Tuesday Night Fights: Bruce Lee vs Chuck Norris

It has been quite some time since I reviewed a film of any nature and I wanted to try something new. We have been doing Ass Whooping Wednesdays for quite some time that I wanted to try something new and I came up with Tuesday Night Fights where we take those films where there is an obvious showdown in it and we review the fight. The first film we are checking out is Way Of The Dragon which is the 1972 films that Bruce Lee starred, wrote, and directed. In the film Bruce Lee plays Tang Lung, a Kung Fu expert from Hong Kong who is sent to Rome to help some relatives get rid of a problem they are having with some local thugs who wanted to steal the family business. In the film, Tang Lung will do battle with an American Karate champion who is a man simply known to us and the world as Colt (Chuck Norris). The film also stars Nora Miao (The Big Boss) as Chen Ching Hua, Robert Wall (Enter The Dragon) as Bob, Ing-Sik Whang (The Young Master) as Japanese Fighter, Jon T. Benn (The Man With The Iron Fists) as The Boss,  Chung-Hsin Huang (The Chinese Connection) as Uncle Wang, and Little Unicorn (Shaolin Drunk Fighter) as Jimmy.

Tang Lung had to fight a couple of guys that day just to get to Colt who was awaiting his arrival (overall, he has beaten up to 22 guys at this point). As he stares into the ruins, he finds Colt up high in the air and you can feel the anticipation of the fight. A little worm by the name of Ho (Ping Ou Wei) tries to distract him by chanting things, but that doesn’t our Kung Fu master. When they finally meet, they warm up real quick to get themselves loose for the fight. After jockying to see who was going to land the first real hit, Chuck was able to get a roundhouse kick that sent Lee to the ground. Norris would continue the onslaught with some punches that connected, but as soon as he flipped him to the ground, Bruce grabbed a bunch of Norris’s chest hair and tore some hair off. It looked hopeless for Lee as Norris was on top of the fight with some big kicks, but that didn’t discourage Lee at all. Bleeding from the lip and a nice bruise on his cheek, Lee quickly re-accessed the situation. Norris tried to land kick after kick, but Lee was either blocking them or dodging them.

Lee began to strike Norris, but Norris was blocking the kicks although he now looked a little worried. Then out of nowhere, Lee connected with some kicks to the head that shook the American champion and sent him reeling to the ground. It was over at this point, Norris couldn’t see anything that was coming from Lee whether it be some nice punches to the head or chest and stomach area or the kicks that rocked him to the ground. After connecting with some punches and driving Norris against a wall, Bruce broke his hand and his leg. Barely able to stand on both his legs, Norris never gave up, but he lunged at Lee who put him into a headlock and snapped his neck ending the fight and making him the winner at the 6:08 mark in the fight. Lee honored him like he was a true warrior after the fight by paying respect to his opponent.

Ass Whoopin Wednesdays: The Big Boss (1971)

What kind of blog or even a segment like Ass Whoopin Wednesdays would we be without the master Bruce Lee and one of his amazing films. The man is the Godfather of modern Martial Arts films because he legitimized the genre and showed the world that you could make money with Martial Arts films. The film I chose for today I originally knew as Fists Of Fury, but I believe the original name of the film was The Big Boss. Bruce Lee (The Chinese Connection) stars as Cheng, he is travelling away from China and to Thailand to make a new start in his life after he promised Uncle (Chia-Cheng Tu) and his mother that he wouldn’t fight anymore. So, Cheng goes to live with is cousins and work his job at the local ice factory, but what he and his cousins don’t realize is that the factory is a front for distributing drugs inside the ice. One day, when one of the cousins finds the drugs inside, he disappears and soon all of the cousins start to disappear. So, now it’s up to Cheng to figure out exactly what is going on and to get himself some revenge. The movie also stars Maria Yi (Slash: Blade Of Death) as Chow Mei, Marilyn Bautista (Bloodfist) as Miss Wuman, Ying-Chieh Han (Lao hu sha xing ) as The Boss, Tony Liu (The Way Of The Dragon) as The Boss’s Son, James Tien (The Fearless Hyena) as Hsiu Chien, Shan Chin (The Chinese Connection) as Hua Sze, and the film was directed by Wei Lo (New Fist Of Fury). Now let’s check out some stats before we get into the review of the film:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bruce Lee is one of my all time favorite actors and I have to say that if it wasn’t for him I probably would have never liked or cared for the genre. If there was no Bruce Lee, there would be no Chuck Norris (He would still be there, but not as popular), Jean Claude Van Damme, Jackie Chan (would probably only be popular in Asia), Jet Li, and so on and so forth. This film was epic and it doesn’t even matter that in the first 30 minutes or so, Bruce Lee has only knocked out 2 guys because the story and the action is amazing right from the start. The film was filmed in Thailand and you can really notice the difference between the rich and the poor just through this film. I had to add something new to the stats because every once in a while in these action/martial arts films there is a sexual conquest and it’s with the beautiful Marilyn Bautista even though Bruce doesn’t realize it until the next day. Maria Yi is obviously a lot more beautiful in comparison, but she is more virtuous and delicate like a flower so a conquest with her is out of the picture. I definitely recommend watching this film if you want to learn more from the master. I am going to give this film 4.5 fists out of five for a final grade because it kicks major ass on Ass Whoopin Wednesdays.