Fist of Feat, Touch of Death | Blu-ray (The Film Detective)
AKA: Dragon and the Cobra
Director: Mathew Mallinson
Producer: Terry Levene
Cast: Aaron Banks, Adolph Caesar, Teruyuki Higa, Bill Louie, Fred Williamson, Ron Van Clief, Gail Turner, Hollywood Browde, Louis Neglia, Annette Bronson
Running Time: 86 min.
By Jeff Bona
Whenever the discussion topic of “What’s the worst Bruceploitation movie ever made?” comes up, the answer 99.9% of the time will be Fist of Fear, Touch of Death.
Is it really that bad? Yes. But it’s also one of the best examples of something that’s so stupidly entertaining that it would be a dream to get some insights on who, what, where, when, how and why Fist of Fear, Touch of Death came to be – and thanks to the creative team from The Film Detective, dreams do come true.
Filmed in 1979, this U.S. production from director Matthew Mallinson is a pseudo-documentary that takes place during the “1979 World Karate Championships” at Madison Square Garden. At the event, a news anchor (played by Oscar/Golden Globe nominee Adolph Caesar of A Soldier’s Story) interviews top martial arts experts and personalities – including Aaron Banks, Ron Van Clief and blaxploitation star Fred Williamson – with questions about the late Bruce Lee, particularly about his mysterious death.
Scattered throughout the film are segments of spliced-together footage (Godfrey Ho-style) from Bruce Lee’s 1957 film, The Thunderstorm, as well as Bruce’s appearance in the 1971 TV series, Longstreet. Scenes from Thunderstorm are forced into the narrative as flashbacks from Bruce’s teenage years; and the Longstreet footage is presented as a series of “interviews” (making it look as if Bruce is having a face-to-face conversation with Adolph Caesar or Aaron Banks). Additionally, footage from 1971’s Forced to Fight, an obscure period Taiwanese kung fu film, has Tong Wai’s character being passed as “Bruce Lee’s Great Grandfather”.
The cinematic concoction of Fist of Fear, Touch of Death is topped off with a series of fourth-wall breaking, mirco-subplots involving Fred Williamson (i.e. waking up with a topless hooker); Ron Van Clief doing Karate exercises (at one point, he stops and says with conviction: “I think Bruce Lee was murdered!”); and a kung fu fight scene with Bill Louie (as sort of a “Kato” with a mustache) who saves a girl from being gang raped.
Thanks to the newly released, limited edition Blu-ray (and DVD) from The Film Detective, we are treated to 29-minute documentary titled That’s Bruceploitation: Making Fist of Fear, Touch of Death, which features insightful interviews with the film’s director, Matthew Mallinson (who is perhaps best known for his editing work in films like Trapped Alive and Caged Fury); producer Terry Levene (Goodbye Bruce Lee: His Last Game of Death); screenwriter Ron Harvey; filmmaker Jim Markovic (The Real Bruce Lee); and cult actors Ron Van Clief (The Black Dragon’s Revenge) and Fred Williamson (Black Caesar).
In That’s Bruceploitation: Making Fist of Fear, Touch of Death, we learn that in 1979, Mallinson was presented with the task of making a marketable “Bruce Lee movie” using whatever resources he could get his hands on. This included the aforementioned “1979 World Karate Championships,” which in reality was a martial arts exhibition event put together by prolific martial arts promoter Aaron Banks and his New York Karate Academy. Using guerrilla-style filmmaking tactics, Mallinson used Banks’ exhibition as the film’s backdrop and haphazardly filmed the event’s VIP attendees (Ron Van Clief, Fred Williamson and Bill Louie) as “last minute” stars of the movie. Even the Fist of Fear, Touch of Death film crew, along with mildly drunk Adolph Caesar, had to fake their way into the Madison Square Garden auditorium as legit “media representatives”.
It’s also revealed that producer Levene had purchased the rights to Thunderstorm, Longstreet, as well the Tong Wai actioner Forced to Fight. According Levene, he let Mallinson cut ‘n paste scenes from all three sources, add new dub tracks, and inject them into the newly filmed footage to form a cohesive plot (which he fails to do, but that’s the beauty of it!). Sidenote: Levene previously applied Thunderstorm footage to 1977’s The Real Bruce Lee, which he also produced.
The Film Detective did a mighty fine job with its “40th Anniversary” Blu-ray edition of Fist of Fear, Touch of Death, which is presented in an all-new 4K restoration. It also includes Liner notes by film historian Don Stradley and English and Spanish Theatrical Trailers.
But what really makes the disc shine is the That’s Bruceploitation: Making Fist of Fear, Touch of Death documentary. The fact The Film Detective got all these guys together to talk immensely about the making of Fist of Fear, Touch of Death is a magical experience.
Jeff Bona’s Rating: 8/10 (as a whole!)
So tempted…
Definitely worth it for the documentary alone. And honestly, the movie is fun to watch. Anyone who possibly thinks it’s an insult to Bruce Lee is 100% correct, but there’s no way anyone can take it seriously. lol
As far as I’m concerned, the only insult to Bruce Lee was when John Little dubbed him in Enter the Dragon!
Let me correct that sentence –
As far as I’m concerned, the only insult to Bruce Lee was
when John Little dubbed him inEnter the Dragon!& here’s why! – Enter the Dragon – The Most Overrated Kung Fu Movie Ever Made?
Bruce got to appear in tiny speedos, I’m sure he was happy!
What did you think of Bey Logan’s dubbing job on the Japanese cut?
Amazon have pushed the release date back to May? can’t wait for this, love the movie.
Your review has me tempted! Limited to only 1500 copies, that’s probably triple the amount of people who watched it when it was first released!
Not to be over technical (I get you reply was Bramhall humor), but as with most movies with “Bruce Lee” somewhere in the description, movies like these made $$$$. The distributor of the film (Aquarious Releasing) had direct connections to many theater owners, so every time they made/distributed/re-packaged, there was one heck of a profit margin. Makes senses. This was before VHS was a typical household item. In fact, back then, the goddamn theaters were their “Netflix!”…
What was the first kung fu movie that did the whole cut ‘n paste thing made popular by Godfrey Ho? I might be wrong, but I’m pretty sure that FOFTOD might have beaten the Ho to the punch. Correct me if I’m wrong!
And it has the CBS-Fox video music! (or vice versa)
Yep, when I originally rented the film as a kid, when I heard the “CBS-Fox” theme, I thought it was a sign of its legitimacy (since Bruce Lee’s real films were released by CBS-Fox at the time). Boy was I wrong.
I need to see the documentary behind what is literally the worst movie ever. I need to hear about the Bill Louie as Kato hilarity.
How are you, ANM? Been a long time. I can tell you that no new insight was revealed as far as any real “reason” behind Bill Louie’s Kato wannabe. But I can say that it was a quickie fight choreographed by The Black Dragon himself! (it’s the only real fight, not counting the “Forced to Fight” action footage of Bruce Lee’s Great Grandfather”)
Yeah it’s me. A lot has happened and I still followyou guys. When I saw this, I just had to say something.
The thing I always remember is how they made it an effort to say, Bill Louie is his own man and then they showcase him as Kato complete with a massive Selleck mustache. I also loved the subtle racism of Fred Williamson being mistaken for Harry Bellafonte (despite there being no resemblance). Also the very concept of a successor to Bruce Lee, in the age of MMA is very funny. I also love the freeze frame of Ron Can Clief, when the chick he saves asks if there is anything she can do to repay.
You know what, fuck it, I got a find a cheap copy of this with the behind the scenes footage.
Self-isolation useless trivia: I decided to take a closer look at exactly what kind of movies many of these 50/20/10 Kung-Fu Flick DVD collecitons that I’ve amassed over the years contain. I can confirm that every one of them features ‘Fist of Fear, Touch of Death’. I own like 5 copies of this piece of crap.
On a related note, I also learnt that many titles I’ve purchased separately, I actually already own thanks to these low budget multi-movie sets. Damn.
Dude, the best way to watch this movie for the first time is in one of those 5-Packs. 🙂 It must be seen to be believe!
I finally got through popping my ‘Fist of Fear, Touch of Death’ cherry last night. What an experience! Too many WTF moments to mention, but think my favourite is right at the very beginning, when footage from a tournament fight is shown and a guy plucks both of his opponents eyes out and throws them into the crowd in one swift movement!
The documentary is definitely the highlight. What was most interesting is hearing director Mathew Mallinson recount his dilemma that out of the 2 movies he had to splice together, one was a HK drama with a young Bruce Lee, and the other was a Japanese samurai flick, and his concerns that they were from 2 completely different cultures. Even 40 years later, not one single person has told this guy that ‘Forced to Fight’ is a Taiwanese wuxia flick!
At one point he also refers to it as ‘The Tongfather’, which was a re-title of the 1974 Taiwanese flick ‘The Notorious Bandit’, but at the end of the day I think we should all be glad he’s willing to talk about the movie at all!
“The cinematic concoction of Fist of Fear, Touch of Death is topped off with a series of fourth-wall breaking, mirco-subplots involving Fred Williamson (i.e. waking up with a topless hooker)”
Sorry to say buddy, but the topless part is a figment of your imagination. Maybe wishful thinking? 😛
LMAO!!! Ah, man, are you telling me she wasn’t topless !?
Definitely clothed lol! They discuss it in the documentary, as the director really wanted the scene to be topless, but the producers were adamant that it needed to be clothed, as they planned to make TV deals after the theatrical release.