BRUCE'S FISTS OF VENGEANCE is a 1974 chop socky flick originally titled THE FISTS OF VENGEANCE. It has absolutely nothing to do with Bruce Lee or Bruceploitation. Instead, it is an average tale of evil Japanese (imagine that!) who are exploiting the Chinese circa the WW2 era. For some reason, the Japanese are intent on using some red Chinese sand in order to help forge guns. Man, talk about a lousy instigator for a plot conflict! The lead runs around with his five o'clock shadow and encounters drama after drama. The villagers hate me! My ex-girlfriend married my brother! My brother trades with the Japanese! The Japanese hate me! Oh, the pain, the pain!
Master Arts Video released the film in the US in 1982, PROUDLY proclaiming, "The Legend of Bruce Lee lives on in BRUCE'S FISTS OF VENGEANCE!" The particular video I tracked down has a wannabe Bruce on the cover, but he is nowhere to be seen. The alternate box art shown above (on the same label under the title FIST OF VENGEANCE) goes as far as to put a picture of Bruce Lee on the cover with a quote saying the film is "a tribute to The Master." Wait...it is a tribute to that Jet Li/Tsui Hark movie? Anyway, same old story here: Bruceploitation on the outside, generic martial arts film on the inside.
Reviewed by William.