|
End of the clan, taint of the warrior (cf. Visconti's Rocco and His Brothers). The teasing joke is that it's Bruce Lee's breakout role and he has to wait half the movie before he can leap into action, the country boy comes to town full of hope and a vow of nonviolence. "Try to get along. No fights." Ass-kicking duties fall at first to the cousin (James Tien), who works at the ice factory where gelid blocks conceal bags of narcotics and body parts of witnesses. The villain is Fu Manchu updated—a businessman (Han Ying-Chieh) who holds martial-arts practice in the mansion's garden, he emerges from a bevy of masseuse to show his henchmen how it's done. (The dubbing has just the right deflating hint: "Speed and keen senses. Nothing comes easy in life, my boy." "Great. Hey Dad, could you let me have two thousand yen?") "Industrial unrest" gives way to brawls, the hero is made foreman to quell blue-collar unrest, he promises to uncover the truth but finds himself susceptible to booze and courtesans. Lo Wei keeps the melees in full-body long shot, though his camera will become an opponent's face and take a mighty blow when the occasion calls for it. (Watchdogs tossed into frame and a Looney Tunes outline left by a foe kicked through a wall are among the slap-happy effects.) At the center is Lee, cool like McQueen and concentrated like Nijinsky, in a daze contemplating his own bloodied fist in the wake of a massacre. The bleak punchline is unexpectedly concurrent with Petri's The Working Class Goes to Heaven. With Maria Yi, Tony Liu, Kun Li, Marilyn Bautista, and Nora Miao.
--- Fernando F. Croce |