Ronny Yu: Legacy of rage (1986)

Cast: Brandon Lee, Michael Wong, Bolo Yeung, Kirk Wong, Michael Chan Wai-Man
Brandon plays Brandon Ma, a regular working Joe who holds down two jobs, so he can support his girlfriend May and his dream of owning a motorcycle. Brandon's best friend is Michael (played by Michael Wong), an ambitious and murderous dope peddler. How Brandon and Michael ever became friends is the biggest mystery in the film. In any case, Michael covets May and so he comes up with a plan that will win her for him, and solves a problem he's been having. It seems that an undercover cop named Sharky has been using his police connections to dominate the local cocaine trade, so Michael has him killed and uses Brandon as the fall guy. Brandon goes to jail, though he thinks that he will be released soon thanks to the efforts of his good buddy Michael. Eight years later Brandon finally gets out of jail.
The first starring vehicle of Brandon Lee is a decent actioner, though it suffers from poor plotting and an ultimate blandness. The younger Lee is betrayed by "best friend" Michael Wong, who's a nasty triad guy who has a thing for Lee's fiance (Regina Kent). Wong frames Lee for the murder of a cop, which sends Lee up the river for a good while. When he gets out, he vows revenge, but things are more complicated than you'd expect. In his absence, Wong has risen higher up the triad ladder, and has his claws deep into Lee's old girlfriend. Then Brandon gets out and it's revenge time.
The plot and melodrama are rather standard eighties action fodder, but the decently choreographed action helps carry the film. It's too bad there isn't more action, as the film possesses little in the way of character. Everybody here is a standard type, and the dialogue and acting are no great shakes. Brandon Lee shows some decent presence and intensity, and Michael Wong is dubbed, immensely helping his performance. For average HK action, Legacy of Rage isn't too bad, though it could have used a decent helping of creativity. More kung-fu and less guns would have been nice, too.




PW: malamute