Die Todesfaust des Cheng Li (1971)

Die Todesfaust des Cheng Li: Directed by Wei Lo, Chia-Hsiang Wu. With Bruce Lee, Maria Yi, James Tien, Marilyn Bautista. A young man sworn to an oath of non-violence works with his cousins in an ice factory where they mysteriously begin to disappear.

“Saw this in a theatre in 1971 and just revisited it 45 years later.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eConclusion: u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAs a film, it suffers badly from the massive improvements in choreography, skill, and staging that MA films have enjoyed in the interim. What seemed sort of u0026quot;OKu0026quot; in a dark theatre in 1971 becomes, after several decades, almost a slow dance of awkward fighting moves, with off-sync sound effects and blows that never seem to connect with anything.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIn this instance it is not fair to judge the old by the new … so, no rating.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAnd then there is the topic of Mr. Lee.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eHistory tells us that Bruce Lee exploded into Asian cinema on this film and anyone can see why. IT IS AS IF HE IS OPERATING AT A FAST CAMERA SPEED AND THE REST OF THE CAST AT A SLOW CAMERA FEED. Of course, the speed of the camera is the same throughout, it is the speed of the actors that differed.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe cast were the usual bunch that made many dozens of these films in a year. They looked slow and awkward because they actually were slow and awkward.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eMr. Lee on the other hand lived (and ultimately died) for his craft. His whole life was MA and even today the debate continues as where he would have ranked against the best fighters of all time. At the top is my guess.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIn essence, this is almost an audition tape for Mr. Lee and not much else. But it is a piece of history and deserves great respect.”