7 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Within hours of his 1974 funeral, Hong Kong movie studios began to produce hundreds of unauthorized biopics, spin-offs and rip-offs starring a competing roster of Bruce Lee lookalikes. Over the next decade, ‘Bruceploitation’ would become a staple of global cinema. Director David Gregory – whose award-winning documentaries include LOST SOUL: THE DOOMED JOURNEY OF RICHARD STANLEY’S ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU and BLOOD & FLESH: THE REEL LIFE & GHASTLY DEATH OF AL ADAMSON – now examines this fascinating phenomenon via interviews with Bruce Li, Bruce Le, Bruce Liang and Dragon Lee; martial arts legends like Angela Mao, David Chiang, Phillip Ko and Sammo Hung; and the producers, directors, distributors and experts – along with copious clips from the films themselves – that for the first time reveal the history, controversy and legacy behind one of the most bizarre genres in movie history.
Documentary | 100% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.78:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0
English, French, Mandarin (Traditional)
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 4.0 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 5.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Note: This film is available on Blu-ray both in this standalone edition and also as part of Severin's The Game of Clones: Bruceploitation Collection Vol.
1.
When Severin Films released Kung Fu Trailers of
Fury
and Return of Kung Fu Trailers of
Fury
several years ago, I'm sure I wasn't the only one initially thinking, "Well, that's a stupid idea for a release", only to have the sheer
lunacy of the trailers assembled in both collections "fight back" against that assessment, as if to say in response, "Yeah, well who's stupid
now?" In fact, both Kung Fu Trailers of Fury and Return of Kung Fu Trailers of Fury were kind of deliriously enjoyable in
their
own slapdash way, and those releases evidently were one of the inspirations for a full on collection of so-called "Brucesploitation" films, this time
offering the actual films in addition to their trailers. The goofily affable Michael Worth, who has contributed so many fun commentaries
through the years to various kung fu films on Blu-ray, is your "host" of sorts here, offering introductions to all the films and commentaries for many
of
them. If none of these films is ever going to be acclaimed as an unappreciated masterpiece, and if both video and audio on many of the films in
this
set might be charitably termed problematic, merely having these films in high definition will be alluring, and an absolute glut of other supplemental
material is included as well, making this a probable "must have" for a certain demographic.
Enter the Clones of Bruce is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Severin Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. Unsurprisingly this has an unavoidably heterogeneous appearance, with contemporary interview segments looking well detailed and nicely suffused for the most part, but (again expectedly) some of the film clips being extremely ragged. The new material is probably at the 4.5 to 5.0 levels, while the archival material can frankly often be down toward 1.0 or 1.5 levels, so I've downgraded the overall video score accordingly.
Enter the Clones of Bruce features a rather robust sounding DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 track. Our specs only allow for one primary language, and while this is a documentary made for an English speaking audience and contains a lot of English, there is also of course a fair amount of what I'm assuming is either Mandarin or Cantonese. Audio quality in some archival material can vary slightly, but on the whole this is a surprisingly consistent sounding track, and of course all of the contemporary interview talking head material sounds fine. Optional English, French and Mandarin subtitles are available.
The first rough assembly of Enter the Clones of Bruce was over three hours. While we wanted to establish the importance of Shaw Bros. in the pre-title sequence of the film, the sheer volume of interview footage on the subject meant that we could only include a small fraction in the final film.Subtitled in English.
The following is the majority of the footage from that rough dialog assembly.
The importance and inspiration of Bruce Lee in the lives and careers of our interviewees was key to establish in the pre-title sequence of the film. However, it was not practical to have a 30 minute pre-title sequence in a feature documentary about a phenomenon which occurred after his death.Subtitled in English.
The following is the rough assembly dialog edit of personal recollections of Lee and his influence.
The loss of decent pre-print and even release print elements in usable condition of many independently produced Kung Fu films since their production in the 70s and 80s, Bruceploitation or otherwise, is quite shocking and saddening for genre film history.Subtitled in English.
Until late in the edit we had a section on this issue in the film but we kept cutting it down in order to not ruin the pace and story of the film until it no longer seemed like a respectful acknowledgement of the seriousness of the issue of preservations of these movies.
The following is a very rough cut of that section before it was cut down and removed entirely.
There's no better place to start your "journey" with The Game of Clones than with this appropriately placed first disc in Severin's huge set. That said, if you're opting for the standalone release, you're still getting a nicely produced documentary and a glut of great supplements. Recommended.
(Still not reliable for this title)
Cameroun Connection
1985
Za jia gao shou / 雜家高手
1979
Bruce Lee: A Dragon Story / Yi dai meng long / 一代猛龍
1974
San lung mang tam / Shen long meng tan / Mie jue qi qi / 神龍猛探 / 滅絕七七
1980
Dragon on Fire / Kuai quan guai zhao / 快拳怪招
1978
Shen wei san meng long / 神威三猛龍
1980
Mission for the Dragon / Ying quan / Maegwon / 鷹拳
1979
Si wang mo ta / 死亡魔塔
1978
1990
2014
He's a Legend, He's a Hero / Yong chun da xiong / 詠春大兄
1976
Visages villages
2017
40th Anniversary Edition | The Dragon and the Cobra | Fist of Fear
1980
Bruce Against Iron Hand / Dai gau tau yue siu leung ji / Da jiao tou yu sao niang zi / 大教頭與騷娘子
1979
The New Game of Death / Xin si wang you xi / 新死亡遊戲
1975
2013
死亡塔 / Si wang ta / Tower of Death
1981
2011
1989
2014