Legacy of RageLegacy of Rage is an early effort by Brandon Lee in Hong Kong to make his way into the movie industry.

To sum things up, Brandon Lee plays Brandon Ma who is a young morally upright man with a girlfriend and a pretty decent life.  He has a good friend named Wong who’s father is a crime boss. Wong offers Brandon a job which will pay him his current annual wage in one month – being the upright guy Brandon is, he says no.

Brandon’s girlfriend May has caught the eye of Wong, and he is often trying to chat her up behind Brandon’s back.  After the three of them are beaten up by a gang of men, Wong organizes to take revenge, and his father points out that Brandon should be the scapegoat.

So the plan is played out, Brandon meets Wong out for dinner, and sets him up to shoot the gang boss while Wong pretends to be in danger.  So Brandon feels he is forced to shoot to protect his friend, meanwhile another man, hidden away delivers the killing shot to the man’s heart.

Straight away Brandon is arrested and locked up for the killing, and thrown in jail for 8 years.  When he steps out his girlfriend May returns to Hong Kong (after being almost raped by Wong) with Brandon’s son – a son he didn’t even know he had.

Wong kidnaps both May and Brandon’s son so now Brandon must team up with a friend of his from prison named 4 eyes, and rescue them both.

Brandon Lee

Not bad, not great…

This movie showcases Brandon Lee’s onscreen presence reasonably well, but other than that it’s really not that great.

His character is perfect for Brandon to play, but the story is very straight and doesn’t offer anything unique really.  Bad guys set up good guy, good guy gets out and the bad guys attack his family and then the good guy goes after the bad guys – that’s about it.

I think the only reason this movie had any real success is the presence of Brandon Lee.  Being Bruce Lee’s son you can tell they’ve thrown in some fight scenes for almost no goo reason other than to show off his skills.  Too bad the character’s skills are never explained, hes just a kid who has incredible and almost unbeatable fighting skills!

Bolo Yeung

The Martial Arts and Action

Most of this movie revolves around chases and gunfights, with the occasional fisty cuffs here and there.  Brandon Lee’s movements are nice and authentic, but I feel like he was held back a bit in this movie.

I thought it was cool that Bolo Yeung (Enter the Dragon) made a cameo in the first fight of the film!

Aside from the few fights, the gun fights, despite being a Honk Kong film, a really 80’s America in style.  With the good guys getting hit very rarely whilst mowing guys down effortlessly.

The Verdict?

Barely a martial arts film – the presence of Brandon and a couple of fights just push it over the line.  As a generalised action movie it’s not bad.  Overall nothing exciting, but I always like Brandon on screen – check it out if your a fan of his work.

On DVD –

Region 1 (US & Canada)
Legacy of Rage

Region 2 (UK, Europe, etc)
Legacy of Rage [DVD]

More info on Movie Regions here.

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