to a vicious fight at Man's Chung Hua club that leaves two Japanese fighters dead. Man hides out in the nearby countryside as pressure from the Japanese authorities and the Musashi club, threatens the Chinese school's existence unless Man gives himself up. Matters are not made any better when one of Man's club brothers is killed, prompting him to attack the Japanese dojo. Unable to get their hands on Man, the Japanese attempt to destroy Chung Hua's reputation by challenging the club. This leads to a public match where Man returns to fight for the school and finally accept responsibility for the killings.

Whah! When are these crazy Chinese and Japanese martial artists going to learn that violence only begets more violence? For that matter, why did it take nearly a decade for filmmakers to realize that audiences only wanted to see one Bruce Lee? In all fairness, director Joseph Kuo didn't focus on making a Bruce Lee clone, but his attempt to capitalize on the phenomenal success of Fist of Fury is a sad affair. Once again, we get to see all Japanese portrayed as whoring, smug oppressors who like nothing better than to tirelessly pound on Chinese. Yet, its the viewer who will feel abused the most. The fights are clunky and their success rests upon Man's shoulders. I'll grant it that he has some charisma but his fighting style is like an even uglier version of Sonny Chiba's rabid flailing. And for no good reason, the same Japanese fighters continue to attack Hsiao Hu even though they get trounced on every time. After the third or fourth time, the same old schtick gets pretty tiresome. Watching Man go through just about every fight scene in Lee's film from the dojo melee where Man uses a short piece of rope in place of nunchakus to the old "throw sign in air and kick it to pieces" routine is strictly ho hum.

Even Chinese Iron Man's story holds absolutely no surprises thanks in part to the fact that our hero, like Bruce Lee cannot be defeated and yet this invulnerability is less convincingly portrayed. After taking in the hideously dated and contrived anti-Japanese sentiment and generally lackluster action, I found myself wondering whether this 90 minute film wasn't really stretching well beyond that time frame. Oh, but the film did finally end with an appropriately awkward cut between completely different musical soundtracks. Bottom line - unless you like your kung fu served bland, I suggest you appease your destructive appetite with a film less likely to leave a bad taste in the mouth.