Enter the Clones of Bruce

So you think you’ve seen it all as far as Bruce Lee is concerned? Well, you’re in for a big surprise with this utterly fascinating documentary about ‘Bruceploitation’! Following the untimely death of the martial arts superstar in 1974 at a mere 32 years of age, Hong Kong film studios began producing countless unauthorised biopics, sequels, prequels and an seemingly never-ending stream of Bruce Lee spin-offs, starring Lee lookalikes Bruce Li, Bruce Le, Dragon Lee and Bruce Liang to name but a few. Be prepared… be very prepared!

Bruce Lee died at the height of his popularity and unfortunately, at the time of his death he had only a handful of movies to show for it, including the iconic FIST OF FURY and ENTER THE DRAGON. And of course, his role as Kato, sidekick of THE GREEN HORNET in the 1960’s TV-series. Who knows which heights Lee’s career would have taken had he not died so young? And that’s precisely what this documentary is all about, namely that the world somehow couldn’t accept his death and demand for his undisputable talents remained as strong as ever.

Fear not, because some clever (or corrupt, depending on your outlook) studio buffs came up with the perfect solution: how about Bruce Lee clones who would continue the legend of the master with their own alter egos and their own spin on Lee – thus creating not only a subgenre but an illusion for eager fans, to be more precise, specially hired actors who would take on names such as Bruce Li, Bruce Le, Dragon Lee and Bruce Liang suddenly found themselves in a position to pay homage (or to exploit) the legacy of the real Bruce Lee, with wildly varying results. While some movies were masked as biopics, others claimed that that some of the Lee clones were students of the real Bruce Lee, despite the men never having met. Other movies were outright lies, such as BRUCE LEE AND I which was promoted as the most exciting martial arts flick ever directed by the great man himself… of course, it was not directed by Lee.

Interspersed with interviews of the Lee clones, industry bigwigs and archive footage from Bruce Lee’s early career and even his funeral, an entire array of clips from the weird and wonderful world of Bruce Lee inspired movies will see your jaw dropping, especially films which branched out into other categories such as horror (Lee meets Dracula), Adventure (Lee in the jungle of Borneo), Man versus beast (Lee against a gorilla), Blaxploitation and what have you – the mind boggles and Lee would no doubt have been spinning in his grave!

There are also archive clips starring the great Sammo Hung in a movie called ENTER THE FAT DRAGON (1978), in which Sammo plays Ah Lung, a Bruce Lee obsessed yokel and pig farmer from the countryside who travels to the big city to start work in his uncle’s restaurant though no prizes for guessing that it all descends into chaos… courtesy of a gang of thugs out to make his life a misery. And of course, Jackie Chan worked as a stuntman on Bruce Lee’s FIST OF FURY and ENTER THE DRAGON and has a few anecdotes to tell, as indeed does David Chiang (LEGEND OF THE SEVEN GOLDEN VAMPIRES).

For those interested in the genre and of course for all Bruce Lee fans, ENTER THE CLONES OF BRUCE is hugely entertaining and this Blu-ray release comes with generous Bonus Material including audio commentary with producer/director David Gregory, Outtakes, Bruces’s Hong Kong (Locations Tour with Frank Djeng), Severin’s Kung Fu Theatre with Bruceploitation expert Michael Worth, plus Trailers.