Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		5.0
Overall		4.0

Enter the Clones of Bruce Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman June 21, 2024

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.

Severin Films has often struck me as a kind of "scrappy underdog" in the home video market, bringing out a glut of niche cult items, typically with some very well produced supplemental material, and that same general ambience suffuses the entire The Game of Clones set, but is perhaps highlighted by this documentary, which was co-produced by Severin's Carl Daft and David Gregory, and which also benefits from producing contributions from the likes of Michael Worth and Frank Djeng. The result may frankly not be overly revelatory, especially for anyone who has been passingly familiar with so-called "Brucesploitation", but this is nonetheless a hugely enjoyable and often kind of slyly humorous look at one of the frankly weirdest "offshoots" of cinematic history in the annals of filmmaking.

There's considerable contextual information proffered in the piece, both about the Hong Kong film industry in both the Bruce Lee and post-Bruce Lee eras, and perhaps most winningly, at least for fans attuned to this particular nook and cranny of the Hong Kong film industry, offers some interviews with some of the "pretenders" to the throne, now getting on in years but still apparently somewhat bemused by their brushes with quasi- fame. While Brucesploitation aficionados will find this engaging in the extreme, The Game of Clones will provide an excellent education for those previously not that aware or interested in this admittedly peculiar subgenre, at least in broad strokes.

Enter the Clones of Bruce Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

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 Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

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.

Enter the Clones of Bruce Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentary With Co-Executive Producer/Director David Gregory, Co-Producers Frank Djeng, Vivian Wong, Michael Worth and Director Of Photography Jim Kunz


• Working At Shaw Brothers – Outtakes With Godfrey Ho, David Chiang, Yasuaki Kurata, Lee Chiu, Lo Meng, Mars and Phillip Ko (HD; 19:21) begins with the following information:

  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.
  
  The following is the majority of the footage from that rough dialog assembly.

  Subtitled in English.


• Bruce Lee And I – Outtakes With Sammo Hung, Phillip Ko, Yasuaki Kurata, Mars, Angela Mao, Andre Morgan, Lee Tso Nam and More (HD; 24:32) begins with the following information:

  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.
  
  The following is the rough assembly dialog edit of personal recollections of Lee and his influence.

  Subtitled in English.


• The Lost World Of Kung Fu Film Negatives – Outtakes With Godfrey Ho, Joseph Lai, Angela Mao, Lee Tso Nam And Film Preservationists (HD; 15:59) begins with the following information:

  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.
  
  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.

  Subtitled in English.


• Bruce's Hong Kong – Location Tour With Frank Djeng (HD; 27:27) is a fun look at the Hong Kong of then and now.


• Severin's Kung Fu Theater With Actor/Director/Bruceploitation Expert Michael Worth (HD; 1:34) offers a brief introduction. This is accessible as either a standalone supplement or under the Play Menu, where it's authored to lead directly to the feature.


• Trailers (HD; 2:42, 1:59, 00:30)

Enter the Clones of Bruce Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

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.