Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		2.0
Audio		3.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		2.0

Bruce and the Iron Finger Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman June 23, 2024

Note: This film is available on Blu-ray as part of Severin's The Game of Clones: Bruceploitation Collection Vol. 1.

When Severin Films released Kung Fu Trailers of Fury and Return of Kung Fu Trailers of Fury several years ago, I'm sure I wasn't the only one initially thinking, "Well, that's a stupid idea for a release", only to have the sheer lunacy of the trailers assembled in both collections "fight back" against that assessment, as if to say in response, "Yeah, well who's stupid now?" In fact, both Kung Fu Trailers of Fury and Return of Kung Fu Trailers of Fury were kind of deliriously enjoyable in their own slapdash way, and those releases evidently were one of the inspirations for a full on collection of so-called "Brucesploitation" films, this time offering the actual films in addition to their trailers. The goofily affable Michael Worth, who has contributed so many fun commentaries through the years to various kung fu films on Blu-ray, is your "host" of sorts here, offering introductions to all the films and commentaries for many of them. If none of these films is ever going to be acclaimed as an unappreciated masterpiece, and if both video and audio on many of the films in this set might be charitably termed problematic, merely having these films in high definition will be alluring, and an absolute glut of other supplemental material is included as well, making this a probable "must have" for a certain demographic.

Bruce and the Iron Finger is in some ways kind of a sidebar to Brucesploitation, since it really doesn't make any overt references to Bruce Lee, and instead offers Bruce Li as a vacationing policeman who slowly becomes embroiled in an investigation about a series of murders committed by a guy with, well, iron fingers. The "mystery" here is kind of lame, and probably takes too long to be solved when it's kind of obvious where things are heading, but this is an interesting attempt by Bruce Li to extract himself from the immense shadow of Bruce Lee, a shadow Li may have been comfortable to reside in for a while but according to Michael Worth's introduction ultimately wanted to escape.

Bruce and the Iron Finger Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Bruce and the Iron Finger is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Severin Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.35:1. Michael Worth's introduction states this transfer was scanned from a 35mm print held by a private collector. The actual presentation begins with this prefatory text card:

The film element used to scan Iron Finger, while the best we were able to locate worldwide, nevertheless had three moments of severe damage that could not be restored.

As completionists, we are including those scenes from a previous release.

If you're watching the films in the order presented by Severin in this set, Bruce and the Iron Finger will probably come off as one of the more relatively "intact" viewing experiences, which is not to suggest it's stellar in any major way. While color can be wan at times, it's decently suffused, especially in terms of primaries, and detail levels can be a tick or two better than is seen in some of the other transfers. There's still quite a bit of damage throughout the presentation, with lots of flecks, speckling and some intermittently severe scratches, some of which can be seen in some of the screenshots I've uploaded to accompany this review. The same sorts of anamorphic oddness that I've mentioned in several other reviews also shows up here, albeit perhaps not to the levels seen in some of the other transfers.

Bruce and the Iron Finger Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Bruce and the Iron Finger features a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono track that suffers from some extreme sibilance at times that can afflict not just dialogue but perhaps unexpected items on the soundtrack like high hats closing and sound effects. This is just one of several films in this set that unabashedly co-opts music from other films (I'll let enterprising detectives on or off vacation do their own sleuthing in that regard). There's also some pervasive background hiss and/or noise, though the film is so relentlessly active soundtrack wise that particular situation can be in the background. As with a lot of the other soundtracks in this set, the entire track has a somewhat hollow, boxy sound that can be evident in action sound effects in particular. Dialogue is rendered well enough, though the dubbing is once again hilariously inept in terms of matching lip movements to sounds emanating from them. Optional English subtitles are available.

Bruce and the Iron Finger Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentary With Actor/Director/Bruceploitation Expert Michael Worth


• My First Bruceploitation – Roundtable Discussion With Martial Artists/Kung Fu Film Experts Tatevik Hunanyan, John Kreng, Ron Strong and Michael Worth (HD; 10:38) offers more reminiscences.


• Severin's Kung Fu Theater With Actor/Director/Bruceploitation Expert Michael Worth (HD; 1:39) offers a brief introduction. This is accessible as either a standalone supplement or under the Play Menu, where it's authored to lead directly to the feature.


• U.S. Trailer (HD; 1:40)


• Hong Kong Trailer (HD; 4:05)

Bruce and the Iron Finger Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

As a mystery, Bruce and the Iron Finger is frankly kind of middling, but this is still a kind of interesting exercise in terms of Bruce Li's fledgling attempts to establish himself as his own action star. Once again technical merits can be variable, this time at least as much with audio as with video, but the supplements are very appealing.