The King Of Kung Fu (HK 1982)

Rating: *
Review Date: 9/7/14
Cast: Bruce Le, Bolo Yeung, Shih Kien

Embarrassingly bad, but a non-stop action showcase for Bruce Le. Quick tempered Bruce (Bruce Le) gets beat up at school, so he learns Wing Chun. Then he gets beat up by a blind man, so he learns blindfold boxing. Then a street gang beats him up, so he learns snake fist kung fu. When one of his best friends gets killed by a rival gang, he decides to get revenge and hones his snake fist technique by getting drunk and beating up a bunch of cobras. After this, he works his way up the food chain until the final showdown against Shih Kien. Bruce wins, and surprisingly lets master Kien live.

It's all rather pointless and is a real chore to sit through. Even if you're a kung fu buff, the endless chain of long-winded fights gets boring after a while. The snake scenes are as fascinating as they are horrible, and they also go on way too long. Bruce Le has a great physique and his form is quite good, but he has no charisma or screen presence. The production values are average and typical for the time period, but the complete lack of interesting characters and the absence of a cohesive narrative really drags the film down.