Diamants et karaté

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.

This was the last one I watched from a bruceploitation dvd box I got some time ago. "The Man, The Myth" was maybe the most interesting because it was more in a documentary style, "Bruce Lee Fights Back from the Grave" was somewhat funny because of its wild directing. "Fist of Fear, Touch of Death" should have been interesting because Fred Williamson is in it but it ended up boring I and I already forgot what happens in it. "The Image of Bruce Lee" was also quite boring. But not terrible. In some way I was surprised that none of these movies was completely awful.

Considering how much action is in "The Image", it's strange how can it be boring. There's a lot of kung fu fighting and the choreography is not bad. The fighting moves are generally more real martial arts than in many western action films. But I guess it's the (lack of) directing in the long shots where the fights just go on, and the camerawork is home video style. Sometimes the fights look good but there's hardly any real excitement unless you're a martial arts maniac.

Among the endless legions of fighting men there is one female character, Donna, played by Dana (just Dana?). She was the highlight for me. Whenever she was on the screen it brightened up my mood and got my eyes fixated back to the screen. She's very attractive, the character has a witty personality (best acting?), she has cool clothes...and also likes to take them off multiple times.

It is what it is... not a terrible film but it's a bit too monotonous. Recommended only to those who have aqcuired taste for not-so-good martial arts flicks.

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.

Bruce Li surprised me in this one. Oh, the martial arts are still mediocre, but he's not trying to be Bruce Lee. In fact, Li is a cop in search of plates. He ends up fighting usually against groups of guys. Apparently, the word "backup" wasn't invented until after this movie. You really appreciate Fist of Fury when fights the entire japanese class in the dojo. In IOBL, Bruce Li runs after Bolo in search of luggage and proceeds to fight the entire class. Man, you can see how many "one-on-one" cue attacks there are while extras just stand in the circle. So to sum it up:

Fists of Fury dojo fight: FIERCE and FAST.

Image of Bruce Lee dojo fight: FUNNY!!

It really is fun to see Bruce in a non Bruceploitatic role. I think he must've been hot fighting in that brown leather coat cause he never takes it off in battles. Man, it's durable! The frightening part of this movie is seeing Bolo flirt. Plus, his loud garish suits with killer lapels. The Boss is same boss from Bruce Lee's the Big Boss, but he doesn't add that much to the film. Come to think of it, the funniest part is the balcony scene where some guy does a flying kick at Bruce and the slo-mo effect goes on. Bruce just moves to the side and this hapless dolt of a henchman does the high hurdle over the rail. Also, handcuffs can be a deadly weapon.

There's some gratuitous nudity of Donna...I think that was her name, whatever. They thought including her would be enough to fool the viewer and grab your attention. Well, it worked for me!! Especially the nude swimming. Also, when she tells Bruce Li that he looks like Bruce Lee and asks if he wants to do movies, Li responds with "Not interested!" HAHAHAHA. See, he was "ACTING".

Watch this cool flick for chases, naughty bits, and the balcony fight....and the Bruce Li rope climbing in the yellow tracksuit!!