Film Review: Enter the Clones of Bruce (Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival)
By: Joseph Perry (Twitter - Uphill Both Ways Podcast)
A good documentary about films that you haven’t seen before should make you interested in watching them, and director David Gregory’s Enter the Clones of Bruce accomplished that with me. This was no easy feat, as I have been a hard sell on what I previously considered to be sheer exploitation capitalizing on the death of the screen’s biggest martial arts legend.
Enter the Clones of Bruce swayed my opinion because it presents interviews with actors who played the leads in what became known as Brucesploitation films giving their feelings about appearing in these movies, along with filmmakers and costars, experts in the field of martial arts films, and important academic voices. They helped me realize that these movies were not always simple money grabs, but that some served as a means of grieving for fans of Bruce Lee, who first came into the American mainstream as Kato on the 1960s superhero television series The Green Hornet and who exploded into international popularity with his films The Big Boss, Fist of Fury, The Way of the Dragon, and Enter the Dragon.
Bruce Lee became an important icon and pop culture influence with Asian-Americans and Asian people around the world, along with people of many other races. Enter the Clones of Bruce also examines this important factor in an in-depth manner.
So I now have a better understanding about the roles of Bruce Lai, Bruce Li, Bruce Le, Dragon Lee, and the other Bruce clones, along with the people who worked on screen and behind the scenes with them. Gregory’s Enter the Clones of Bruce has given me much to think about, as well as a long list of new-to-me movies to seek out.
Enter the Clones of Bruce screened as part of Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival, which took place in Bucheon, South Korea from June 29–July 9, 2023.
Joseph Perry is one of the hosts of When It Was Cool’s exclusive Uphill Both Ways podcast (whenitwascool.com/up-hill-both-ways-podcast/). He also writes for the websites Gruesome Magazine (gruesomemagazine.com), The Scariest Things (scariesthings.com), Horror Fuel (horrorfuel.com), B&S About Movies (bandsaboutmovies.com), Uphill Both Ways (ubwpodcast.com), The Good, the Bad, and the Verdict (gbvreviews.com), and Diabolique Magazine (diaboliquemagazine.com), and film magazines Phantom of the Movies’ VideoScope (videoscopemag.com) and Drive-In Asylum (etsy.com/shop/GroovyDoom).
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