| The Iron Dragon Strikes Back (1980) Cast:Bruce Li, Phillilp Ko, Kwok Choi Hon,Lieh Wei Bruce Li stars as a kung fu instructor who goes on vacation and finds gold that was smuggled from Vietnam and has 666 on the gold, at first excited by the aspect of never having to work again, Li convinces his friends and such to put it back in case it has someone sinister behind it, they agree to this but one of Li's friends decide to get the gold anyway and in doing so mark themselves death by the smugglers who want their gold back, now Bruce Li must use all his martial arts skill to stay alive in this unusually well made and enjoyable Bruce Li actioner. I want to first off say that this isn't just a good Bruce Li movie (It's his best ever.) and it isn't just a good kung fu movie either, kung fu movies always seem to be taken with a grain of salt because they're too easy of a target and production values, acting or quality is rarely taken in consideration when reviewing such, it's all about entertainment. Let me repeat this, Iron Dragon Strikes Back isn't just a good kung fu movie it's an actual good movie. A movie made with style, high production values, good choreography in the fight department and bad guys who aren't in any way silly but rather hold a menacing edge and Bruce Li doesn't just dispose of them with ease. In fact this movie's choreography contains bad guys who gang up on the tough martial artist and not wait for him to fight them one by one, the hero always tries to run first and in the film's most effective moments the friends start to get paranoid as they start carrying weapons, looking over their shoulders and scared of who will next come out of the woodwork to kill them. Indeed the biggest surprise is that Bruce Li gives an effective performance (The movie is dubbed but you can still tell by his facial expressions that he is giving his all and doing a decent job.) this is the first time I had ever seen Bruce Li as a real character and not a Bruce Lee imitator and indeed if this is the work he would go on to put out if given the chance, it's a damn shame that he stopped making movies and faded into obscurity. Also what is most surprising is that this certainly inspired the Heroic Bloodshed genre (In particular A Bullet In The Head) and the ending is unlike anything you'll ever expect. So surprised was I, I hit the back button on the DVD player so I could make sure I believed my eyes. Iron Dragon Strikes Back actually isn't in the public domain, so it never played on Kung Fu Theater and you will never find it in a dollar bargain bin, but sadly it's in obscurity which is sad because this is a very effective Hong Kong actioner. Indeed, it was certainly way better than Chan's The Big Brawl relesaed the same year and despite the fact that Bruce Li puts off many people as they forsake it as a Bruce Lee rip off movie, this movie is not at all what you would expect. There's a story, some effective black humor and a climax which is very well directed. The one flaw I did find was that the movie would've been even more effective if we would've gotten to know the characters more in the beginning and if we learned more about the bad guys but for all that is said and done this is a highly enjoyable effort from Hong Kong and a shame that it's so obscure. Those who can rent it or find it on DVD, will find a movie well worth their time and money a movie so could it could've easily starred the real Bruce Lee. . D.Chih-Hung Kwei*** |