The Image of Bruce Lee

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.

Version: English dub

In a movie that seemingly has nothing to with Bruce Lee, or his image, Bruce Li plays a cop who goes around beating people up, while trying trying to stop a counterfeit ring. Or something, I somehow managed to miss the important plot points (ok, there weren't any at all...).

There's lots of swearing, and naked ladies, and violence - enough to get an R-rating. Surprisingly, my copy of the movie comes with a family friendly M-rating. I'll admit right now, that I don't why I'm reviewing this - there isn't much to say about it.

Basically, the movie follows Bruce Li as he wanders around beating up bad guys, and follows Bolo Yeung as he wanders around beating up good guys. In fact, Li's character never takes his leather jacket off - either it gives him super-powers, or it is the secret to his kung-fu technique.

Overall, its actually pretty funny, in a cheesy way - 4/10

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.

Dragon (Bruce Li) is a respected police investigator in HongKong. He's frustrated failing to save a jumper. He and his partner are assigned a tough counterfeit ring. Han Tin Lung is the head of the criminal organization. His son Han Chin Wei has used his Japanese friend Kimura (Bolo Yeung) and stolen paper from London to create perfect counterfeit money. Donna is the beautiful daughter of a criminal colleague who arrives with plans of her own.

This is a HongKong Bruceploitation. There is a lot of hand to hand combat and female frontal nudity. It's pure B-movie. The problem is that Bruce Li is a blank and he adds little to the movie. The best parts come from the villain side. I'm fascinated with the Hans and Donna. They could be the Godfather but Bruce Li keeps interjecting himself into the movie. The hand to hand fighting is good at first but after awhile, the choreography is repetitive and it gets boring. This may be better than most Bruceploitations but that's not saying much.