I was nearly beat by a transvestite!

I didn't think they'd be another Bruceploitation Corner until Christmas/New Year time because I didn't expect I'd be getting a new Bruceploitation film before then. Last week, I listed all the different types of Bruceploitation films there could be out there, today's title falls firmly into the starring a Bruceploitation actor. Now the last two weeks have both been Bruce Li films, this week somebody else gets the chance...Dragon Lee and the movie in question is Secret Ninja, Roaring Tiger from 1982 (the film as also apparently gone under the names Secret Ninja and also Justice of the Ninja)

Forgetting it's Bruceploitation ties for a minute: Secret Ninja, Roaring Tiger is actually a fairly decent kung fu movie. Dragon Lee plays the imagitavely named Dragon who wins a martial arts contest and the hand of Susan (prounced Susan most of the movie but Suzanne once for some reason), Tiger So (Hwang Jang Lee) and his ninja crew kidnap Susan soon after in order to get the fortune from her adpoted father (because he's the king of something I guess, I'm not it's explained why he's rich and offering his daughter in marriage). Dragon teams up with two other fights and they travel to the Ninja's castle

Dragon Lee is pretty charismatic in this movie and possibly a little bi-curious, in one scene he's tries to grope the breasts of a man in who is clearly in drag (and he even feels his hairy legs) and checks out the backside of somebody believing to be a man and that's when he discovers she's really a woman, that bit confused me because I didn't know up until that point that they where supposed to think she was a man but I guess she was. The fight scenes are pretty good and they are frequent- they basically stop for a little bit of "story", nudity (female breasts and Dragon Lee's arse!) and a bit of comedy. The budget was clearly limited one scene (pictured above) as one of the Ninja's coming out of the ground (to show that they can use the element of surprise from anywhere). Would have been cool if cardboard didn't fly everywhere though. ***SPOILER ALERT*** The ending is a bit weird too. Tiger So hands their arses to them, but they finally get the upper hand when the "lovely" Susan flashes her breasts at him disorentining him in the process, forgotten they already had a awkward love scene and seeing her naked when she whipped. I can't argue though, it would probably be the quickest way to beat me in a fight.

Like I said, a fairly entertaining kung fu movie and a Bruceploitation by the loosest sense, with decent fighting scenes and other good moments including the awesome line "I was nearly beat by a transvestite!" (which doesn't appear in every kung fu movie). I'm going to have to say I recommend this movie.