Big Boss Untouchable (2002)

Bruceploitation, the business of making cheap movies with Bruce Lee look-alikes refuses to die which can be seen as either a testament to the enduring popularity of the Little Dragon or the determination of martial arts cinema’s bottom feeders. IFD Films’ BIG BOSS UNTOUCHABLE is among a handful of low-budget Bruceploitation flicks starring the first and undoubtedly not last Bruce Lee clone of the 21st century, Dragon Sek.

BIG BOSS UNTOUCHABLE bares all the trademarks of a classic Bruceploitation film. A title that is related to one of Bruce Lee’s movies? Check. No-name martial arts star with a vague resemblance to Bruce Lee, the willingness to copy his mannerisms and a similar stage name? Check. A bad script with worse acting? Check. Ultra-low budget production values? Check. Mediocre screen fighting? Check, check and double check. It’s all here but instead of being passable genre entertainment as some of the better Bruceploitation flicks manage to be, this one is plagued by overlong dialogue with too little action in between, painfully bad English dubbing (in the international version) and amateur direction from Kant Leung, previously unknown for a series of Hong Kong B-movies such as THE DEMON’S BABY and CHINESE MIDNIGHT EXPRESS 2.

The plot is a plodding, uninspired mess and sadly fitting for another in a long string of bad B-movies from Joseph Lai’s IFD Films. This was the company that churned out notoriously bad international ninja flicks directed by Godfrey Ho and starring Richard Harrison.

MILLENNIUM DRAGON co-star Ben Ng is a corrupt shipping boss who kidnaps Dragon Sek’s fiancé. While searching for her, Sek befriends a kung fu-trained restaurant owner (Karen Cheung) struggling to keep her wayward brother (Karel Wong) from gambling his life away. Sek and Cheung eventually team up to take on Ng and his hired thugs including an ambitious kung fu master (Lawrence Wang).

Although he has some basic screen fighting skills, it’s safe to say that Dragon Sek will not be winning over many genre fans with his weak impersonations of Bruce Lee and some truly awful nunchaku handling. The shtick might have worked in 1975 but 35 years after Bruce Lee’s death too many Bruce Lee clones have come and gone and what little entertainment there is to be had from the exercise has long since faded away. Sek actually looks like he could be a decent martial arts actor if he dropped the Bruce Lee act and developed his own style. Unfortunately, he’s been typecast because of his looks ever since appearing alongside Cynthia Khan in RETURN OF DRAGON (1998) and the trend has continued at least as far as 2005 when he starred in HERO THE GREAT with another famous screen fighter, Carter Wong.

Sek’s co-stars offer up marginally better fighting performances. Karen Cheung looks like she stepped right out of the 1970s. Her fighting performance is a throwback to the classic kung fu era when semi-trained fighting actresses like Doris Lung and Nora Miao used modest fighting moves to unconvincingly best a gang of attackers.

With his piercing gaze, solid stances and dynamic jump kicks, Lawrence Wang comes across as the most competent screen fighter. It’s interesting to note that Lawrence is the one with the leading man looks and presence and yet plays a shallow villain while the craggily-faced Dragon Sek, who possesses little of his own charisma, gets the role because of his passing resemblance to Bruce Lee.

When the two actors battle at the end of the movie, action director Willie Ho displays his complete lack of skill as a fight arranger. What should be a fight between two masters turns into a poorly-doubled fall down a short sand hill that doubles as a cliff. This in turn becomes a horrendous fantasy brawl as wirework is introduced to the film and both actors begin to move around unnaturally.

One of the most important and underrated aspects of making a good martial arts movie is having skilled stunt extras to take the falls and reactions. This film has one of the worst stunt crews I’ve seen in a long time. As example, Sek is surrounded by thugs and one casually shuffles up behind him with a hatchet limply held in his hand. Sek fires a reverse kick that obviously misses the stuntman and the stunt actor staggers back half-heartedly a split second off his timing. It’s enough that the illusion is broken.

The makers of BIG BOSS UNTOUCHABLE obviously were working with huge handicaps and were incapable of producing a quality martial arts movie. For IFD Films, it’s the story of their entire output since the 1970s. Low budgets, second-rate stunt actors and bad scripts are expected. However, the filmmakers cannot be forgiven for the abysmal 75 minutes of poorly paced non-action that dominates this movie. At least Godfrey Ho had the good judgment to fill his movies with B-grade action. A mere 15 minutes of mediocre screen fighting makes BIG BOSS UNTOUCHABLE a movie that no one is going to want to touch.