Bruceploitation

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Bruceploitation is a cultural phenomenon mostly seen in the 1970s after the untimely death of martial artist and actor Bruce Lee in 1973. Movie makers in mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan hired a great number of Bruce Lee look-alike actors to star in many cheap knock-off martial arts movies to cash in on his success after his death.

"Bruceploitation" is a portmanteau of the name "Bruce" and exploitation film.

1 The Beginning
2 Marketing
3 End of a Trend
4 Actors
5 Movies
6 See also
7 External links

[edit] The Beginning

Hong Kong cinema was shocked when Bruce Lee died in a Hong Kong hotel on June 20th, 1973. At the time of Lee's death, he was considered one of Hong Kongs most famous martial arts actors. When Enter the Dragon became a box office success worldwide, many Hong Kong studios feared that a movie without their most famous star in it wouldn't be financially successful, so some studios decided to play on Lee's sudden international fame by making movies that vaguely sounded like Bruce Lee starring vehicles with actors who looked like Lee who changed their stage names to sound similar to Lees, such as Bruce Li and Bruce Le.

[edit] Marketing

In a tactic similar to deceptive marketing, some of these films were advertised as genuine Bruce Lee movies when in fact they were not. This tactic was very successful in the mid-1970s when many of Bruce Lee's earlier films such as Fist of Fury and The Big Boss were being released in Chinese Theaters in America after Bruce's death.

[edit] End of a Trend

Brucesploitation ended in Chinese cinema after Jackie Chan broke out of the mold to make a name for himself in Chinese cinema after the success of Drunken Master and establishing himself as the new king of Hong Kong cinema. Another factor was the end of the Kung Fu movie craze in America in the late 1970s. Since the end of the trend, many actors in Hong Kong cinema, such as Jet Li, starred in films based on Bruce Lee concepts, but still retaining their own identity.

[edit] Actors

Bruce Lee's name in Mandarin Chinese is Lǐ Xiǎolóng (李小龍). After his death, many actors by the names such as Bruce Li (黎(Lí)小龍 from his real name Ho Chung Tao (何宗道)), Bronson Lee, Bruce Chen, Bruce Lai, Bruce Le (呂(Lǔ)小龍 from his real name Wong Kin Lung), (黃建龍)), Bruce Lei, Bruce Lie, Bruce Liang, Bruce Ly real name Binhslee, Bruce Thai, Bruce K.A. Lea, Brute Lee, Bruce Leung, Myron Bruce Lee, Lee Bruce and Dragon Lee were hired by studios to play Lee-styled roles.

Jackie Chan, who started his movie career as an extra and stunt artist in some of Bruce Lee's movies, was also given roles where he was promoted as the next Bruce Lee, such as New Fist of Fury (1976). It was only when he made some comedically themed movies for another studio that he was able to gain box-office success.

[edit] Movies

Some of the movies were simply rehashes of Bruce Lee's classics, such as Re-enter the Dragon, Enter Two Dragons, Return of Bruce, Return of the Fists of Fury or Enter the Game of Death. Others were about telling the very life of Bruce Lee and his mysteries, such as Exit the Dragon, Enter the Tiger (one of the best according to the viewers, where Bruce Li is asked by Bruce Lee to replace him after his death), My Name Called Bruce and Bruce's Fist of Vengeance.

Some others simply told crazy stories such as Clones of Bruce Lee (where a scientist makes clones of Bruce Lee played by some of the actors above) or The Dragon Lives Again (where Bruce Lee fights James Bond and Dracula in hell). Others, such as Bruce Lee Fights Back From The Grave, featured Lee imitators but with a plot having nothing to do with Bruce Lee.

One of Lee's fight choreographers, actor/director Sammo Hung, famously satirized the phenomenon of Bruceploitation in his 1978 film, Enter the Fat Dragon.