Le cascadeur chinois

Bruce Li (real name Ho Tsung-Tao) made 38 movies between 1972 and 1982 this one being one of his last. In some movies he was the next Bruce Lee, sometimes deliberately, sometimes not. His best movies were when he dropped the Bruce Lee act. He also surrounded himself with the best.

On the other side we have John Ladalski and this is his first movie credit. He is not credited as the producer of this movie but has said in an interview the original idea for this movie was his. He had been pitching a movie based on authentic Jeet Kune Do that would be realistic fighting. Bruce Li and Dan Inosanto liked the idea and signed on. Once filming began the original concept was quickly replaced with one gimmick after another and the result was the same old type of movie that everyone else was making that year.

This movie begins when John Ladalski walks into a martial arts studio full of Asians and challenges them all. The fighting stops when Bruce Li shouts "I have a job", as an insurance salesman. He stops by a martial arts gym and spars with his pals. He then goes out to sell insurance and no one wants to buy insurance. What is worse – No one wants to watch a movie about selling insurance!

The high point of this movie is Dan Inosanto and Bruce Li near the end. Call it whatever – kali, arnis, escrima – it is Philippine stick fighting at its best. They did an excellent sequence that has nothing else to compare.

I rate this just above average for the good pacing and above average fight sequences throughout. I recommend it for fans of the genre and do not miss Dan and Bruce and the sticks.

Bruce Li continues to show that he is an excellent choice to step into bruce lee's shoes. The action is great and fast, the dubbing isnt too obvious and the plot rolls right along. Don't miss it. Bruce Li hits as hard and as fast as the real Bruce.. that comes from a career of olympic training and martial arts.

Bruceploitation, here we have Bruce Li instead of Bruce Lee. However, the German title 'Bruce Lee - Der Unbesiegte' is misleading, as there are only a few references to the fighting icon. So it's not a copycat film, just pure marketing at the time, the English title 'The Chinese Stuntman' is a much better representation of what is shown. I have seen the tight German video version, with a running time of 68 minutes you can't go far wrong. As always, the production team Uwe Schier has done a good job of turning a supposed crow into a handsome swan. Well, let's say a cute sparrow. The critical look behind the scenes of the Hong Kong assembly line Eastern business was quite interesting, but I wouldn't have wanted it much longer. There is simply a lack of outstanding martial arts and extraordinary ideas. The dubbing is also slowed down to maintain the seriousness of the film. The second main role could also pass for a clone, but John Ladalski is a Raimund Harmstorf light, especially as I had hoped for a badass role rather than that of the best buddy. Another interesting fact: with Paul Wei and Dan Inosanto, there are even two actors on board who actually acted alongside Lee.

For some reason, I really enjoy Bruce Li's buddy pics. Unlike the darkness of SOUL BROTHERS OF KUNG FU, The Chinese Stuntman provides for laughs and humor particularly scenes with Bruce and John. Even their sparring scenes look great, though not surprising having Jeet Kun Do masters John Ladalski and Dan Inosanto involved. If you look at Bruce Li's movies, his kung fu is a level higher here and Ho Chung Tao (Li's real name) gets to show his real stuff here and not limited by Bruceploitation standards. Dan Inosanto shows Jeet Kun Do in scenes and looks formidable displaying his Eskrima prowess. This is the second time I've seen him in action besides Game of Death.

Check out the stunts in this one too! That car flip looks really fantastic except they used a cut shot. Did I mention lots of furniture gets trashed?

Well, for a kung-fu movie this isn't to bad, okay, the big fight at the end is a bit pushed to far, you can see the low budget but it's quite funny. The plot is very simple and some might wonder why the bad guys always pick a fight they know they will loose without a real cause. The stunt with the car is pretty good but the camera work is worse than in most films of that time.

Well, low level entertainment, I've seen it about 4 times now on German RTL2, they have very few kung fu movies in rotation for a long time and they are just perfect as background noise to fall asleep. The really interesting fact by the way is the title it runs. It's shown with the title "Bruce, der Unbesiegte". Also shown in the TV magazine and online tv programe is the original title and the year, saying that it is "Bruce the superhero" from 1973. It also says that Bruce Lee AND Ho Chung-Tao are featured in it, if you click for more information you get more background about the real Bruce Lee and his movies, early death and so on. The TV station at least gives the right summary of the movie. Well, it wouldn't be worth mentioning, but they are making the same mistake for years now, I think they don't know better.