Spirits of Bruce Lee

From Zanecorpwiki

Part of the Martial Arts: 50 Movie Pack. If you like 70's/early 80's martial arts, it's a deal. If you don't, it's a whole lot of affordable nothing. Apparently, this is also a public domain movie.

Summary

A lot of classic Hong Kong elements, but one gets the sense that the entire raison d'être for the film is to make money off to find a guy that looks vaguely like Bruce and then try to make money off that fact. The classic genre isn't the place one goes to find subtle storytelling, but this one has a few more and more blatant contrivances than most.

The big problem with the film is the action isn't really as good as your average Hong Kong film. There's no real effort at all to do anything in the style or with the flash of Bruce Lee. Le sigh.

Details and Notes

Spoilers Ahead

This movie has the worst instance of Team Up on the Final Boss I've ever seen. No less than four individuals, two of them supposedly kung fu masters team up on to defeat the boss man who seems to be a chain smoking lecher and, as far as we know, has no fighting chops at all. Yet even despite this overwhelming advantage, one of the masters manages to get himself killed. I can only assume it's to inject some note of tragedy into the film. Whatever is, it's one of the the most ham-fisted, un-supported endings I've ever seen. (It has more problems than just the sudden breakdown of the protagonist's skill.)

In what I can only assume is a terribly executed comedic nod, after defeating the boss man, his mistress comes running out and beats everyone up while kneeling by the dead body. The problem is that any comedy this may have had is ruined by the fact that the kindly father figure has just been killed.