The Bruce Le Deep Cuts
Of all the various Clones of Bruce Lee, my favourite has always been Bruce Le, not only because he’s a very good friend and would unleash the Ninja Strikes Back Sonny Chiba inspired X-ray Punch to me if I didn’t say that, but because he always seemed to be having fun! Sometimes Bruce Li seemed to be far too serious and as we now know, was struggling with feeling uncomfortable as a Copy of Bruce Lee, while Dragon Lee was too wild and wacky for me at times, Bruce Le just seemed to be having fun, he had the look, the moves, the physique and he seemed to be enjoying himself making movies around the world with his friends.
Having had the pleasure of knowing him for a good few years, Bruce has shared many a memory from the making of these movies, and he was enjoying himself, he knew he wasn’t Bruce Lee and he also knew there was a market for these movies, and he could turn Bruce Le into a character itself, and he did a wild range of movies as Bruce Le including the dark action thriller Black Spot which sees him in almost Operation Condor meets Eastern Condors mode, and has him entering the UFC Cage before the UFC even existed, and there’s a more serious side to him with the Films and TV show’s he’s made that address a serious aspect of Chinese History, and the Comfort Women situation the Japanese Army enforced on China during the war.
It was great to see how well he was received in America on the Promotional Tour for the Bruce Lee Clones Volume 1 Box Set from Severin Films, it was great to see him interacting with the fans and I would get daily messages updating me on his experiences, and I think we should look forward to his potential return to action in a project or two that Michael Worth is putting together, and some projects we’re talking about in Hong Kong.
So here’s a look at two lesser known slices of Bruce Le goodness, that are well worth tracking down!
Two legends of low budget action cinema who are sadly no longer with is, Producer Roger Corman and Filipino Director Cirio H Santiago joined forces for a number of projects over the years, but one of my favourites from their collaborations is the wildly ambitious and entertaining Future Hunters, which brings together a time travelling Richard Norton, Nazi’s, a Pre-Terminator 2 Robert Patrick, Linda Carol from Reform School Girls, and the King of the Clones Bruce Le playing a Hong Kong Taxi Driver while credited as Bruce Li, this making him a Clone of Bruce Lee and Bruce Li! Hwang Jan-lee as his infamous Silver Fox, Bob Schott from Gymkata and the Cornish Ninja Warrior Mike Abbott! Oh yeah the plot has Robert and Linda trying to find the Spear off Destiny and prevent the return of the Third Reich, Nuclear Armageddon and oh encounter a tribe of Ewoks, I mean little people who join them on their quest.
The film opens with a leather clad Richard Norton battling the bad guys in a post apocalyptic future on a quest to return the spearhead from the Spear of Destiny aka the Spear of Longinus, which pierced the body of Christ and has the power to save or destroy mankind depending on who uses it, if placed in the original staff! Norton travels back through time but succumbs to his wounds after entrusting the quest to former marine Robert Patrick and the pretty archaeologist Linda Carol, telling them they must find a mysterious Professor who will know what to do with the spearhead.
The two set off on a globe trotting adventure which takes them across the world encountering Nazi’s intent on restoring the Third Reich, a Mongol army, a tribe of savage female warriors, and in one of my favourite scenes, they arrive in Hong Kong where Robert and Bruce Le must travel to the Temple of the Silverfox and battle the superkicking Silverfox from Secret Rivals 1 & 2 (Korean martial arts legend Hwang Jan-lee, who’s hiding in the Hong Kong temple which is actually in the Philippines!) Despite being warned that it’s a place of the dead, and Hwang Jan-lee threatening to kill them, Robert reassures Bruce that he’s a Marine and knows how to take care of himself only to join the ranks of Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung, Bruce Le, Dragon Lee, Cynthia Rothrock and more who’ve taken some hard hits from Hwang Jan-lee.
Bruce Le ends up battling Hwang Jan-lee in a slick fight scene where we get to see both men displaying some nice bootwork, before Bruce unleashes his nunchucks against Hwang’s staff skills to save the day. It’s a great scene, but frustratingly , Bruce doesn’t continue our heroes on the rest of their quest, and come on Bruce fighting a tribe of females and the Ewoks…ah what could have been!
The Second Unit Director of Future Hunters, was Anthony Maharj who would Produce and Direct a series of martial arts and Vietnam set action movies over the next few years in the Philippines, and for Mission Terminate, he assembled a cast lead by Richard Norton , Bruce Le and Taiwanese legendary Hong Kong Movie Bad Boy Dick Wei. Norton stars as Brad Cooper an Australian accented American Marine investigating a series of brutal deaths involving former members of a specific marine unit, who he finds out massacre a village and stole a cache of gold. Now the lone survivor played by Dick Wei who runs a Freelance Terrorist Training Centre is out for revenge and taking down the unit one by one, Norton joins forces with Bruce Le who plays the former guide for the Marine unit who not only quit the army in disgust, just happens to be related to Dick Wei’s character.
We got Richard Norton with Gymkata Rat-tails as an Australian accented US Marine kicking ass and taking names in Rambo mode, we get to see him taking on Filipino Hero Franco Guerrero early on in the movie but its mostly guns until the finale where Norton and Le storm the Terrorist training centre. Le gets a brief but brutal exchange with Dick Wei, before Norton faces off with his Shanghai Express, Twinkle Lucky Stars co-star for a short but nicely choreographed final battle. This got a very wide release back in the late 80’s and was then remarketed a few years later as Revenge of the Kickfighter, selling it as a semi sequel to Maharaj’s later The Fighter/Kickfighter which sees Norton playing a kid who grew up on the streets of Thailand (and yes we see Norton playing the presumably teenage version of himself) who ends up in the fight game and ends up having to fight legendary kickboxer Benny the Jet Urquidez playing himself! It’s low budget but Norton’s having fun and the final showdown with him and Benny is worth the price of admission or purchase!
