Bruce Lee Fights Back from the Grave (1976) Aquarius Releasing/Action RT: 84 minutes Rated R (strong martial arts violence, language) Director: Doo Yong Lee Screenplay: Chee Do Hong Music: Wong Kuei Yen Cinematography: Chang-Bok Ahn Release date: August 1979 (US) Cast: Bruce K.L. Lea, Deborah Chaplin, Anthony Bronson, Steve Mak, Jack Houston, Charlie Chow, Philip Kennedy, Jimmy Sato, Su-Cheon Bae, Mun-Ju Kim, Jang Lee Hwang, Sho Kosugi. Box Office: N/A
Rating: NO STARS!!!
The best thing about this chop-socky mess is the title Bruce Lee Fights Back from the Grave and it’s a complete lie. The movie has absolutely NOTHING to do with late martial arts legend. There’s nothing supernatural in it either. The opening sequence in which Lee jumps out of his grave after lightning strikes was filmed later for the American release. It was tacked onto this incredibly bad South Korean kung fu flick about a young man seeking vengeance against the men that murdered his brother. The hero is played by an actor identified in the credits as “Bruce K.L. Lea” (his real name is Jun Chong). He’s not possessed by Lee. He doesn’t possess Lee’s skills. He doesn’t even resemble Lee. This is Bruceploitation at its very worst.
The plot itself is a perfectly functional one. It’s driven many martial arts flicks. Usually, it’s a student avenging his master in order to restore honor, but family works too. That brings us to the plot of Bruce Lee Fights Back from the Grave. In it, a guy named Wong Han (Lea) comes to L.A. at his brother’s request only to discover he’s too late. He’s dead, an apparent suicide brought on by a lawsuit against his karate school that ruined him financially. Wong doesn’t believe it; there’s no way his brother would kill himself. He decides to look into it himself. He heads off in the wilds of L.A. with a box containing his brother’s ashes strapped around his neck.
In a plot development that simply defies logic, the young waitress Susan (Chaplin, Hard to Die) Wong saves from an attempted rape knew his brother and saw something that might be helpful. Of all the parking lots in L.A., he just happens to be in that one at the exact right time. Of all the women in L.A., it’s Susan that he saves. Divine intervention or screenwriter machination, you decide.
Susan tells Wong about the lawsuit and the five men he had a confrontation with shortly before his death. It turns out his brother was involved with a drug ring. That means he was actually murdered. Susan agrees to help Wong find all responsible parties so he can even the score. All the while, they’re followed around by a mysterious figure in a black hat only seen in silhouette. Gee, who it could be? I wonder.
I’m not dense, naïve or stupid. I know kung fu movies aren’t the highest form of entertainment. Artistic merits aren’t exactly a priority. They exist for one reason only, the fight scenes. The more kung fu, the better. Everything else is secondary (if that) to kung fu fighting. That’s a good place to start in talking about Bruce Lee Fights Back from the Grave. While plentiful, it’s sloppily choreographed and poorly edited. There are scenes when blows or kicks miss the intended target by inches yet there’s still a sound effect like contact was made. Did the makers really think we wouldn’t spot this? Either way, the fight scenes aren’t even exciting. It’s more like watching a martial arts exhibition at a school gymnasium. Even a brief uncredited appearance by Sho Kosugi (Revenge of the Ninja) as a sword-wielding assassin doesn’t help matters any. This may be the movie’s only point of interest.
Of all the things not to care about in a kung fu movie, the acting is at the bottom of the list. The makers aren’t looking for great thespians, they want good fighters. I think we already covered the second part so let’s talk about the first. The actors we see on the screen are terrible; the actors we don’t see are worse. I’m referring, of course, to the ones providing the bad English dubbing. I think it may only be one guy voicing all the male characters. They all sound exactly alike. Also, every single line of dialogue sounds like a poor imitation of John Wayne. I kept waiting for Wong to call somebody “pilgrim”. Susan, the only significant female character, doesn’t get off any easier. Forget that the dubbed voice isn’t a match. It doesn’t even make sense to dub her lines since she’s American.
I don’t know if the makers of Bruce Lee Fights Back from the Grave cut stuff out for the American release or simply didn’t film it, but pieces of the story seem to be missing. For example, the guy who bails Wong out of jail after he’s arrested at his brother’s studio tries to hire him to find a missing girl. Wong turns him down and goes off on his own. We never find out who he wants to find or why. Aside from a few brief appearances on the sidelines, we don’t see this guy again. The movie never comes back to this plot thread. That’s sloppy even for a cheap martial arts flick.
It’s easier to say Bruce Lee Fights Back from the Grave is badly made and leave it at that. It’s bad filmmaking, plain and simple. I don’t ask for much from cheap kung fu flicks, especially ones in the Bruceploitation canon, just give me a lot of cool fight scenes. It doesn’t even deliver on this level. It’s a failure every which way and then some.
