As I once again enter the world of “Bruceploitation”, I ponder the controversial question. How many of Bruce Lee's movies were actually good in the classical sense? Take away his presence and incredible fight sequences and often we are left with fairly average productions. Even his most famous role is in to be fair an exploitation movie. Even “Enter the Dragon” is to all intents and purposes an exploitation feature. Now I do not write this to be derogatory to one of cinema's legendary figures, it's just to try and be fair to the films that followed in his passing. The world of “Bruceploitation” gets a bad press normally and often with good reason. Yet take Bruce Lee out of his own work and the filmmaking looks fairly similar to these more exploitative features.
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Bruce Wong (Bruce Le) returns to Hong Kong to seek out Bruce Lee's “finger kung fu book”. However he is not the only one searching. A criminal boss (Lo Lieh) is obsessed with it also and sends his minions to capture Bruce Wong's sister and ex girlfriend (Nora Miao). Bruce Wong is bested in his first confrontation and must join forces with an Interpol agent (Chan Wai-man) to both find the book and rescue his family.
Opening with clips of Bruce Lee's movies, the lines of fiction and reality are blurred. A standard trope of this genre as often the stories would be around his demise and subsequent avenging. It's the equivalent of the Hollywood “based on true events” phrase that can often be taken with a healthy dose of scepticism.
Bruce Le does his best to capture the mannerisms but like all the clones, it ultimately inhibits as it's a performance of playing another performer playing a role. He unfortunately overdoes the finger flicking and the nose tick, which makes him look a coke addict. Physically, he looks the part but again looks forced in the fight scenes as is an imitation. It attracts comparisons rather than enabling the performance to shine.
Chan Wai-man gets a rare heroic role instead of the gangland bosses he would normally play and appears to be mimicking the Bruce Lee look also. Lo Lieh started life on the side of the angels at Shaw Brothers but as his career progressed, his features filled out and so gradually moved into more villainous roles. Always a good presence, he adds suitable menace. Nora Miao lends continuity from the actual Bruce Lee films as she would in several further exploitation features, as would Bolo Yeung
The dubbing is truly awful though. The line “All you think of is finger kung fu” is something out of an entirely different 70's genre. The editing is a bit choppy. The opening fight appears to just end suddenly with no conclusion. The standard crash zooms and extreme close ups are there, all accompanied to a rather irritating score. I am a lifelong non drinker but if any movie had a ready made drinking game then it's this one. I lost track of the times “kung fu finger book” is mentioned after about 20 minutes. So if anyone does try, I rather suspect they may not make it very far through!
The fight choreography feels very basic for the most part. At times, it tried to show a more traditional style but lacks the solidity of form that someone like Lau Kar Leung would demonstrate. The finale has Bruce Le don yellow trousers in “Game of Death” style and is the best and most varied of the numerous fight scenes. It features stick fighting (a rarity in this genre) as well as the usual nunchuks, though it's not actually Bruce Le that shows the most fluency with them in the final reel. Bruce Wong's accomplices allow it to break free from imitation and gain a bit more energy prior to the final showdown and reversion to type.
In true exploitation fashion, there is random gratuitous nudity and some very broad characterizations, including a rather dubious portrayal of an individual with learning difficulties. Bruce Wong comes across as a complete jerk with a foul temper and an obsession of learning Finger Kung Fu. There is a fine line between confidence and arrogance and this crosses it with a very unsympathetic lead. Chan Wai-man's Interpol agent at least has some more honourable intentions. They reinforce the idea that martial arts is for self defence and well-being, yet Bruce Wong is equally as self absorbed as the villains. Mercifully, the masters have a more grounded understanding. It's a curious paradox that would occur in Bruce Lee's main features too. The idea of Chinese kung hu's superiority. It's no surprise that the villain in “Bruce's Deadly Fingers” is a karate exponent, as further emphasizes the point.
Ridiculously enjoyable and often for the wrong reasons, this is a very entertaining Bruceploitation. With nonsensical dubbing and an atrocious lead performance we are in the realms of “so bad it's good”. With a decent final reel of action, it does make you question if it would have been better as a standard kung fu feature. Yet the addition of absurd plot and exploitation elements only make it more perversely enjoyable. One to watch and laugh at rather than with but fun nonetheless.
