Les Kamikazes du kung fu

Of course there will be "spoilers" in a movie over 40 years old. If Doris Lung Chun-Erh was born in 1957 and this movie was made in 1971, pardon my math but, 14 years old? She sure doesn't look 14 years old, especially being Chinese and in 1971. The only reason I sought and watched this movie was to see everything she made. The movie starts with a pathetic fight. Two guys are bobbing around with such poor balance they can hardly fake a fight. It gets worse with the wire work that just looks like out of control puppets. The trampoline work however is good. How to make a crappy fight scene even worse? Add a sound track of a crying baby. My poor ears! Plot: Tien Peng is the Iron Palm and for revenge he is out to kill all the evil karate guys one at a time. About 30 minutes in Chen Hung-Lieh saves the movie from total fast forward button. He can actually do a choreographed fight and act unlike everyone else. He joins up with the evil karate guys. He's clearly in it for the money and the 14 year old girl. A karate guy turns traitor and tries to run off with Doris but fails. Iron Palm comes in and rescues him for some unknown reason. Wait for it! The reason was revenge. He kills him in a terrible fight. It comes down to Tien Peng versus Chen Hung-Lieh and of course they are brothers, a bit too late. Final fight time and though Chen Hung-Lieh is better than anyone else in this movie he does not have what it takes for a good 15 minute final fight. It's probably his best moment but it still falls short.

Duel of Karate (official english title) was released in Taiwan 1/13/71 and two years later in Italy as I FIGLI DI BRUCE LEE (transl. The sons of Bruce Lee), in the wake of the Kung-Fu fever. So you can guess my surprise when I saw this as a kid and neither Bruce nor his children were there. The italian dubbing renamed Bruce Lee the good Kung-Fu master killed in the begin, in order to capitalize on the Little Dragon. They did it twice, cuz this film was re-released again in Italy 1978 as LA GRANDE SFIDA DI BRUCE LEE (transl. Bruce Lee's great challenge) showing Bruce Li/Ho Tsung Tao on the poster. Back then, I felt DUEL OF KARATE was a terrible movie, but I didn't know yet Kung-Fu cinema yet: so, to say the truth, this clumsy movie has more than one reason to be seen. 1) The late star Chen Hung Lieh (or Chan Hung Lit) can't fight but he's an hell of an actor, usually playing the evil guy; this time he's the hero and this is a curiousity; 2) His on-screen brother Tien Peng (aka Roc Tien) was an hell of an actor too (A TOUCH OF ZEN, 1970), usually playing the main hero, but this time he's the co-star as the unknown brother of Chan. 3) Yi Yuen, an aged performer from Taiwan, was ALWAYS the evil guy, as he's in this, and he deliver fake Kung-Fu but a great charisma as usual. 4) Wong Chun (the father of both Chan and Tien Peng in the story) was a good taiwanese actor who made 112 movies. 5) Doris Lung was a good actress who became mentally ill in real-life, I don't know why. 6) The final showdown is one of the most stuntmen-crowded battle I ever seen in a Karate movie, with an army of acrobats jumping everywhere. The fighting style is pretty much MARTIAN arts, people can fly, any kick is like a whiplash, fingers are like razors... well, if you're at the game it's a funny movie. A guilty pleasure. But not a movie you need to know at any cost if you love the genre.