The Film Detective Preps A 4K Film Restoration Of Director Matthew Malinson's First Of Fear, Touch Of Death For DVD And Blu-ray Release On Mar. 31

There was the perfect connection of events that came together in the 1970s to make for the Blaxploitation genre of films and the “chopsocky” onslaught of kung fu films … and then, there was Bruce Lee.   It was the perfect storm!!

Quentin Tarantino even took time out in his Once Upon in a Time … in Hollywood to pay homage to the future cinematic star (who was busy being Kato from the Green Hornet television series in 1967 when stuntman Cliff Booth has his flashback encounter).  

It would be in 1973 that Enter the Dragon was a smash theatrical hit … and the same year that Bruce Lee would die an untimely death.

No matter, all of his early Hong Kong chopsocky films were resurrected, and then the lookalikes and all that followed — the Bruceploitation phenomenon.

Meanwhile, the Blaxploitation genre was the center of the action in the 1970s.  And then it all ended, but not before one final salute arrived in the action houses in May of 1980, director Matthew Malinson’s Fist of Fear, Touch of Death, which was both, Blaxploitation and Bruceploitation.   A fitting close to an era!!

Word arrived this past week that The Film Detective has a new 4K restoration of Fist of Fear, Touch of Death: 40^th Anniversary Edition ready for both DVD and Blu-ray release on Mar. 31.

This end of era is chronicled in a film that has a would-be documentary filmmaker, played by Adolf Ceasar (Oscar-nominee for A Soldier’s Story), arriving at the 1979 World Karate Tournament, who then takes us down a memory lane tour of Bruce Lee’s career.   

On hand is none other than Fred “The Hammer” Williamson, who was a mainstay of Blaxploitation cinema in the 1970s (and who circled back to star in Tarantino’s 1996 film, From Dusk Till Dawn).  Also at the tournament is Ron Van Clief (Way of the Black Dragon, The Squeeze, Blazin').

Bonus goodies include newly-prepared video sessions with Fred Williamson and co-star Ron Van Clief, plus director Matthew Mallison and screenwriter Ron Harvey give their “behind-the-camera” take on the film and why an obvious exploitation flick, released by a fly-by-night distributor, has become a cult classic!