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Bruce Lee revolutionized martial arts cinema and became an international icon. His unparalleled skills, electrifying presence, and philosophy changed the way audiences saw action films forever. But after his tragic and untimely passing, the film industry scrambled to cash in on his legacy, leading to an explosion of Bruce Lee imitation films—a phenomenon now known as Bruceploitation.
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Bruce Lee has always been a marvel for kung fu movie fans and general moviegoers to see
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on the big screen. But did you know that there is another world of low-budget knockoff films out there starring
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phony Bruce Lees who would punch, kick, and even yell, just like him
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Believe it or not, there are actually several dozens of these films
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They starred Bruce Lee lookalikes after the iconic martial artist's death in 1973
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And here's the even crazier part. They were marketed as authentic Bruce Lee films
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This trend in the mid to late 1970s called Bruceploitation resulted in numerous cheap, zany movies
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and of course, a lot of questions surrounding the morality of exploiting Bruce Lee's legacy after his death
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You have offended my family, and you have offended the Shaolin Temple
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But before we get into that, we have to start at the beginning. Bruce Lee was one of the most popular action stars of the early 1970s
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Despite only having released four complete action pictures before his untimely death
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his performances in these films would cement him in the action star hall of fame forever
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The general movie going public would end up missing him as his style and ferocity was a
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lot more exciting to watch than the other kung fu movies that would be produced by Hong Kong
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Studios back in the day, which had more ordinary action stars and traditional choreography
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Some directors would take advantage of that, however, and would take matters into their own hands as to how to satiate the public's thirst for more Bruce Lee
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Thus, the Bruceploitation epidemic was born. The competition is over. Come back next to you
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The film that initiated this movement was a 1974 film called Bruce Lee, a dragon story which, of course, did not star Bruce Lee, but instead actually starred Bruce Lye
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That is Lye spelled with an I This film like a lot of other Bruceploitation movies that came out during this time would revolve itself around the event of Bruce Lee death and this movie in particular would surround itself in the speculated affair Bruce was rumored to have with Hong Kong actress
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Betty Ting Pei. A little tasteless for a dead man who left behind a wife and kids
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Exit the Dragon and Enter the Tiger was another popular Bruce-ploitation film released in 1976
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where this time Bruce Lai portrays a disciple of Bruce Lee who wants to launch an investigation
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to get to the bottom of who killed Bruce. These movies were low budget and crude
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but people still watch them. And we are not just talking about Hong Kong audiences
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Exit the Dragon, Into the Tiger was able to pull $1.4 million
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in the US and Canada box office alone. Not bad for cheap knockoffs
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Shh, I'm Bruce Lee. What? Well, you see, it's not true that I'm dead
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The whole thing was just a publicity gimmick for my next film. Bruce Lai, whose real name was actually Ho Sung Tao
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would end up being the most popular Bruce Lee impersonator, who would star in many more knockoff Bruce Lee movies
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and unofficial sequels to Bruce Lee films, like Bruce Lai in New Guinea, Fist of Fury 2, and Fist of Fury 3
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Another prominent Bruce Lee impersonator was Wong Kin Lung, whose stage name ended up being Bruce Lee, that is with one E
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He was in classic Bruceploitation films such as Bruce Strikes Back, Into the Game of Death, and Challenge of the Tiger
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where Bruce famously takes on a bull and wins. There was even a very popular South Korean Bruce Lee lookalike called Moonkyung Se-ok
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who would go by the stage name Dragon Lee. He would star in multiple Bruceploitation movies produced both in Hong Kong and South Korea
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such as Into the Invincible Hero and The Last Fist of Fury
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This universe of Bruceploitation movies would even take the meta route and use the impersonation aspect of these films to its advantage
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Into the outlandish classic from 1980, Clones of Bruce Lee, where in this movie doctors have used Bruce blood from his autopsy to create three perfect Bruce Lee clones and have them fight crime These filmmakers sure went above and beyond to capitalize on Bruce death to make these movies
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No, no, please, think of what you're doing. Why, I created you
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It was Columbia Pictures that released the most well-renowned Bruceploitation film in 1978, Game of Death
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Despite how iconic this film is with Bruce's yellow jumpsuit that would go on to inspire
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the Bride's character design in Kill Bill and his famous bout with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
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the real Bruce Lee is only in the final 15 minutes of the movie. You see, Bruce intended to film his own game of death, but was only able to shoot the end
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of the film since he died mid-production. So, Enter the Dragon director Robert Klaus ended up taking Bruce's footage with a corny
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James Bond-esque plot and shooting this new story with Bruce Lee doubles and Bruce Lee
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stock footage. There's even a scene where a double aligns himself with a cardboard cutout
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of Bruce Lee's head glued to a mirror. Despite how revered the final action sequence is in this film
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it still joins the ranks of the other Hong Kong and Korean Bruce knockoffs that exploited his
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death and popularity. Quality-wise, I mean, I have to admit that it's not quite up to the standard
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It got to a certain point in the mid-70s where it seemed as though if you wanted to make it in
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Hong Kong action film industry, you had to be Bruce, or at least as close to Bruce as possible
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This even went for a young Jackie Chan, who in 1976 was cast as the lead in New Fist of Fury
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This would end up being his first ever starring role in a widely released film
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and it was directed by Lo Wei, the mastermind who directed the real Bruce Lee in the original
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1972 Fist of Fury. This film ended up being a flop in the box office, but it goes to show that
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even those who worked with Bruce and knew him personally would be willing to join the hype train that was Bruceploitation
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Lowe would go on to attribute the film failure at the box office to Jackie ineptitude as an action star However the irony of this comes from the fact that it would be Jackie himself that would finally end this era of Bruceploitation films by showing Hong Kong
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something completely different from the movies being put out at the time, Kung Fu slapstick comedies
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1978's Snake in the Eagle's Shadow and Drunken Master would blow up
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and make Jackie a superstar. And it was then when the Asian action movie market
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finally understood that the formula to success wasn't just ripping off Bruce Lee over and over again
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Thus, more Kung Fu comedies were made and that would usher Hong Kong action cinema into the 80s
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where we would get classics like Police Story and Wheels on Meals. And of course, the rest is history
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Despite the era of Bruceploitation being very much a thing of the past
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it's important to re-examine the intent behind these films and what that meant regarding Bruce
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Lee's legacy. As you could tell, a lot of these movies ended up doing things that weren't exactly
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in good taste, revolving films around Bruce's rumored affair, using footage from Bruce Lee's
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actual funeral, and taking advantage of the man's popularity to bring money in the box office
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Some would argue that this was an honest attempt to honor Bruce by keeping his image alive through
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these lookalikes. Whether or not you approve of the Bruce Lee knockoff films, one thing is for sure
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the sheer number of these films and dedication of the imitators is a testament to how unique
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and legendary Bruce Lee really was. Whether right or wrong or whatnot, but unfortunately
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pictures, most of them here, are done mainly just for the sake of violence. Not many other action
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stars or actors in general can say they have an entire period of filmmaking dedicated to the
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refabrication of their image through rip-offs. So at least at the end of the day, we can all salute
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Bruce and admired the fact that his legacy was able to bring about such a wacky and zany era
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of movies that will be remembered forever