Dir. David Gregory
2023, USA, 100 min
Cantonese, Chinese, English, French, German, Korean, Japanese with English subtitles
When Bruce Lee died in 1974 at the peak of his superstardom, he had completed only four feature films. But within hours of his funeral, Hong Kong movie studios began to produce hundreds of unauthorized biopics, sequels, prequels, spin-offs, and rip-offs starring a competing series of Lee lookalikes. Over the next decade, fueled by both deception and demand, ‘Bruceploitation’ would become a staple of global cinema.
Director David Gregory—who’d previously explored film’s transgressive edges in his award-winning documentaries Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley’s Island of Dr. Moreau and Flesh & Blood: The Reel Life & Ghastly Death of Al Adamson—now examines this uniquely ‘70s phenomenon through interviews with Bruce Li, Bruce Le, Bruce Liang and Dragon Lee and a host of other martial arts legends that for the first time reveal the history, controversy, and legacy behind one of the most bizarre and successful genres in movie history.
“An intriguing piece of socioeconomic analysis which explores a ruthless marketing machine gone completely off the rails.” – Jennie Kermode, Eye for Film
“A funny, bittersweet slice of monofocused nostalgia.” – Anton Bitel, Projected Figures
