If psychiatrists were ever able to capture the image of schizophrenia on film, it may closely resemble the Dragon Lee epic BRUCE LEE'S WAYS OF KUNG FU. Over flowing with dizzying camera work, reverse photography fights and rapid-fire editing, it is the kind of film that would give Tsui Hark a headache.
Lee (credited onscreen as Bruce Lei) stars as Dragon, a young kung fu student who is, you guessed it, out to get revenge for the death of his father. The culprit for his father's murder is Kong Tien, who hides in the mountains at his Castle of the Devil's Disciple. Tien is rather hard to get to seeing as he has 18 daughters, referred to as the Devil's Daughters, who act as his bodyguards. Using staffs, ropes and even tapestries, these girls are vicious and will tear you up. Dragon's first attempt doesn't go so well as he is captured after being beaten half to death. Locked in a small cage on the rocky seashore, Dragon prepares to die until one of the 18 sisters takes a liking to him and frees him. Bad move as she ends up getting tortured while he splits. Meanwhile, two other warriors (one male, one female) are also out to get Kong Tien. These two each have an individual piece of a medallion, of which Dragon has the third. All three warriors meet up and, in He-Man style, put the pendant pieces together and decide to all take on Kong Tien in 3 on 1 style.
Unlike most of Dragon Lee's flicks, this one features little of his famed "Bruce-mugging." However, that doesn't stop the filmmakers from inserting the master's name in the title. On the Unicorn tape I have, the direction is credited to one Mark King, but the film stinks of Godfrey Ho all the way. Not that this is a bad thing, mind you. Ho fills his movies with action, with action scenes nearly every five minutes (you can set your watch by them), and this one is no exception. In fact, there may be too much action during the final 20 minutes! The sub-plots involving the other warriors feel like they are from an entirely different movie except for the fact the characters do eventually meet up with Dragon. One warrior, who always plays a flute before killing, has two goofy sidekicks that share a really odd relationship that borders on homosexual. In fact, one of the guys is a Jackie Chan look-a-like who seems to be doing the DRUNKEN MASTER shtick, except for the fact he is 4 feet tall and has a huge dangling wart. However, the strangest thing about this movie is that it may be the only kung fu revenge film I have seen that, after the hero gets beat down, has no training scene. Take that as a warning.
Reviewed by William