I know I’ve commented before on how striking I find it that Bruce Lee didn’t have much of an impact on Hong Kong martial films. After his short career it seems like Shaw Brothers went on doing what they had been doing since the 1960s, and everyone else began to concentrate on comedy and fantasy. What I’ve realized is that perhaps the problem is I’ve been focusing too much on good movies. Bruce Lee had a large influence on bad movies.

Take Black Dragon. Please.

Okay, it’s not really that bad. The plot is mostly a rip-off of The Big Boss (1971). Tai Yu (Jason Pai Piao) is a country bumpkin who is as strong as an ox. Tai’s brother has found success in the Phillipines, so Tai borrows money and makes his way to the islands to find his fortune. There Tai becomes a dock worker, though his fighting skills soon get him a job as an enforcer for the dock boss. There is a gang opposed to the dock boss, and at first Tai fights them, but later he realizes his boss is smuggling dope, so he joins the gang. The boss hires an international collection of martial artists to protect his interests, and much kicking results.

The fights scenes are okay, and in the style of Bruce Lee. The movie suffers from a distinct lack of star power. In the U.S. the movie was marketed as “Black Dragon” instead of the original English title “Tough Guy” on the strength of Ron Van Clief being in it. Van Clief was a sort of low rent alternative to Jim Kelly, with much better martial arts skills but a less resplendent afro. Van Clief is not anywhere near a main character in Black Dragon, but I’m sure the Blaxploitation angle helped promote the movie enough to be profitable. A year later one of the myriad movies about Bruce Lee’s death, also featuring Van Clief, would be released stateside as The Black Dragon Returns.