Bruceploitation actor Bruce Le remembers it becoming far tougher to imitate the actual Bruce Lee than it could have seemed.

The notion of cashing in on a not too long ago deceased celebrity is a shameful a single, but when Bruce Lee died in 1973 at the age of just 32, Asian markets — predominately Hong Kong — cornered and spinning heel kicked the market place, delivering a wheelhouse of motion pictures that would come to be recognized as Bruceploitation.

While Bruce Lee could fall beneath the category of “often imitated, never equaled”, filmmakers and stars behind Bruceploitation worked to preserve their hero’s legend thriving on the major screen. One such star of the genre was Wong Kin-lung, who would go on to be recognized as Bruce Le (get it?). As he place it, “It was almost like an honor,” even though the chance presented its personal challenges. “I thought I could make Bruce Lee-style action my way, because I was a martial arts teacher.”

On building a method amongst everyone else who was portion of the Bruceploitation explosion of the ‘70s, he added, “Bruce was a very dedicated performer and acting is not like kung fu. So it wasn’t actually as easy to imitate him as they thought, because of the acting component involved. At the start, we wanted to imitate our idol. But after making 10 or so movies, I started to create my own style — but at the same time, I was still following the spirit of Bruce Lee.”

That spirit of Bruce Lee discovered Le starring in a series of Bruceploitation entries, such as Way of the Dragon 2, Enter the Game of Death and The Clones of Bruce Lee. Yeah, Bruceploitation created no secrets about what it was…There is a lot of the genre out there, but beginning off with flicks starring Bruce Le and Bruce Li is the way to go — even though we would of course advocate you do your homework on the inspiration 1st. There’s also a seriously cool documentary out there known as Enter the Clones of Bruce.

While Bruceploitation is out of its peak, appreciation for Bruce Lee himself is experiencing some of a resurgence proper now. Ang Lee even has a biopic in the operates, which will come out extra than 30 years immediately after the Jason Scott Lee-starring Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story.

Are you a fan of the Bruceploitation genre? Who and which film stands out for you? Drop your picks under!