Die Rache der Todeskralle

RETURN OF BRUCE is a solid chop socky film from the tail-end of the kung-fu crazed 1970s. This one sees Bruceploitation regular Bruce Le travelling to the Philippines for a Manila-set adventure made with a Filipino crew and a largely Chinese cast.

The plot is nothing special; Le plays a kind of fish-out-of-water character who ends up befriending a cheeky orphan and a pretty girl and subsequently getting involved with some local gangsters who have been making people's lives hell. The second half of the film disperses of the plot entirely in favour of one over the top fight scene after another, and they're great fun; Le does his best Lee impressions and the bad guys are a memorable bunch, if not particularly skilled.

There's some goofy humour included here, as well as some nudity for the grindhouse crowds and a soundtrack that constantly samples the ENTER THE DRAGON theme. The familiar faces of James Nam and Lo Lieh show up in support. The last twenty minutes is like a video game in which our hero battles one bad guy after another, fighting towards the big boss. RETURN OF BRUCE isn't as crazy as something like CHALLENGE OF THE TIGER, but it certainly provides ample kung fu entertainment.

This movie might not have the best footage or fight scenes, but when it comes to sheer entertainment, it's one of my absolute Kung Fu-favorites! The unforgettable characters, ranging from the shirt-ripping hero to the sensationally ugly bad guy, manage to keep me laughing from the beginning to the end, despite having seen it over and over again. It has everything I look for in a Kung Fu-movie; badly synchronized audio, funky music, sudden zooms, colorful characters and lots of charm!

A must-see for all true Kung Fu-movie enthusiasts!

Bruce Le is traveling through Manilla and befriends an orphan, then saves a girl from some hoods. He finds out the hoods are catching girls to sell as sex slaves. Being an all-American... er, all-Chinese, rather... good-guy, Bruce can't let them get away with something like that. Accompanied by music stolen from Enter The Dragon, The Sting, Barry Manilow, and god knows who else, he and his policeman cousin beat up on the gangsters. One of the gangsters is a sissified guy who probably weighs 70 pounds. Everybody wears bell-bottom pants. Pretty good kung-fu flick, and probably Bruce's most likeable character. Some nudity and several scenes inspired by the real Bruce Lee.

Believe it or not Bruce Lee vs. Ninja in fact does not only not star Bruce lee it doesn't even star any ninjas! So if it doesn't have Bruce lee or ninjas than what does it have? Well...there is a guy with a kitten on his shoulder and a few guys with white sacs on their heads. I know that doesn't sound too impressive and it isn't (unless your a cat enthusiast like me) but this movie does star the legendary Leigh lo as the villain and features the adequate kung fu of Bruce Le.

I'm not even going to try to explain the plot to you because I don't remember what the hell was happening but I do remember the fighting to be entertaining and plentiful. Bruce Le gets a lot of bad press because people get angry once they realize the movie they rented didn't actually star Bruce lee, but Bruce Le really has pretty good kung fu and was a decent fight choreographer. Of course his acting is dreadful but that's part of his charm.

My main criticism for this movie is: the box art for the DVD has a big picture of Bruce Le angrily firing an M16 assault rifle but he never has an assault rifle in the movie! WTF! Bruce Le shooting ninjas with an M16, now that would be entertainment!

Saw this movie for the first time back in '97, with my college mates. Gathered around the tellie was 10 young lads watching this cheap chop-chop feature. Unforgettable is the intro where Bruce Pak not Bruce Le shoots the arrow on the bird and the bird gets hit with a "Pow" sound, completely out of sync...:-) Then Bruce screams longing after his now dead brother "Brother!", the scene fades into a memory scene where his brother stands below a water fall making moves, kicking and punching. Later in the movie you see the death fight between his brother and an evil guy. Well this is the movies plot, and I could go on forever and tell things coz I love this darn movie so much... If you ever find this movie on a VHS, DVD or on the net, you must get it... It will be a great addition to your life, as it has been to mine.