Films That Time Forgot

Golden Sun (1984)

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Reviewed by Keith Phipps
May 16th, 2001

Bruce Lee's 1973 death created a cottage industry of imitators and profiteers: Unauthorized biopics abounded, and actors adopted names (Bruce Li, Bruce Le) that paid "tribute" to the star. Lee was such a force in the martial-arts world that his death could be said to haunt the industry, but few films took that notion as literally as Golden Sun. Lei Hsiao Lung (better known as Bruce Li) stars as a martial-arts enthusiast whose expertise prompts his brother to compare him to Lee. "I do admire him," Lei replies, deflecting the compliment, but his admiration soon turns to horror as the local newspaper breaks the news of Lee's demise. After marking the occasion by getting dead drunk, Lei is visited by Lee's ghost (later to make an appearance in another Film That Time Forgot, No Retreat, No Surrender). Convinced he should investigate Lee's death, Lei consults a bushy-browed Buddhist monk, who insists his students fight Lei first. Impressed with Lei's fighting prowess, the monk offers his blessing and sends him into a shadowy underworld of poorly lit nightclubs and badly dressed gangsters. Much fighting follows, some of it on the back of buses and accompanied by Mussorgsky's "Night On Bald Mountain." Learning of his investigation, one local ganglord attempts to reason with Lei, but when negotiations break down, more fighting breaks out. Finally, Lei receives an account of Lee's agonizing death, which forced him to writhe painfully and shirtlessly in slow motion while apparently preventing him from removing his sunglasses. Eventually, Lei's enemies become convinced that Lei is in fact Lee, still alive despite the widely reported success of their assassination. To correct them, Lei administers a fast and furious beating as only an uncharismatic Bruce Lee lookalike can.

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