In June 1971, kung fu superstar Bruce Lee returned to Hong Kong from the United States and signed a contract with Golden Harvest Film Company. Later, he released three movies: "Brother Tangshan", "Fist of Fury" and "Way of the Dragon", which successively set box office records. I

In June 1971, kung fu superstar Bruce Lee returned to Hong Kong from the United States and signed a contract with Golden Harvest Film Company. Later, he launched three movies, "Brother Tangshan", "Fist of Fury" and " The Way of the Dragon", which successively created box office records. At the same time as the record, it also set off a craze for kung fu movies around the world.

Later, Warner reached a cooperation with Golden Harvest and started filming "Enter the Dragon 7" on January 6, 1973, starring Bruce Lee and John Saxon. This was the first Chinese-starred film in the history of world cinema. Hollywood movies.

Just as Bruce Lee was preparing to form his own filming team and go to Hollywood for development, he passed away in Hong Kong on July 20 of the same year, only 6 days before the release of "Enter the Dragon".

Bruce Lee's sudden death caught the entire Hong Kong entertainment industry off guard. At that time, Hong Kong movies still failed to fully open up the international market. martial arts films starring David Chiang, Ti Lung, and Wang Yu of Shaw Brothers were not good enough in overseas sales and box office.

Even though Bruce Lee had passed away, overseas film producers still needed "Bruce Lee movies", so a category of pseudo-Bruce Lee movies called "Bruce Lee exploitation films" was born.

I believe that many netizens born in the 70s and 80s have watched Ho Zongdao "The Legend of Bruce Lee" , or Lu Xiaolong "" The Great Battle of the Great Wall》. After Bruce Lee's death, there were an extremely large number of "Bruce Lee exploitation films" that imitated Bruce Lee's fights or told Bruce Lee's stories, but few people paid attention and counted them.

It wasn’t until this year, when a documentary called "The Fight between the Virtual Dragon and the False Tiger" , was released on the US network that it revealed to us the dusty history of the 1970s and 1980s - He Zongdao (李小龙) , Ju Long, Bruce Lu, Bruce Leung , these former "Bruce Lee imitators" have also returned to the eyes of senior Bruce Lee fans.

1. The three most representative "Bruce Lee imitators"

html In the Hong Kong film industry in the 1970s, copyright awareness was still very weak. After Bruce Lee's death, due to market needs, many film companies in Hong Kong regarded "Bruce Lee" as an IP full of business opportunities to develop. They flew to martial arts gyms and martial arts schools around the world to discover talents, looking for images and skills that were similar to Bruce Lee's. Similar martial artist.

In fact, action movie stars such as Kim Tae Jung (Tang Long), He Zongdao, Jackie Chan, Lu Xiaolong, Liang Xiaolong, Julong, Kurata Yasuaki, Yuan Biao, Li Xiuxian, Li Jie, etc. have all played or imitated Bruce Lee, but among them, the three who received the most praise from the audience and made the most films were Ho Zongdao, Ju Long and Bruce Lu.

, Ho Zongdao (stage name: Bruce Lee)

Ho Zongdao is the only movie star among the many Bruce Lee imitators who is remembered by movie fans by his real name. He was born on June 5, 1950. He practiced martial arts since he was a child. His family was wealthy when he was young. Later, his family fell into decline and he entered the film industry. Before Bruce Lee's death, Ho Zongdao had already participated in several action movies such as "The Iron Triangle", "Gecko and the Dragon", and "The Conspiracy".

After Bruce Lee passed away in 1973, film producers discovered that Peter Ho would star in the first Bruce Lee biographical film "A Generation of Raptors" , bringing Bruce Lee's life story to the screen. In order to "exploit" Bruce Lee in all aspects, the film producer He Zongdao gave him the stage name Bruce Lee . His English name was also changed from "james" to "bruce li" which is closer to Bruce Lee.

Due to the gap between the production level of Taiwanese commercial films and Hong Kong films at that time, "The Raptors" focused on literary dramas and had few action scenes. After its release, the market response was not good, and it was just a mediocre film.

But Wu Siyuan who was far away in Hong Kong fell in love with Ho Zongdao because of this movie and strongly invited him to star in the Bruce Lee biopic "The Legend of Bruce Lee" produced by Golden Harvest.

This is the best Bruce Lee biographical film among the many "Bruce Lee exploitation films" in the 1970s, written and directed by Wu Siyuan. Due to Golden Harvest's authorization, many scenes from Bruce Lee's funeral and photos from his lifetime were used in the film. Wu Siyuan also invited Bruce Lee's friends during his lifetime, Xiao Qilin, Ding Pei, Wei Ping'ao and others to participate in the film. Ip Man's eldest son, Ip Zhun, played Ip Man in the film.

The story of the movie basically follows Bruce Lee’s life and deeds as the main line of development, from studying in the United States to returning to Hong Kong to film, and to his unexpected death. Wu Siyuan also inserted fictional characters and a lot of action scenes into the real story. He also added a lot of "joking" plots to the "mystery of Bruce Lee's death", making the movie very interesting.

Because of this, although "The Legend of Bruce Lee" does not restore Bruce Lee's real life, it is an interesting commercial film. Not only did it sell well in Hong Kong, it also achieved good box office results around the world. After being introduced to the mainland in the 1980s, it became an enlightenment work for the generation born in the 1970s and 1980s to understand Bruce Lee and "Bruce Lee movies".

Ho Zongdao is actually taller than Bruce Lee himself, and he is handsome and well-groomed. Many fans believe that if he did not imitate Bruce Lee, he might be able to achieve higher achievements. He Zongdao himself admired Bruce Lee very much. He not only imitated Bruce Lee's signature moves and fighting styles in depth, but also studied Bruce Lee's works to understand Bruce Lee's thoughts.

Therefore, Ho Chung-tao continued to make film appointments in the 1970s and 1980s. In addition to "The Legend of Bruce Lee", he also starred in "The New Death Game", " Dragon Conquest ", "Wing Chun Brother", "Wing Chun Jeet Kune" and " "The King of Superstars", "Fist of Fury" and other classic action movies.

, Wen Jingxi (stage name: dragon (dragon lee, bruce lei, bruce rhee, moon kyoung-seok), Korean)

from South Korea, taller than Bruce Lee Shorter, but with the same muscle dimensions Exaggerated, he is the most muscular among Bruce Lee's imitators.

At that time, South Korea's Hwachuan Film Company discovered Ju Long, signed a contract with him at a very low salary, and launched the action film "The Last Fist of Fury" with the background of the Republic of China.

Under the banner of "Bruce Lee's early films found in the China Film Archive", the film inserts a large number of clips from Bruce Lee's films as a child star in the title, pretending to be a "documentary". In the part where Ju Long participated, although his acting skills were lacking, his fighting movements were fierce and powerful, and he was indeed three-thirds similar to Bruce Lee. Therefore, it was an unprecedented success after its release.

Because Julong couldn’t get along with Huachuan’s boss, after he became famous, he left South Korea and came to Hong Kong to develop. In order to have a deeper understanding of Bruce Lee's life, Julong visited Bruce Lee's widow Linda, learned Jeet Kune Do techniques, and imitated Bruce Lee's fighting style from movie materials, which greatly helped him improve his movements.

The dragon is not just a "martial artist", but a "big guy with great wisdom". He is not limited to imitating Bruce Lee, but improves on Bruce Lee's fighting style according to his own movement characteristics. He also created many unique weapons, such as a thumb stick that was modified from the nunchaku with a stick attached to one end and the other end looped around the thumb like a keychain.

In the Kung Fu film "Dragon Fist and Snake Hand" set in the Republic of China , he used two magnets to destroy the magnet sword in the villain's hand. These inventions and creations have added a lot to the dragon movie. Although they were all low-budget movies and the stories were very cliché, they seemed very innovative to the audiences of that era.

The Dragon did not arrive in Hong Kong until the mid-to-late 1970s, but still took advantage of Bruce Lee's popularity to make 36 Hong Kong kung fu films, including , "Quick Fist and Weird Moves ", "One Smile, One Punch", "The Brave Ninja" ", "Dragon Fist and Snake Hand", " Miscellaneous Master ", "The Mighty Dragon" and other films are the most famous.

, Huang Jianlong (stage name: Lu Xiaolong (bruce le, wong kin lung), Burmese Chinese)

Lu Xiaolong, formerly known as Huang Jianlong A Chinese born in Myanmar, he started learning karate in his teens and later started practicing karate without gloves. Burmese boxing. In the 1960s, Lu Xiaolong and his family came to Macau. Due to the need to make a living, he began to open a martial arts school in Macau and teach apprentices. He frequently participated in actual combat in the ring and gradually gained fame.

Burmese boxing is quite similar to Muay Thai, and both are known for their fierceness. Due to years of training, Bruce Lui has small eyes and is not as handsome as Bruce Lee in height and appearance, but his body fat percentage and muscle lines are very close to Bruce Lee. Therefore, he was discovered by Director Luo Wei and invited him to film in Hong Kong.

Lu Xiaolong's first film was the sequel to "Tangshan Brother" "Tangshan Second Brother" . Since he was not a martial artist and was proficient in actual combat, Lu Xiaolong could not control his strength at first, which resulted in frequent injuries to the martial artists he fought with. However, after a period of film training, Lu Xiaolong gradually mastered the strength. The trick.

Unlike Ho Zongdao and Ju Long, Bruce Lui hopes to hide his personality as much as possible and tries his best to imitate Bruce Lee, so his fighting actions in the movie are more similar to Bruce Lee. Like Bruce Lee, Bruce Lu trains hard every day, starting with two and a half hours of morning jogging, plus equipment training, and the training time lasts for up to six hours.

This allows him to maintain a strong state for many years. Coupled with the good skills he has developed through many years of actual combat, his punches and kicks are faster than ordinary martial arts masters, and his moves are very beautiful. These made up for Lu Xiaolong's shortcomings in image, allowing him to stand out from the competition. After entering the 1980s, he already had his own production team and sold films all over Europe.

Although he imitated Bruce Lee in his image and actions, Bruce Lui only really played Bruce Lee in one movie, which was "The Snake Kid" which he directed and starred in in 1980.

The movie tells the story of Bruce Lee's experience from his birth to before going to the United States. Shi Jian, who has a close relationship with Bruce Lee, also plays the villain in the film.

In 1987, Lu Xiaolong took advantage of the kung fu craze in the mainland and returned to the mainland to direct and star in "The Great Battle of the Great Wall" . He strongly invited "Sanjie Liu" Huang Wanqiu, Yu Hai, and "Prince of Gymnastics" Li Ning to join the team. The main villain is Lu Cun Taixiang who participated in "God of Gamblers". Because of the twists and turns of the story and the wonderful fighting scenes, it once caused a huge response. , many teenagers at that time regarded him as Bruce Lee himself.

2. The "face blindness" of movie fans in Europe and the United States has given "Bruce Lee exploitation films" a broad market

Although Bruce Lee actually only filmed four and a half movies, the movie stars who have collaborated with him have gained a lot of recognition in the film industry. Good development. Among them, Bruce Lee's apprentice Chuck Rowley has filmed more than 50 movies such as "Vietnam War Vanguard" series, "The Lone Ranger", "Delta Commando" series, etc., and also starred in the "Texas Patrol" series. Episodes.

Tian Jun, Miao Kexiu, Xiao Qilin, Yang Si, Robert Heer and others are also very lucky, especially Yang Si, who was born as a bodybuilder. Although he participated in "Enter the Dragon", he never played against Bruce Lee in the movie. , to make up for this regret, he became the villain in many "Bruce Lee exploitation films" and fought against almost all Bruce Lee imitators.

In addition to the three mentioned above, He Zongdao, Ju Long, and Lu Xiaolong, the following are more famous:

Bruce Lee's apprentice who participated in "Enter the Dragon" Zhan Kelly , because he also has "black" With the characteristics of "Bruce Lee Kung Fu", he became the black version of Bruce Lee and starred in many action movies in Europe and the United States. In the movie, he became a mixture of 007 James Bond and Bruce Lee. He liked to imitate Bruce Lee in wearing sportswear and also used nunchucks, which was very popular among European and American audiences.

Mao Ying, who also participated in "Enter the Dragon", also became the "female version of Bruce Lee".

She is a third-degree black belt master in Aikido. She has solid kung fu and never needs a stunt double in action scenes. Her representative works include "The Eight Generals", "Iron Palms Whirlwind Kick", "Broken Ring", "Aikido", etc., due to its influence on European and American audiences It was so huge that it became the prototype of Chun-Li in the classic arcade game "Street Fighter II".

Bruce Lee's friend Kurata Yasuaki also used the stage name of "Bruce Lu" and became the "Japanese version of Bruce Lee", starring in films such as "The Chase", "Fist of the Dragon" and "The Golden Triangle". Kurata Yasuaki is still active in the film industry and has participated in many movies. The one we are most familiar with is "" with Jet Li.

"Black Dragon" Luo Fanen is the strongest Bruce Lee imitator. He has learned Wing Chun, Goju-ryu karate, Okinawa ancient martial arts, Philippine boxing and other fighting skills. He once starred in "Investigating the Death of Bruce Lee" The action movie "Enter the Dragon and Tiger Fighting Spirit" is the main line.

In 1994, Luo Fanen also competed in UFC at the age of 51, and was submitted by Roy Gracie with a naked choke from behind in the octagonal cage.

Bruce Liang actually made his debut by imitating Bruce Lee. In the movie "Lee Sanjiao Shocks the Gate of Hell" , he played Bruce Lee who came to hell after death and fought with the King of Hell, 007 James Bond, and the vampire Dracula. There are even Popeye, The Mummy, Zhong Kui, Red Dead Redemption, One-Armed Sword King, Zatoichi, Yang Guifei, etc. in the film. It is quite a mind-blowing film.

In addition, there is the Korean "elderly version of Bruce Lee" Gan Shenglong (bronson lee) with a mustache, whose image looks 50 years old. He has collaborated with Luo Lie on "Wang Long", and has also filmed the Korean version of " Death Game ", as well as "Black Dragon Leopard", "Arch Rival", "Venomous Snake" and other films, but he is not well-known. Now online It’s also hard to find these movies anymore.

In fact, European audiences don't know that there are only "four and a half" movies starring Bruce Lee. The most famous one is "Enter the Dragon", which was co-operated by Golden Harvest and Warner Bros. and released globally. But the market needs more Bruce Lee movies, and movie fans in Europe and the United States have "face blindness". As long as they look like Bruce Lee and fight like Bruce Lee, they can accept it.

Therefore, although those "Bruce Lee exploitation films" cannot deceive Chinese people, they have a broad market overseas. At his peak, workaholic Lu Xiaolong often had to star in three movies at the same time; He Zongdao also tried not to have a good rest for nearly a week, falling asleep as soon as he sat down. The overloaded workload made them miserable, and the performance Perfunctory work is inevitable.

Due to the need to seize the market, the shooting cycle of each movie is very short, and there is no time to write a good script. The lines are composed on the spot, and the fighting actions are also copied on the spot, which results in shoddy creation.

Lu Xiaolong once said frankly that he sometimes didn’t know what he was shooting. He Zongdao also felt that many of the movies he made were bad.

For example: There is a movie called "The Mighty Dragon" . After Bruce Lee's death, a scientist named Lucas extracted his DNA and created three Bruce Lees, namely Julong, Lu Xiaolong and Zhang. Play together. The movie also has Yang Si and Chen Huimin joining the cast, but the story makes no sense and the fighting lacks innovation. Although it has gimmicks, it is just a mediocre work.

According to official statistics, from Bruce Lee's death to the late 1980s, there were more than 80 counterfeit Bruce Lee movies released globally, but the actual number is even higher, at least reaching nearly 00.

3. The release of "Game of Death" made movie fans truly accept Bruce Lee's death.

Before the filming of "Enter the Dragon" started in January 1973, Bruce Lee had actually been filming his second film "Game of Death" that he directed and starred in. . However, the launch of "Enter the Dragon" forced him to stop what he was doing. When the movie was completed, he wanted to continue filming "Game of Death", but he suddenly passed away, leaving only 2 hours of filming material.

Although the film was not completed, stills of Bruce Lee fighting in yellow sportswear spread like wildfire and appeared in newspapers and magazines, allowing those all-pervasive film companies to smell business opportunities.

He Zongdao took the lead in launching "The New Death Game" in 1975. Bruce Lu also launched "The Tower of Death" . The appearance of these two movies made Jiahe decide to reshoot Bruce Lee's legacy.

Jiahe found the director of "Enter the Dragon" Robert Golos, the editor and director. Robert drastically cut the material left by Bruce Lee to only ten minutes, and found Kim Tae Jung from South Korea to "pretend" Bruce Lee. Most of the shots that Kim Tae Jung appears in the film are from the side, and the few frontal shots where he wears big sunglasses prevent the audience from seeing his face clearly.

Robert also cut out shots of Bruce Lee's face from the movies starring Bruce Lee and inserted them into the movie. One of the protagonists is looking in the mirror. He even cut out Bruce Lee's face and pasted it directly on the mirror.

These "technical means" attempt to mislead the audience that they are watching a movie starring Bruce Lee, but in fact there are only ten minutes of "best" footage of Bruce Lee.

Finally, this action film named " Death Game" (compared to Bruce Lee's original title "Game of Death", one less "") was released on March 23, 1978, with a box office of 3.44 million Hong Kong dollars. Ranked 7th on the annual box office list. Since there were still two films left in the film contract signed by Bruce Lee and Golden Harvest during his lifetime, Golden Harvest used his filming materials to cut out a "Tower of Death" in 1981.

Therefore, there are actually 6 Bruce Lee movies produced by Golden Harvest, but among them, "Game of Death" and "Tower of Death" were "fake works" that were released after his death. The release of "Game of Death" also made movie fans truly accept the death of Bruce Lee. With the rise of Jackie Chan and Sammo Hung's kung fu comedy genre, "Bruce Lee exploitation films" began to slowly fade out of the market.

4. The success of Jackie Chan's movies brought Hong Kong Kung Fu movies into the era of "Kung Fu Comedy"

Jackie Chan was originally named Chen Gangsheng, and his original stage name was Yuan Lou. When he entered the film industry, he changed his name to Yuan Long. In 1976, Luo Wei recognized him as his godson and gave him He gave him the stage name "Jackie Chan" and customized "Fist of Fury " for him, hoping that he would "become Bruce Lee 2.0".

However, Jackie Chan's single-eyelid image was a bit dull at the time, and his imitating Bruce Lee's fighting moves were rigid, which resulted in the film not being successful.

Jackie Chan later starred in many martial arts films and kung fu films, all of which were like "a muddy cow drowns in the sea" and failed to stir up any splash. Luo Wei was also close to giving up. At this time, Yuan Heping asked Luo Wei to lend his talents and found Jackie Chan to star in "The Snake" and "Drunken Master" directed by him, which turned out to be an instant hit. Afterwards, Jackie Chan signed a contract with Golden Harvest and started the era of kung fu comedy movies with Sammo Hung.

Regarding who created the kung fu comedy genre, fans have always been quarreling between Sammo Hung and Jackie Chan, but their styles are actually very different.

Sammo Hung's actions focus on hard work and hard work. The fighting actions are gorgeous and highly technical. Comedy elements are generally placed in the storyline, and he will also try genre films with horror elements such as ghost films and zombie films.

Jackie Chan integrates comedy elements into the fighting, and often adds action elements that imitate Buster Keaton in the design of the action, which enhances the viewing pleasure of the fighting. After entering the 1980s, Jackie Chan learned Bruce Lee's shooting techniques, increased his film investment, and shot on location around the world, which also made the film more commercial blockbuster.

Compared with the films of these two, those "Bruce Lee exploitation films" seem outdated and outdated, so an era will eventually die. Ho Zongdao eventually left the film industry and returned to Taiwan. Due to old injuries from many years of filming, he began to learn osteopathic massage. Now he has opened a massage shop and also accepts apprentices to teach martial arts.

龙 returned to South Korea. He retreated behind the scenes and spent more time with his family. He is now the chairman of the Korean Film Actors Association. Although it is no longer what it used to be, the good figure of his youth is still there. Today, the dragon often goes to the mountains to train his body, practicing breaking board and Jeet Kune Do.

Lu Xiaolong came to the mainland in the late 1980s to develop. He became a director. He tried to make horror films "Liao Zhai: Ghost Fox" , and also filmed anti-Japanese themed films " Black Corridor " " Dawn" "Eye of " and "Yang Jingyu", are full of patriotic emotions.

At the end of the documentary Director Ho Chi-keung Director took the creative team to visit the studios of Golden Harvest, Shaw Brothers, and China Film. Due to the production reduction of Hong Kong movies, those studios have long been reduced to ruins. They were once lively and glorious, just like the decline of kung fu movies. Witnessing the end of an era.

(Movie Rotten Tomatoes Editorial Department: Hot-Blooded Heart)