Bruce Lee’s Enter the Dragon seems very much to have been the inspiration behind ‘The Art of Invincibility‘, the latest martial arts project from ‘Dr. Z’…
Bruce Lee’s Enter the Dragon seems very much to have been the inspiration behind The Art of Invincibility, the latest martial arts project from Dr. Z, the man behind all manner of indie martial arts mayhem including Combat Mortal, Gung Fu KKD & MMA, Fire Monkey King and The Stop Hit.
Born and raised in Hong Kong, ‘Z’ was introduced to the martial arts by his grandfather and studied Tai Chi and several other Chinese martial arts styles before heading to America to further his education…and where he began to study Jeet Kune Do. After spending some time as a sports doctor and acupuncturist in Los Angeles, and making appearances in a few projects such as Deadly Bet (with Jeff Wincott) and Street Crimes (with Michael Worth and Dennis Farina), Z relocated to San Francisco where he began making his own movies.
His recent projects Fire Monkey King and Stop Hit, have shot at least partially in Hong Kong. Z’s films may be low budget, but there’s no pretension and he tries to deliver plenty of bang for the buck. Stop Hit which riffs on Black Rain and Rush Hour sees Z starring alongside Eric Jacobus (Contour), Carter Wong (Big Trouble in Little China) and John Cheung (Writing Kung Fu, Dragon The Bruce Lee Story). His latest martial arts adventure The Art of Invincibility, borrows very heavily from Bruce Lee’s classic Enter the Dragon. (Dr Z/Zee Lo is a lifelong admirer of Bruce Lee, and most of his movies feature homage’s to Lee’s martial arts and movie making legacy).
A series of brutal unexplained murders lead a British detective (Ines Laimins) to Hong Kong where she infiltrates a brutal martial arts tournament run by a sadistic crime lord (Leon Hill). He has assembled all manner of fighters including Craig Miller from Transformers: The Last Knight, Tony Gordon from Skiptrace, Xin Sarith from Fist of the Dragon, Sean Tierney from Shockwave, Raven Tao from See You in Malaysia, Uzair Sipra from Asylum, and Flora Cheung from Sex & Zen 3D ) a mainland Chinese Police Inspector (Shaw Brothers legend Chen Kuan-tai) and a mysterious fighter clad in a familiar yellow and black outfit (Dr. Z).
The Art of Invincibility takes the Bruce Lee homage to the next level: its not only Dr Z making his take on Enter the Dragon, clad in his own variation of the familiar Game of Death yellow and black tracksuit, but amongst the cast there’s also a character called O’Hara (Bob Wall’s scar-faced enforcer from Enter the Dragon) and much of the movie was shot on location at the Tsing Shan Monastery used for the opening of that film.
And for this one, Z did assemble a very solid team in front of and behind the camera from DOP Joe Fiorello (Love Stalk) to the fighters themselves. It’s always a treat to see the original Iron Monkey Chen Kuan-tai back in action, so here’s hoping the finished project delivers. The first trailer has been released and while it does look like a step up from Stop Hit, we do wish Z would hire someone with a better cinematic sense to cut the trailer and really showcase the potential.
