DVD cover

Chinese Gods

AKA: Story of the Chinese Gods, Bruce Lee: Story of the Chinese Gods

1980

Director: Chang Chik Hoi

Animated

Out of all the attempts to cash in on Bruce Lee's legacy, this is certainly one of the most strange. The story here -- as you might guess -- deals with various figures of Chinese mythology as they battle over a town. Why exactly everyone is fighting over this particular town is never made very clear, but then again this is a movie where Bruce Lee transforms into a purple dinosaur. Yes, that's right. In a strange plot twist, after getting their asses kicked by the demons, the good gods decide to bring in Bruce Lee to clean house. Well, it isn't exactly Bruce, even though he uses the familiar yells and nunchakus. This particular version has a third eye in his forehead that can shoot out laser death beams, and he also has other neat tricks up his sleeve, such as the aforementioned Barney switcheroo.

If you haven't guessed by now, Chinese Gods is a goofy trainwreck of a movie. Another puzzling bit is that even though it has the look and feel of a kids' cartoon, there is an abundance of gore and a spattering of nudity -- perhaps to try and cover the fact that the animation is sub-par to say the least. It's even worse than the Hanna-Barbera junk some of us grew up on in the '70's. Still, Chinese Gods has such an over-the-top feel to it that the movie still remains entertaining despite its' technical limitations. I think if Wong Jing ever made an animated movie, the results would be pretty close to this -- take that as you will. At any rate, this is definitely one of the most unique films to come out of Hong Kong during this period and is worth checking out if you want to see something more than a little bit different.

RATING: 5

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