Super Dragon | aka Bruce Lee Superstar (1975) Review

“Superdragon” Theatrical Poster

AKA: Chinese Chien Chuan Kung Fu
Director: Lin Bing
Cast: Bruce Li (aka Ho Chung Tao, James Ho), Shan Mao, Paul Wei Ping Ao, Got Siu Bo, Tse Ling Ling, Lung Fei, Tai Leung, Woo Chau Ping, Yeh Hsiao-Yee
Running Time: 90 min.

By Ian Whittle

Bruce Li’s second attempt at a Bruce Lee bio-pic is a better kung fu movie than its predecessor, Bruce Lee: A Dragon Story, but is seriously lacking in the scandal and sleaze which made that picture considerably more interesting.

Instead, this is very much a work of fiction, playing almost as though it was a script inspired by Bruce until someone threw up their hands and decided they might as well be hanged for a sheep than a lamb, but ensured the supporting characters were changed enough that no-one got drawn and quartered for the whole damn flock.

Distributed internationally by wheeler-dealer Dick Randall, this film benefits from being dubbed in Rome, which makes a nice change of pace if nothing else, though as far as I’m concerned, it’s just not a kung fu movie without Ted Thomas and the “but still…” crowd!

And judging from the slow and stilted kung fu on offer here, it wouldn’t have been much of one anyway. Bruce Li has definetly come on leaps and bounds from his earlier film, now in better shape, clean shaven and starting to show off his tae kwon do kicks. And yet, the fighting remains uncoordinated and repetitive, the extras frequently missing their cues. It says something that the best fight Li has in the film is a scene where Bruce Lee and an old kung fu master debate fighting techniques verbally, with the moves shown as “what ifs” via split-screen (the English dubbers intentionally left this scene in Chinese, adding to the off-beat flavour).

The best fights in the movie are not technically part of it, and their appearance depends on which print you watch. Essentially we see Lee/Li/whatever directing a movie. Despite the entirely stationary camera next to him, the footage we see him directing is handheld, and borrowed from other movies. My DVD, the Goodtimes release under the title The Young Bruce Lee, shows some incredibly shakey and hard to follow action, possibly derived from a Korean production. It’s similar to the chaotic messes seen in Toei’s Karate Bullfighter, and frankly, gave me a headache. I’m not exactly looking forward to seeing a whole movie like that!

However, the US prints went one better (well, two better, actually) and instead utilised lengthy clips from The Screaming Tiger (aka Wang Yu: King of Boxers, thus giving Jimmy Wang Yu special billing on the posters) and Slash! The Blade of Death (aka The Chase, poor James Tien NOT getting special billing on the posters!).

These few fights play second fiddle to the tedious soap opera of the main story, which is not interested in Bruce and Linda (who appears briefly, played by a rather cute actress), or Bruce and Betty Ting Pei (who doesn’t appear at all, at least not in the print I’ve seen), but rather Bruce’s fictional childhood friend, who learns Wing Chun alongside him and becomes a popular Peking Opera actor. Scenes of this guy moping around getting depressed slow the pace down horribly. I imagine he’s meant to be Unicorn Chan, but since this guy doesn’t trick Bruce into appearing in a low-rent flick, the connection is very slight. Curiously enough, this marks the debut of the recurrent bro-mance that would appear between Bruce Li and actor Chung Au-yeung, which would carry on for another movie or two.

Thankfully lending the film a bit of class is Wei Ping-ao, here playing “Mr. Wang”, who is basically Raymond Chow, and historically marking the first time a Bruce Lee bio-pic cast one of his co-stars in a supporting role. Bruce Li’s regular co-stars Shan Mao and Lung Fei are rather underused and even for the 70s lack fashion sense, the former in a stripy gondolier t-shirt, the latter in yellow tracksuit pants and a vest, which reveals him to be a lot more wiry then I had previously realised.

And as for the death scene…we don’t get one. I think we’re meant to take it from the last fight that Bruce gets done in by the dim mak, but my suspicion is everyone was just hoping that things would be OK so long as they didn’t mention that woman…

Rather like Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story, then. Only, not as good.

Ian Whittle’s Rating: 4/10

By Jeff Bona

People (including myself) keep on confusing Superdragon (aka Young Bruce Lee)  with another Bruce Lee bio-film, which also stars Bruce Li, called “Bruce Lee: A Dragon Story” (aka Dragon Dies Hard). You can use all the websites, books and forums you want – but keep in mind – none of them are accurate, including the one you’re reading at right now. Depending on your country, as well as the version of the VHS//BETAMAX/DVD you have, the titles are a mixed mess.

Superdragon is, by far, the worst of the Bruce Lee bio-films (I have yet to see Story of the Dragon). I understand that bio-films will always have their inaccuracies, but with “Superdragon,” the filmmakers didn’t even try to come close to the facts. It’s almost as if they barely knew the surface of Bruce life, and just went ahead and made shit up as they filmed.

Superdragon is disjointed, sloppy and dull. It’s basically another one of Bruce Li’s “early stinkers” (as Carl Jones, author of Here Come The Bruce Lee Clones, puts it), so expect extremely generic martial arts choreography and incompetent filmmaking — even for 70’s kung fu standards.

Here’s what you can expect from Superdragon:

• Bruce’s first teacher was a fat ass phony who didn’t even know kung fu. His second teacher was a spiritual hermit-type who hangs around buddha statues.
• Bruce grew up and kept in touch with two childhood friends: Chow Wu (I assume he’s based on Unicorn Chan) and a female named Chow Mei (maybe the English dubbers snagged the name from Maria’s Yi’s character in The Big Boss).
• Bruce’s self-developed, unorthodox style is called Chieh Chuan Kung Fu (hence, the film’s original title), as opposed to Jeet Kune Do.
• A Raymond Chow-ish film producer, played by Paul Wei Ping Ao (the scrawny interpreter from Fists of Fury), is goofy figure who follows Bruce around, hoping to get him to sign a multi-picture deal.
• Bruce had a hardcore death premonition, which he openly talked about to his friend, Chow Wu. He says things like: “How long do you think I’m going to live?” and “I keep on thinking of a song called I’m going to live ’til I die” (in real life, Blood Sweat & Tears’ “And When I Die” was played at Bruce’s funeral ceremony in Seattle).
• The way Superdragon ends is just silly. Everything happens so abruptly, with no explanation about Bruce’s death whatsoever. All we get is Chow Wu yelling: “Bruce….. noooo!”

Films like Superdragon make me wonder why Golden Harvest (production company to Bruce Lee’s films) never got off their asses and made their own Bruce Lee bio-film. Instead, they jumped on making Bruce Lee, The Man & The Legend (1974), an interesting, but depressing documentary, which concentrates more on the immediate aftermath of his death.

Maybe Superdragon isn’t as bad as I’m making it out to be. Ultimately, it’s another example of an ‘opium dream’ of Bruce’s life (kind of like The Dragon Lives) seen through the eyes worshippers who believe Bruce was a flawless, God-like being from another world.

Unless you’re a Bruce Li (aka Ho Chung Tao, James Ho) fanatic or completist, skip this with all your might.

Footnote: The film’s original U.S. poster suggests that the film has a “special guest appearance by Jimmy Wang Yu.” From my understanding, early theatrical prints did indeed have Wang Yu, but the footage was actually spliced in from Blood of the Dragon. Since then, Wang Yu’s Blood of the Dragon scenes have been been replaced by an unknown kung fu film, most likely due to copyright laws.

Jeff Bona‘s Rating: 2/10