A typically incoherent mess from that bastion of exploitation cinema, the Philippines. In a surprise move from its usual women-in-prison and horror flicks, the Philippines here serves as the backdrop for a rip-off Bruce Lee flick. Rest assured that the film is as typically awful as the average Filipino-made movie, even if some of the makers of the movie were Chinese, including the star, Mr. Bruce Le (not to be confused with his namesake, because his acting/fight skills are only a tenth of those of his originator, and to make matters worse, he looks nothing like him either). In a final, irritating stamp of local flavour from Manila, the guys who dubbed this film into an English language version were Filipino themselves, so here's possibly the only film where you watch a Chinese guy dubbed with a heavy Filipino accent!
The plot, as far as I can ascertain, is simplistic in the extreme (and no, it has absolutely NOTHING to do with KING BOXER). A young fighter, Wang Lung, is sent to find his uncle in Manila, who possesses the second half of a gold coin which may reveal the location of a hidden treasure. After that it gets garbled big-time, and eventually ends up with a series of senseless fight sequences in which Le squares off against a criminal gang, who can apparently call in some of the weirdest assistance on earth (more on that later). Apart from Le himself, the rest of the cast is made up of Filipinos, typically skinny guys with zero acting experience who seem to have been picked off the street at random. Throw in a fair number of Filipino beauties either as love interests, relations, or the chief villain (sadly, she doesn't pose much of a threat to our hero), and you have what makes for a cheesily engaging cast. And I haven't even started on the dwarfs yet
Le himself is okay and fairly energetic in the fight sequences, although not as good as any of the big names (Lee, Chan, Li, Hung, Biao, etc.). The problem with his fighting is the choreography, which is pretty poor – often you can see how his kicks and punches just miss his opponents instead of hitting them square-on. It detracts from the realism (not that this film had much to begin with), and, perhaps realising their error, the sound effects guys make sure every hit and thump is magnified to a ridiculous level. Add in typically cheesy '70s music and you have pure aural carnage.
Why, you might ask, is KING BOXER II a cheese classic? The reason is simple: the second half of the film pitches Le against a series of increasingly bizarre opponents willy-nilly, with no real explanation. The highlight sees him stumbling on a group of dwarfs working in a cane field; all at once, they pull out knives and attack him, until he beats them senseless. More dwarf carnage occurs at the finale, where he actually brains a pair of killer dwarf henchmen. Classic action to be sure (for more martial arts vs. dwarf mayhem, check out a little German flick from 1979, ROOTS OF EVIL, or not). Next we see Le take on the dreaded Bronze men, although the film does not possess that 'clang' sound effect I love so much, so the impact is lessened. There's also only about six of them here. After this the fights go by in quick succession: a group of knife-wielding killer women, who have been hiding underwater, attempt to overwhelm our hero; an overweight masseur tries to strangle him; an entire class of black belts and their master go in for the kill; and, of course, a shed load of unskilled fighters get beaten up throughout. The plot is long forgotten by this time. What KING BOXER II lacks in coherence, editing, structure and logic, it makes up for in a pure onslaught of action. Bring it on!
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