No Retreat No Surrender (1985) was at the time a rare hybrid of Hong Kong and U.S.A.– an attempt to bring Asian Martial Arts movies to American audiences. It was written by Keith Strandberg and directed by Corey Yuen (Dragons Forever, Yes, Madam) in his English language debut. (Yuen would go on to have a successful career in the west from No Retreat 2 to working on Jet Li‘s American movies like Lethal Weapon 4, Romeo Must Die & The Expendables as well as effectively launching Jason Statham as an action star with TheTransporter.) It also notably had remaining vestiges of 70s Bruceploitation genre by inexplicably having a main character being trained by a ghost of Bruce Lee (Kim Tai-Chung aka Tong Lung.)
Directed by Oliver Harper (In Search of the Last Action Heroes) documentary features interviews not only with the likes of No Retreat producer Ng See-yuen, original cast members such as Kurt McKinney, J.W. Fails, Peter “Sugarfoot” Cunningham as well as sequel’s Cynthia Rothrock and Matthias Hues but also with famous fans such as Scott Adkins(Undisputed, Ninja). The only one missing is The Muscles from Brussels himself, Mr. VanDamme.
As of now movie is over 40% financed on Kickstarter and if you want you can pre- order it right here. I have no doubt this will get to 100% in no time.
It’s been a long time coming (5 years!) but it seems that the fabled Bolo Yeung documentary is finallyready to go. And I must say I’m duly impressed.Filmmakers managed to interview practically every relevant co- star Bolo had through his 100+ movie career, from his Enter The Dragon (1973) co- star Bob Wall (R.I.P) to his Bloodsport (1988) and Double Impact (1991) nemesis Jean Claude Van Damme, Cynthia Rothrock (Tiger Claws 1, Tiger Claws 2 ), Matthias Hues (TC2000) and even Richard Norton(Ironheart). And that’s not even a half of it.
Weightlifter, Bodybuilder, Martial Artist and Actor
We also get a candid look at the man behind the on- screen villain persona with the mix of rare interviews, old photos and recording spanning all the way to his earliest days in the post- WWII China. Man’s got quite a story to tell and his journey takes him from China to Hong Kong to Hollywood, California and everywhere in between- I for one, can’t wait to follow along.
From the gritty streets of post-war China to the dazzling lights of Hollywood, Bolo Yeung’s story is one of resilience, transformation, and unrelenting determination. Known to millions as the iconic villain of Enter the Dragon and Bloodsport, his journey is far more profound than the characters he played.
Produced by Hussar Entertainment,Chinese Hercules: The Bolo Yeung Story is directed by Pavel Nyziak and is expected to debut in 2025.
Fresh off his Enter the Clones of Bruce documentary, actor and filmmaker Michael Worth (Acapulco H.E.A.T. , Fists of Iron) with producer Frank Djeng & Severin Films– are prepping their next project, continuing their homage to the awesome 70s Hong Kong cinema.
–“Dragon Gate Inn meets John Wick” as a group of American assassins hiding out in a rural Chinese restaurant discover the owners of the establishment serve up much more than just good food!–
An all- star cast includes such Kung Fu movie luminaries such as Angela Mao (Lady Whirlwind, Enter The Dragon)- in her first role since ’92(!), Dragon Lee (Clones of Bruce Lee), Bruce Leung (Kung Fu Hustle), Bruce Li (Return of the Tiger), Bruce Le (Exit the Dragon, Enter the Tiger) and also the “newcomer” Don Wang(Slaughter in San Francisco).
Action choreography will be handled by the renowned Jackie Chan Stunt Team member Andy Cheng (Shang-Chi and the Ten Rings, Into The Badlands, The Scorpion King).
As always you can support the movie on their Indiegogo page right here.
Now playing at Tribeca Festivalto rave reviews, long gestating documentary on the Bruceploitationphenomena- Enter the Clones of Bruce finally has it’s first trailer too!
So, for us not lucky enough to see it on the big screen here’s a little taste:
The gang is all there, from Bruce Le to Dragon Lee to Bruce Liang (hell, even to Bronson Lee) and I’m also overjoyed to see the late, great Roy Horan(Tower of Death, Snake in the Eagle’s Shadow, No Retreat, No Surrender 2) interviewed. Documentary also gets bonus points from me for the inclusion of the Ninja B-movie maestro Godfrey Ho. If someone knows exploitation cinema that’s Mr. Ho.
So, it was a long time coming but as far as I can see, Clones more than delivers. Hopefully we get a release date from Severin Films before long and we can all enjoy it.
If you’ve been following our blog for some time you may remember us doing a short analysis of a Bruceploitation phenomena, explosion of Bruce Leelookalikes trying to fill the void left by the death of a real thing, trend that kept rolling and mutating into weird and unexpected direction. But now we finally have some updates on perhaps the biggest research that has been done on the subject.
Michael Worth (Acapulco Heat) beside being an actor and a director is also an author of Brucesploitation Bible and co-host of the Clone Cast– (so he must be recognized as one of the foremost experts on the subject ) has been promising us a documentary feature on the phenomena for at least 6 years and it seems the time is finallynow.
Long- gestating Enter The Clones of Bruce Lee will have it’s premiere at 2023 edition of the Tribeca Filmn Festiva (on June 10th with follow up screenings on the 11th and 17th) as a part of their “Escape from Tribeca” section promoting genre movies. And I must say I’m impressed.
“Get ready to play a game of death … and another … and another. The wild documentary Enter the Clones of Bruce dives into the Bruce Lee exploitation craze.”
So be prepared for some Bruce Le, Bruce Li, Bruce Liang and even some Dragon Lee action too!
“Enter the Clones of Bruce is a feature length documentary that explores the Bruce Lee exploitation craze, otherwise known as Bruceploitation.”
Directed by David Gregory, Enter the Clones of Bruce is Produced by David Gregory, Carl Daft, Frank Djeng, Vivian Wong, Michael Worth. It’s a Severin Films release.
According to the Ultimate BOLO YEUNG page the long- awaiteddocumentaryChinese Hercules- The Bolo Yeung Story will be finished in time for the Enter The Dragon50th anniversary on July, 2023!
After a long delay caused by COVID we are overjoyed to finally get confirmation that the documentary is back on track and on it’s way. You can check the page here for more updates as they come in.
In the other Bolo related newsJean-ClaudeVan Damme is preparing for his big Martial Arts movie swan songWhat’s My Name? and if the sources are to believed he is supposed to re-enact some of the biggest fights from his career like the ones with Bolo, Qissi and Lundgren (Bloodsport, Kickboxer and Universal Soldier).
Will this be enough to entice Mr. Yeung from his retirement for one last dance? I don’t know but I sure hope so. After all they say third time is the charm, and we already had them go at it in Bloodsport and Double Impact before. That would be a really great way to cap off both of their careers.
Unfortunately the comicbook community lost one of all- time greats recently- Neal Adams, legendary artist on everything from Batman (where he co- created Ra’s al Ghul & Man-Bat) to X-Men, famous for his dynamism and photo- realism as well as his fight for artist’s rights (most notably for Superman creator’s Siegel &Shuster).
But there’s a part of his career that’s not spoken about that often and that is his prolific movie poster work in the 70s. There’s been a number of times that after finding an obscure B-movie I thought to myself- that looks like a Neal Adams cover. And sure it was just that.
Through his Continuity Studio he did some of the best poster of the Kung Fu craze era (and also great cover for the Deadly Hands of Kung Fu magazine) and honestly- sometimes those posters were more impressive than the movies themselves! That’s definitely true for the Bruceploitation one. Beside Martial Arts movies he also did a number of Horror and SF posters that are almost as good.
So here’s our little list of best Neal Adams movie posters with a little bit of trivia thrown in:
05: BLACK DRAGON’S REVENGE (1975)
Released right at the beginning of a Bruceploitation craze Black Dragon’s Revenge aka Death of Bruce Lee(1975) features three rivals factions fighting for a secret manual left over by Bruce Lee ( secret manuals were all the rage back in those days).
Movie features the legendary American Martial Artist “Black Dragon” himself- Ron Van Clief as a detective trying to solve Lee’s murder, Philip Ko (The Boxer’s Omen, The Invincible Armour) and another name we’ll talk about very shortly “La Pantera” Charles Bonet. Hell, it even has a young Yuen Qiu (landlady from Kung Fu Hustle)!
Poster nicely captures both the explosive action and the exotic Hong Kong setting.
04: ENTER THREE DRAGONS (1978)
Enter Three Dragons aka The Dragon on Fire(1978) is a Bruceploitation as it gets. It has not only Godfrey Ho staple Bruce Lai in it- but it has a distinction of being a debut of our favorite Bruce Lee- clone– Dragon Lee who plays his brother. Confusingly Lai is called Dragon Hong in this and Dragon Lee is called Bruce Hong so try to keep that straight.
Even thou the poster is monochromatic it still has a powerful triangular composition that works like a charm!
03:DEATH PROMISE (1977)
Death Promise (1977) was an American response to Hong Kong Martial Art flicks of the day with an interesting “evil landlords” gentrification theme. Despite a lot of silly story beats and the obvious low budget– it’s lead, Charles Bonet is great and charismatic action hero and he definitely should have done more!
Adams captures all the crazy energy and I especially like the combination of blood splattered lettering and a rat wandering in front of it. Great detail!
02: PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE
Phantom Of The Paradise (1974) is one of the more eclectic movies Adams illustrated. Combination of horror, comedy and rock music written and directed by young De Palma and scored by Paul Williams.
Poster also has a distinction of being a collaboration of two comicbook legends being drawn by Adams and painted by underground comic legend Richard Corben (DEN,Mutant World)!
01: WESTWORLD
Without a doubt the most legendary movie Adams worked on (althoughGrizzly has it’s fans too) is Yul Brynner’s Westworld (1973). There’s actually two different versions of this poster but this is my favorite- it shows you all you need to know about the movie.
Bonafide SF classic about amusement park full of cowboy robots (what could go wrong with that) was written/ directed by writer Michael Crichton (Jurassic Park, Twister). It spawned the sequel movie Futureworld (1976) , sequel series Beyond Westworld(1980) and even contemporary HBOreboot series (2016) that’s still ongoing.
We at WM have spoken about the fascinating phenomena of Bruceploitation (李小龙开采)cinema before but it seems that after almost 50years of Bruce Lee ripoffs (and tributes) the trend still have some steam left in it.
Writer/ Director Romeo Candido (Second Jen, Another Life) has a new project called The Dragon Returns.
And as you might presume the plot of the movie involves Bruce Lee who after staging his own death (for some reason) has to save his friend and fellow Martial Artist Chuck Norris from imprisonment. With a plot like that I can’t wait to see what The Dragon Returns looks like! Also, I wonder what Chuck thinks about all of this.
I hope the movie poster looks exactly like this one!
The film will even be one of the 14 project in competition for financial rewards during the 5th International Film Festival in Macao (IFFAM) this December. I know we’ll be rooting for The Dragon Returns for sure.
We’ll update you about this project as more information comes out and if you want to learn more about Bruceploitation you can get a quick history lesson right here.
Ring of Fury, Singapore’s answer to Bruce Lee’s Fist of Fury (and Big Boss) originally filmed in 1973 is finally available and can be viewed in full on Youtube!
Movie had a tumultuous release history. It was supposed to be a first real Singapore Martial Art flick but it wasn’t meant to be. It all started when the first time directors Tony Yeow and James Sebastian hired a local Kyokushin Karate trainer Peter Chung who repeatedly refused their offers citing that he doesn’t know anything about acting.
Still they persevered and in the end Chung relented. Armed with a shoestring budget and cast of unknowns they crafted a story of noodle-seller,Fei Pao, who seeks revenge on a group of thugs who murdered his mother (over unpaid protection money).
“We had a fight at the granite quarry in Bukit Timah and there wasn’t even a mattress on the ground. They said, ‘If you fall, you fall.’ And sometimes you might fall on small stones and it was painful.” said the star of the movie Peter Chung .
After things imploded, the unpaid star of the movie Peter Chong kept the only known copy of the film, 35mm print in his fridge wrapped in newspapers for decades hoping for it to be eventually released into the public! Ban was eventually lifted in 1994 (after losing some scenes of sex and violence) but movie would wait another 20+ years to be restored and released but it was finally screened at the Asian Restored Classics of 2017.
And now, even better- it’s finally available worldwide in full on the Asian Film Archive official Youtube channel (updated w/Archive.org). As a giant fan of the genre and especially the early 70s Martial Arts boom I know I will enjoy it, so let’s all give a watch to the Singapour’s fists Kung Fumovie: https://archive.org/details/ring_of_fury
Probably the most imposing bad guy in the history of Martial Arts cinema Yang Sze aka Bolo Yeung is finally getting his own documentary and we must say- it’s long overdue. From learning Kung Fu with different masters as a child to his competitive Bodybuilding years (he would go on hold a Mr. Hong Kong title for a whole decade) his story fits the “stranger than fiction” category easily. Not to mention the fact that he freakin’ swam from China to Hong Kong to escape Communism!!! Or the fact that he met Bruce Lee while filming WinstonCigarettescommercial (you just got to love the ’70s).
He stared (mostly as a villain) in over 100 movies raging from Shaw Brothers (The Heroic Ones, The Deadly Duo) to Golden Harvest (Enter The Dragon) to Bruceploitation (Clones of Bruce Lee, Dragon Lee Fights Again) to Van Damme films (Bloodsport, Double Impact) and even Jalal Merhi films (Tiger Claws 1 and 2, TC 2000). He even showed that he could be an awesome good guy/ wise mentor character in films such as Shootfighter1 and 2 (featuring Karate Kid/ Cobra Kai’s Billy Zabka).
Movie is being directed by Aziz Cem and Pavel Nyziak (who Bolo actually collaborated with on his final movie, the Kazakhstani produced The Whole World at Our Feet aka Diamond Cartel) and features exclusive interviews with the likes of Bob Wall, Richard Norton, Cynthia Rothrock, Matthias Hues, Coreena Everson, Cung Le and many, many others.
Worsemovies 