In Love With… Enter the Clones of Bruce

Two of the best documentaries about cinema that showed the weird, wonderful and often forgotten aspects of the medium were ‘Lost Souls: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley’s Island of Dr. Moreau’ and ‘Blood & Flesh: The Reel Life and Ghastly Death of Al Adamson’, both made by film-maker David Gregory. The former tackled the remarkable production behind the making of ‘Island of Dr. Moreau’ while the latter focused on the work of Z-Movie mogul Al Adamson and his mysterious demise; both of these are essential viewing, full of fascinating insights into the machinations of movie making at different levels. Thankfully, David Gregory managed to find an even more eccentric cinematic universe to explore, namely the world of Bruceploitation. It’s an area that many longtime Asian film fans know about while not necessarily enjoying, while some of us have a peculiar interest in Bruce Li, Bruce Le, Bruce Lei and their shenanigans. And, indeed, how it all became a ‘thing’.

‘Enter the Clones of Bruce’ is, like Gregory’s previous two documentaries, the perfect combination of being affectionate, humorous and enthralling. It’s impossible not to laugh at some of the clips (especially when ‘The Dragon Lives Again’ enters the conversation!) – but that’s very much the easy part. More involved is Gregory’s attempt to put it in a social context and understand why something that most Western audiences could barely believe happened actually flourished in Hong Kong and Taiwan. This is interspersed with clips of some of the best (and worst) of the genre as we then find out how things started out with the relatively sober likes of ‘Fist of Fury II’ before heading into the lunacy of ‘Bruce Lee v. Supermen’. It’s also a chance to reappraise some of the films that got thrown into the Bruceploitation mix; while there were few classics, ‘Fist of Fury II’ and ‘Bruce Lee: The Legend’ are better than what was to follow.

Ho Tsung-Tao / Bruce Li

The thing that really sets this apart – and the aspect that Gregory admitted was the most challenging – was involving the men behind the unusual monikers. Their stories make what is a very good documentary into something truly captivating. Figures like Ho Tsung-Tao (Bruce Li), Liang Chien-Lung (Bruce Le), Keo Ryong (Dragon Lee) and Bruce Leung all get the chance to tell their remarkable stories. Particularly impressive are the interviews with Ryong and Liang who had not been interviewed for years prior to this. You also get Yasuaki Kurata, Wong Tao, Godfrey Ho, Angela Mao and many more legendary figures, all adding to the achievement of the makers. Equally interesting is interviews with foreign distributors who used some dastardly tricks to popularise these rip-offs, while hearing from genre experts from UK, France, Germany and beyond reminded me what a remarkable world of fandom this truly is.

Interviewing the original stars is a masterstroke. It affords these stars with the dignity that the movement eventually stripped away and allows them to be defined outside of Bruceploitation. That’s not to say they are all bitter about their involvement, but Ho Tsung-Tao and Liang Chien-Lung have a fair case regarding what their alter-egos ended up doing to their careers. Their personal stories are also, by turns, touching and inspiring with Tsung-Tao’s battle to look after his family after his wife’s death being both.

Liang Chien-Lung / Bruce Le

‘Enter the Clones of Bruce’ deserves its praise, capturing a time in cinema that, rightly or wrongly, will never be repeated. The days of innocence when you genuinely believed ‘Enter the New Game of Death’ was a hitherto forgotten Bruce Lee film. Or the time when producers showed just how long they could sink to make a quick buck. In the middle of all of it were these often talented performers who we watched, pointed at and shouted ‘That’s not Bruce Lee!’ all the while being ignorant of their stories. Crazy times indeed.

‘Enter the Clones of Bruce’ is available on Digital and Blu-ray from Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk.