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After Bruce Lee's sudden death in July 1973, there was a rare "strange phenomenon" in the Hong Kong film industry - many new names with "dragon" or "little dragon" appeared in the action actors, such as Leung Xiaolong, Tang Long, Lai Xiaolong, and then Jackie Chan.
The main reason is that bruce Lee's death caused a kind of "vacuum period", everyone realized that the film industry had lost the best kung fu star, and everyone wanted to be his replacement.
So the Chinese-speaking martial arts gathered in Xiangjiang, and they all changed their stage names to "x Xiaolong" or "xx dragons" and the English name to "bruce x", just as Jackie Chan's stage name was also started by Luo Wei during this period.
And the films made by these Bruce Lee imitators are also the follow-up works of Bruce Lee's four and a half kung fu films.
Bi He Zongdao (Lai Xiaolong) participated in films such as "A Generation of Raptors", "New Death Game", "The Last Jingwu Gate"; Liang Xiaolong also participated in "Li Sanjiao Wei Zhen Hell Gate"; Jin Tai had "Death Tower"; Jackie Chan also had "New Jingwu Gate".
In the late 1970s, this phenomenon of following the trend intensified, and "innovating the old" emerged, and many fantastical and farcical martial arts films emerged.
For example, released in 1977, "Shenwei Three Raptors", the film used the cloned "scientific method" to create three "Bruce Lee" without any bottom line, and the film was full of absurdity inside and outside.
Pigo will talk to you about this movie today. Through this movie, we can feel how crazy the filmmakers of that era were in pursuit of "fame and fortune".
01. The "Clone Bruce Lee" project
The movie story begins with a big rub against the "Bruce Lee Death" heat.
Bruce Lee was rushed to the hospital after being unconscious, and after the doctor's rescue, he finally returned to the sky and lacked surgery. At this time, Colonel Colin of the British government's secret intelligence agency SBI found a scientist who studied gene cloning technology, Dr. Lucas, and ordered him to start the plan to clone Bruce Lee.
Seeing that Dr. Lucas took local materials and asked for a syringe from the doctor, he drew a tube of blood from Bruce Lee's body, and a proud expression appeared on his face.
Dr. Lucas returned to his lab with a blood sample from Bruce Lee, and in just 3 minutes, he cloned three Bruce Lee and named them Bruce Lee No. 1 (played by Dragon), Bruce Lee No. 2 (played by Bruce Lu) and Bruce Lee No. 3 (played by Zhang Yiyi).
After that, they conducted special training for the three Bruce Lees, asking Bruce Lee's former friend Yang Si to teach them karate, and asking Ejima to teach them the pentagram, gradually raising the strength value to a level close to that of the legitimate Bruce Lee. Colonel Colin saw that the three Bruce Lees had accomplished their studies and assigned them separate spy missions.
Bruce Lee No. 1 was assigned to go undercover with a film company owner in Thailand, Choi Lao, and his side. On the surface, Cai Lao, who is in a serious business, is actually a triad who stole a batch of gold bricks from a temple in Thailand and is preparing to smuggle them out by sea.
Bruce Lee No. 1 went to Cai Lao's company as an action star to shoot a scene and secretly investigate, and soon had a clue. When Cai Lao carried the gold bricks to the ship, Bruce Lee 1 jumped into the water like Captain America and swam to the boat, fighting Cai Lao's gang without fear, and finally annihilating them all.
Bruce Lee 2 and 3 were also assigned to Thailand to destroy the biological weapons research laboratory of the local tycoon Lai boss, and they were connected by Charlie Sheen, a commissioner stationed in Thailand.
The scientists under Boss Lai have developed a biological and chemical weapon that can weed, and also made 6 copper men with many knives and guns.
Bruce Lee 2, 3 and Charlie Sheen fought several times with the Copper Man, and finally discovered that they were born to eat grass, but after eating grass, they would be poisoned and die. So the three of them used grass to restrain the copper man, and finally destroyed the laboratory and captured Boss Lai.
All three Bruce Lee completed the mission brilliantly, and it was clear that the plan to clone Bruce Lee was very successful. At this time, Dr. Lucas's ambitions grew, and he thought of letting the three Bruce Lee kill each other in order to pick the strongest one and take him to conquer the world (the brain hole is really big).
Fortunately, two female assistants under Dr. Lucas found out in time, and they stopped Dr. Lucas's action and called the police. Eventually, Dr. Lucas is captured by Colonel Colin and the police, and Bruce Lee is free.
02, the three imitators of Bruce Lee in the film
The idea of cloning Bruce Lee and Biochemical Copper Man has a bit of a science fiction flavor, but the combination of dragons, Lu Xiaolong, and Zhang Yiyi is the biggest selling point of the movie.
These three people are superb in kung fu, flashing and moving, and their totem-like muscles are enviable, and they are all action stars who can support a movie on their own.
Among them, the dragon from Malaysia was the largest, with a fierce face, and his muscle latitude was obviously much larger than Bruce Lee's. When he debuted, because he was much larger than the average martial artist, he gave the stage name of "Dragon", comparing other stars who imitated Bruce Lee.
Lü Xiaolong is more familiar to us, because he later filmed the classic martial arts film "The Great Wall Armageddon" in the mainland.
He is a Native of Macau, his real name is Huang Jianlong, hong quan, because of his agility, he was favored by the film company. In fact, he doesn't look like Bruce Lee at all, a pair of small eyes can't talk about appearance, but the speed and strength of the punch are outstanding.
Zhang Yiyi is the most beautiful of the three, with a face of small fresh meat, Peng Yuyan's figure, and a martial arts foundation. Unfortunately, he did not get too many opportunities for development in the film circle, and in the 80s, he just played soy sauce in the movie, and eventually disappeared, so that few fans now know him.
The film is 89 minutes long, of which at least 70 minutes are in the fight, but the choreography of the action is very messy, the protagonist and the villain are wearing the then popular tight flared pants playing, which is particularly ridiculous, neither creative nor flexible, compared to Bruce Lee's films.
The plot is really very simple, and it can't stand up to scrutiny, even if bruce Lee is just an ordinary person who can do kung fu, but it is used as a super weapon, which is too funny.
There is no way to talk about the character shaping, and the three Bruce Lees have no role in the role of being able to express their personalities, and they only appear for the purpose of fighting.
Stories like this are a far cry from Bruce Lee's kung fu films, and it was this type of film that was flooding the Hong Kong film scene at the time. These film companies make this kind of follow-up movie, but they just want to rub Bruce Lee's fame and get a good catch, and the starting point is that they have never thought of making a good movie.
03, the film in order to imitate the self-binding legs
In the 70s, there were many Bruce Lee imitators, and the movies made were countless, but they were not able to reach the height of Bruce Lee in the end, only because these follow-up movies had many shortcomings and could not be compared with Bruce Lee's kung fu movies.
Take Bruce Lee's self-directed and self-acting "Raptor Across the River", the film pioneered the story background to the Italian capital Rome, Bruce Lee carefully created a simple-minded but martial arts warrior image. The action scenes in the film are actually very restrained, but they are all martial arts actions that are very close to actual combat, and even now they are very valuable for reference.
In contrast, follow-up works such as "Shenwei Three Raptors" often focus the story directly on fighting, the actor's performance space is very limited, and the shaping of the role is impossible to talk about. And the choreography of those action scenes is often a routine one-move, and the slow pace is annoying.
In addition, the imitation of Bruce Lee by several actors in the film, even if it can reach the realm of exquisite portrait and false truth, the audience will never regard those actors as Bruce Lee himself. They have always been confined to Bruce Lee's aura, lacking their own characteristics and personality, and have very limited room for development.
Actors like Julong, Lü Xiaolong, He Zongdao, Zhang Yiyi, in fact, have obvious characteristics, but they have never properly explored their potential, only to go farther and farther on the road of imitating Bruce Lee, and eventually they are eliminated by the times because of the loss of the market.
04, Jackie Chan, Hong Jinbao gave up imitation and found another way
At that time, Jackie Chan also played a silly Aaron in "New Jingwumen", and several Luowei Film works launched after that ended dismally without exception.
Fortunately, later Wu Siyuan and Yuan Heping borrowed generals from Luo Wei, so that Jackie Chan could turn over with the salted fish of "Snake-like Executioner" and "Drunken Fist".
And Hong Jinbao also made a work that imitated Bruce Lee's fight like "Fat Dragon Across the River", but he and Jackie Chan knew that the road of imitating Bruce Lee's style could not go on, so he created a new genre of comedy kung fu films, which allowed Hong Kong kung fu films to get out of Bruce Lee's old road and find a new direction.
Looking back at this period of history now, we will find that the emergence of a new thing is accompanied by a large number of failed cannon fodder. Works like "The Three Raptors of Divine Power" are only taken out now as entertainment, and feel the madness of that era in the image.
Text/Pippi Film Editorial Department: Bloody Dan Heart
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