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.
Martial Arts legend Bruce Lee unfortunately didn’t live to see his ultimate triumph of Enter The Dragon (he died weeks before the premiere). After his popularity exploded all over the world (not just Hong Kong) people were hooked and were left desiring a product (cool Bruce Lee movies)- but having no one to deliver it.
Well, a great number of people saw this as an opportunity for a quick cash grab and soon Brucexploitation was born! Cheaply patch together movies full of horrible look-a-likes (not really) all sporting the names that are so close yet so far away. Names like Bruce Le, Bruce Li, Dragon Lee (who looks like Bruce on steroids), Bruce Ly, Bruce Thai, Bronson Lee (aka Tadashi Yamashita later also a staple in Ninja movies like American Ninja and Octagon).
Now enjoy our Top 5 choices!
05.Bruce Lee in New Guinea
In this mind-boggling flick Bruce Li manages to father a child to a princess of the Snake Island. Also he fights a wizard. When a Kung Fu movie steals the show with nudity and not action you know there’s something seriously wrong with it.
04.Enter The Game of Death
Like the title says Enter The Game of Death is a combination of Enter The Dragon and Game of Death– with a hint of Fist of Fury. It stars Bruce Le who’s generally one of the worst imitators and it has him fighting evil Japanese people again and again and refusing to visit the fabled pagoda for way too long. Lone bright spot is (again) Bolo Yueng as the leader of the first Japanese gang (even thou heis Chinese). It’s nice seeing him rock a cool Katana sword for a bit.
03.Bruce Lee Fights Back from the Grave aka Visitor of America
This is actually a Korean film that had nothing to do with Bruce Lee until the US Distributor decided to add this awesome intro with the imitator jumping fiercely from the grave. The rest of the movie deals with Wong Han a Korean man trying to discover the truth behind the death of his brother.
02. The Dragon Lives Again AKA Deadly Hands of Kung Fu
This movie starts with the announcement “this film is dedicated to millions who love Bruce Lee” but that doesn’t even start to describe what you’re in for. It shockingly starts after the death of Bruce Lee- who’s soul ends up in Hell. There he meets some fun people like Kwai Chang Caine (from Kung Fu series), Fang Kang (One Armed Swordsman) and also a cartoon character Popeye too? He opens a Martial Arts Dojo with Popaye but attracts a vicious mafia (consisting of Dracula, James Bond, Zatoichi and Man with No Name– not played by Clint Eastwood but rather a local Chinese actor).
Bruce Lee uncovers a conspiracy of Mafia to overthrow The King of Hell (shockingly using a soft- core porn star Emanuelle !!!) He menages to defeat the Mafia ans save the King who grants him back his life. It is definitely the most out there of all Brucexploitation and I wholeheartedly recommend it!
01.Clones of Bruce Lee aka Death Penalty on Three Robots
This is the undisputed winner considering the ridiculousness of the plot ( Profesor Lucas clones Bruce Lee into three adult clones that are then sent to battle crime including a gold smuggler and an evil scientist), presence of the actual Bruce Lee movies luminaries like Jon T. Benn- the Italian mob boss from The Way of the Dragon as crazy scientist (again seen in recent films like Fearless and also Man with the Iron Fists by RZA) and the legendary evil henchmen Bolo Yueng. It also a kind of The Expendables or The Avengers of the Brucexploitation genre because it teams ups all the prominent Bruce Lee imitators like Bruce Le, Bruce Lai, Bruce Thai and Dragon Lee in one place.
Hell, it even has the random FBI agent that looks just like Bruce Lee! If you want a Lee overdose this is the film for you.
To top it off we need to mention the excellent parody of the Brucexploitation genre “Finishing the Game”directed by Justin Lin of Fast and Furious fame. It’s a comedy but man- it’s one of those “it’s funny ’cause it’s true” type of deals.
Worsemovies 