Bruce Lee - Der reißende Puma

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.

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.

It opens with a man threatening to jump from a skyscraper. "Bruce Lee" in his yeloow and black track suit comes to the rescue. The suicidal man has a trick up his sleeve. Cut to a gym.

My copy is unusual high quality. It is a digital file that plays on a HDTV as true wide screen with good resolution and is English dubbed.

This movie is labeled Brucexploitation. Exploiting Bruce Lee's name was done by VHS rental businesses. They had tons of VHS tapes for rent in America and labeled them not by proper title but to attract the American viewer. They often used words like "Shaolin", "tiger", "dragon", or "Bruce Lee" to attract the unknowing customer. Jackie Chan's name was also used.

(1977) The Image OF Bruce Lee ENGLISH DUBBED MARTIAL ARTS ACTION

After Bruce Lee died, there were a stream of Bruce Lee imitators coming out throughout Hong Kong and this happens to be one of them, which is not bad. Plot has two interpol agents uncovering a counterfeit ring, one of those agents happen to look and fight like Bruce Lee name on the credits as Bruce Li!!!. Also star is actual martial artist David Chiang of many chop sockey movies and "Police Story" Part II playing the main bad guy's son and a young Bolo Yeung from "Bloodsport" playing the other bad guy who carries the plates. It has nudity and some well staged martial art fights.