Bruce Lee - Der reißende Puma

The print of "The Image of Bruce Lee" that I watched didn't list any credits for either the cast or the crew. After watching the entire movie, I can understand why apparently no one connected to the movie wanted to be identified. It should come as no surprise that despite the title, the lead actor (played by Bruce Li) looks nothing like Bruce Lee. He's pretty bland and forgettable here, despite getting into a ton of fights. Maybe that could have been forgiven had the fights been good, but they are really not. While the fight sequences are choreographed in a way to look somewhat more realistic than usual, they are simply not exciting, and are completely interchangeable with each other. The plot is also nothing special as well, except maybe that it's more convoluted and confusing than usual. The only interest the movie has is showcasing a pre-fame Bolo Yeung in a key role, and that the movie has a surprising amount of nudity... though I feel I should point out that the nudity is presented in a surprisingly unerotic way.

Version: English dub

In a movie that seemingly has nothing to with Bruce Lee, or his image, Bruce Li plays a cop who goes around beating people up, while trying trying to stop a counterfeit ring. Or something, I somehow managed to miss the important plot points (ok, there weren't any at all...).

There's lots of swearing, and naked ladies, and violence - enough to get an R-rating. Surprisingly, my copy of the movie comes with a family friendly M-rating. I'll admit right now, that I don't why I'm reviewing this - there isn't much to say about it.

Basically, the movie follows Bruce Li as he wanders around beating up bad guys, and follows Bolo Yeung as he wanders around beating up good guys. In fact, Li's character never takes his leather jacket off - either it gives him super-powers, or it is the secret to his kung-fu technique.

Overall, its actually pretty funny, in a cheesy way - 4/10

A pair of undercover detectives (played by Bruce Li and Chang Leih) work together in an effort to try and bring down a counterfeiting operation headed by Han Tin Lung (played by Yin-Chieh Han who previously appeared in FISTS OF FURY) and Kimura (played by Bolo Yeung who previously appeared in ENTER THE DRAGON).

While this is a bit slow getting off the ground and initially seems a little confusing, it eventually reveals several surprise twists, turns and revelations which brings everything together in an understandable fashion by the film's end. The best thing about this movie in fact isn't its many Kung-Fu fighting showdowns, although I did enjoy the final climactic showdown between Bruce Li's character and the villainous father and son duo, but instead the character of Donna (played by Danna), who manages to keep her character bubbly and sweet despite exhibiting a considerable amount of flesh in a number of nude scenes. Her character's often humorous and amusing interactions with practically all the men she encounters in the film provides this one's most entertaining moments and she steals nearly every scene in which she appears.

The main problem with the fight scenes is it's far too obvious in most scenes that blows really are not being landed so they never become as fully convincing as they were intended to be. The title IMAGE OF BRUCE LEE seems to come from one scene in which Donna mentions to Bruce Li that he looks just like Bruce Lee and should be in the movies.

This film can be taken in two ways. First, it is indeed a "Bruce Clone" film, starring Bruce Li, the best of the Bruce Lee imitators. On that level, it can be enjoyed for the usual "swinging arms" chop-sock 'fu film nonsense we loved so well in the late 1970s.

However, oddly enough, the cast and crew seem to be quite aware that their whole effort is blatantly absurd.

Consequently, their are subtle but undeniable elements of self-parody in throughout the film. I will only describe the opening sequence: A man looking like a minor business executive is standing on a roof top, threatening to commit suicide. Bruce Li, dressed in the yellow-and-red gymnastic jump-suit long associated with Bruce Lee through publicity photos for his uncompleted last film (Game of Death) , climbs up five stories and jumps out to grab the exec by the arm. Unfortunately, it's a prosthetic arm. The force of the grab tears off the arm and inadvertently sends the exec five stories to his death. Bruce Li stands there looking at the prosthetic limb with an expression like, "hey, this never happened to the other guy!" Final underscore for this self-parody is when another character looks at Bruce Li and says: "Has anyone ever told you you look like Bruce Lee?" - Well, I'm not!" Bruce Li responds.

This is all pretty much 'in-joke' stuff; to appreciate the humor of this film, one has to have seen all of the real Bruce Lee films, and a good many Bruce-Clone films as well. But I have, so I had a blast.

The Image of Bruce Lee is another chopsocky film which uses the name of Hong Kong action legend Bruce Lee in its title without actually featuring him! It, in fact, stars Bruce Li, as opposed to Bruce Lee. Confused, already? Seemingly, this sort of patter was par for the course in this sub-genre of film.

Its story is about two undercover cops who attempt to stop a criminal gang of counterfeiters. Despite beginning quite promisingly with Li, kitted out in a yellow jump-suit, trying to save a suicidal man on a high-rise roof, this one quickly descends to the level of another mediocre martial arts action movie. There's plenty of kung fu fighting to be fair but this is strictly for die-hard fans of this kind of thing but is a rather forgettable experience otherwise.