Mang quan gui shou

Bruce Li stars as a man who learns kung fu from 2 incompetent teachers. They teach him a bunch of fake animal styles and he finally figures out that they are fakes. With goons taking over the town Li has to find a good teacher to learn kung fu quick. Enter Simon Yuen.

The first hour has some decent comedy, but the action is not good at all. Bruce Tong has a nice cameo at the start, but then there are a bunch of weak fights. But then out of nowhere Bruce Li has an awesome fight with Kong Do and 2 other guys. Then Tiger Yang shows up. Yang's first fight is good, but the final fight is a disappointment. The rest of these words I am typing so that the reivew is long enough to be posted. Come one now. Work with me here. Am I there yet?

There was a Quiz at the end of the DVD I got of this film. It was rather funny to find a 70s movie on a DVD with an interactive quiz on it. If you got a question about the movie right, the next screen had a still of one of the characters from the movie smiling. If you got it wrong, they showed a bad guy wagging his finger at you, or something. That alone was worth the three bucks I laid out at the yard sale for this somewhat watchable venture into Artsploitation. The Female Ninja in this movie was one of the other nice features, she seems skilled at acrobatics, without actually having any stage presence or confidence with the arts.

Novice fighter, Bruce Li is suckered by two bogus Kung fu teachers until he is montaged into a next-level, lightning-swift power-fighter of awesome magnitude by affable Kung Fu vagabond (Yuen Siu-tien). Alongside sleek, powerhouse pugilist Dragon Lee, the no less mighty martial artist Bruce Li remains one of my most beloved Bruce Lee copyists!!! I sincerely feel these actors energetically mimic Bruce's iconic style out of a profound love and reverence for the great man. Others express a dimmer view of Brucesploitation, but they probably prattle on turgidly about mobile phone apps, wormy artisan cheese and overpriced 4K Blu-rays, so, phook 'em! Bruce Li rocks hard, dude, as does his lively street-tough Kung Fu action/comedy extravaganza, Blind Fist of Bruce Li! Douse the grey cells in one's preferred intoxicant, greasily stuff one's cakehole with yummy plastic cheese and marvel at all enjoyably scrappy chop-comedy-socky shenanigans herein! While these films occasionally have all the aesthetic refinement of an over-fermented herring, the pedantic, frequently surrealistic dubbing are, for me, all part of the micro-genre's goofily pugnacious charm. I must admit to having been wholly absorbed by the righteously revenge-fuelled, fists-of-frenzy climax.

"In Kung Fu, you have to be fast, or you'll die!!!" I think a young Yngwie Malmsteen took this maxim a little too much to heart!"

One's impression while watching this film is fairly mixed: there were many parts that made it funnier than the typical Kung Fu film (intentionally so) which kept me interested in the film. Furthermore, the acting is not as bad as typical of its' genre, and I found some of the characters especially expressive and entertaining.

However, the fault of the film is that it falls victim to many of the errors of its' genre: the quality being grainy and questionable, the simplicity of the plot and having shocking simplicity in the archetypes of good & evil, and furthermore, being overall rather corny.

But if you can stand for a typical Kung Fu B movie, this is not so bad; I found it entertaining and its' martial arts were not very shabby, either. And furthermore, the film did not fall victim to any ridiculous subplot or love-story, nor was it ruined by an overwhelming personality clogging up the story, which can easily kill other films. For what they have, a decent film. If you see it for what it is, it is not hard to watch and enjoy it. Decent for anybody who has an attachment to the genre.

I saw BLIND FIST OF BRUCE in Brentwood's fantastic 10-pack format, and it has set the standard for my viewing of these films. While not a terrible chop-socky movie, there isn't really much in BLIND FIST to set it apart from the rest.

BLIND FIST OF BRUCE stars Bruce Li (no, NOT Bruce Lee unfortunately) in what is labeled a "tribute to the formula that made Bruce Lee a star!" Li plays a banker whose town is set upon by a ruthless gang. Sound familiar? It should, as indeed this formula has been used for well over a hundred kung-fu movies. At times, BLIND FIST reminded me of Jackie Chan's MASTER WITH CRACKED FINGERS, but the two are incomparable in terms of action. While Li plays his part competently enough, his two "teachers" (who soon enough become gang members themselves) have that sort of chop-socky comic relief that doesn't hold well with American audiences.

There are enough characters to keep BLIND FIST interesting, including a blind man who has mastered the martial arts, a geisha and her kung-fu maid, and Li's aforementioned cat-fu and dog-fu mentors (they teach him such moves as "peeing dog" and "licking yourself"). Also, the film has enough of those beat-em-up moments for the audience to hate the bad guys and to side with Li and his blind teacher. Unfortunately, there is simply nothing too special about BLIND FIST OF BRUCE.

While not bad, I would recommend this movie only to die-hards like myself, rather than as an entry-level feature. Instead, watch MASTER WITH CRACKED FINGERS or, even better, FIVE DEADLY VENOMS. :)