End of A Trend
Bruceploitation ended in Chinese cinema after Jackie Chan broke out of the mould to make a name for himself after the success of the kung-fu comedies Snake in the Eagle’s Shadow and Drunken Master, establishing him as the new king of Hong Kong martial arts cinema. Another factor was the beginning of the Shaw Brothers film era in the late ’70s, starting with movies such as Five Deadly Venoms. Since the end of the trend, Bruce Lee’s influence on Hong Kong action cinema remained strong, but the actors began establishing their own personalities, and the films generally began to take a more comedic approach.
However, Bruceploitation continued in the US in a somewhat muted form since the 1970s. Films such as Force-Five, No Retreat, No Surrender, and The Last Dragon used Bruce Lee as a marketing hook and the genre continues to be a source of exploration for fans of the late Little Dragon and his doppelgangers. Fist of Fear, Touch of Death told a fictional life story of the star.
In May 2010 a book about Bruceploitation was published by Carl Jones, entitled Here Come the Kung Fu Clones; it primarily focuses on a particular Lee-a-like, Ho Chung Tao, but also explores the actors and movies among the best and worst the genre has to offer.
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