O Desafio de Bruce Lee

This continues from where the original movie left off, with the brother of the Bruce Lee character coming in to help save the school Lee had been defending. Though there is at least some connection to the first movie, there is hardly any plot here, with most of the movie consisting of those evil Japanese beating the snot out of the Chinese characters who, except for our hero, are remarkably poor fighters. With our hero being the only capable Chinese fighter, I have to wonder if this appealed to Hong Kong audiences at the time.

If there were some decent fights, this could have been mindless entertainment. Unfortunately, the fights, the sets, the rest of the production values are just like the typical shoddiness found in a typical H.K. movie of the period. Stick to Hong Kong movies from the 80s and 90s.

Bruce Li stars in this flick..and it's one of his best..if not the best. Full of Japanese vs. Chinese action and Japanese bigotry toward the Chinamen.

Chen Shan (Bruce Li) journeys to Shanghai to honor his brothers dying wish. He must reestablish the Ching Wu Martial Arts School. When he finds that the school has been taken over by Miyamoto, the Japanese karate Master, a fight to the death ensues.

Bruce Li stars in this sequel as the the brother of the character played by Bruce Lee in the original 1972 movie. However things have gotten worse for the Chinese since Bruce Lee's character died and the Japanese are so mean that they don't let them visit the grave of Lee's character, get killed constantly and worst of all they do it for no particular reason. I must admit that The Chinese Connection II might be at least a passable movie if available in Cantonese with subtitles because the dubbed version certainly doesn't provide enough background or plot to make this is even close to as enjoyable as the original first movie. Bruce Li does have a screen presence, this is a fact he has a quality about him which suggests he might've had more talent then just going into ludicrous dramatics while kicking the crap out of various people. What makes Chinese Connection II so disappointing is that it literally is nothing but endless action sequences with no story to make the action sequences mean anything. Don't get me wrong plot isn't very important, but I for one wanted a reason and motivation for Bruce Li's vengeance as well as why the bad guys did what they did. Unfortunately it's all vague and because of this the action sequences (while well staged) lack the overall edge a normal martial arts flick would have.

*1/2 out of 4-(Poor)

The Hong Kong film industry was becoming invaded by all the Bruce Lee imitators who came along during the latter half of the 70s. Most of the films that resulted, are instantly forgettable. The above movie is barely tolerable. The story is meant to be about the brother of Chen Chen (Bruce Lee) who is out to avenge his brother's death and to destroy the Japanese at the same time. All I can see, is a load of scenes thrown together with no sense of narrative, plus some rather poor attempts at acting and direction. Bruce Li is one of the better Bruce Lee lookalikes. He tends to lack charisma but his fighting skills are OK. In spite of all the film's shortcomings, the martial arts scenes are digestible - just about.......

All right, here we have another of the infamous "Bruceploitation" films, with the most popular of the wannabes, Bruce Li. Hey, wait, come back, this is actually a good Bruceploitation movie! But first, we need a minor history lesson...

In 1972, the real Bruce Lee stars in Jing Wu Men/Cheng Mo Mun/Fist of Fury/Chinese Connection (or whatever else you want to call it), and of course, it's a hit. In 1976, three years after Lee's death and four years after Fist of Fury, Lo Wei now decides to look for the "new Bruce Lee" to film New Fist of Fury, and reels in Jackie Chan, or, as he would bill him, "Sing Lung". Seeing as how this was to be an "official" sequel to Fist of Fury in using the same director as well as a couple of veteran cast members (Nora Miao Ker Hsiu and Han Ying Chieh), plus having a star who didn't exactly try to impersonate Bruce Lee for once, you'd think it'd be good. It wasn't. It was overly long, very slow both in pacing and fight scenes, and the ending was one of those endings that feels like the director and writer just thought "uh, we don't have a real ending planned... eh, this'll do". Overall, for being the only official Bruce Lee sequel, it was just boring and no fun whatsoever.

However, around the same time, the Shah Brothers (no not the ShaW Brothers, the ShaH Brothers... big difference) had coined the simple name Fist of Fury Part II before Lo Wei could use it, and decided to make an unofficial sequel. Similar to New Fist of Fury, Fist of Fury Part II brought in a couple of veteran cast members, in this case Tien Feng and Li Kun, both reprising their roles from the previous film. Now, if New Fist of Fury was as bad as it was, you would think this would be worse... it's actually better. The storyline is more coherent in that it directly follows the events from the end of the first film starting with the funeral of Bruce Lee's character Chen Zhen. The story deals with the Japanese ignoring Chen Zhen's final request in that the Japanese were to leave the Jing Wu school in peace, but instead invade the school and occupy it. It is at this time that Chen Zhen's brother, Chen Shen (played by, who else, Bruce Li) pays his respects at his grave site. It is here that a Jing Wu student in hiding tells Chen Shen of the trouble the school is facing and that he must help.

That's pretty much the plot as the film is heavy on action while Lo Wei's "official" New Fist of Fury was lacking in action. The best part is just how much attention was spent in recreating the Jing Wu school to look virtually identical to the set from the Golden Harvest studios. Also, the new villain this time around is Miyamoto played by Lo "Five Figners of Death" Lieh who has a pretty damn good final fight with Bruce Li. Overall, this is the best example of a Bruce Lee sequel and one of Bruce Li's best. There IS a Fist of Fury III that does continue from here following Chen Shen's return home and the continuation of the Japanese occupation... but it's not nearly as good as this one. Also, good luck finding an uncut version of this film as the current US DVD is taken from a British video which cuts out all uses of the nunchucks. Try to find an out of print NTSC video on eBay if you can. Overall, this is worthy of a 6/10. Decent story, above par "Bruceploitation acting", nice set design, and pretty good fights. Worth a look!