The Film

The film itself is considered one of the better Bruce Lee biopics from what I understand. Considering I just purchased about 40 various Bruceploitation flicks, I can tell you that I (and my wife who has to deal with this mania) am very scared. Bruce Lee: True Story isn’t bad, it’s very entertaining. But this isn’t really a biopic. It’s more like a compilation of supposed Bruce Lee fights from around the globe. Here’s what I “learned” from this movie:

• Bruce used to work at a gas station in Seattle where he would get in fights with karate guys.
• Bruce fought a kung fu master in San Francisco.
• Bruce fought an extra on the set of the Big Boss/Fists of Fury in Thailand. This one might be true as every biopic seems to have this common incident.
• Italian chicks really dig Bruce. Check out the look on the gal that watches him fight in the Roman Coliseum.
• Linda didn’t really do much, other than bring Bruce a drink of iced tea when he asked for it.
• Bruce had machines that measured his punching power. This is years before Rocky IV and Ivan Drago. I smell a lawsuit!
• Bruce liked to lift weights really really fast and with light weight. He made a lot of noise clanking the weights.
• Bruce could have died as we thought he did. Or he might have been scheduled to return in 1983 after 10 years of absence. Or he could have been beaten up and to death by Chinese gangsters. You decide.

Picture Quality

OK. This is the DVD review. I can tell you that theprint of this film from VideoAsia sucks. That’s my technical analysis. After watching Enter the Game of Death last night on the Return of the Dragon 4 pack, I thought I would have a seizure! Blurry is an understatement! Bruce Lee:The True Story looks great in comparison!

DVD Extras

“Interview with Bruce Li”

The Man tells his story. Just for the record, it IS pronounced “Lie”. Bruce Lie, get it? This is the highlight of the extras in my opinion and we get to hear from the still youthful looking Ho Chung Tao (he doesn’t like being called Bruce Li) talk about being Bruce Lee. The interview doesn’t reveal where he is today, whether it’s Taiwan or Singapore or wherever but he is basically teaching gym class and film production somewhere. A really good documentary about Mr. Tao could and should be made someday.

“The Bruce Lee Stories: A History of Bruce Lee Bio Films"

This is an interesting feature. The premise of this segment is how flawed and incorrect Bruceploitation bio pics are. What’s really funny is that they chose to use the feature film Bruce Lee: True Story as evidence!

Here we learn that Bruce’s run in with an extra on the set of the Big Boss was settled peacefully, not with a fight as shown in True Story and recapped here. Yeah, that’s all well and good, but how interesting would a Bruceploitation film be showing Bruce Li solving things peacefully?! Then they show how erroneous the scene is with Bruce using a weight machine and a fictitious training device, both scenes from the featured film. I guess I admire the producer’s honesty, but wouldn’t this featurette slagging the main feature be more appropriate on say BRUCE LEE: HIS LAST DAYS, HIS LAST NIGHTS SPECIAL EDITION DVD or any Bruce Le film? I mean, why slam your own film?

Oh well, the segment ends by giving Bruceploitation its props by acknowledging that these films kept Bruce’s name alive and entertained many. They should have told the truth and pointed out some Bruceploitation films are better than the real Bruce Lee himself, but that’s a point for another article! It’s nice to see someone acknowledging Bruceploitation as a unique genre and this segment does that.

“My Teacher, Bruce Lee”

This segment is a 25 minute seminar on Bruce Lee's Jeet Kune Do by world champion karateka Joe Lewis and former student of Bruce Lee. I will be honest with you. I didn’t have the patience to watch all of this thing. There’s some demonstration by Lewis in the end which takes place in someone’s basement but for the most part he is just talking to the camera. The fact that the vocals match his mouth movements are huge plus.

“In the Footsteps of Bruce Lee narrated by Jesse Glover”

This is a pretty impressive 8 minute segment (have you noticed that the extras are starting to add up to more than the feature production, talk about Bruceploitation value!) narrated by one of Bruce’s (Lee, not Li) first students and demonstrated by some disciples. They are all gwailo, but the movements could be from Bruce him self! There’s a lot of punching, kicking, grappling with lecture here.

“Interview with Ng See Yeun”

This segment devotes 15 minutes to capture the thoughts of Mr. Yeun, the director of Bruce Lee: True Story. I have seen less attention given to guys like George Lucas. Mr. Yeun seems very happy to be part of this segment. But couldn’t they have used a tripod?!?! The interview is just a freaking headshot, why do I feel like I am watching this thing in the back seat of the Red Barons Triple Wing biplane?!

There are also two full length audio commentaries accompanying the film. These are pretty comprehensive and involve Joe Lewis, George Tan, another Bruce Lee historian, Davis Miller, a Bruce Lee author/fanboy and others. Pretty good Bruceploitation documentary features but it’s too bad the commentary was plugged in from taped phone conversations. The producers of this DVD added a lot of features, but skimped on the production value. Too bad.

Also, the original television spots and theatrical trailer for completists are included. What else could you want? Production values aside, this is the holy grail of Bruceploitation DVDs.

Reviewed by GL.

BRUCEPLOITATION