The Black Dragon's Revenge

source: The Black Dragon's Revenge

Trailer—Long zheng hu dou jing wu hun

Long zheng hu dou jing wu hun

For me, Ron Van Clief came to my attention in the 4th Ultimate Fighting Championship when he managed to survive four minutes in the ring against Royce Gracie at age 51, the oldest fighter ever in UFC. When UFC started everyone expected the karate guys to win everything. They had the reputation for the one punch kill and the physical conditioning to endure almost any attack. What no one expected was that real fights almost always end up on the ground and Jiu Jitsu had every advantage and won everything in the opening years. But this was 1975 and the movies and the audience paid to see fighting upright with punches and big kicks. Ron delivered the goods. To see Ron in action is probably the only reason to watch this movie. You can also watch it to count the side kicks. Anytime a non-Asian choreographs a fight sequence the side kicks dominate. Yuen Siu is also worth watching as I consider her the best female martial artists of the golden age from 1967 to 1984.

This movie was one of many to supposedly offer theories as to the mysterious death of the ultimate kung-fu superstar Bruce Lee, and undoubtedly for him just another reason to roll over in his grave. This movie contains a popular theory that Lee was killed by greedy film producers, and from there the film is simply a springboard for countless fight scenes with then rising Kung-Fu hero Ron Van Clief (The Black Dragon) Boring after awhile, but entertaining in the nostalgic sense which envokes memories of all the wild conspiracy theories surrounding Lee's death at the time, and of all the martial arts hopefuls who wished, in vain, to fill Lee's shoes in the movies.