Saturday, May 12, 2018

Blu-ray/DVD Review: Bruce’s Deadly Fingers

Bruce’s Deadly Fingers is a fun martial arts film from 1976 starring Bruce Le (yes, to be confused with Bruce Lee), and directed by Joseph Kong. The plot involves several people looking for Bruce Lee’s kung fu finger book, and, well, not much else. And, yes, every time the kung fu finger book is mentioned, it makes me laugh. The film is enjoyable right from its brightly colored opening title sequence.

It takes about a minute before we get our first fight scene. But first we get a couple of those delightful, quick zooms in on the combatants eyes, and something like three lines of dialogue, in which one guy says he’ll have to find proof, and the other says he’s looking for proof. At the main villain’s home, Rose wonders why he is after the kung fu finger book, saying: “All you think of it finger kung fu. You don’t care about me.” And it seems she’s correct. He sends his men out to find the book. And so there are lots of fight scenes, many of which feature one guy being able to dispatch several bad guys at once. Which is exactly what we want from this type of film. And there are more great lines like, “All right, you bastard, be a good boy and tell us where the kung fu finger book is or else we’ll kill you.”

Anyway, Bruce Wong (Bruce Le) returns to Hong Kong from the United States, only to find out his mother is dead and his sister has moved away. He is also looking for the kung fu finger book, of course. But first he has to rescue his sister, Shiu Ju, who is being forced into prostitution. “Shut up, I don’t like your face,” he tells the guy in charge of the prostitution ring. But that guy is actually working for the main villain. All the bad guys work for that one guy, you see. The bad guys decide to kidnap Shiu Ju and Mina, Bruce’s friend, in order to force Bruce to tell them where the kung fu finger book is. Anyway, you get the idea. It’s not a good movie, but it is seriously enjoyable.

In a scene where one man is demonstrating a fighting style to a bunch of shirtless guys, we learn that hitting the air makes noise, something that strikes me as ridiculous. And there is a scene where Bruce is able to go make a phone call, get a hold of the guy he’s calling, talk for a bit, get cut off, and return to the other room to say he was cut off, all in six seconds. That’s more impressive than his fighting. This film also includes a scene with death by 8 ball. And for Pink Floyd fans, check out a scene near the end where they use the beginning of Pink Floyd’s “Time” as part of the score, probably without permission (if you’re curious, it is right around the 72-minute mark).

Special Features

This two-disc set includes several special features. There are some deleted scenes, including a drug scene. The one that’s most interesting is the missing telephone call scene, its existence explaining how Bruce was able to have that call and get back to the other room in only six seconds. I wonder why the scene was cut. It seems necessary. Anyway, the deleted scenes total approximately six and a half minutes.

Chop-Sucky: Bad Kung Fu Dubs is simply a collection of some of the funnier scenes from Bruce’s Deadly Fingers. Funny, that is, because of the English dubbing. And yes, most of them have people saying “Kung fu finger book.” Also included in the special features are a photo gallery, the film’s trailer, and the trailers for several other films, including Fists Of Fury, The Way Of The Dragon, and Game Of Death.

There is also a commentary track by Michael Worth. He talks about the idea of the kung fu finger book, and mentions that Bruce Lee never created such a thing. He also talks about the way they used Bruce Lee to sell films that he wasn’t actually in. And he talks about the various actors in the film, and their other credits. It’s certainly not the best commentary track ever, and he does at moments let time pass without saying anything, but it is still worth listening to.

Bruce’s Deadly Fingers was released as a Blu-ray/DVD combo pack on May 8, 2018 through MVD Visual. The film is presented in widescreen, from a new 2K scan from the original 35 mm negative.

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