‘The Game of Clones: Bruceploitation Collection Vol. 1’ Blu-ray (review)

 

There’s been a deluge of Hong Kong action from boutique Blu-ray labels in the past few years, but one area which has been underrepresented in the flurry has been the wave of Bruce Lee clone films produced in the wake of the mega star’s untimely death in 1974.

These pictures, which were produced in almost unimaginable quantities, formed the bedrock of the product that appeared in American cinemas during the early 70’s “Kung Fu boom.”

These films were keystones for the earliest western fans of martial arts movies: promising to deliver new footage of the real Bruce and show off his “replacement” in a bevy of wild scenarios.

Severin Films and “Bruceploitation” expert Michael Worth have attempted to redress the balance with The Game of Clones: Volume 1, a massive box set presenting a cross-section of Bruce clone films from the best known of the Bruce clones in the highest quality possible, with a bevy of special features, and accompanied by both an excellent documentary that adds much needed context to what otherwise can appear to be an inexplicable and bizarre cinematic phenomenon.

The set comes in two forms: a standard 7-disc release, and an 8-disc exclusive release that can only be purchased from Severin Films directly and that contains the very rare Bruceploitation film The Big Boss Part II. The exclusive edition is the one I’ll be reviewing here.

ENTER THE CLONES OF BRUCE (2023)

Directed by David Gregory

The crown jewel of the set is ENTER THE CLONES OF BRUCE.

It’s an exhaustive, tragi-comic, lively documentary which attempts to contextualize the Bruce clone phenomenon on both sides of the Pacific. From the mad search for “new Bruces” in every dojo in Asia, to the burnout the audiences felt as wave after wave of film pulled the same bait and switch with the audience, the entire moment in time is captured here with wit and knowledge.

While the history lesson on the importance of Bruce Lee to the Hong Kong film industry and the strange, surreal, world of Bruce clone films may be somewhat familiar ground to long time fans, what really sets this project apart is the amazing collection of Hong Kong film cast and crew that were interviewed and the tremendous insight and authenticity they add to the proceedings.

Ironically, this documentary about counterfeit Bruce Lee films ends up being the English language survey with the most genuine emotion throughout.

Most incredible of all is that Bruce Li, Bruce Le, Dragon Lee, and Bruce Leung are all involved and given a chance to offer their own insight and experience to the story. The concrete effects of having these actors present to tell their own stories is two-fold: first, it keeps each of them somewhat distinct and allows the audience to appreciate each own as a unique martial arts actor in their own right, secondly it keeps the film grounded and no matter how outrageous the marketing or plots describe get, we’re never laughing at these guys, we’re swept up with them in the emotion of the moment.

Highly Recommended.

THE CLONES OF BRUCE LEE (1980)

Directed by Joseph Kong Hung and Nam Gi-nam

There’s going to be two kinds of film in this set: The first are relatively grounded martial arts films that, while not all that concerned with historical accuracy, try as hard as they can to stay in the spirit of the films Bruce Lee made as best they can.

The second are absolutely shameless exploitation schlock from later in the boom that are bizarre to the extreme and where Bruce Lee is almost treated the way El Santo was in Mexican films: a super heroic avenger against all evil.

This film lands squarely in the latter category with a mad scientist creating clones of Bruce Lee (played by Dragon Lee, Bruce Le, and Bruce Lai) in an attempt to stop a different, evil, mad scientist from taking over the world.

As great as that sounds on paper this is a movie that was cobbled together in post and it commits the cardinal sin of all schlock: it’s just boring at rock bottom. Even the scene where the Bruces all fight one another, which feels like it should be a no brainer, is deadly dull compared to the other films on this set.

Needed to be on here, given the nature of the film and the set but not recommended on its own merits. I’ve heard some people enjoy it as a camp classic but camp is still supposed to be fun and this one is a slog.

ENTER THREE DRAGONS (1978)

Directed by Joseph Kong Hung

Despite having the same director as THE CLONES OF BRUCE LEE, ENTER THREE DRAGONS has a completely different set of priorities.

While the first film in this set is definitely one where they started from a fun premise, ENTER THREE DRAGONS is edited in such a way that none of the story beats really make sense for most of the film and everything is in the service of letting all the martial arts talent in the film to go nuts in extended fight sequences.

And…it works.

Bolo is great here, as he will be throughout the set.

More than once watching these films I’ve wondered aloud why they didn’t just make him the star of a series of Hong Kong kung fu films after Bruce’s death given his incredible intensity and physical presence. Dragon Lee is also in fine form here, and one gets the sense from this set that Bruce Le and Dragon Lee could have been stars in their own right if they hadn’t been drowned in the wake of Bruce-Mania.

Humorously, while the first film was built around all the clones fighting each other, they never share a scene here. This feels like it was put together almost to spice up a movie that already existed and it’s incomprehensible but energetic and hard hitting.

Mild recommendation.

ENTER THE GAME OF DEATH (1978)

Directed by Joseph Kong Hung and Various Action Directors

A sterling example of the more grounded type of Bruce clone film, ENTER THE GAME OF DEATH uses an interwar plot about the Japanese planning to invade Colonial Hong Kong as a sort of FIST OF FURY homage and uses it as an excuse to overload us with some of the best fight scenes ever in Bruce clone film.

Don’t get me wrong: this is still an independent Hong Kong kung fu production from the 1970’s. It has fights without context, leaps of logic, a flimsy plot, and more convenience than a 24 hour supermarket.

That said, it gets the basics right.

We care about Bruce Le as Chang, and even if the mechanics of the plot are not important he’s got an identifiable goal and this does so much to make the great fight scenes matter more and invest us in the proceedings. It helps that the basic stew of this period martial arts flick is spiced with some surreal violence and great villains.

The two best clone Bruce films I’ve ever seen are DYNAMO (not on this set, sadly) and THE DRAGON LIVES AGAIN and I would say this is just a step below them. In the right headspace you can put this one on for friends who love trashy kung fu and get everything you need from it.

Recommended.

GOODBYE, BRUCE LEE: HIS LAST GAME OF DEATH (1975)

Directed by Lin Bing

“I think you were born to be Bruce Lee the Second. It’s a heavy responsibility” intones a film executive to Bruce Li early in this picture, and it’s altogether one of the most simultaneously funny and sad lines I’ve ever heard.

It sums up the entire project, really.

This film begins with a short “documentary” about Bruce Lee that allowed the producers to claim that Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Steve McQueen are in the movie.

The theme from 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY is used hilariously throughout the opening and the training montage is a meta commentary on the Bruce clone phenomenon itself.

I got kind of excited at the opening because even though the film was tasteless in its exploitation of the real Bruce it had better direction than anything else so far in the set and it felt like it was going for a higher level of overall quality.

Then the film reveals that this opening is just a framing device to watch what Bruce Li would have done in what the producers thought GAME OF DEATH would be and the movie just falls apart. Li is my favorite of the Bruce clones as a fighter, and he kind of looks like Bruce if you’ve been hit on the head right before watching the film he’s in. He does his best with the material he’s got here, but after the golf course fight, the film just runs out of energy.

Not recommended.

THE DRAGON LIVES AGAIN (1977)

Directed by Law Kei

Bruce Leung plays the soul of Bruce Lee who exists in the afterlife good naturedly battling other cinematic heroes from James Bond, Zatoichi, and The Man With No Name all with their correct music in a rare instance of Hong Kong’s lax copyright laws greatly enhancing a film.

This should be the most offensive film on the set but it feels so amiable from the first frame that it’s impossible to be mad at, it’s literally never boring, and it actually fulfills the genuine desire at the center of this whole set: everyone just wanted more Bruce Lee.

This film because of its tone feels far less exploitative than the previous film because it feels like the film a kid would come up with.

The Dracula and Mummy scenes are also just top shelf.

I really can’t say more about this film than what I have because it literally is just a collection of cameos and call backs in a surreal blender but this gets a genuine recommendation from me. A minor triumph of weirdness.

It’s either the best Bruce clone movie on the set or the best guilty pleasure depending on how you feel about ENTER THE GAME OF DEATH. Either way, Recommended.

BRUCE AND THE IRON FINGER (1979)

Directed by To Lo Po

This isn’t really a Bruce clone film, at all. Bruce Li and Kuo Feng star in a really good contemporary martial arts thriller that feels like a companion piece to DYNAMO. Bruce Li wished to release this film as IRON FINGER under his given name of Ho Tsung-Tao but as you might expect, producers wanted a sure thing instead of taking a chance and so Bruce was added to the title and there’s a single fight sequence in a red track suit that feels like it was added only so that Li could act a little like Bruce Lee to sell the film.

This would be novel on this set by itself but this isn’t just a contemporary martial arts thriller– but a legitimate kung fu mystery that feels like it’s taking cues from Shaw productions of the time in trying to find new spaces for the kung fu picture to operate in. A masked killer is using his fingers to puncture the necks of martial arts teachers and Bruce Li has to figure out why.

This film has an extra layer of polish and craft over even ENTER THE GAME OF DEATH– the shots are not just competent but color and space are used to communicate meaning. This is a legitimately good movie without qualification or contextualization.

Highly Recommended. A minor kung fu classic.

CHALLENGE OF THE TIGER (1980)

Directed by Bruce Le

Bruce Le directs himself and Richard Harrison in a James Bond pastiche where two government agents are sent to recover a formula developed by a Spanish scientist that has the ability to render all men on Earth infertile.

The concept is not as bizarre as it appears on the page: ENTER THE DRAGON was heavily influenced by Bond films  and the infertility serum seems like a bad translation of Blofeld’s plan from ON HER MAJESTY’S SECRET SERVICE.

Richard Harrison’s character is introduced as a womanizer which is reinforced by one of the funniest scenes I’ve witnessed in recent memory where he’s surrounded at a palatial estate by a cadre of topless women playing tennis and sunbathing. He looks as if he’s having fun throughout the film and especially in that opening.

Bruce Le kills a bull with his bare hands, Bolo gets a memorable extended cameo, and the fight scenes are consistently over par.

Easy recommendation

CAMEROON CONNECTION (1985)

Directed by Alphonse Beni

This is a true oddball.

A film from Cameroon designed as a vehicle for its director/star Alphonse Beni and presented in French, the film is borderline non-professional crime thriller where Bruce Le plays a crucial supporting role, but doesn’t really evoke Bruce Lee in any meaningful way besides a few thumbed noses.

Overall quality is what you’d expect from a Cameroon film financed with Hong Kong money back in 1985.

Not recommended.

SUPER DRAGON (1974)

Directed by Ti Shih

Bruce Li’s first time doubling Bruce Lee is in this “biopic” which presents a bizarre, often unintentionally hilarious condensing of Bruce Lee’s myth from the Hong Kong perspective.

This one was sometimes released as BRUCE LEE: HIS LAST DAYS, HIS LAST NIGHTS because the second half focuses so strongly on his affair with Cantonese actress Betty Ting Pei, who actually co-stars in the film.

Essential for historical reasons, but this is the film far and away that made me the most uncomfortable at how it uses Lee’s death as a cheap gimmick.

Not recommended.

THE DRAGON LIVES (1976)

Directed by Wang Hsing-Li

Marginal improvement over SUPER DRAGON in its exploitation of Bruce but significant improvement in the actual film quality.

Tournament scenes have stand out fights, and the whole thing is narrated under a somber tone that seems more respectful even if the action on screen is still ridiculous.

Bruce Li is once again playing Bruce Lee but he seems to have found his footing here.

That may be a function of this film’s more enlightened look at Bruce as an immigrant struggling with American and Chinese identities and torn between two worlds. This film gives some consideration to that struggle and though I would hardly consider it a nuanced portrayal, it is laudable that the filmmakers were interested.

Mild recommendation.

The final, exclusive disc contains a nearly lost film:

THE BIG BOSS PART 2 (1976)

Directed by Chan Chue

Director Chan Chue was an assistant director on the Golden Harvest original, though you couldn’t tell it from watching this.

It feels nothing like Lo Wei’s workmanlike Thai shot debut for Bruce Lee.

Lo Lieh (FIVE FINGERS OF DEATH) plays the brother of the incarcerated Bruce Lee character and he’s basically enough to get this one a mild recommendation, as he’s one of Shaw Brothers’ finest leading men and it’s always a joy to watch him kick ass.

Direction is inept but Lo Lieh gives this one a mild recommendation.

THE BLACK DRAGON VS. THE YELLOW TIGER (1974)

Directed by Yang Yang and Yang Che

Many of the films on this set have been homages or sequels to Bruce’s own few films, but this work is the only one which aims to continue the story of Bruce Lee’s only directorial outing Way of the Dragon.

This was a Taiwanese clone made so quickly after Way that it is one of the few Bruce Lee clone films made while the ill-fated star was still alive.

The criminal organization that sent Colt (Chuck Norris) to eliminate Tang Lung (Lee) at the conclusion to Way of the Dragon is now trying to find Lung for revenge.

They instead manage to locate Lung’s cousin Lung Tang in Taiwan which sets off another round of martial arts mayhem.

Naming confusion aside, this is really fun Bruce clone film– it has no actual death to draw on and the Bruce fakery done by Lung is intended as “family resemblance” instead of memorial and so its freed of a lot of the moral issues– this guy was just trying to cash in on what was popular, not become the new Bruce Lee.

There’s a ton of fight scenes to cover up how slipshod most of the performances are while none of them are to the quality of Bruce’s work or Shaw Brothers, they keep the film from ever getting truly boring. Couple that with some great location work in Taiwan and a fine final showdown and this is an easy recommendation.

Special Features

Severin has packed this release with a large number of special features including audio commentaries, outtakes, featurettes, Kung Fu Theater with Michael Worth, trailers, tv spots, interviews, roundtable discussions, radio spots, deleted scenes, audio essays, Q&A sessions, and audio interviews.

Wrap-Up

In conclusions, this set, unlike the Shaw and Jackie Chan sets that have come out recently, is really made for people who know what they’re getting here. This is a set for people who want to see a collection of super-niche independent martial arts films in the best possible quality with the best possible presentation.

On that score, it succeeds but this is not for people who have gotten into Hong Kong cinema later and don’t have a taste for the bizarre and wild chances of independent productions of the boom period.

For fans only.