Reviewed by mortimer

An internationally co-produced product of prolific Korean martial arts flick director Kim Si-Hyun with Dragon Lee, sidekick staple Choi Min-Kyu (Martin Chui Man Fooi) and the Black Dragon himself, Ron Van Clief (as the bad guy nonetheless). Kung Fu Fever has a typically convoluted plot about a lost book with the secret finger techniques of Bruce Lee (“So well-suited to a woman,” coos pretty female lead Amy Chun with what hopefully is irony). Dragon Lee was burdened with the name of R... Moreicky Chan for this movie and was credited as ‘Bruce Rhee’… Oh, come on! What’s wrong with Dragon Lee? Or is it because in Kung Fu Fever, Dragon goes totally overboard with his Bruce Lee-imitations? Bruce Rhee is just like Bruce Lee, only it isn’t. Just like Dragon Lee in this movie who is just like Bruce Lee, only isn't.

There are plenty of good things to enjoy in Kung Fu Fever: a groovy early 70s soundtrack (although the movie was made '79), cool pilot sunglasses for Dragon Lee (pardon, I mean Bruce Rhee), nice (if overly derivative) action scenes and a pretty lady (Amy Chun). And of course, Ron Van Clief, the Black Dragon, who starts off the movie by bullying one of Bruce Lee’s students into submission, just to prove that after Bruce Lee's death, he is the man now (this student, by the way, shows an eerie resemblance to Lee Chang-Dong, the famous Korean director of art house movies, former Minister of Culture and recipient of the Golden Palm at Cannes). Ron Van Clief uses Bruce Lee’s recent death to steal Bruce’s secret finger techniques, recorded in a book he promised to pretty Amy at the beginning of the movie, when real Bruce Lee footage was spliced in to make Dragon Lee look authentic as a student of Bruce Lee and set up the story of lost techniques.

There are also some things which are less than good: the print quality is bad to the extent of not being able to recognize all faces all of the time, which is annoying when you realize the story is the kind of story one can expect from a low budget Korean-Hong Kong-Taiwan martial arts coproduction. Dragon Lee is a bit too enthusiastic in imitating Bruce Lee’s facial expressions and sounds. And then there’s the matter of the bad guy getting his ass kicked quite literally and loosing his pants… I'm not sure whether this scene is a plus for the movie (respect if you kick so hard, the guy on the receiving end looses his pants) or a minus (who wants to see the pasty behind of a bad guy anyway?). Judge for yourself. As long as the low print quality and the at times incomprehensible story line don’t put you off, Dragon and Ron will surely entertain you in this nicely made (for its budget then), run-off-the-mill late 70s punch-and-block flick. Less
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Reviewed by mortimer

An Emperor Of The Underworld, directed by legendary superkicker Hwang Jang Lee (who also convincingly plays the überbaddie here) is a very solid action vehicle for Dragon Lee, who is joined here in his pursuit of evil lord of crime Hwang Jang Lee by a chubby and funny sidekick (Yi Jin-Yeong) and a very pretty female police officer (Kim Mi-Yeong, who strangely all but disappeared from the film industry after this flick). Finding themselves in a slightly compromising situation, Dragon and h... Moreis chubby friend (who fortunately are officially certified ass-whooping ex-commando’s) are politely but unbendingly forced by the police to take on evil crime lord Hwang Jang Lee. And this they do, making use of a lot of kicks and punches.

This is such a solid action flick, that the details of the story don’t really matter, but still, here they are (this is a very generic movie, so you know what’s going to happen, but to be on the safe side: ***SPOILER ALERT***). Dragon Lee and his chubby pal go after the evil lord, while gorgeously pretty Kim Mi-Yeong supervises their operation as the ranking police officer. Dragon Lee unfortunately still thinks he is Bruce Lee, because he never got rid of the mannerisms and the whipping backfist (to be fair, he did get rid of the hair-do and the nunchaku’s). Ah well, at least he is good at what he does, even if his fighting style turns this movie into a semi-bruceploitation flick. Hwang is still alive and kicking fortunately, reveling in his evil role and being pursued by our heroes. While dispensing roundhouse kicks, left and right hooks and looking menacing, the women they like/love are both killed. Then of course the proverbial feces collides with the fan and is evenly distributed among all present. Mayhem ensues, culminating in a funerary march led by our two heroes to the evil lord’s layer and a royal portion of professional butt-kicking including the use of mud as a new defensive weapon(see it to believe it). Meanwhile, gorgeously pretty Kim Mi-Yeong has disappeared from the story, while Dragon was too much of a well-trained marine to get into the sack with the obviously willing Kim Mi-Yeong. Dragon and Hwang slug it out in the mud in a classic old-school fight.

This is a nicely done action flick. Dragon Lee intimidates the hell out of everyone by just frowning. He never looked more like an unhappy cross between a pissed off Bruce lee and Rambo. In an endearingly futile gesture at the beginning of the movie, he even turns over a car to impress the bad guys. Hwang on the other hand is genuinely frightening as the baddest man on this part of the planet and his physical fighting skills were still OK in 1994. The fights are well, if predictably, choreographed and if you don’t mind the repetitious moves and gangsters who refuse to crowd an opponent but attack one by one, this movie may be to your liking.

Interesting factoid 1: Dragon’s semi-love interest is played by Sophia (real name Ju Jin-ok) who rose to fame in the 80s and 90s as an actress in the erotic movies who were then all the rage. And she recently announced her comeback. This time she will keep her clothes on and return to the theater. Amazingly, this darling of the ero pulps is only 40 years old (so maybe there is going to be a nude scene on stage after all).

Interesting factoid: the otherwise ever so vigilant South Korean censors failed to pay attention to the very explicit lyrics of the American rap songs played in the background during several of the night club scenes. While Dragon is looking stern, solemn and dignified, in the background we hear a rapper announcing that he’s “gonna put my **** in your behind.” Someone over at the censors’ should be queuing up for another job, I guess.

Interesting factoid 3: the first meeting between Dragon and gorgeous female cop takes place when she’s trailing him and he catches her at it. The first thing he does (the dirty old man) is reaching between her legs and pulling out her pistol. Right. He was copping a feel (sorry, couldn’t resist the pun).

Despite the awkward acting and the predictable story, this is a decent action flick with some very nice fighting and charismatic actors. Charismatic in a sleazy, B-movie kinda way, but still. Dragon Lee, Yi Jin-Yeong, Hwang Jang Lee and the delectable Kim Mi-Yeong know what they’re doing and they’re doing it well. This is a well-crafted, enjoyable gangster flick.

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Reviewed by mortimer

April 1904 – the brutal takeover of Korea by the Japanese has the Korean army struggling to keep the country together. But when they lose their lead and are faced with the might of the Japanese military, the real battle begins. Tormented and held captive in a makeshift military prison, the Koreans fight an incredible martial arts battle for their honor. Leading them is one soldier, Han, who keeps the sprit and the strength of his country alive, surviving to see it free once again. <... More/I>

That’s how the back of one of the DVD editions sketches the historical background of Kill The Shogun (and it’s a lot better than the other DVD edition which claims that the action takes place in the 16th century and has a 16th century samurai on the cover! Tsk, tsk, watch the movie before you sell it). Kill The Shogun has not much to do with killing shoguns, but all the more with hitting and kicking evil Japanese imperial minions. It is an old school classic directed by D. Young Lee (famous action director Lee Duyong who according to many mainstream film critics never fulfilled his potential: I beg to differ!) with not-so-successful South Korean singer/actor turned very successful Hong Kong action star James Nam (Nam Seok-Hun is his Korean name) kicking butt, Hwang Jang Lee in a small role (two actually, apparently they ran out of extra’s at the end), David Kang (Kang Dae-Heui) also smashing heads and lots and lots of nicely choreographed (nothing shocking though) fight scenes in which the outnumbered Koreans kick Japanese ass. The plot? Oh, you’ve seen that one before- several times in fact. Invasion, surrender, resistance of the brave few, torture, treason and lots of punching, kicking and walking into a wall to commit suicide. Yes, walking into a wall to commit suicide. No, I didn’t get this either and as far as I know, it’s not a Korean cultural thing. But there you have it, walking into a wall to commit suicide. It sure looks nicer and tidier than slicing open your abdomen, but it lacks some of its drama and the message that says: “Hey, pay attention, this is a grand gesture being performed here.”

There are a few things worth mentioning except for the movie’s generic fun value: evil Japanese Imperial Army officers with 70s hairdo and aviator sun glasses, dramatic(ally bad) music, bad Japanese kempeitai dude in Gestapo coat and Gestapo glasses aided by bad Japanese kempeitai dude in white suit, shaven skull and wrestler’s mustache and the following conversation between the Japanese überbaddie and his underling when the former swallows a goldfish alive:

Do you like the natural method in which I eat sashimi?

Oh yes, your method has the advantage of being organic.

I am afraid that actual goldfish were harmed during the shooting of this movie and can only hope this scene was shot in one take. Nuff said. Despite the poor goldfish, I have to say that I was entertained.

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