This review was written during Christmas 2003 and I've seen Golden Dragon, Silver Snake. It's now my favorite Dragon Lee movie and my favorite movie of all time. It's bizzare as you would expect from Godfrey Ho, but enjoyable. In my opinion, Dragon Lee looks his best in this film. During the opening credits, a gang of bikers try to beat up this guy in some sort of field but the guy thrashes all of them. Following this is some weird stuff, including a guy being killed in a lift by a man with a drill. Next, we have what could be the most confusing thing about the film as it has absolutley nothing to do with the rest of the film. We see a Chinese guy on a field practicing martial arts. He appears to be doing Bruce Lee impersonations. Then there's a black fighter watching him and without saying anything two each other, they for some reason start to fight. The Bruce Lee guy opens his mouth when he strikes as if he's doing a wail but no sound comes out. The Bruce Lee guy hits the black guy in the chest but we then see the black guy holding his jaw! This happens a couple of times and a fight proceeds before the black guy gives out what is probably the funniest bit of dubbing I've ever heard. He says in a high squeaky voice some crap about how good the other guy is before saying, "I'm here to challenge your brother to a duel with me.. where is he?!". It has to be seen to be appreciated. When we see the brother, his fight between the black guy is interrupted by a street scene and we never find out what happens. During the fight, some shots of Dragon Lee with a ridiculous smirk on his face are seen. Dragon gets a job as a cook but is fired for causing some trouble when defending the restaurant owner from the biker gang. Dragon is later attacked while walking on a road by some fighters led by a "gwailo". Dragon beats them up and really digs in to the leader. He is later seen talking to his boss wrapped up in casts. He tells the boss he's going back to the U.S. and says something like, "mind yourself" and walks so slowly off the screen that the shot finishes before he's left. How's he gonna get out of the building, let alone make it to America?! Anyway, Dragon starts working on a farm but the farm's having some trouble from the biker gang. Eventually, the biker gang kidnaps the owner's daughter so Dragon shows up at where she's being held and shows us who's boss. The excellent finale I'll let you to see for yourself (if you want to know what happens, read Keith's review).
This movie is one of four movies in the Dragon Lee DVD set from the BCI Eclipse label, Brentwood Home Video. The set contains "Champ Against Champ", "Rage of the Dragon", "Dragon On Fire" and "Golden Dragon Silver Snake". Each movie has got nicley animated menus and "Champ Against Champ" features a kung fu history featurette which is text rolling over a still of Bruce Li with Chinese sounding music. The "Golden Dragon Silver Snake" disc (double sided with "Dragon On Fire") features a sound problem that you can read about on the full DVD review by William (he seems to have a different opinion on the set to me). I shall now leave you with this line.
"Well as you can see, I'm just a blind cripple and I'm only here because I'm supposed to be looking after the garden. Now...(etc).