{"id":4331,"date":"2024-10-05T19:18:05","date_gmt":"2024-10-05T19:18:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=4331"},"modified":"2024-10-12T20:38:12","modified_gmt":"2024-10-12T20:38:12","slug":"bruce-lee-in-new-guinea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/10\/05\/bruce-lee-in-new-guinea\/","title":{"rendered":"Bruce Lee in New Guinea"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Bruce Lee in New Guinea<\/strong> (1978)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Four Seas\/Action\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 90 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (martial arts violence)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Chi-Yen Yang\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Ku-Yao Yang\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Wan-Chieh Li\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: 1980 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Bruce Li (as \u201cChung Tao Ho\u201d), Danna, Larry Lee, Sing Chen, Lik Cheung, Bolo Yeung.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: N\/A<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ***<\/p>\n

\u00a0The title Bruce Lee in New Guinea<\/strong> is a misnomer on two counts. First, it does NOT star Bruce Lee but Bruce Li, the best of the Bruce Lee clones to emerge after the actor\/martial artist\u2019s death in 1973, a full five years before this movie was made. Second, I don\u2019t care what the title says, that is NOT New Guinea. It doesn\u2019t even remotely resemble Papua New Guinea. It\u2019s Taiwan doubling for the Pacific island. I just wanted to set the record straight.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I first saw Bruce Lee in New Guinea<\/strong> on TV in May \u201982. One of the local UHF channels did a Saturday night martial arts double feature consisting of it and Bruce Lee\u2019s Greatest Revenge (actually Bruce Le). It was the first time such movies were shown on regular TV; I could barely contain my excitement over the prospect of seeing the kinds of movies that typically played at drive-ins or urban theaters in my own bedroom. What I didn\u2019t know at the time was that it was my introduction to \u201cBruceploitation\u201d. My affection for Bruce Lee in New Guinea<\/strong> continues to this day. How can I not appreciate a movie that uses \u201cBongo Rock\u201d (by The Incredible Bongo Band) as the opening theme?<\/p>\n

\u00a0The plot centers on this anthropologist Wan Li (Li) who joins his friend Chin Sang (Larry Lee) on an expedition to Snake Island, a fictional place off the coast of New Guinea. He wants to study their style of martial arts while his buddy wants to learn about the native people (\u201cThe Snake Tribe\u201d) and their ways.\u00a0 It\u2019s an ill-advised trip with all the turmoil on the island. It\u2019s been taken over by \u201cThe Devil Sect\u201d, a splinter tribe led by \u201cThe Great Wizard\u201d (Chen), a villain who posses superior fighting skills and supernatural powers.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Led by a couple of goofball guides, Wan and Chin encounter Chang Pow (Cheung), an acquaintance of Chin\u2019s who\u2019s come is search of the Snake Pearl, an object of worship for the tribe. It has magical powers, of course. Eventually, they run into the Wizard who bests Wan in a fight by poking him with his poison ring. Near death, he\u2019s found by Princess Ankawa (Danna) who nurses him back to health as only a hot island girl can. Forced to leave the island, Wan returns some time later (a year I think) for a rematch with the Wizard.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I\u2019ve told you the plot of Bruce Lee in New Guinea<\/strong>, but that\u2019s not even half of it. This martial arts flick is freaking goofy! It\u2019s almost as silly as The Clones of Bruce Lee. That one had metal-skinned assassins. This one has a gorilla bodyguard. Well, a guy in a gorilla suit, but it still counts. He\u2019s Ankawa\u2019s main protector; you should see how he deals with a pair of randy natives giving female swimmers a hard time on the beach. The two guides that take the heroes around the island are a couple of cross-eyed clowns who never fail to back away from a fight.<\/p>\n

\u00a0You want more silliness? You got it! At one point, the Wizard\u2019s crybaby son tries to force Ankawa to accept his marriage proposal by placing a curse on her baby (yep, it\u2019s Wan\u2019s!) with the pearl. In what has to be the worst special effect in movie history, a snake is superimposed on the baby\u2019s face. It\u2019s weird and hilarious at the same time. Back home, Wan has this annoying first cousin who has the hots for him. Apparently, this is acceptable in China. Who knew? It doesn\u2019t matter anyway since there\u2019s only one girl for Wan. The princess made sure of this by slipping him a magic Mickey before he left not-New Guinea, one that makes him look like a giant serpent whenever another woman gets too close. I wonder how many wives and girlfriends will try to Google the recipe upon watching the movie.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Is it even necessary to discuss details like quality, performance or basic filmmaking skills? That\u2019s an emphatic NO! A movie like Bruce Lee in New Guinea<\/strong> doesn\u2019t call for it. It\u2019s a kung fu cheapie which means lousy acting, cheap production values, poorly synched sound effects and dopey dialogue badly dubbed in English (the only way to watch one of these, am I right?). That being said, I do like Bruce Li. He\u2019s a great fighter and not too bad an actor. Danna is a hottie who unfortunately can\u2019t act. Chen chews up the scenery as the Wizard. SPOILER ALERT!<\/strong> His death scene is a masterpiece of overacting. The director is a guy named Chi-Yen Yang who worked on other kung fu movies in different capacities until \u201978 when he evidently dropped off the face of the planet. According to IMDb, it\u2019s the last time he worked.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The credited writer is a jiahuo<\/em> (Chinese for \u201cguy\u201d) named Ku-Yao Yang, but I didn\u2019t know these things even had scripts. Either way, it\u2019s a first class hack job. Some things don\u2019t make sense like the sudden appearance of three Americans also looking for the Snake Pearl in the final 20 minutes. The only reason I can think of for them being there is it gives Wan three more people to beat up. It tries to generate suspense in regards to Wan\u2019s experience on Snake Island after his fight with the Wizard. He returns home changed after his long absence. He has dreams of Ankawa. He freaks out his cousin. What happened to our hero in that cursed place? We find out courtesy of an extended flashback. Isn\u2019t it funny how much can be said about things that don\u2019t matter in the slightest?<\/p>\n

\u00a0To its credit, there\u2019s a fight every few minutes in Bruce Lee in New Guinea<\/strong>. Some of it involves the actors flying around on wires. One fight involves an opponent getting his eyes gouged out. All of it is cool! This is the real reason to watch any of these dumb-fu movies, right?<\/p>\n

\u00a0The DVD copy of Bruce Lee in New Guinea<\/strong> I own is the TV cut meaning two uses of the term \u201cbastard\u201d are bleeped out and a few scenes are edited out- i.e. the Wan-Ankawa sex scene (a little T&A) and a scene of girls swimming with their tops off. They can be found on YouTube in a French-dubbed copy of the movie. HOWEVER, all of the violence is intact. Nice to know even censors prioritize. The title of the DVD cover reads Bruce Li in New Guinea but I prefer the title I knew as 14YO Movie Guy 24\/7. Either way, it\u2019s great! Demented but great!\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bruce Lee in New Guinea (1978)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Four Seas\/Action\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 90 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (martial arts violence)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Chi-Yen Yang\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Ku-Yao Yang\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Wan-Chieh Li\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: 1980 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Bruce Li (as \u201cChung Tao Ho\u201d), Danna, Larry Lee, Sing Chen, Lik Cheung, Bolo Yeung.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: N\/A Rating: *** \u00a0The title Bruce Lee in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4612,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-b-movies","category-guilty-pleasures"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Bruce-Lee-in-New-Guinea-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4331"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4331\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4614,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4331\/revisions\/4614"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4612"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}