ZOMBIE-8

I saw this film at the Horrorfind Film Festival in 2011, and it started off well enough with a black and white boxing match. Wonderful lighting/cinematography, I expected something along the lines of Raging Bull with a horror twist... but this wasn't even close to the case.

As the plot synopsis on here says, the film goes into a "split narrative"... the only problem is, it seemed like any logic that that should have accompanied the plot was split as well. Neither storyline really made much sense, with the boxer's storyline dealing with what seemed like a coven of women trying to do something with the boxer that never really came to fruition, and "Rookie's" storyline dealing with suddenly bringing his dead relative back to life (the only real "horror" aspect of the film).

The film's biggest detriment is in the editing, and not knowing when to finally cut. For example, there's a scene midway in the film where Rookie is aimlessly driving down a long road, drinking and head banging to his radio, and it's initially pretty funny. Everyone in the theater got a decent laugh in the beginning (I at least assumed this was to be one of the comic relief scenes), but the scene went on... and on... and on... until finally, no wait, it's still going... and going... and... okay, it's done. Everyone in the theater went from chuckling to that kind of awkward giggling in which you're not sure if you're still supposed to laugh anymore. This scene probably should've been a half minute at most, but it felt like it was at least 5 minutes. Most likely to pad out the half hour runtime.

Overall, I really don't mean to sound harsh, as I know how difficult filmmaking can be. I just get disappointed when I see an indie film start with such potential, only to stumble as it goes along. I still think these filmmakers have potential, as from a technical scale, the cinematography was pretty decent. However, it's storytelling and editing that need work.

You know, I'm VERY open minded when it comes to different types of film, whether its fiction or non-fiction. However, I can't see what people enjoy about this documentary... nor can I see it as "Criterion Collection" material. This film can be summed up like this:

1. Salesman approaches possible customer; 2. Salesman explains all paying plans; 3. Possible customer is not interested; 4. Salesman continues pushing; 5. Possible customer still not interested; 6. Salesman keeps pushing; 7. Possible customer puts foot down; 8. Salesman gives up; 9. Salesman complains to other salesmen; 10. Start back at step #1 and repeat entire process until 90 minutes are up.

That's it. This "documentary" redefined the term "monotony". Usually a documentary is made up of narration, photos, interviews, and b-roll footage. Imagine just 90 minutes of nothing but b-roll footage. No narration. No interviews. No photos. Just a camera running with some of the footage thrown together in the editing process. Also, all four of the salesmen seemed too similar to really get to know them. The only one I can remotely remember was the skinny one who kept breaking out into the voice of an old Irish woman.

In short, remember the feeling you had after seeing The Blair Witch Project for the first time? Same reaction here. Almost the same concept as well: A "documentary" that is nothing but b-roll footage and has a bunch of people doing the same thing over and over again and complaining about it. Like I said, I'm usually pretty open minded about film in general, and I tried as hard as I could to respect this film, but it just fell flat and I left wanting that hour and a half of my life back. The 4 stars I gave out of 10 were more or less pity stars for the effort these people tried in making some type of documentary. There are so many deeper documentaries out there, and this doesn't even come close.

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!