A Japanese American living in Ohio with his grandmother heads to Japan to enter Master Suzuki’s international karate tournament with the hope of winning the $50,000 prize in order to save the farm. 

Trashmen Rubbish Roundtable

Jimbo

Bronson Lee, Champion just takes off from the beginning.

Travis

I went into this knowing nothing at all about it. I kind of expected a Streetfighter like martial arts movie, still living on Bruce Lee mania.

Jimbo

The filmmakers invent excuses to have action set piece, one after another. Instead of action serving the plot, it seems to be the other way around. Plot serves the action so things don’t always make logical sense. In one instance there’s a great fight between Bronson Lee and the tournament goons in a park. Why are they fighting in a park? How did Bronson get there? Logically the goons would probably go to the noodle shop where Bronson works because they know he’s there. But the film already showcased a fight in the noodle shop. So I’m sure the director was looking for an alternative setting. But how do you get Bronson out of the restaurant? Of course! He runs noodle deliveries on a scooter (or was it a bicycle? I can’t remember). And, naturally, the goons know exactly where to find Bronson on his route. Right? Like I said, not necessarily logical, but a lot of fun!

Travis

The next time I order Chinese food I’m beating the shit out of the delivery man.

Craig

In regards to the noodle deliveries, it’s traditional for noodle delivery drivers to ride bikes or scooters and carry ridiculous amounts of noodles in Japan I believe and it would be easy enough to, as a nefarious yakuza type, call the shop and have a bunch of orders delivered knowing that Lee was going to show up.  Also, it just doesn’t matter. You could always go to the opposite end of the spectrum (Lovers Beyond Time style) and see the bad guys pick up the phone and make the call (making sure to look at the receiver before they hang up) and then we see the noodles being prepared and Bronson Lee packaging everything up and then driving the few blocks to the address. I’d rather they just get to the good stuff.

Travis

Bronson Lee (which you get if you combine the look of Charles Bronson with the Asian-ness of Bruce Lee) is living in the US with his odd looking grandmother.  She needs money to save the farm, so is willing to “bet the farm” on Bronson entering and winning an international martial arts contest.  So obviously some shades of Enter the Dragon there.  What follows is a fast paced action movie that has Bronson facing people in out of the tournament.  You really have no chance to breath before someone is trying to jump him or there is some Yakuza shenanigans.

Jamie

I wished I watched it with you guys – this was a fun, funny (intentional or not…I am not sure myself) chop socky / martial arts film.

Travis

Yeah, I think we all would have benefited if all four of us watched this together.  We were already laughing and enjoying it, but I’m sure having you watching, dying at some of it, would have kicked it up a notch.  Which I think makes this a movie that while good on its own merits, gains something by watching with an audience of friends.

Craig

Yeah, Bronson Lee is a lot of fun.  I love a colorful tournament action film and this certainly fits the bill.  Each of the fighters has a distinct style and weapon (maybe instead of a character in the case of the minor players) and I love seeing people punch through walls and slicing watermelons apart with swords.

Travis

The movie flies by, which I liked, but I had to admit it took me a few minutes to adjust to the tone.  This seemed really goofy and lacked the visceral nastiness of the Streetfighter series, but that’s my fault of skewed expectations.  Once I accepted the tone, I completely enjoyed it.

Jamie

The comedy at times was jarring and annoying but didn’t piss me off as much as 1990’s comic relief characters.

Travis

I can’t say that all of it blended in well.  I’m looking in the direction of his annoying sidekick.  If you groaned at people like Rob Schneider adding alleged laughs to action movies throughout the 90s, be prepared for this guy.  His mugging is so over the top you can’t but wonder if there is something missing in the translation, or if he was some well known comedic actor in Japan at the time.  He makes Jerry Lewis look subtle.

Craig

The comic relief didn’t bother me that much.  That act isn’t that much different than a comic relief character in a Chinese film of the era I think.  I’m sure it plays better in the original Japanese though for sure.  I love an awful comedian though… Like I said while we were watching it, he reminds me of a Japanese Buddy Hackett.

Travis

This dub has some really ridiculous voice work, including characters speaking in “Engrish” or straight up sound retarded.  It’s hard to know if that is what the original creators meant or was this just the spin of the American distributors.

Jimbo

One turn-off for American’s is surely the bad English dubbing, but I like it because it lends to the general nuttiness of the movie. Speaking of the bad English dub, some of the voice actors slip a little too easily into (as Travis called it) “Engrish”. And Black Tiger’s voice actor portrays him as a retarded mongoloid with super human strength. I’m tempted to buy a copy of the original language version (with subtitles) to see how much different it plays. Would it feel as comical, or would it feel strangely more grounded?

Craig

Dubbing doesn’t really bother me usually.  Obviously I will try to see something in it’s original language if possible but I will admit to having nostalgia for the TV versions of Godzilla films.  I waffle between the two.

Jamie

Bronson Lee had this country twang dub and then as the film went on, it was just a cheap American voice dub – I rather liked his country / southern accent.

Travis

Typically, I’m completely against watching dubbed versions of films if subtitles are available.  I do make an exception for Italian dubs though, since I enjoy the voice actors that seem to be on every single giallo, cannibal, or zombie film that was brought to US theaters. Craig had made a good point that Italian films are shot without sound for the most part, so they are actually meant to be dubbed.  That’s about the only leeway I’ll give though, and I especially hate the cliché jokes when it comes to Asian films.  “HAHA, the lips don’t match!  This movie sucks!!”  is about a refreshing take as a pile of steaming San Francisco street shit.

Jamie

I’d be curious to know if Bronson Lee, Champion (and other Asian films with poor dubbing) were the results of the distributors thinking it would be funny to change the voice completely and just fuck around.

Craig

Some of the dubbing here is instantly quotable though so I don’t mind.

Travis

“That’s stupid.  Don’t waste time on an idiot”!

Craig

“You got a real bad case of sour grapes Gonzales”

Jamie

Oh my favorite line may have been Black Tiger (who sounded like Homer Simpson after a lobotomy) saying he could have been someone, a contender. Why did they feel the need to recite a line from On the Waterfront?

Craig

I’m not positive on this but I think that the fight scenes for the most part are not dubbed. So any yelling or whatever would be the original actors. That’s how it usually seems to work with a lot of Japanese/Chinese dubbed films.

Travis

I agree on the fight dubbing.  While over the top, that’s what Bruce Lee imitation created so probably the original soundtrack.  The louder and more nonsensical, the better, eventually devolving into self parody.

A good way to rate this film is that it seems this is part of a trilogy, and once it was over I was actively searching them out to watch.  So obviously recommended.

Jimbo

Out of this group I would consider myself the least experienced with this genre. I’ve seen movies like The Karate Kid, Enter the Dragon, and No Retreat, No Surrender. But my exposure to kung fu and especially Japanese martial arts films is seriously lacking. So I can only react on a very visceral level to Bronson Lee, Champion. And to sum it up: Fun, bat-shit, and a little racist.