Aka - The Death of Bruce Lee

This is a pretty trashy premise even within the trashy Bruce Lee Cash-In genre of films after his death, but there is an inkling of Cinéma Vérité within. After Lee's sudden death in the apartment of actress Betty Ting Pei, the rumors, conspiracies and theories began immediately. Partly because they always do but also because Lee was thought to be indestructible. Some of the speculations were that the triads did it, that he was poisoned, that there was a family curse or a drug overdose. Officially, he died from cerebral edema or the swelling of the brain.


In this silly film, Ron Van Clief (also his name in the script) is hired in San Francisco to find out who killed Bruce Lee. For one hundred grand. Off he goes to Hong Kong and meets his kung fu buddy Woodcock (Charles Bonet) to help him. Woodcock. Get it? A lot to live up to. Woodcock's assistant is played by Addy Sung. The two of them basically wander around areas of the city and get constantly attacked by a gang. They beat them up and go about their business till they are attacked again.


Another group from a martial arts school are also looking into his death. One suggests that Lee died from over sex to which the Master says only a fool would say that. The two main ones are played by Jason Pai Piao and Yuen Qiu. They also get attacked constantly. For a really shoddy film, it is an intriguing cast. Pai Piao had been with Shaw and Yuen became famous years later as the Landlady in Kung Fu Hustle after returning to film. Van Clief was a martial arts champion who picked up the nickname the Black Dragon.


The action is plentiful but most of it is poorly choreographed. The main problem is the bad guys are basically punching bags. It isn't until the final fight that it gets interesting. Yuen Qui has some good action bits. But the star of the film is Linda Hoh, the vile laughing mistress of the main villain (Lau Hok-nin). She is equally adept at throwing poison snakes and blowing poison darts. Shockingly, we never do find out who killed Bruce Lee. Directed by Tony Lou Chun-ku who did much better work later directing with Shaw - Lovers Blades, Lady Assassin and Bastard Swordsman.

Images from HKMDB

---