El real Bruce Lee

After Bruce Lee died in 1973 and as a way of exploiting his international fame, there seems to have been several south-east Asian films released with his name emblazoned in their titles. The Spirit of Bruce Lee (1973) and The Image of Bruce Lee (1978) being a couple of infamous examples, the films themselves had nothing to do with Lee whatsoever and were merely cashing in on his name. The Real Bruce Lee is yet another in this ilk, except that it justifies the use of the Bruce Lee name in its title by actually featuring him and being about him. Sort of.

It compromises of three sections. Rare footage from the first four Lee screen appearances, a short documentary section and finally a look at the Bruce Lee imitators. The only part that was vaguely interesting was the documentary part and that only lasted ten minutes tops. The rest of it just compromises of very lengthy clips from those old Lee films and newer copycat features featuring Dragon Lee and Bruce Li. Sometimes it is bad enough watching cheap old chopsocky movies in their full versions but to watch extended , long sections but minus any context is almost unbearable. This film is only for the most committed Lee aficionados but even they might struggle with this one.

An exciting and interesting documentary about Bruce Lee for about a 1/2 hour + a whole movie (unknown title) with a promising new fighter named Dragon Lee as the main attraction. (where is he today ?) The movie-part, as the documentary-part is a bit naive, like many of the martial art-movies was in the 70's, but it's real fun to watch. The effects in the movie is sometimes unrealistic, but you can see some real good martial arts here. I remember I saw this on video in 1984, when I was 15 years old, so I don't recommend this movie to audience who are over 20.

Following the untimely death of Bruce Lee, lots of ultra-cheap and shady films came out with his name in the title. Why? Because there was a huge hunger for his movies and he only made a few movies. So, these hucksters did things like renaming martial arts actors 'Bruce Li' and the like....and often CLAIMED that they were new and undiscovered Bruce Lee films. Well, this isn't exactly what the makers of "The Real Bruce Lee" did...but it's along the same vein. Instead, they cobbled together some very early childhood appearances of Lee and also showed clips of Bruce Li and Dragon Lee....two Lee knockoffs. Additionally, it did NOT pretend these were Bruce Lee....and was more a documentary in style....albeit a very cheap one.

So why do I only give this one a 3? Well, the clips of the early films of Bruce Lee were as a child and were NOT martial arts films...and they bored me. Additionally, while not exactly lying like many other film producers, including Dragon Lee and Bruce Li in a film with Bruce Lee's name in the title just seemed a bit sleazy.

If your painting your house, and don't want to watch it dry, then this is the movie for you. It is so bad, it's good. The English dubbing and the fighting sound effects are the best things about the movie. It's a classic diamond in the rough, the way they use to make them.....bad. The Japanese bad guy with the Hitler mustache is a must see.

There's very little of the "real Bruce Lee" in this film, its title notwithstanding. The brief clips of four of the movies he made as a Hong Kong child star ("Kid Cheung", "Bad Boy", "Carnival", and "Orphan Sam") are mildly interesting, but they don't really have anything to do with Lee's later career as a martial arts practitioner/teacher/writer and kung-fu film luminary. The rest of "The Real Bruce Lee" consists of a handful of clips of Bruce Li, the first and most watchable Lee impersonator, followed by a (way too) long mini-feature which the narrator calls 'The Ultimate Lee'. Said mini-feature stars Dragon Lee, a rather graceless Korean martial artist who was by far the LEAST adept of the three major Bruce Lee imitators! There are no credits for 'The Ultimate Lee', and I suspect that it is an edit of a longer film which has never been seen in its complete form in the United States. It appears to have been shot in Korea, rather than Hong Kong or Taiwan, and the fight choreography is--as in most Dragon Lee films--very clunky. The dubbing and sound effects are standard (which is to say terrible) for a low-budget chopsocky movie. The most laughable thing about 'The Ultimate Lee' is the narrator's claim that it was Bruce Lee's next scheduled project, and that Dragon Lee had to be brought in to replace him! Bruce Lee had already starred in "The Chinese Connection"; he wouldn't have gone anywhere near this sordid, clumsy little ripoff of his own classic film. Avoid.