Bullet Points: Dragon Lee vs. The Five Brothers
It is hard to believe that the Bruceploitation sub-genre of Kung Fu cinema will celebrate its 50th Anniversary later this year, following the sad anniversary of the death of Bruce Lee.
In preparation for this milestone, I finally decided to watch 1978’s Dragon Lee vs. The Five Brothers…
- Obi Han Kenobi: Mr. Han (Dragon Lee, The Dragon’s Showdown) finds himself as the anti-Ching rebellion’s only hope after Chow, a fellow rebel who was set to deliver an important document to the Ming leaders is severely injured. Chow entrusts the document to Han and tells him what he needs to do, where he needs to go and who he needs to see. As you might suspect, the what, where and who are all easier said than done.
- Nice Hat: When Han gets close to his first destination where he will meet with Mr. Cheung, Han like everyone else has to enter through a checkpoint and have the proper documentation. These checkpoints have been setup by the Ching loyalists who have been tasked with find out who all the anti-Ching revolutionaries are… Han is hassled a bit but he is let through and before he stops to see Mr. Cheung, he decides to have a bite to eat. Han’s mere presence has caught the eye of two local “toughs” who decide they want to teach Han a lesson because he “looks like an anti-Ching rebel”. Han quickly teaches them something, pays for his meal… but the tough guys haven’t had enough. So we get a more extended 2 on 1 battle, which eventually features Han crawling up a wall like he was Spider-Man. Even that is not enough to dissuade the tough guys from stopping and that’s when a woman with a hat intervenes on Han’s behalf, using her hat as a weapon and running the tough guys off. The mysterious hat lady then tells Han to be careful, there are five brothers of Shaolin that are looking for anti-Ching rebels… except one of the brothers is actually good, so he really only has to worry about four of them. This is where I began questioning the title of the movie and where Han thanks the mysterious hat lady and continues on his journey.
- Rat Race: Kudos to whoever is feeding the Ching loyalists their information, because they know exactly where Han is heading and usually beat him to the punch… For example, Han’s first stop was to get a bracelet from Mr. Cheung. But the bad guys got to Cheung first and not only do they get the bracelet, they also kidnap Mr. Cheung’s daughter… although that ends up backfiring on them. Silver Hand (Choe Min-Gyu, Kung Fu Fever) does most of the heavy lifting and was the most memorable villain thanks to his silver hand and metal fan. Silver Hand also gets his balls busted by his fellow Shaolin fighters for not getting the job done time and time again… Speaking of time and time again, the mysterious hat lady keeps interjecting herself and coming to the aid of Han and the rest of the rebels… at one point, in full ninja like garb.
- The Main Event: Eventually our heroes decide they need to take the fight to the Brothers. Han and friends get close posing as Ching soldiers and when they reveal their true identity a melee breaks out and Dragon Lee gets to do his thing, not to mention the mysterious hat lady who tangles with Silver Hand and it’s Silver Hand’s metal fan vs. mysterious hat lady’s weaponized hat! Plus, a defenestration finale!
As is often the case, it was the fight scenes made Dragon Lee vs. The Five Brothers worth watching. The action almost made me forget how the title of the movie really didn’t make much sense and how it made even less sense when the identity of the good fifth brother was revealed.
It makes perfect sense to wrap up this review with some Bonus Bullet Points…
- AKA: Dragon Lee vs. The Five Brothers has a number of aliases including Fury of Dragon, The Five Disciples and The Angry Dragon.
- Bastard Check: There are plenty of bastards thrown around in Dragon Lee vs. The Five Brothers.
- Dancing with What Brung Him: Dragon Lee does not shy away from using his Bruce Lee mannerisms and sounds, although they do seem out of place in this movie.
