Rating: *
Alternate Title: Soul Of Bruce Lee
Review Date: 2/6/16
Cast: Sonny Chiba, Tadashi Yamashita, Etsuko Shiomi, Bolo Yeung
When Sonny Chiba's martial arts teacher is killed by a drug syndicate, he vows to get revenge. But that will have to wait, because a new drug lord from Hong Kong wants to take over the Bangkok drug market. He's quickly marked for death by the local boss, but an undercover narcotics agent (Tadashi Yamashita) decides to help him out. Incredulously, they discover that they're brothers who were separated long ago. Naturally, Yamashita's betrayal doesn't go unpunished, and his criminal brother comes to his rescue. After this, Yamashita somehow runs into Chiba, who is training himself to fight faster with an electric shock machine. Out of nowhere, he's attacked by a group of fighters who are possessed by monkey spirits. "I could see their spirits, meaning I must be dead," muses Chiba, and at this point I wouldn't have been surprised if he turned out to be a zombie who had been reanimated with electricity. He and Yamashita team up to attack another drug lord's fortified island and somehow manage to defeat several dozen henchmen armed with machine guns, barehanded. After the final beatdown, the film ends on a surprisingly depressing note as Chiba dies, nothing more than a betrayed and broken drug addict.
Both English titles for the film are completely absurd and have nothing to do with the actual movie. I tried translating the original Japanese, but the best the Internet was able to come up with was "Shoot To Kill," which is also nonsense. Additionally, it looks like at least two different films spliced together, with no sense of direction or continuity. The ridiculous excuse for a story hardly makes any sense whatsoever and it's a challenge to follow. Of course, the only reason to watch it is for the fight scenes, which look to be pretty flashy and kinetic (apart from the overly silly monkey scene). However, even though the DVD I have is supposed to be widescreen, it's not quite wide enough, and the majority of the action is cut off of the sides, obscuring the fighters and making it hard to tell what's going on.
Adding to the disappointment are Bolo Yeung and Chiba's frequent co-star, Etsuko Shiomi. Shiomi looks adorable, but only has two small fight scenes, while Bolo is reduced to one fight scene and some menacing glares. Apart from the action, every other aspect of the production is a cinematic disaster, and it's a tedious and tiresome film to watch. For Sonny Chiba completionists only.