THE STEEL FISTED DRAGON

Year: 1977 (US release: 1982)
AKA: A Fistful of Dragon
Starring: Steve Lee, Johnny Kongkong, Chan Lau
Directed by: Oksan Lahardi

"Those bastards have lost the right to live!"

Promising "the greatest Kung Fu fighter since Bruce Lee" maybe be a bit ambitious, but it doesn't stop this late 70s chop socky entry from being damned entertaining. Steve Lee stars as Tan Jung, a young fighter seeking revenge after his mom and girlfriend are murdered. Why? Who knows really? Actually, it is explained about twenty minutes in when the lead villain (whose name we never find out) says, "His father killed my father!" Oh, now it all makes sense! So he summons Tan Jung to a temple where he lets his hired killers have a go at him. Of course, Tan Jung easily beats them all but gets badly wounded. So what does he do? Well, Tan Jung shacks up with the villain's sister. Damn, are you crazy boy! You know that is gonna result in some fighting.

A lot of sources refer to this as a Hong Kong production, but it sure doesn't look like one. Given the locales and wording on street signs, it is safer to say that this came from the Philippines. Regardless of its country of origin, this is a thrilling entry in the Bruceploitation genre. The first real fight doesn't get going until about the 15-minute mark but once it starts, it doesn't stop. Particularly exciting is the fight at the temple (more like an empty warehouse) that last for almost 20 minutes. Here Steve Lee really gets to show his "Bruce-y-ness" as he thumbs his nose, screams, utilizes some nunchuks and breaks everything in site. (Don't you mean "sight"? - Keith) The end of the film also features a nice showdown between Lee and HK veteran Chan Lau. The film doesn't skip on the gore either with highlights including a guy having his eyeballs popped out and another unlucky bastard getting liquefied in a vat of boiling something. While not a big budget effort by any means, this hard-hitting title is highly recommended to fans of old school kung fu flicks and Bruceploitation fans alike.

Reviewed by William.