Long zai jiang hu

Heroic bloodshed is not only a subgenre of action movies, but also of melodrama, a fact for which Legacy of Rage provides ample confirmation. Brandon Lee’s first starring role does not attempt to merely present the son of action icon Bruce Lee as the successor to his father, but instead tries to also make use of his dramatic acting potential, at least to the extent that this is even possible in the context of emotionally affected Hong Kong melodrama. Most of the film’s runtime is filled not with action sequences, but with sequences of tragic injustices exaggerated in the spirit of romance novels. Fate presents the good-hearted young man played by Brandon with one obstacle after another, which he, with the help of the supporting characters, tentatively resists in order to preserve his role as a respectable citizen. It’s only at the end, when the injustice passes from him to the love of his life, that the situation suddenly explodes and he and his friend (played by action choreographer and stuntman Mang Hoi) shoot up a house full of bad guys in the exceedingly bombastic climax. (2021.10.28)