Bruce's Deadly Fingers (1976)

Brucesploitation, sexploitation, this was an abysmal kung fu movie. I can sit through just about any kung fu movie but nearly dropped this 90-minute movie-twice-while watching it.

What drew me to the movie was the cast---Lo Lieh, Nora Miao, Michael Chan, a host of famous kung fu stuntmen, and Bolo even makes a guest appearance! Bruce Le was not playing Bruce Lee, his character's name was Bruce Wong, but he tried to duplicate some of THE Bruce Lee's mannerisms which came across as laughable.

Bruce Wong was trying to find Bruce Lee's secrety secret Kung Fu Finger Book which had been entrusted to his sifu. Lo Lieh, playing the Big Bad Lee Hung, was after it as well. There you go, that's the plot. Bruce Wong's sister and ex-girlfriend were kidnapped three times. Did they get their frequent kidnapping card punched each time? There was gratuitous nudity, one scene had a naked woman being threatened with a snake. Those scenes pandering to fifteen-year-old boys dropped my rating to a 1. I gave it a 1 point bump for Lo Lieh and Bolo.

The fight scenes were actually pretty good, especially the ones Bruce Le wasn't in. Wong's buddy and an Interpol agent spent a great deal of time fighting each other and the baddies as well. The strong bit part players lent to some good fights. The nunchuck work, however, like Le's Bruce Lee mannerisms should have been omitted.

The problem the director and writer had was they didn't know what to do in between fights or how to develop anything that resembled a coherent story. Let's kidnap and threaten the women again! Show some boobs! Let's have a shot of someone walking down the street or down a hallway! How about watching someone drive a car or play cards? How about two people watching television? Should we have them say anything that would be considered plot or character development? What's that?

This might have been a watchable movie if Bruce Le hadn't tried to look like and act like Bruce Lee. All he managed to do was remind me how charismatic the original was. Michael Chan seemed to be channeling his inner Bruce, too. It might have been a watchable movie if the women hadn't been there to be objectified and tormented. They didn't need the women as bait because the "good" guys were always looking for a fight anyway. This movie had a strong kung fu cast, with good fights, and a magic kung fu book, everything a kung fu movie needs. Too bad the filmmakers took the low road into exploitation.

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