ALL HAIL THE CLONES! (or: More fake Bruce Lee stuff)

I've just found a rare trailer for BRUCE LEE IN NEW GUINEA on YouTube. It was posted only a short while ago and since I have never been able to find one before this is def. cool.

Uhhh, in my "The ONLY real Bruce Le" post I only mentioned two of his films... and now it dawns on me that one of the films (GUINEA) actually stars Bruce Li. For Christ's sakes!!! Hahaha.



And check this brief video out. Mein gott! Talk about fanaticism!!! (which is quite alright in my book).

No, Lenzi didn't direct "Bruce Lee Fights Back From The Grave"

[VHS/Japan/English dub/Japanese subs]
[click scan for bigger size]

In Fred's comments to the "The ONLY real Bruce Le" post he asked about an Umberto Lenzi "directed" Bruceploitation film. The film in question is BRUCE LEE FIGHTS BACK FROM THE GRAVE (aka Bruce Lee Fights Back From Grave) and I thought I might as well post about it and dismiss the rumours/wrong info once and for all (and obviously because of the wide spread recognition of this blog every little fan will now stop calling it a Lenzi film).

In fact BRUCE LEE FIGHTS BACK FROM GRAVE is really a Korean film entitled VISITOR TO AMERICA from 1976 which was directed by Doo Yong-lee. According to Dvdmaniacs member James Lee it was US distributor Aquarius who spliced in the "Bruce Lee" opening where he returns from the grave. Btw, it doesn't actually star Bruce Le but Bruce K.L. Lea! One of the other Bruce Lee clones, haha.

I posted about the film over at Dvdmaniacs forum a couple of years back and one member (incidentally me mate in Valby, Copenhagen; Diabolik aka Hans-Jørn, collector extraordinaire of Danish ex-rental video tapes) dismissed the Lenzi connection. Hans-Jørn posted this (which I sincerely hope is alright to post here as well):

By Diabolik/Hans-Jørn [first posted on Dvdmaniacs forum]

A few years back I was corresponding with Alberto Farina (Son of Corrado 'Baba Yaga' Farina) regarding an interview with his father... I'd just found the 'Bruce Lee'-film in a secondhand shop and was puzzled by the Bert Lenzi-credit and the missing 'Lenzi-touch'... So I wrote to Alberto asking if he knew anything about this film... Being such a nice fella', he phoned Lenzi;

[...]OK, the first results of my research is that you can definitely rule out this title from Lenzi's filmography. I just had a brief phone chat with Mr. Lenzi himself and he denies any involvement with this title.

He said he'd heard about it already - I was not the first to ask.
However, although he has shot movies within almost EVERY movie genre that ever existed, he has never directed any karate movie. He only mentioned the movie he shot in the far East -"Il paese del sesso selvaggio", shot in Thailand (the working title was "L'uomo del fiume profondo") which, in his words, "would later spawn the cannibal subgenre", in which, I may add, Lenzi himself would have feasted in the 80's.

"Bert Lenzi" never existed as a Lenzi pseudo. He thinks it must have been one of those tricks played by ruthless video distributors to cash on his popularity.[...]

/HJ

For the original thread go here.

PS: Incidentally, there is also a HK movie entitled KUNG FU FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE. XD

The ONLY real Bruce Le

There's great and serious kung fu movies like the old ones from the Shaw Brothers studios. And then there's the trashy fun ones like the ones that star one (or several) of the Bruce Lee clones! And if you're a regular reader you know what I think of those trashy flicks. Yeah, love 'em. You gotta! The best (or whatever) clone was probably Bruce Le. I'm by no means an expert on Bruceploitation but a couple of my favourites are BRUCE LEE IN NEW GUINEY and BRUCE AND THE SHAOLIN BRONZEMEN which I posted about a little while ago. Tonight I won THIS one:


Yay!!!
It's FIRE ON THE GREAT WALL about which our friend Wiki says:

Among fans of Bruceploitation movies, Ninja Over the Great Wall is often praised for its high production values and relatively fast pace - two things absent from nearly every other Bruce Le film. On the website Bruceploitation, "Keith" writes:

"While liberally borrowing from the Bruce Lee classic Fist of Fury, this Bruce Le vehicle is still quite entertaining. The fight scenes are lots of fun with Bruce taking on hordes of ninjas literally everywhere. Viewers should get a kick out of a scene where Bruce fights a ninja who is on fire. Talk about having control of your mind and body. Also, there is the requisite "You killed my teacher" Japanese dojo attack required by Bruceploitation Law. The end fight scene (shot on location at the Great Wall) is mighty impressive and brutal. What surprised me the most about this film is the pessimistic storyline. Pretty much everyone dies. Using the Japanese occupation of China as a backdrop, the filmmakers also inject a bit of political commentary (not saying the Fist of Fury was subtle though). If only Bruce Le had made more movies like this"

The tape I'm getting is a PAL tape from HK in Cantonese with English subs. Apparently, the only DVD version available (or not available as it's OOP) is a fullscreen English dubbed bootleg from those Ground Zero crooks. :D