Kick'em In The Ghoulies

 Starring :Dragon Lee ,John Liu Chung -Liang ,Tino Wong ,Phillp Ko

Directed By : Godfrey Ho

1979

The Dragon''The Hero

I must admit even though I like to watch most Martial art films, some are just to poorly made for even me to get into or enjoy, others that I avoid mostly are those Bruceploitation films produced in the seventies after Bruce Lee's death.

Though I have watched and enjoyed Ho Chung Tao's (Bruce Li) films, mainly because he actually was a good fighter that tried to make films as himself, but the films he did portraying the Little Dragon where quite well made for the budget they had,

The other players around the time where Bruce Le' ( I could never get on with him) and Dragon Lee aka Bruce Lei, Dragon Lee is actually Korean and in some instances looks like Bruce ,this was of course a great thing in the 70's if you where good at Martial Arts and wanted to make films.

The Dragon The Hero is one of those films that came out to make money of the demise of Bruce, With Dragon lee blazoned across the cover in a classic Bruce pose.

But to be honest you would be a fool to miss this film. Why you ask. Well for one Dragon Lee's role is actually quite minimal ,he shows up at the beginning of the film and has a few small scenes in the middle ,vanishes and then reappears at the end to do a Bruce Lee impression for a couple minutes.

Without taking away from Dragon Lee's poise as fighter and practitioner of Taekwondo and Hapkido ( two things we see him do little of here) the real stars of this feature are Taekwondo legend John Liu , the versatile and dangerous Phillip Ko and Tino Wong. ..

This Godfrey Ho film centres around the Illegal smuggling Chinese antiques by a local crook (Lau Chan) , we later find out he lost his manhood to a Alsation dog which seems to have sent him mad like a crazy dog..

Saved by a mysterious man ( Phillip Ko) who goes around challenging people to kill of their arts. Between them they recruit good fighters through offering money for fighting and Mad Dog uses these recruits to help with the smuggling business.

Enter John Liu whose a wanderer who enters town to spy on the situation. , but the man has other problems with local boy Tong whose father was killed by the wanderers father some twenty years earlier.

But in the end it will take both their skills and comradeship to beat down the crooks .

Now Godfrey Ho has made so many films it's hard to keep track of them all. , some if his productions are so unbalanced that it's often hard to know what's going on , and from the outset of this film I thought this may be one of those films, with so many characters and scenarios going on.

But after about twenty minutes it got into it's stride,and following the story was straight forward.

Yes there are some scenes that throw something into the mix only to vanish without explanation..

Like why does Mad Dog Lau Chan have a servant girl who prepares his food which consists of insects,and other creatures , and why does he eat this ?

Bolo appears as one of Mad Dog's fighters in the beginning , but vanishes from the story.

But of course where here to see the Kung Fu and the film does deliver in that field ,especially John Liu who proves once again that he was one of the best kickers around in the 70's and 80's.

Phillip Ko shows of the many styles he can portray ,from Eagle,Snake and anything else that's asked of him..

Budget this may be and billed as Dragon Lee Bruceploitation film,but it's far from that and actually delivers some great fight action..

In the end The Dragon''The Hero is a worth while view and as a beer and pizza film won't disappoint..

The only big downside about this film and many like it is the poor quality of the DVD , which looks nothing more then a transfer of the VHS Pan and Scan released years ago..

It would have scored another point if only the actual DVD quality was DVD Quality.

  Sertes Nake