| When buying a Sonny Chiba movie, one must be very careful. While he made some pretty good movies in his career, he also made a lot of crappy ones as well. This Rarescope collection brings together two of his so-called "lesser-known" movies.
"Fighting Fist": A mediocre early 90s film that Chiba directed. He also has a total of about 6 minutes of screen time. Not a film I would put in this collection, but oh well. What kind of saves this film is that the action from the lead is pretty good, and that the blood flows fast and free. Basically, it's about an agent with a past who kills the relatives of a Hong Kong crimelord to bring him out into the open. Problem is, when the bad guy does come out, he has people killed who are very close to the agent. While okay as a standard HK action flick, it doesn't really do anything to make it stand out.
"Soul of Bruce Lee": This is the reason for the 3 stars. Let me state right off the bat that this is a Brucesploitation movie. It has "Bruce" fighting Bolo (yes, Bolo is in this movie). It has "Bruce" copying all of Bruce's moves (when he got injured at one point, I was waiting for him to lick his blood and then scream and go ape shit). The nice thing is, it isn't Sonny imitating Bruce Lee, it's some other guy. The story is about how Sonny goes after the man who killed his master and is now head of the Thai drug cartel. You get some very good fights, including one where Sonny takes on four guys fighting in the Monkey Style. Sue Shiomi also stars in flashback sequences where she nurses Sonny back to health and teaches him martial arts (yep, you read right). It's also a weird film in that Sonny occasionally hooks himself up to an electrical discharge machine that sends charges through his body. One scene has him in a pair of mesh bikini briefs and a mesh muscle shirt with wires strapped to his body while he practices karate while getting zapped. If you ever wanted to see what Sonny would look like in a bondage getup, here's your chance. Sonny also snorts coke out of a bag to help his internal injuries. He comes off as a pretty weird human being in this one. This film has the cheap look and feel of his other film "The Bodyguard." But, unlike that snoozer, this one actually keeps one awake.
As I stated earlier, Sonny made some good films, but a lot of lousy ones as well. If you like Sonny, forget the first one and watch the second one. Not so bad, but not so great either. You've been warned. |