How Bruce Lee's Death Spawned An Entirely New Genre

[@Locadel2003]

If it wasnt for Bruce Lee I think we wouldn't had legends like Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Donnie Yen & Sammo Hung

[@chrisramirez7357]

Cant forget about Rock Lee

[@azteceyes5613]

HitmonLEE

[@BrandonWhatTheF]

Fei Long

[@howkel]

Maybe they wouldn't have gained as much status in the US but Hong Kong cinema was already well on its way when Bruce died and would have been with or without him.

[@Watch-0w1]

​@@howkelu don't really know that for certain.

[@AntGSuxatYoutube]

The Bruceploitation films are such a fascinating moment in cinema history for me. Are they cheap and exploitative? Yes. But they also demonstrate how the world wasn't ready to say goodbye to someone as legendary as Bruce Lee. They kept the spirit of Bruce Lee alive even if it wasn't done in the most tasteful way.

[@YouilAushana]

Nothing like "Game of Death"!

[@SweatyTurban34]

so sad this dude died during the literal emergence of his prime. rip to the 🐐

[@maxhill9254]

true!

[@artirony410]

yeah, there's one film historian who argued that if Bruce Lee hadn't died so young, his movies would've been bigger than the James Bond franchise

[@Lance_Gilbert]

It’s a shame Bruce Lee didn’t get to see the impact he had on the film industry.

[@LetThatStuffGo]

Marshall Law, Liu Kang, Jann Lee, Fei Long... got to love playing these video game characters.

[@tylerzorro5902]

I’m surprised you didn’t mention “the warrior” tv show. It’s based on Bruce Lee’s writings. It’s not bruceploitation, rather it honors him in a great way as far as I can tell. I thought it might’ve deserved a little mention in the end. But nice video!

[@banchas75]

Warrior is one of my favorite shows of all time.

[@Weaponx8]

GREAT SHOW

[@notproductiveproductions3504]

I had to double check cuz there was another martial arts tv show based on Bruce’s writings but it was actually Bruce’s idea that the studio tried to take away and give to David Carradine

[@SergioLeonardoCornejo]

He was imitated by many, but remains a legend.

[@jasonbryant1552]

Back around 95 I bought a Bruce Lee five pack of movies. One of the movies was a biography of Bruce being played by either Li or Le. Finally glad someone did a video of this

[@SammyWerunga]

Bruce Lee is the reason I'm a Jackie Chan fan

[@m07hy]

Jackie Chan is the reason Im a bruce lee fan

[@BigPurp9]

@@m07hysame, when I was in Nigeria we had one of those dodgy pirate dvd box sets filled with Jackie chan/Bruce Lee movies. I only bought it because of Jackie Chan but it was my first introduction to Bruce Lee as a kid

[@mrdankhimself]

Jackie Chan is an awful human being.

[@kutter_ttl6786]

​@@mrdankhimselfHis relationship with his kids, especially his illegitimate daughter, made me lose lots of respect for him.

[@theotherohlourdespadua1131]

​@@mrdankhimselfHim being a godd*mn Commie made me lose a lot of faith in him. Hong Kong - as much as I dislike that city - was right to disavow him...

[@ajohndaeal-asad6731]

Kid: “I want Bruce Lee” Mom: “We have Bruce Lee at home” *bruce lee at home*

[@jwnj9716]

Nothing beats The Dragon Lives Again. He teams up with the One-Armed Swordsman, David Carradine from the Kung Fu TV show and Popeye......but wait! THERE'S MORE! He has to battle James Bond, Clint Eastwood, Zatoichi, The Godfather, Exorcist, Dracula, Mummies(who dance around like children while Pink Floyd's ending of the song Bike is played at the same time) and Emmanuelle......

[@roel.vinckens]

I want the director's cut on that one. Let me guess: Bruce gets beaten by Emmanuelle ?

[@Weaponx8]

Till this day, I can’t think of a more realistic fight scene then Bruce Lee Vs Chuck Norris in Return of the Dragon. Bruce was the first to use actual martial arts technique and even pulled a Boxing technique in that fight scene. Can’t fully put to words how Bruce’s martial arts was on screen, but it just flowed well didn’t seem choreographed.

[@danmarshall5895]

A long I sound in Chinese (and Japanese) is actually created with the letters "ai". A single letter I actually creates an "e" sound. So Bruce Li would have been pretty close in pronunciation to the original Bruce Lee.

[@jp3813]

Bruceploitation was a huge setback to the kung fu genre. In an alternate reality where Lee never died young, Hong Kong cinema would've evolved much faster, and Western studios likely would've promoted more Eastern talents w/o trying to change their styles. It wasn't until the repackaging of Jackie Chan's Rumble in the Bronx for American theaters that Hollywood really began recruiting established Asian action stars such as Michelle Yeoh (Tomorrow Never Dies), Chow Yun-fat (The Replacement Killers), Jet Li (Lethal Weapon 4), Sammo Hung (Martial Law), etc... No offense to the fans of Van Damme & Seagal, but the choreography of their fight scenes have always been pitiful by comparison.

[@darkangel15221]

You forgot Sonny Chiba

[@jp3813]

@@darkangel15221 For what movie?

[@dominiquepowell3158]

​@@jp3813the Street Fighter

[@jp3813]

@@dominiquepowell3158 Not Hollywood.

[@_The_Archive_]

Fun Fact: For Enter the Dragon, Bruce Lee hid a small piece of iron in his hand to break the mirrors during the final fight scene

[@laslalal8451]

I knew that

[@NerdyGamerReacts]

🤯Awesome fact, thanks for that. 🤯

[@JoeBuck207]

That's BS.

[@GiantGeekGuy]

Shoutout to Accented Cinema for his amazing Bruce Lee Retrospective videos, it brought to my attention a lot about the effect Bruce had on popular culture, including Bruceploitation, and (as a video game fan) the many Bruce Lee-esque fighters in fighting games.

[@PunchKickBlog]

Great channel in general, nice shoutout!

[@roel.vinckens]

Bruce is the reason I am like water.

[@marcocardia3960]

Even dead, Bruce Lee owned the 70's

[@TianZhaoHeavenlyFortune]

Li is still pronounced Lee in Mandarin. It’s not pronounced differently

[@Ganiscol]

As it is in German 😅

[@ThatBrendonGuy]

It's a metaphor, the name is a lie!

[@jamesbeachem2003]

Yes sir!!! Bruce Le, Bruce Li and Bruce Lei were some of my favorites.

[@bensneb360]

At least Games of Death got to show the world Bruce’s last and some of his best kung-fu work

[@mr.bennett108]

FYI: The movie about killing the bull is no doubt cribbed from a famous legend in martial arts about a guy named Masutatsu Oyama. He is legendary for fighting about 50 bulls, killing 3 of them, and (supposedly) using a hand chop to knock off a bull's horn. There are old-timey movies of one of his fights that leaves a little to be desired, but APPARENTLY it HAS been verified that Mas HAD fought bulls, killed at least one, and MIGHT have chopped the horn off a bull with his bare hand by historians.

[@B.-T.]

Just "a guy"? Mas Oyama founded one of the most famous styles of karate, kyokushin. That being said, a lot of his exploits definitely sound made-up. The story of Ryu and Sagat from Street Fighter is also based on some of his supposed exploits testing his karate against muay thai fighters in Thailand.

[@ber23rk]

The Bruce Lee's actual funeral footage is fucked up

[@benegan7421]

Fun fact: The “i” in “Li” is pronounced “Lee” in Chinese. Like 这里, 栗子, 里面 and so on. Also, you wouldn’t call Jet Li, Jet Lie

[@PeterLiuIsBeast]

To be more precise the stage name Bruce Li is 黎小龙. In Mandarin it would be pronounced nearly identical to Bruce Lee 李小龙 （different tone for surname). But in Cantonese 李 is "lei" and 黎 is "lai" so its a bit more different.

[@Woozlewuzzleable]

Thank You, I love your channel. It's very entertaining to this old film buff.

[@angelaarmie5789]

Filipino actor Ramon Zamora was able to make at least two Bruce Lee clone inspired films WHILE BRUCE LEE WAS STILL ALIVE. They were comedic and parody in nature. Fish of Fury was one of them.

[@Sledgehammer003]

The Clones of Bruce Lee - SpoonyOne . The whole reason I know of this weird niche genre! thank you for this vid!

[@Joshua-uw7wm]

Game of Death 2 is in top fifteen favorite martial arts movies of all time

[@coolyeetman7894]

1:57 Bruce Li is pronounced the same as Bruce Lee

[@anubusx]

Enter The Dragon is the greatest martial arts film.

[@shikarbabulall3897]

Bruce lee's energy or presence is pretty powerful , never met him but you can feel it every time you look a Bruce lee video , what can I say he wasn't a joke

[@DinDagaw]

Be water my friend, be water....

[@INikeAir]

Reminds me of Disney tryna own their dead actors. Lol. It’s crazy

[@christianbritton1362]

Grew up on Kung Fu theater in the 70s and early 80s. Trained BJJ 17 years, Muay Thai and Karate many years, and STILL make cheesy sound effects when I punch or kick 😂

[@lovefromjay5946]

Bruce Lee: Enter the Bruceverse

[@kaguth]

One of the reasons Quinten Tarantino doesn't like Bruce Lee is apparently because he thinks the imitators were better. Of course you can't beat the original

[@ComicFiction]

That and Tarantino worships Polanski, who personally didn't like Bruce for a time.

[@Ganiscol]

No, he actually spelled it out at a point: The stuntmen on Green Hornet apparently hated Lee because he would constantly tag (hit) them instead of pulling the punches and kicks. Tarantino sides with the stuntmen here, but fails to acknowledge that in Hong Kong action movies the stars often hit their stunt crew to sell it better. I think Donnie Yen is pretty (in)famous for that, to this day. Just because Hollywood wasnt and isnt used to that, they alleged he did that out of disrespect.

[@ComicFiction]

@@Ganiscol agreed, but more than one thing can be true.

[@kaguth]

@@Ganiscol Yeah, I said that was one of the reasons but overall Quinten is very biased on Bruce. It is true he accidentally hit stunt guys in the beginning but only because he didn't know how to fight on screen and later he was known for taking care of stunt guys. The Kung Fu Genius podcast did a great breakdown of this.

[@B.-T.]

What's mind-boggling is that in the late 90s or early 00s, schlock producer Joseph Lai tried to bring back Bruceploitation with two movies starring one "Dragon Sek".

[@joshmorgan6036]

It would have been weird if they didn’t imitate him. He was a great character class.

[@SammyWerunga]

3:31 that sounds like a wrestling name

[@vjones17]

I saw "Bruce Le" films prior to seeing an actual Bruce Lee flick. I only would see clips during the documentaries of the 70's. I remember being disappointed that it was not him. It took me until 1984 to see Enter The Dragon at the age of 18. The difference was astounding; it was like smoking a Cuban cigar after years of Swishers

[@cinegoth4144]

Thank you for doing something obscure and vintage.

[@grapeshot]

And often times it's closely tied to blaxploitation movies.

[@boredstudent]

I've definitely heard of Moon Kyoung-seok or Dragon Lee. I saw the 1970s documentary The Real Bruce Lee and "Last Fist of Fury" was one of the movies they showed. That one starred Dragon Lee. Bruce Li was also shown in the documentary.

[@aaronkelly1762]

You didn't bring up the weirdest Brucesplotation film out there. Bruce and Jackie Save the Day, where Bruce Lee (not the real one) and Jackie Chan (not the real one) have to stop a gang war between 2 dojos and expose the culprits of a conspiracy that wishes to take over.

[@BiohazardEXTREME]

This is the reason I can't watch Game of Death. It's such a shame. They didn't even choose someone who had Bruce's body type, it confounds me. Bruce's fight scenes from that film are excellent, and if it were up to me, I would have created a documentary instead, about the life of Bruce Lee, and just included all those fights within the narrative as a feature. Imagine in 1978, a Bruce Lee documentary comes out and says, "Never before seen Bruce Lee fight scenes." I think it would have been a far more tasteful homage, and still prove to be a profitable venture.

[@TheDefiniteArticle_]

(First comment) Love Bruce Lee! Another great video.

[@edgardagosto1917]

Those 8Track tape days 1973-79

[@dwainsimmons3447]

Can you do a review of Digimon’s dub and see what made it stand out.

[@iamdunn1]

i now need to see all these movies

[@trikyy7238]

My favourite Bruce Lee movie is Fistful of Yen.

[@hristoforrotaru3454]

Can you make a video about Rumpelstiltskin from once upon a time in the near future?

[@mspirits9911]

I was hoping Enter the Fat Dragon would be included in this video as it was one of the earlier protest on the Bruceplotation. And not sure why Bruce Leung is not mentioned here.

[@B.-T.]

Probably because Bruce Leung was his actual stage name, which he'd been using since before Bruce Lee's passing. Aside from The Dragon Lives Again he never did bruceploitation. He didn't even look like him.

[@Y2Jerms]

Fun fact: currently there is a wrestler who goes by dragon Lee

[@artirony410]

Severin Films has a whole box set of Bruceploitation movies. Similarly, Golden Ninja sells a box set of Jackie Chan knockoff movies

[@i.t.jmusic6931]

Clones of Bruce lee is like having Liu kang, Fei long and Law in 1 movie.. live action Hong Kong movie like that will be sick

[@thegreatacolyt1277]

Rest in peace legend

[@HarvestStore]

Great video.

[@-haclong2366]

I wonder if this only happened because he died in his prime, imagine if Bruce Willis died in the mid 1990's, we'd probably have a completely different view of him today.

[@dragonskunkstudio7582]

My favorite Bruceploitation movie is Kentucky Fried Movie or A Fistfull of Yen. Does that one count?

[@ray101892]

Whoever thought "Exit the dragon, enter the tiger" was a good title should be jailed.

[@trikyy7238]

I liked "Enter the Fist."

[@bsabruzzo]

This is so Pink Panther of them...

[@edgardagosto1917]

Don Wong and Alexander Fu Sheng the next Bruce Lee

[@marcosfidelis4171]

Anything abusing the death of Bruce Lee should get no respect, except for thet one with 3 clones of Lee, because 1: they're not really pretending to be real Bruce Lee and 2: that's just funny

[@gobsleigh5871]

Apparently, "This worked, we should copy paste it" was already the trend in the movie industry by then. Very interesting topic, thanks for the video !

[@sivuyilejonas]

He’s the GOAT 🐐

[@jimspetdragons3737]

I have no problem w/ these other films. I've seen a fair number of them. I found them entertaining and accepted them for what they were. Cheap money grabs. That's fine. They still kept Bruce's name relevant (current at the time) for that much longer.

[@Vinny792]

Except for using real world footage of his funeral in Game of Death. That’s just downright reprehensible.

[@jimspetdragons3737]

@@Vinny792 Well, someone took that footage and released it publicly. The movie did no differently. But yeah, I could see that as a problem for many.

[@budofsharon3496]

💜🤠 ALGORITHM APPEASEMENT AND LOVE

[@topochijo]

And don't forget about Bronson Lee, a Bruce Lee clone with Charles Bronson mustache.

[@anubusx]

Like a finger pointing to the moon.

[@prawnstar502]

1:28 the disrespect.. smh

[@daijishinomori9161]

Without Bruce Lee, fight choreography would still be janky and hits won't look so believable

[@bamflyer]

This is wild

[@puzzud]

I am generally against the term "rip off", as commonly the things we think are original are themselves heavily derivative. It is definitely poor to market these movies misleadingly to make people think it's actually Bruce Lee. I generally stayed clear of these movies when I was in my peak Bruce Lee phase; so I don't know how heavily they lean on elements from the previous movies or Bruce Lee's image. I don't like to see these things overly litigated--a simple approval from the Lee estate I think should be sought as a matter of grace & respect. It's not like the Lee estate would have been ready for a while to generate even so much as a biography as was later made.

[@diegodreossi1458]

Bruce Lee was a legend, too bad he died very young.

[@theletterm1787]

Bruce Mee

[@thegreatacolyt1277]

No way

[@carlosalbertolealrodriguez5529]

Actually, BRUCE LE it´s my favorite Bruce Lee clone, he, he...

[@lacrartezorok4975]

I think Sammi Hung showed what these imitators deserved in Enter the Fat Dragon.

[@masukuma]

'Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery that mediocrity can pay to greatness

[@Watch-0w1]

I like jackie chan more but respect the hell out of bruce

[@YouilAushana]

Notice what group of people it is and what type of society and economics they have?

[@xliquidflames]

There's a missed opportunity here to talk about bringing actors back to life with the use of computers. They were just doing their version of Carrie Fisher and Peter Cushing before computers were able to do it. Are we going to get this kind of thing as technology advances? Could we, for example, see a Curisploitation film when Tom Cruise dies? Just feed every nanosecond of time that he's captured on film, be it in a movie, by paparazzi, at award shows, or in interviews, into a machine learning system and then have it create an entirely new movie stating him after he's dead. I think he would be completely against this because of how hellbent on doing things for real he seems to be. Tom Cruise, the guy who insisted on doing things for real, is being brought back to life by AI? But he will have no say in it because he's dead. Even if he leaves instruction to never do this, if there's enough money in it, someone will disregard that wish and do it anyway.

[@electrixfyingipod6206]

It’s a bit hypocritical for a culture that’s all about honor, respect, family honor not shaming the family name and legacy would take the opportunity to exploit someone image and values that comes from the same culture for monetary gains. That just shows when it comes to money their not one culture that wouldn’t cross any line to obtain it.

[@-haclong2366]

The only reason we see Bruce Lee with that haircut is because he died in the 1970's, had he lived to the 1980's we would've seen him with a mullet or something.

[@Craxin01]

It just goes to show, make something unique and popular and you will have an army of imitators ready to capitalize on your success only to run it into the ground, ruining something special.

[@wuthichaiauomsin6237]

on the modern day we have yiploitation and interestingly it more accurate than donnie yen yip-man series.

[@MrDDiRusso]

CHUCK NORRIS LET BRUCE LEE WIN.

[@pirateg3cko]

Li and Lee are both pronounced like Lee, FYI. They're anglicizations of potentially the same Chinese surname.

[@PeterLiuIsBeast]

Actually in this case Bruce Lee is 李小龙 and Bruce Li is 黎小龙。 Different surnames pronounced with the same sounds with different tones (in Mandarin, Cantonese is different).

[@rjcado-an]

Bruce Li is not to be pronounced as "lie" it should be read as lee, like Jet Li.

[@Crimson28]

Someone should forward this to Tarantino 😂

[@scotthultin7769]

Dragon Lily is the best movie that I've seen of the copycat version of the real Bruce Lee movies

[@meligoth]

The end of the Bruce-sploitaion era was probably the slapstick comedy, They Call Me Bruce? It seems fitting to end the exploitation for what it really was, a joke.

[@kyokoyumi]

"which didn't star bruce lee but bruce li. That's li with an i" It's still pronunced "lee" the spelling lee is anglicised so westerners know how to pronounce li. It would be "bruce lai" if it were to be the way you said it. And le would be "leh" not "lee" Also, seok is pronounced "sohk" (approx) not "say-ohk"

[@nikkifennel]

Li it's pronounced Lee

[@intellectualninjamonkey2496]

Although this will be a very unpopular opinion, I truly believe Bruce Lee harmed martial arts. Most people credit Bruce for popularizing martial arts but if you think about it, where martial arts were directed because of his movies?Asian Kung Fu crap, sensational myths, bullshido, mysticism, ancient "secret" temples, wise old masters... If it wasn't for martial arts movies like the ones Bruce Lee popularised, we might have arrived to mma and realistic combat sports much sooner. People would follow real combat athletes from judo, wrestling and kickboxing, not movie stars.

[@artirony410]

Bruce Lee arguably was one of the early influences on MMA though because of his development of jeet kun do

[@intellectualninjamonkey2496]

@@artirony410 where are the champions of JKD? Where I can find the ppv of the first JKD tournaments? Ohhh, wait....JKD was nothing more than another "dead" martial arts like the traditional styles..

[@mrdankhimself]

You should learn what JKD is before you try to discuss it kid

[@intellectualninjamonkey2496]

@@mrdankhimself still not answering.... Where are the JKD tournaments? Where are the JKD champions or even fighters. That is , people who have actually trained JKD not combat athletes who do something that reminds you a concept that Bruce Lee vaguely talked about in THEORY or in a book. Truth is , I know very well what JKD really is: another "dead" traditional martial art, a glorified version of wing chun.

[@lowlowseesee]

damn i never thought of Game of Death as part of the brucespoiltation. honestly anyone who loves and respects bruce just knows that the film is god awful lol

[@Mcgturtle3]

Pretty sure Li is still pronounced Lee lol

[@mendo35]

There is only one Bruce Lee. These films good or bad are irrelevant to his legend.

[@zero11010]

2:38 showing a dollar amount from nearly 50 years ago is not useful, man! What is that in today’s dollars? And what’s an estimation of what the film cost to make? There’s no point of comparison from that era. So, am I supposed to compare movies that make hundreds of millions today and think 1.4 is super impressive? It only takes a sentence or two to do this, and it’ll improve the quality of your content. 👍

[@jinchuriki7022]

Honestly disrespectful

[@nospoon3822]

Yeah they dishonor Bruce and need to be bashed xD But they are funny though.