Diamants et karaté

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.

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.

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!!

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.