Out of the virtually countless Bruce Lee clones (Bruce Le, Dragon Lee... Jason Scott Lee), Bruce Li has been considered by many to be the best, and for good reason. Aside from having a similar physical appearance to him (looks about the same size... Le is too skinny and Dragon is too bulky) and having an above average fighting style comparable to the "bashers" of the day, Li has admitted he never liked being called Bruce Li or Li Xiao Long, but instead wanted to be properly known as Ho Chung Tao. Several of his films have him listed under this name, including this one... well, the opening credits at least. The video box, as well as one TV spot I've seen, credited him under his usual alias of Bruce Li. However, this is not like his usual Bruce Lee impersonation films like Goodbye Bruce Lee. While the use of nunchucks comes up as well as yellow pants with black stripes, Li gets to pretty much be himself... but then of course, one of the voice actors tried to do a bit of the Bruce Lee battle cries near the end of the film. However, it's explained that the character Li plays is a Bruce Lee fan, so it's slightly SLIGHTLY more passable. Like saying Van Damme was Cajun in Hard Target to explain his Brussels-based accent... riiiight.
Looking past this, it must also be noted that this would've made a great Shaw Brothers produced and Chang Cheh directed film as it's VERY dark and is set up like a Shakespearean tragedy. If anything, it has echoes of Cheh's Chinatown Kid in it. In fact, you can probably call this a poor man's Chinatown Kid. After all, it deals with illegal immigrants trying to start a new life only for everything to go straight down the tubes... which happens in both films. As opposed to leaving Hong Kong to America, in this film, the three protagonists leave an unnamed home (most likely Taiwan, where Li's films were produced) to start a new life in Hong Kong. Ironically, Shaw Brothers veteran Lo Meng plays one of the three immigrants and also played in Chinatown Kid as a gang leader. In this film, however, he ends up getting sucked into the triads and becoming one of Li's enemies. Speaking of Shaw veterans, Shaw Bros. character actor Ku Feng plays the main villain in this film, and also starred alongside Li in Fist of Fury III and Dynamo, with the latter being from the director of this film, Hwa I Hung. The final battle between the two of them is one of Li's better final battles, with a spectacular "finsher" in the uncut version. Plus, be on the lookout for doubling duties from Hong Kong legend Yuen Biao doubling for Ku Feng in the last fight.
Also, while it's not blatantly stated, the Yuen brothers (Wo Ping and Cheung-Yan) were the fight choreographers... but don't expect The Matrix or Crouching Tiger... this is when they were perfecting their wireless fight choreography, shortly before working on Jackie Chan's Snake in the Eagle's Shadow. Yuen Chueng-Yan (who recently had a cameo in Stephen Chow's Kung Fu Hustle as the Kung Fu Manual Beggar) even shows up as a henchman for Bruce Li to take out. There are various others who pop up in this film who went onto other films as well, such as Golden Harvest villain extraordinaire Lee Hoi San (most notably from Warriors Two and The Young Master), who plays a "higher ranking" henchman in this film as well as former Bruce Lee stuntman Peter Chan Lung (from Fist of Fury, as well as Snake in the Eagle's Shadow) playing a martial arts instructor who specializes in using the bo staff.
And to top it all off, the film's main theme is "The Final Bell" from Bill Conti's score for Rocky... trust me, you won't get it out of your head after watching this. It even pops up once again in the alternate ending! Overall, this is definitely worth a rent. The only way to really buy it now is to find a used VHS on eBay, or buy the DVD as part of the "Bad Azz Muthaz" DVD set, which is a tad pricey for this film. But, if you have Netflix, the good news is that you can rent it from there, with the alternate ending after the movie. And as a spoiler, the alternate ending is better in the sense that there is an extra fight scene with co-star Carl Scott (which is actually his best fight in the whole film!) against Ku Feng. The fight between Li and Feng is the same except for the ending, in which Feng's death is clearly shown as Li literally stabs him in the heart with his bare finger... with a full color x-ray shot to show it. It's pretty gruesome too. And to top it off, he even stabs Feng in the throat with two fingers. Basically, the fight is only roughly 15 seconds longer in the extended/alternate ending, but it's a BIG difference from the abrupt death scene in the film version. Also, Carl Scott lives in this ending, but dies in the film version... big difference! Overall, while not Li's best film (that would have to go to Fist of Fury II, released here in the US as Chinese Connection II), it's certainly one of his better films, as well as being one of his grittier films. Most of his films are cheesy, and while this has a bit of the fromage, it's overall very serious and dark... but in a way that helps make this stand out from Li's other films. I'd rate this higher than a five, but having only seen it dubbed, it's hard to get a real balanced rating... so between a five and a six.
Looking past this, it must also be noted that this would've made a great Shaw Brothers produced and Chang Cheh directed film as it's VERY dark and is set up like a Shakespearean tragedy. If anything, it has echoes of Cheh's Chinatown Kid in it. In fact, you can probably call this a poor man's Chinatown Kid. After all, it deals with illegal immigrants trying to start a new life only for everything to go straight down the tubes... which happens in both films. As opposed to leaving Hong Kong to America, in this film, the three protagonists leave an unnamed home (most likely Taiwan, where Li's films were produced) to start a new life in Hong Kong. Ironically, Shaw Brothers veteran Lo Meng plays one of the three immigrants and also played in Chinatown Kid as a gang leader. In this film, however, he ends up getting sucked into the triads and becoming one of Li's enemies. Speaking of Shaw veterans, Shaw Bros. character actor Ku Feng plays the main villain in this film, and also starred alongside Li in Fist of Fury III and Dynamo, with the latter being from the director of this film, Hwa I Hung. The final battle between the two of them is one of Li's better final battles, with a spectacular "finsher" in the uncut version. Plus, be on the lookout for doubling duties from Hong Kong legend Yuen Biao doubling for Ku Feng in the last fight.
Also, while it's not blatantly stated, the Yuen brothers (Wo Ping and Cheung-Yan) were the fight choreographers... but don't expect The Matrix or Crouching Tiger... this is when they were perfecting their wireless fight choreography, shortly before working on Jackie Chan's Snake in the Eagle's Shadow. Yuen Chueng-Yan (who recently had a cameo in Stephen Chow's Kung Fu Hustle as the Kung Fu Manual Beggar) even shows up as a henchman for Bruce Li to take out. There are various others who pop up in this film who went onto other films as well, such as Golden Harvest villain extraordinaire Lee Hoi San (most notably from Warriors Two and The Young Master), who plays a "higher ranking" henchman in this film as well as former Bruce Lee stuntman Peter Chan Lung (from Fist of Fury, as well as Snake in the Eagle's Shadow) playing a martial arts instructor who specializes in using the bo staff.
And to top it all off, the film's main theme is "The Final Bell" from Bill Conti's score for Rocky... trust me, you won't get it out of your head after watching this. It even pops up once again in the alternate ending! Overall, this is definitely worth a rent. The only way to really buy it now is to find a used VHS on eBay, or buy the DVD as part of the "Bad Azz Muthaz" DVD set, which is a tad pricey for this film. But, if you have Netflix, the good news is that you can rent it from there, with the alternate ending after the movie. And as a spoiler, the alternate ending is better in the sense that there is an extra fight scene with co-star Carl Scott (which is actually his best fight in the whole film!) against Ku Feng. The fight between Li and Feng is the same except for the ending, in which Feng's death is clearly shown as Li literally stabs him in the heart with his bare finger... with a full color x-ray shot to show it. It's pretty gruesome too. And to top it off, he even stabs Feng in the throat with two fingers. Basically, the fight is only roughly 15 seconds longer in the extended/alternate ending, but it's a BIG difference from the abrupt death scene in the film version. Also, Carl Scott lives in this ending, but dies in the film version... big difference! Overall, while not Li's best film (that would have to go to Fist of Fury II, released here in the US as Chinese Connection II), it's certainly one of his better films, as well as being one of his grittier films. Most of his films are cheesy, and while this has a bit of the fromage, it's overall very serious and dark... but in a way that helps make this stand out from Li's other films. I'd rate this higher than a five, but having only seen it dubbed, it's hard to get a real balanced rating... so between a five and a six.