Legacy of Rage (1986)

AKA: Brandon Lee's Legacy of Rage, Fire Dragon

Literally: Dragon All Over the Country

Director: Ronnie Yu Yan-Tai

Producer: Dickson Poon Dik-Sun

Writer: Clifton Ko Chi-Sum, Raymond Fung

Cast: Brandon Lee Kwok-Ho, Michael Wong Man-Tak, Michael Chan Wai-Man, Regina Kent (Kan Wai-Ling), Bolo Yeung, Ng Man-Tat, Mang Hoi, Tanya George

Running Time: 84/86 min.

Plot: Brandon Lee stars in this gritty thriller-drama directed with visual flair by Ronnie Yu. Framed by his best friend for a crime he didn't commit, Brandon is sentenced to prison. After a daring escape from jail and learning of his friend's betrayal, Brandon vows revenge. With raw and furious martial arts from Lee and a stunning shootout climax in the style of John Woo, Brandon Lee's only made-in-Hong Kong film is also a gripping portrait of fury unbound. Legacy Of Rage is a fitting memorial to a man destined for greatness, but torn from this world too soon.

JOE909'S REVIEW: You know you're in for trouble when even the opening theme song is half-assed; it sounds like someone turning on a cheap Casio keyboard and goofing off with a few keys. Probably the most depressing movie I've ever seen, Legacy of Rage plods on through its 90 minutes, giving us an 8-year view of the terrible life lead by Brandon Lee's character, who is named, oddly enough "Brandon." He's set up by his best friend ? who also continuously hits on Brandon's fiancé ? he's sent to prison, his fiancé moves to Brazil with an older guy, and, even in prison, Brandon has to put up with daily assaults by a gang of gwailo. Luckily, Brandon meets Four-Eyes, who happens to be a gun runner, and upon release from prison, Brandon works a few odd jobs before going all out in his vengeance.

Like "A Better Tomorrow Part 2," LOR is only notable for its dynamite ending. Bey Logan has it listed in his "Hong Kong Action Cinema" as one of the top heroic bloodshed battles, and it deserves to be listed there. Brandon and Four-Eyes blast apart countless goons in a 15-20 minute orgy of violence. I wouldn't say that the scene is as good as ABT 2, but it does pack a big wallop, especially after the preceding hour of trite melodrama.

Supposedly Brandon Lee wasn't very interested in martial arts when he made this movie, in 1986, so that might explain why there are only a few seconds of kung-fu in the film. Even his fight with Bolo Yeung is over before it starts, to quote Bey Logan. But even considering that Brandon didn't want to do martial arts at the time, that still doesn't explain why he would agree to such a depressing, dark movie. At least his sister got it right, by debuting in the pure actioner "Enter the Eagles."

As it is, I'd just recommend skipping through the movie to the final fight. You don't need to know the characters, or, worse yet, their plights. Just enjoy the shenanigans and gun fire, and like those guys on SCTV, you can chuckle and say "that blew up real good" when you see things exploding.

On a final note, I first saw this movie around ten years ago in its English-dubbed version. Brandon was dubbed in English throughout by another actor, except for the scenes in prison, where he talks to the gwailo bullies. There Brandon spoke in his own voice, saying short statements like "How do you wanna play?" and "No more." I believe those scenes were recorded in sync-sound; at least, they sounded like they were. On the HK dvd Cantonese dub, Brandon's voice is dubbed the whole time, even when he speaks English; the actor doing his voice for the English lines can barely speak the language. I wonder why they didn't use Brandon's voice. It isn't a big deal, though, as the HK dvd's picture blows away the quality of my old, English dubbed video, which was fullscreen and had Dutch subtitles. Those damn Dutch.

JOE909'S RATING: 4/10

AMERICAN NINJA'S REVIEW: Brandon Lee's short lived career reminds me of two hills. "Legacy of Rage"is the peak of the first hill and "The Crow" is the peak of the second hill. Meanwhile, "Laser Mission" and "Rapid Fire" are between and "Showdown In Little Tokyo" is the rock bottom between the two hills. Legacy of Rage is about a waiter who takes the wrap for a murder he did not commit and he spends 8 years in jail. After he gets out he's out for vengeance against his best friend who set him up (played by Wong). It succeeds in providing entertaining moments and some excellent action scenes and some true emotion. All of this make Legacy of Rage a worth while affair.

AMERICAN NINJA'S RATING: 7.5/10

YATE'S REVIEW: This film kicks ass! Im surprised Brandon Lee didnt make any HK films after this. Brandon Lee's performance is way better than any of his other films and Michael Wong gives what has to be his best performance as the villain. While there is a noticable lack of martial arts, it is more than made up for with a great heroic bloodshed ending and some insane car stunts. Ronny Yu's direction is great and the script is not bad. I'd watch this over The Crow any day.

YATE'S RATING: 7.5/10

MIGHTY PEKING MAN'S REVIEW: Screw all that white make-up and gothic shit. THIS is Brandon's cinematic legacy. Unlike "The Crow" and "Rapid Fire", "Legacy of Rage" gives us every angle of Brandon's acting abilities. Ronny Yu (Bride with White Hair) was human enough to give Brandon more of a dramatic role than an action role - Let's face it, any other Hong Kong director would get him to make a straight kung-fu flick like his pops. The entire cast of "Legacy" is great, especially that Michael Wong who gives a damn-good performance as the villain.

If you're expecting to see Brandon kick some kung-fu ass, you'll be disappointed. There are a few brawls here and there but don't blink, they go by fast. Most of violence, which is very little, consists of gunfire - especially at the end where Brandon and Mang Hoi give Chow Yun-Fat and Danny Lee a run for their money. Very John Woo-ish to say the least. Wait a minute...I think this movie was made before "A Better Tomorrow"?? Hmmm...

MIGHTY PEKING MAN'S RATING: 9/10

NUMSKULL'S REVIEW: After seeing brandon Lee's action sequences in Rapid Fire, my expectations for this were a little high. If you watch this at some later date, don't make the same mistake. It feels like nothing so much as a short, low-budget John Woo movie, although, to be fair, this came out before most of Woo's gun-fu stuff. Brandon Lee, does practically nothing except get framed and go to prison until the last 20 minutes when all the violence breaks out.

"The prison is filled with hardcore criminals, but our friend becomes allied with a bespectacled inmate who helps him with his mission."

(Note: the previous sentence came from every other review ever written for any action movie where the good guy goes to prison.)

There's not much to hold your interest here, unless you need to see for yourslf that John Woo isn't the only one who can direct a good shootout. Brandon Lee was perfectly capable of kicking people's asses on screen, so it would have been nice to see more of that and less cheap melodrama (the good type of drama never comes cheap).

NUMSKULL'S RATING: 5/10