Treasure of Bruce Lee

Treasure of Bruce Le

Year: 1980
AKA: Treasure of Bruce Lee
Starring: Bruce Le, Chan Sing, Cheung Li, Kwong Tao, Ton Kam Ton, Chan Lau, Jonny Da, and Wang Sze(Bolo Yeung)
Directed by: Chiang Sung
Running time: 80 minutes

After being impressed by the excitement and mayhem of Bruce Le's NINJA OVER THE GREAT WALL, I decided to give him another chance. He blew it...big time! I started watching this one a few weeks ago but gave up after about 40 minutes. Only after Keith's incessant nagging did I manage to finish it up.

The filmmakers employ standard martial arts plot #5 v. 2.0:

Good guy teacher has a book containing the Secret 5 kung fu styles.
Naturally, bad guys (Japanese, of course) want this book and kill teacher.
Teacher's students get pissed and seek revenge.

Bruce Le stars as Wong Chan Lung, the teacher's favorite pupil who finds out that fellow student Chow Yi Fah was behind their teacher's murder. Chow is secretly Japanese (he hid that pretty well) and wants the book in order to help his people learn styles to defeat the Chinese. Of course, Chow also seemed jealous of Wong ("The teacher liked him. Used to give him special favors," he says. Whoa, what kinda special favors is he talking about?). Anyway, Chow defeats Wong initially but Wong goes to train with another teacher for a year (movie time: 5 minutes). He learns the Steel Finger technique by punch holes in fruit roughly the size of a human head. Hmmmmm, I wonder what he will do to Chow when they meet again?

This is pretty much the Bruce Le I remember. There are lots of fights but for some reason the film dragged on and on. It was roughly 75 minutes but felt like 75 years. Everything in this movie is so random. Some girl who lives in a hut leads the Japanese but she commits suicide literally the second Le confronts her. Bolo Yeung plays a special fighter brought in to combat Wong, but the two never fight. That pretty much sums up the movie right there. One guy gets his testicles ripped off but pops up in the very next scene sporting the same outfit and looking healthy. His wig falls off when he dies. Wong's second teacher also gets killed (Wong sure is bad luck) but not before taking out some guys with a move that crushes his opponent's bones (it sounds like someone ripping open a bag of M&Ms near the mike). Le manages to sneak in a few Bruce Lee wails during the final fight. Watching this makes me want to finish BRUCE LE'S GREATEST REVENGE even less. Thanks Keith!

Reviewed by William.

Check out Keith's review of Treasure of Bruce Le.