{"id":4975,"date":"2024-10-08T20:08:29","date_gmt":"2024-10-08T20:08:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=4975"},"modified":"2024-10-12T20:49:57","modified_gmt":"2024-10-12T20:49:57","slug":"soul-brothers-of-kung-fu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/10\/08\/soul-brothers-of-kung-fu\/","title":{"rendered":"Soul Brothers of Kung Fu"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Soul Brothers of Kung Fu <\/strong>(1977)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinema Shares International\/Action\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 85 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (strong violence, sexual content, nudity)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Shan Hua (as \u201cI Hung Hwa\u201d)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Chan-Wei Lin (as \u201cChan Wai Lin\u201d)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Fu-Liang Chou (as \u201cFu Liang Chow\u201d)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Te-Wei Chang (as \u201cTak Wai Cheung\u201d)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: October 1978 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Bruce Li (as \u201cChung Tao Ho\u201d), Feng Ku, Meng Lo (as \u201cLun Kuan\u201d), Carl Scott, Pui-San Auyeung, Susan Yam-Yam Shaw (as \u201cYin Yin Shao\u201d), Kwok-Keun Chan, Lung Chan, Chuan Chen, Yi-Hsiung Chi.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: N\/A<\/p>\n

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

\u00a0As a white kid growing up in the suburbs in the early 80s, my only access to kung fu movies was Black Belt Theater which aired on Saturday afternoons on channel 29 here in the Philadelphia area. I wasn\u2019t allowed anywhere near the urban theaters that generally showed such films on double and triple bills. Of all the titles I saw on BBT, my favorite (well, one of them anyway) has to be Soul Brothers of Kung Fu<\/strong>. Directed by Shan Hua (Infra-Man), it\u2019s a story of friendship, betrayal and revenge with plenty of martial arts action to boot. It\u2019s as close to Shakespeare as the genre can get without calling in Kurosawa which would then elevate it to arthouse status.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Our story opens with three friends- Wai-Lung (Bruce Lee\u2019s #1 clone Bruce Li), Siu-San (Lo, Five Deadly Venoms) and Chai-Yun (Auyeung, The Proud Twins)- illegally immigrating to Hong Kong on a raft. Just as all hope seems lost, they\u2019re rescued and brought to the city to begin new lives. The trouble begins about a year later when Wai-Lung and Siu-San run afoul of crime boss Shi-Po (Ku, Five Deadly Venoms) after beating the hell out of several of his guys for bullying a black teen, an American named Tom (Scott, Sun Dragon [aka A Hard Way to Die]). Wai-Lung takes Tom under his wing and starts training him.<\/p>\n

\u00a0It seems that every time one of the guys gets a leg up, Shi-Po is there to knock it back down. Wai-Lung, who can\u2019t hold onto a job because of his run-ins with the crime boss, is always getting into fights with gangs of thugs. His love of fighting worries sweet Chai-Yun who doesn\u2019t want him to go \u201ctoo far, too fast\u201d like his idol Bruce Lee. He eventually gets into the competitive fighting game which brings fame, fortune and happiness, but only fleetingly. Tragedy strikes courtesy of Shi-Po, leaving fiancee Chai-Yun dead and Wai-Lung with severe career-ending injuries.<\/p>\n

\u00a0After an appropriate period of mourning and self-pity, Wai-Lung vows revenge on his enemy. Thus begins the montage of our hero training in a new technique, the Iron Finger. When done, he\u2019ll be able to defeat\/kill his opponents by sticking his fingers into vital organs.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Meanwhile, Siu-San gets deeper and deeper into debt with Shi-Po due to his gambling habit. On top of that, he gets romantically involved with \u201cbar girl\u201d Dora (Shaw, Chinatown Kid), \u201cbar girl\u201d being a euphemism for prostitute. He goes to Wai-Lung for a $20K loan so they can marry, but gets turned down by his more pragmatic best bud. Angered by such betrayal, Siu-San goes to work for Shi-Po which, as we all know, means he and his former friend will face off against each other by movie\u2019s end.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Even though it\u2019s titled Soul Brothers of Kung Fu<\/strong>, Tom is never more than a supporting character. It\u2019s never explained what he\u2019s doing in Hong Kong or why he was at the loading dock where he got attacked. Did he work there or was he trying to steal? On the upside, he\u2019s a decent fighter. He takes part in a few of the brawls, holding his own for the most part. Why couldn\u2019t he have been more major of a character? I, for one, would love to see a little blaxploitation mixed in with Asian-made chop-socky. But what am I complaining about? You can only be so critical of cheap kung fu flicks.<\/p>\n

\u00a0One thing that sticks out in Soul Brothers of Kung Fu<\/strong> is the music. I\u2019m not talking about the score (was there one?), but the incidental music. All of it is from other movies. The most familiar is the Rocky theme which is heard a few times. I also heard a section of Ennio Morricone\u2019s \u201cReagan\u2019s Theme\u201d from Exorcist II: The Heretic. During a chase, Paul McCartney\u2019s rocking theme from Live and Let Die is used. And if you\u2019re looking for something really obscure, Van McCoy\u2019s version of the Stylistics\u2019 hit \u201cHey Girl, Come and Get It\u201d is played during Chai-Yun\u2019s birthday celebration. It was also used in Fists of Bruce Lee (another Bruce Li starrer), so I\u2019m guessing it was a big hit in Asian countries. In any event, I love this about Soul Brothers of Kung Fu<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Of all the clones that followed in the wake of Bruce Lee\u2019s death, Bruce Li is the coolest. He starred in another one of my Black Belt Theater favorites, Bruce Lee in New Guinea. He\u2019s a fairly decent actor and a fantastic fighter. He gets to show off skills quite often in Soul Brothers of Kung Fu<\/strong>. The kung fu is solid and the fight sequences well-orchestrated. The finale, in which Li takes on the three goons that attacked him and Chai-Yun (one of them rapes her), is pretty great. Even though he\u2019s not in it nearly enough, Carl Scott is also good, but why did the makers find it necessary to dub his voice like his Asian co-stars?<\/p>\n

\u00a0In the end, Soul Brothers of Kung Fu<\/strong> does what it\u2019s supposed to do. It entertains fans of martial arts action. Sure, the English dubbing is questionable, but that\u2019s part of the appeal of this particular genre along with the bad sound mixing during the fight scenes. Not all kung fu movies are gold, but the ones that hit the mark make for good times at sleazy, scuzzy grindhouse theaters. It would have been fun to watch Soul Brothers of Kung Fu<\/strong> with a rowdy audience cheering on the hero as he chops, punches, kicks and nunchuks his way through gangs of baddies.\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Soul Brothers of Kung Fu (1977)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinema Shares International\/Action\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 85 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (strong violence, sexual content, nudity)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Shan Hua (as \u201cI Hung Hwa\u201d)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Chan-Wei Lin (as \u201cChan Wai Lin\u201d)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Fu-Liang Chou (as \u201cFu Liang Chow\u201d)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Te-Wei Chang (as \u201cTak Wai Cheung\u201d)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: October 1978 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Bruce Li […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5272,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4975","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-b-movies"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Soul-Brothers-of-Kung-Fu-PI.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\/4975","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=4975"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4975\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5273,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4975\/revisions\/5273"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}