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Way of the Black Dragon/Death of Bruce Lee
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List Price: $14.98
Our Price: $13.49
Your Save: $ 1.49 ( 10% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Bci / Eclipse
Starring: Ron Van Clief
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Audience Rating: Unrated
Binding: DVD
Brand: BCI ECLIPSE LLC
EAN: 0787364717996
Format: Color
Label: Bci / Eclipse
Manufacturer: Bci / Eclipse
Number Of Items: 2
Publisher: Bci / Eclipse
Region Code: 1
Release Date: 2006-12-26
Running Time: 175
Studio: Bci / Eclipse
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Editorial Reviews:
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Way Of The Black Dragon (1978)Ron Van Clief and Carter Wang star as a pair of martial-arts troubleshooters willing to work for the highest bidder but still adhering to their own sense of values. The villains are members of a drug-smuggling operation now branching out into slave trading.Death Of Bruce Lee (AKA Black Dragon's Revenge) (1975)Black Dragon's Revenge like many films that came out of Hong Kong after Bruce Lee's death looks at the speculation over the cause of Lee's death coupled with the vows of several of Bruce's disciples to avenge his alleged murder.System Requirements:Running Time: 175 MinutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre:Â SPORTS/GAMES/MIXED MARTIAL ARTS Rating:Â NR UPC:Â 787364717996
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: A Ron Van Clief fan's dream come true. And it's a budget release!
Comment: WAY OF THE BLACK DRAGON-Carter Wong and Ron Van Clief team up to take on villains who are involved in slave trading. You will also recognize other old school stars like Hoi Meng, Chan Lung, and Chan Lau, but nobody does anything noteworthy. Seriously, usually I have something to say about someone, but nobody did ANYTHING good in this movie! And that brings me to the movie iteslf which is dreadful. It is a very bad movie and it is obvious they didn't even have a script when filming started. And, the director doesn't really have a clue what to do. It is just pitiful. The best fight scene is between Van Clief and Carter Wong. Charles Bonet shows up for a very forgettable finale. It only took about 20 minutes to start asking myself if this movie was ever going to end. 1.5/5
Bonus features include some behind the scenes footage of the making of the film with an audio commentary on it(8 minutes long). The commentaries are the real reason you should buy this 2 disc DVD set. Ron Van Clief and George Tan give all the info you could ever ask for on this movie. As good as a commentary gets.
DEATH OF BRUCE LEE-First off, don't go into this expecting to find out about Bruce Lee's death(the commentary will probably surprise a lot of people though). The movie is less than B-grade and should not be taken seriously whatsoever. All that happens is people walk around and get into fights. So if you can get past that, then you can just enjoy the Bruce Lee imitations by Charles Bonet and all the mindless fighting. At least the movie has star power and the action is good at times. Van Clief ALWAYS looks good. I will try to name most of the guys who I spotted in this. Starting with Ron Van Clief of course, Charles Bonet, Jason Pai Paio, Wong Chi-sang, Charlie Chin, Qui Yuen(old lady landlord in 'Kung Fu Hustle'), Chan Lau, San Kwai, and Bai Sai Ngai(AKA big eye little eye). The guy with the bald head and mustache is the same villain from 'Black Dragon'(at least I think it was called Black Dragon) which was another Pai Paio/Van Clief movie. It is just as bad as this and Van Clief isn't in it much and just runs around with a gang beating people up. It was actually a gang of good guys if I remember correctly. This movie is directed by Lu Chun Ku who made a ton of great movies. This is not one of them. It is absolutely horrible. 1/5.
Special features again are outstanding and a real dream come true for any Van Clief fan. There is 22 minutes of behind the scenes on this disc with commentary. It includes one of those behind the scenes fights you always hear about. It's a fun little match. The commentary on the movie is AMAZING!! They did a good job filling up 91 minutes on 'Way of the Black Dragon', but if you are a Bruce Lee fan, you may want to at least rent this somewhere if possible. 'Death By Misadventure' was a very good documentary and has a great commentary also, but this is magnificent. Since it is a Van Clief movie, they do talk about his career. So it is really worth hearing for fans of both martial arts masters and it's loaded with plenty of other information to ensure that any fan of kung fu cinema will enjoy it.
I should give this a 4/5 star rating, because the audio quality is bad and both movies are full screened. Nothing near as bad as some of the other audio commentaries Gerorge Tan has done in terms of sound though. Definitely listenable. I can't take any points off because the 3 1/2 hours of Van Clief commentary is just so awesome.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Good bonus features
Comment: Just got a hold of this double feature.
Have to say I'm not a real big fan of the Black Dragon films in general but I gave this set a peek.
Both films are `modern day' but feature many actors from traditional kung fu films such as Carter Wong.
The action (and clothes)is very very 1970's so if that's not your bag then look elsewhere.
Death of Bruce Lee has Ron Van Clief and Charles Bonet trying to find out how Bruce Lee died and getting into al kinds of fights along the way.
What's real interesting is spotting the actual stuntmen who worked on Enter the Dragon and other Bruce Lee films appearing in this one.
Way of the Black Dragon is shot mostly in Thailand and Ron doesnt even appear for the first half hour or so.
Now the bonus features are real good and make up for the quality of the films.
Audio commentary with Ron Van Clief and George Tan for both films and it's really packed with information.
Nothing is wasted there.They talk about the making of the films and also Van Clief's life and career before and after each film.
Listen for a bit where Ron starts to talk about doing bodyguard work for James Brown and then it seems to cut off.Too bad!
There's also a lot of behind the scenes footage from both films.
That's greast material and there is commentary on that section too.
So I give 2 stars for the bonus features,1 star each film and 1 star for the audio commentary.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Finally a collection of Grandmaster Van Clief
Comment: Grandmaster Van Clief is one of the top masters in the world and it's about time he gets the respect deserved with his own collection.
Death of Bruce Lee is the second film he made in Hong Kong after the Black Dragon which launched his career.
Way of the Black Dragon came after this film.
Looking forward to the audio commentary and behind the scenes footage!
I read there's tons of bonus extras all endorsed by Grandmaster Van Clief.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Death of Bruce Lee: A really bad movie for those of you who love bad movies!!!
Comment: This review is only for "Death of Bruce Lee". and is based on a mid 80's video release. Seeing that this DVD is both a double feature and the original movie was and probably still is the basis of a lawsuit by Bruce Lee's estate, I am pretty sure that it is the same print that was available on VHS years ago. Then again, sometimes Brentwood surprises everyone and actually gets their hands on a letter-boxed film print, so who knows.
Which brings us to the movie and why Bruce Lee's widow would want to sue the producers. The movie suggests that he died of a drug overdose. The VHS copy was made from a print that attempted to get around this bit of libel by editing part of Bruce Lee's name out of the soundtrack. So for the entire movie whenever his name is spoken you here the name Bruce followed by dead silence where they removed "Lee" from the soundtrack. Although I cant imagine what good that did as the opening credits clearly say "Death of Bruce Lee".
Here is the plot, and I must warn you, there is a SPOILER.
Bruce Lee has died. A mysterious man hires Ron Van Clief [ a.k.a. The Black Dragon ] to go to Hong Kong and investigate why Bruce Lee died. [ Ron Van Clief was actually one of Bruce Lee's students in real life and plays himself in this movie ] Once in Hong Kong he meets up with an old friend who owns some sort of shop and together investigate Bruce Lee's death. Simultaneously Bruce Lee's teacher asks his students to also investigate his death. Every time Ron & Friend finds someone who is willing to talk, the same thing happens. The person is cryptic and says he will talk about what he knows later at another location. But each time just before Ron gets there a group of thugs show up and beat the snitch to death. Accompanying the thugs is a girl who carries poisonous snakes in her purse and likes to throw them on people.
After the trail grows cold again and again as the bodies of potential snitches piles up, Ron & Friend finally decide to visit actress Betty Ting Pei [ in real life she was the actress that Bruce Lee was visiting when he died. She would later claim that they were carrying on an affair and loved each other. But at the time this film came out many suspected her of killing Bruce Lee. ] But when they get to her house they find the thugs guarding the place and saying that she will see no visitors. So Ron & friend sneak in at night time, but unfortunately the other group of Kung Fu students also investigating Lee's death also decide to sneak in. Both groups end up fighting and all end up running off the property once an alarm is sounded. The thugs succeed in killing a couple of students and the butler of Ron's friend, just to scare everyone off the case, but instead Ron realizes that the students are on the same side as he is and together they decide to invade Betty Ting Pei's home and find out what she knows. But when they get there they find her dead [ in real life she is still alive and making movies ]and the thugs in her house. A martial arts battle breaks out and in one distasteful moment Ron grabs the girl with the snake filled purse, calls her a bitch, and mercilessly beats her to death. After winning the battle and killing all the thugs, Ron walks into the next room to find......SPOILER........the mysterious man who had hired the thugs. And he turns out to be the same man who had hired him to investigate Bruce Lee's death in the first place. Huh???? But If he didn't want anyone to know how Bruce Lee died then why did he..... Aw, never mind. The man and Ron have a drawn out Kung Fu fight where Ron winds up winning. Now with everyone who knew anything dead Bruce Lee's death will have to remain forever a mystery. [ In real life Bruce Lee died from an allergic reaction to pain killer. ]
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