Fist of Fear, Touch of Death

Plot synopsis:
TV reporter Adolph Caesar is outside Madison Square Garden before the start of a martial arts tournament that will apparently determine the "successor" to the legacy of Bruce Lee. He interviews martial arts promoter Aaron Banks, who says that Lee was actually killed by a kung fu move called "The Touch of Death." Banks describes the move as being effective in "three to four weeks." The segment contains a sequence of flashbacks to Bruce Lee ostensibly supporting Banks' assertion. In one, a poorly dubbed Lee states "the secret to karate is power, internal power from the ear!"
From inside Madison Square Garden, Caesar discusses the competitors (including Bill Louie, who, while in the ring, apparently pokes an opponents eyes out and flings them into the audience). He talks about the legacy of Bruce Lee, and shows what he describes as "interview footage" he did with Lee shortly before his death; the next scene is footage of Lee from the TV show Longstreet with new dialogue awkwardly dubbed in. Then, Caeser flashes back to earlier in the day, where action star Fred Williamson seen having to traverse through a number of obstacles to get to the tournament while being repeatedly mistaken for Harry Belafonte. Next, Ron Van Clief is also profiled and interviewed. Van Clief is then seen saving a woman from being raped in a New York park.
The middle section of the film is devoted to "The Bruce Lee Story," a chronicle of Bruce Lee's early years in China, where he is depicted as being "karate crazy," much to the dismay of his parents. The footage from this section of the story is from the 1957 Bruce Lee film Thunderstorm, which has also been redubbed. This act of the presentation purports that Lee was learning karate to live up to the legacy of his great grandfather, who was "one of China's greatest Samurai masters" (an anachronism as China did not actually have Samurai, these were in fact Japanese warriors). The life of Lee's grandfather is also portrayed in this act at alternating points, in scenes lifted from Invincible Super Chan. Later, Lee leaves home and lands a career as an actor. This segues into a scene of Bill Louie, dressed as Kato from The Green Hornet, saving two female joggers from being raped by a gang near the World War II memorial in Battery Park in broad daylight. This segment ends after Louie apparently murders the last conscious gang member with a throwing star.
After Caesar announces the conclusion of "The Bruce Lee Story," the film transitions back to Madison Square Garden, where a number of performers are showcased. Caesar interviews Fred Williamson, who denounces the idea of a contest to determine Bruce Lee's successor.
The grande finale is devoted to a two-round kickboxing match, in which Louis Neglia reigns victorious. Adolph Caesar concludes the film with a final thought.

Tags: blaxploitation, cult, grindhouse film, satire

Review:
The basic plot of the movie is apparently centered around a martial arts bout to determine Bruce Lee's successor.Most of the movie follows interviews with Bruce Lee, dubbed and spliced with Aaron Banks and Adolph Caesar.
Fictional scenes of his family depict Bruce Lee as a martial arts-obsessed teenager ("Mother, I can kill a man with my bare hands - you don't understand me!", yet later calling someone else crazy...), randomly spliced with scenes from an old chopsocky movie supposedly depicting Bruce Lee's great-grandfather as "19th century China's greatest samurai" - can't have been too hard, I don't think there were many.
These scenes take up most of the movie - I nearly forgot about the whole determining Bruce Lee's successor thing, and when they finished, I was so happy thinking that the movie was over, only to realize there were another twenty minutes.
It seems as though the writers (if any) forgot what the basic plot was about and went off on same bizarre rant about Bruce Lee's heritage (the one they made up, not his real heritage).This movie does not have cult-status in any way, nor does it give the cheesy-laughs you'd expect from a regular chopsocky movie.
The only thing it manages to do is insult Bruce Lee and his legacy (even Fred Williamson says the same thing in this sad excuse for a movie).
Ok. I rented this movie last night with my friends thinking that it would be a good kung fu movie starring Bruce Lee (that's what it said on the cover).
They were totally unrealistic and they made me nausiated trying to follow the close up camera angles that were off center.My favorite part of the film (there were actually about 6 of them spliced together) came in the first unrelated fight scene flashback when Bruce's great-grandfather dodges arrows from 4 bowmen, picks the arrows up and in one throw kills all 4 bowmen.
FIST OF FEAR, TOUCH OF DEATH is to the martial-arts genre what KILLER CLOWNS FROM OUTER SPACE is to the horror genre; it is pure and utter exploitational shlock...and yet it is hysterically, unintentionally funny.Despite what others have said about this film being a "disgrace" to the name of Bruce Lee, I found it as more of a tribute, despite its numerous references to "Bruce Lee's successor."  The general story is that the Madison Square Gardens is hosting a tournament to determine the aforementioned "successor," with Oscar-winner (not for THIS film!) Adolph Caesar as the hokey announcer.
Through a series of poor flashbacks, the pair relate Bruce's (purely fictional) story.The writer of this film certainly has a talent for penning crap, and yet my friends and I couldn't help but laugh so hard we cried.
Who knows what the writer of FIST OF FEAR was thinking when he wrote this...however, who cares??The laughs that FIST OF FEAR will cause are practically nonstop, from Williamson's white beeyotch who insists on "making it a six-pack", to his being mistaken for Harry Belafonte, to Bill Louie's cameo as "Green Hornet"'s Kato (he kills a would-be rapist with shurikens!).
It hardly even features Bruce Lee, except for some old footage that has been re-dubbed to make it look like Lee actually agreed to this film being made.
I hope somebody got sued for this one.This could have been a good documentary about the "1979 Karate Championship" but most of the footage from the karate matches is obviously staged, and has little to do with Chinese martial arts.
For instance, prior to watching "Fist of Fear", I had no idea that Lee's great grandfather was the greatest Chinese samurai warrior.There are a few funny moments in the film (the Bill Louie Kato scene, or when Fred Williamson is introduced for example) but if you have any respect for Bruce Lee or film-making in general, I would highly recommend avoiding this film.Lex. The biggest scam ever in the history of movies.
I saw this movie sitting in a bin with other rediculous B-Movie genres but what caught my attention obviously was Bruce Lee. I read the commentary, it didn't explain much about Bruce except only about some martial arts event in New York's Madison Square Garden?
I watched this movie(actually with DVD I breezed through in minutes) and to my surprise no Bruce, no real footage, nada, nothing.
(even though the markee on the arena said Karate demonstration)  The Late Adolf Ceasar plays himself talking about Bruce's death, and how fight promoter Aaron Banks claiming Bruce Lee was murdered by "the Touch of Death".
Massive stock footage several good Kung-Fu film is also shown as Adolf tells us this is footage of Bruce's great grandfather (yeah right!), who is a Samurai warrior (he's Chinese!).
Louie Negira, and it was a kickboxing match, which look to me like a regular bout that the producer filmed and claimed it was Bruce Lee title for the film.
I think this film could've been a cult classic because it's so bad, but I am surprised Bruce Lee's family did file a lawsuit making Bruce into a wimpy, arrogant, jerk in several dubbed over fake stockfootage interview Adolf conducted.
Talk about huge amount of ridiculous stereotypes with confusion between one fighter and Harry Belafonte by the hotel.There are scenes from lots of old kung fu type movies as well as an early Bruce Lee movie.
The DVD cover makes you think that Bruce Lee stars in this movie and there are actual Bruce Lee fight scenes.
In the hype for a big karate championship bout between Louis Neglia and John "Cyclone" Flood at Madison Square Garden, a TV Anchorman named Adolph Caesar tries to tie the match into the controversy stirred up with regards to the mysterious circumstances surrounding the death of Bruce Lee and whether or not this karate match-up will crown his successor.I gave this a rating of 4, one point each for the ways in which this succeeded in entertaining me.
Point # 4 was for this film's sheer audaciousness as it preposterously tries to tie itself and a straightforward karate match at Madison Square Garden to the enduring legacy left behind by Bruce Lee succeeding in making me laugh and shake my head in utter amazement at this ludicrous presentation unfolded before my eyes..
a disgrace to the name Bruce Lee. When you look at the cover of this dvd there's a giant pic of Lee on it.So you'll think this is going to be a great martial arts flick, but its not.You don't even see him fighting!!!!
Everything here is a lie, they even try to let you think that Lee's great grandfather was a famous samurai...this movie has nothing to do with martial arts, avoid it at all costs!
Redubbed to be satirically biographical it cuts between the old film and the 70s B Samurai movie in a direct parody of "The Real Bruce Lee".
Their are some real martial arts in the film by excellent practitioners and the point of the whole movie is that you should be yourself.
Check out my review of this movie on http://superfunadventuretime.com/2009/04/27/fist-of- fear-touch-of-death/Here is a little of what you'll see: The film represents the ultimate in Bruceploitation (films following the formula Bruce Lee + anything = $$), the premise for which is a documentary, featuring Adolph Caesar, investigating the world martial arts championships and who will be the successor to Bruce Lee's non-existent title of king of kung fu.
It opens with Adolph Caesar interviewing Aaron "Mr. Karate" Banks telling of how he thinks Bruce Lee was killed by the touch of death or "vibrating palm" a technique in which you "touch a particular part of the body to reverse or change the normal bodily functions" resulting in death in 3-4 weeks.
This utterly ridiculous film is about the martial arts legacy of Bruce Lee. There really isn't a story and the script comes across like the writing of a 13 year old fan-boy.
For a much better treatment of the legend of Lee, see Bruce Lee: A Warrior's Journey.Somehow, Matthew Malinson got a few action stars and martial artists to participate in this mess and was able to secure clips from a REAL martial arts film which were recycled into a silly ancestor-worship theme which supposedly inspired Lee. Adolph Caesar plays an annoyingly monotonous MC at a Madison Square Garden event which is supposed to result in a decision for the question - 'who will be the next Bruce Lee?'.
Again, anybody interested in the reasons why should see A Warrior's Journey, not this film.Scenes from the Bruce Lee Crown Event are spliced in with nearly random interview clips and poor re-enactments of Lee's completely fictionalized early life and some of his theatrical work.Avoid..
The biggest surprise about this travesty is the quite good cast it has, in that we have Fred Williamson (Say what you will but he's got charisma), Adolph Caesar and uh, Bruce Lee clips.
The samurai clips have some moments (Well if you're an old school fan like me.) but I can always try and locate that movie (Which I most likely won't do for a long time.) and the fake interviews, fake stories and indeed the shameless promotion of Bill Louie as Kato, all make this a true labor of badness.
The Bruce Lee clips are worthless since he does no fighting in them (I mean seriously if you're going to steal clips steal from Fist Of Fury) and basically it's all one cut and paste mess with very little worth or value.
There is not plot,no decent acting, just cutting and pasting from other movies and some people "saying" Bruce Lee might be killed by some 'touch of death' and a reporter hanging out at a karate contest (that you only get to see from a distance).
Before you reed this comment i want you to know that when I saw this movie I found it so disgusting I could not watch the whole movie.I've been a martial arts fan ever since I saw what Bruce Lee was capable of in a two-hour documentary on the Discovery Channel.
Though "Goodbye Bruce Lee" isn't too good either, at least it doesn't put violate his reputation as "The king of Kung Fu".If you reed this comment before you are about to watch the movie, let me warn you that if you want Bruce Lee, go get yourself "Enter The Dragon" instead..
Really the whole movie is clips of Bruce Lee re-dubbed over to make a new story.
That martial artist, Aaron Banks is so full of sh*t with his theories on Bruce Lee dying from Dim Mak, the touch of death.
They didn't have me fooled for one second when they made it look like he conversed with Bruce Lee. I could tell those were clips from his show, Longstreet, dubbed over.
This movie also sucked because of their portraying Bruce as a child(from his earlier films)and made his voice sound like a total wussy.
Adolph Caeser hosts and narrates us through a silly martial arts tournament (to see the next Bruce Lee) at Madison Square Gardens and tells us a story of Bruce's past.
Including his grandfather which in the end likely holds 0% truth.Bruce Lee in fact had nothing to do with this film as it was released 7 years after his death.
I also feel bad for his family in that this sludge was released pretending to be the truth about the amazing Bruce Lee and his family.Only good things about this film were at times people who spoke about the effect Bruce Lee had on their life, which I believe was true and to catch a glimpse outside of the movie theatres, where they were playing two greats of its time in National Lampoon's Animal House and Apocalypse Now. Also starring 70s action star Fred Williamson who gets a mulligan for the brief period of time he is in the film.Do yourself a favor if you have any respect for Bruce Lee or good martial arts films and avoid this like the plague..
Outside of NYC's Madison Square Garden, Adolph Caesar is told by karate expert Aaron Banks that Bruce Lee was killed by a Touch of Death.
Using old film scenes, Adolph recount Bruce Lee's life.
Lastly, the middle of the film uses scenes from other movie to portray Bruce Lee's early years and his family origins.
If you were seriously into the martial arts genre, popularized in part by Enter the Dragon several years earlier, of course you'd call it crap and insulting to Bruce Lee's memory.
Soon after making these ridiculous claims, he tried to show how to do it and couldn't even break a thin board until the 3rd or 4th try--some mystical death punch!!!Now there WAS some Bruce Lee in the film.
Like the other commentators, I was expecting a Bruce Lee flick, but instead, it an hour and a half of late 70s disco, hideously cheesy dialogue, martial arts misnomenclature (calling karate kung fu and vice versa over and over), terrible dubbing, and hilarious sight gags (decapitation, eye balls thrown around, etc).
Over and above the relative absence of martial arts, there was barely a hint of a plot, what plot existed was completely disjointed, and there was abysmal acting (if that's what you want to call it), Aaron Banks' scenes with Bruce Lee, where they took turns telling each other how great they are (shoot me now), didn't even look close to being in the same room.
After watching this movie, if I didn't know better, I would've thought Bruce Lee had been forced to an advance screening and applied the Touch of Death to himself.If I had to bring up pluses for the movie, it would have to be the exhibitions of some of the true martial artists.
Several real life celebrities play themselves; a couple of minor martial art luminaries get to act out their Bruce Lee fantasies; there's some archival footage from an early Chinese soap opera where a young Lee played a supporting part; this is mixed incoherently in with footage swiped from an old time Chop Sockey film, claiming that this footage is the back story of his "grandfather"(????).
There's a Madison Square "title bout" to determine who gets to be Lee's successor (or sometimes his "title', despite the fact that Lee didn't compete in tournaments after his movie career took off,and never had a "title" that I knew about, and his "successors", if any, would be members of his Jeet Kune Do training group....none of whom appear in this film) There's several badly mangled pieces of Lee interview footage where someone dubs over Lee's actual words so it looks like Aaron Banks (or the TV announcer)is interviewing him.
The only reason to see this is a) the footage of the soap opera with the adolescent Bruce (which I had never seen before) and b)to see just how bad an exploitation movie can get..
I supposed that this film can be enjoyed for its (unitintianal) humor, such as: -Adolf Ceasar's obviously fake interview with Bruce Lee - Aaron Banks' obviously fake conversation with Bruce ("Wow, that's quite a manuever!") -Bill Louie ripping out a man's eyeballs -Bill Louie as Kato -Fred Williamson being confused with Henry Belefante -Scenes from an old Chinese soap opera being dubbed into "the Bruce Lee story" -Scenes from an old samurai movie being dubbed into the story of Bruce Lee's grandfather -so much more!I wanted to give this movie at least a two (for the unitentional humor), but it is such an insult to Bruce Lee, his family, his fans, and everyone watching this movie that I'll just give it a one.
This movie is a crass cash-in exploiting the greatness of Bruce Lee and insulting his memory for a quick buck.
Naturally, the Fred Williamson stuff is the best here, and after suffering through the footage of Bruce's "biography", we were screaming for Adolph Caesar and his famous voice to come back and save us all.So while there are a few decent moments in this plot less exercise, most of it is an endurance test that would test hardened bad movie lovers.
That is somehow linked to a color, period-piece martial arts movie that does not star Bruce.
a waste of money, not a real Bruce Lee movie.
I was expecting a Bruce Lee movie but what I got was disappointment and a piece of crap.
They use editing and poor voice over to make Bruce Lee say things like he practiced karate.
They also use footage from different movies such as a hong Kong action film to use as Bruce Lee's great grandfather.The movie can't decide whether it is a documentary or not,it keeps switching styles.
Some of the battles are laughably bad and terribly ridiculous (A guy gets kicked in the crotch about 4 times then gets his eye balls pulled out).all in all avoid this film unless you really enjoy bad movies, or want to see how they perverted Bruce Lee's image to make some cheap profit..
Elsewhere we get clips of Bruce in action and plenty of interviews with the actor, where the other 'actors' in this film are added in to make it look like they're in the same room (it doesn't work).
Bad exploitation film taking advantage of the rampant conspiracy theories surrounding Bruce Lee's death, in the late 70's.
if you want to actually spend some money on it, it's widely available in numerous Big-Box stores.Great for a laugh if you want to see one of the worst movies ever made (trust me, there's some side side-splitting terrible in this one, if you like really bad movies).But here's where it all comes together- watch the scene where Fred Williamson rides in the Rolls-Royce with Adolph Caeser, on the way to the martial art's tournament.