The Clones of Bruce Lee (1980)
The Clones of Bruce Lee is a 1980 Bruceploitation martial arts film capitalizing on the death of actor and martial arts star Bruce Lee in 1973. The film gathers together several of the many Lee imitators who sprang up after the icon’s death (including Dragon Lee, Bruce Le and Bruce Lai), alongside performers from the real Lee’s films and other veterans of the Hong Kong movie industry. It has been called “The Mount Rushmore of Bruceploitation films”.
Plot:
On July 20, 1973 (immediately after the death of Bruce Lee in Hong Kong), Colonel Colin of the Special Branch of Investigations asks Professor Lucas, a brilliant scientist, to take samples of the late master’s brain tissue. Using these samples, Lucas creates three perfect clones of Lee: Bruce Lee #1, Bruce Lee #2, and Bruce Lee #3. They are trained in martial arts by Bolo Yeung and Chiang Tao. The mission of the clones is to fight crime in Southeast Asia.
Bruce Lee #1 goes undercover as an actor for a corrupt, gold-smuggling producer who plans to have him die on camera. Meanwhile, the other two clones go to Thailand where they meet up with Chuck Lee Sing, a local SBI agent who is not a clone but who also resembles Bruce Lee. They have been assigned to kill Dr. Ngai, a mad scientist who is plotting to take over the world with his army of bronze automatons: men whose skin turns to metal when they are injected with Ngai’s special formula.
Cast:
Dragon Lee as Bruce Lee 1
Bruce Le as Bruce Lee 2
Bruce Lai as Bruce Lee 3
Jon T. Benn as Professor Lucas
Andy Hannah as Colonel Colin
Bruce Thai as Chuck Lee Sing
Bolo Yeung
Chiang Tao