La sfida del tigre

After the death of Bruce Lee, several studios hoped to fool the unsuspecting public into seeing their crappy films. This is because Lee died so young and did so few films that people were clamoring for more. In one case, they took outtakes and old clips and a stunt double and made a 'new' Bruce Lee movie. In another, his name was in the title but the movie was just an opportunistic mess by one of his ex-girlfriends. In MANY others, studios just re-named their actors with names that looked or sounded like Lee's! Actors such as 'Bruce Li' and 'Bruce Le' (from this film) were rechristened for this sleazy purpose--but not a single one of these films I have seen is worth seeing--even if you are just curious. Will "Challenge of the Tiger" be any better?

So how is Bruce Le (Chung Tao Ho) in the film? Well, he is not without talent--his martial arts moves are pretty good--even if his blows often don't even come close to connecting! However, you'll never mistake him for Lee with that mop haircut and aside from being Chinese there's not a whole lot of similarity to the great Bruce Lee. Apparently I am not the only one to think this way, as his career as Le faded and he later dropped this moniker and became a stuntman. I also wonder if perhaps the film might have done better if they'd made Le's helper in this film, Richard Harrison, the star as he was an incredibly handsome man and looked like a Marlboro Man! Sure, he probably didn't know any martial arts but when did that stop some actors in way too many martial arts films?!

This film finds Le in a typical sort of role--a secret agent. And because of this, he's able to travel the world (or at least go to as many places as the small budget allowed) looking for a missing secret formula. Naturally, along the way he gets into a lot of fights and fortunately the baddies never figure out that it would be a heck of a lot easier to just shoot Le and be done with it! So to answer my question about whether or not the film is worth seeing, the answer is no. The film looks amateurish and aside from the nudity (see below), the film never gets very interesting.

As I was just saying, in addition to the Bruce Lee knockoff, this film also features the most gratuitous use of nudity I have ever seen in a movie. During one sequence early in the film, about a dozen topless and completely naked women danced about (often in slow-motion) for no particular reason (get a load of the one drinking from the fountain). I guess the film makers were just trying to give the audience what they thought they wanted! If only they'd considered giving the films excellent plots, good martial arts action and quality directing, writing and acting!

Then it must be because you have not allowed yourself to experience the amazing piece of cinema that is Gymkata Killer. I would hate myself too. I was once like you, and then I saw what can only be described as the best movie, EVER! It's so horribly, terribly, frighteningly bad that it cannot be taken seriously. Once the movie, like a horrible, disfiguring train-wreck, careens forward through the opening scene, you understand that it's actually a dadaistic masterpiece - it is truly a movie whose 'brilliance' is housed in its irrationality and negation of the accepted laws of cinema.

It's like looking through a peephole into a post-apocalyptic world in which a nuclear bomb did NOT go off.

(Cutting edge special effects... On par with the TV's Batman & Robin! -- the live action 1970s series, not the cartoons)

Bruce Le stars in and directs this fairly entertaining kung fu actioner in which he and his over sexed, play boy partner (Richard Harrison) undertake an assignment to recover a top secret formula that could potentially render all men on the planet sterile(!) Shock horror! To make matters more complex, the said formula has also aroused the attentions of a number of other unscrupulous parties including a group of communists led by the one and only Hwang Jang Lee.

Cue a plethora of impromptu fights, breasts aplenty (including a truly mesmerising topless tennis match!), some Bull-Fu(!) and enough testosterone fuelled rippling muscle displays to please even a Mr. Olympia adjudicator!

Yep, all in all, whilst certainly not a classic by any means, it's good harmless B-movie fun and well worth watching at least once.

I like the West German dubbing title "The Death Fists of the Karate Tiger" much better for this KungFu knockout cascade, which was created in 1980 in a co-production between Hong Kong, Italy and the USA.

Bruceploitation star Bruce Le consistently fights his way through an outrageous plot involving the formula for a super drug that makes people sterile. Oh right! From Malaga it goes via Hong Kong to Macao. At Brucele's side is senior schlawiner Richard Harrison, who, as a CIA agent, roams through all the beds and also likes to appear bare-chested outside of the bedroom. The two heroes have to deal with terrorists and a gang of criminals. As a result, Brucele in particular gets into fights with different opponents.

Bolo Yeung, the Chinese Hercules, is crushed by Brad Harris as the super-cool bodyguard. In a particularly bizarre scene, the Czech heartthrob Josef Laufer doesn't belt out one of his schmaltzy songs, but lets his powerfully shaped chest muscles dance impressively, which is of course immediately punished by the good Brucele. Brad Harris's ultra-cool sunglasses are his undoing. But the brave Brucele gets an equal opponent in Jang Lee Hwang for the big final...

A wonderful piece of trash fun for all fans of the Bruceploitation genre!

The Late Great Dick Randall, who also produced the film, leads an all star cast in this international spy thriller. Dependable Richard Harrison is the womanizing CIA agent (Richard Cannon) who is ably assisted by agent (Huang) played by the diminutive Bruce Le as opposed to the original Bruce Lee. Huang is quite a karate fighter who is in the habit of beating up a legion of bad guys while Richart is scheming on the ladies and only fights when he must. The third member of the CIA team is pretty Sharon Shira (Anna).

They are opposed by the ruthless Viet Cong led by surly Jeong-lee Hwang (Comrade Yang) and (Comrade Asian Girl) played by May Hung with an unfortunate unattractive hair do. The third group is a little less defined with multiple nationality's in the gang although they did through in a Sieg Heil so we would know they are definitely evil. This group is led by (The Boss) Tito Garcia and his partner in crime Dick Randall. Randall's character goes by the name of (Dick) to keep it simple I guess.. They have a fem fatal working for them the exotic (Maria) played by Nadiuska who was fine in the role but was probably better suited for her day job as a Super Model.

Each of these forces were desperate to get their hand on the, you guest it, Secret Formula. Challenge of the Tiger is a solid "B" movie in any language as the plot roles right along with members of all three teams getting, how can we say, neutralized with regularity. The portrayal of violence is perfect with it not being to graphic. A big shout out to Brad Harris who played the Boss's henchman (Leopard) with a lot of menacing intensity. At 47 years old the former great Eurospy star still looked buffed at around 235 lbs or so. Unfortunately, he lost his test of strength to our hero the 115 lbs Huang because Huang knows Karate I guess.

The film would rate a couple of points higher if it stuck to the cute nude scenes, of which they are thankfully many, and dispensed with the simulated sex scenes that almost turned it into a soft core film which bogged it down a bit. The ending could have also been a bit more thought out to tie up a couple of loose ends, but all in all this one's a winner. Thank's Dick.