Bruce Li
Encyclopedia
Bruce Li is one of the stage name
s of Ho Chung Tao , a Taiwan
ese martial artist
and Bruce Lee
imitator who starred in martial arts movies from the Bruceploitation
movement.
.
and Hong Kong
under the name of James Ho.
At the death of Bruce Lee, Ho Chung Tao's real career began. Hong Kong studios noticed that Ho resembled the kung fu star. They first employed him in Conspiracy before the producers of Game of Death
asked him to finish their movie in Lee's role. Ho declined the offer.
After this, Ho was employed by producer-actor Jimmy Shaw who gave him the name of Bruce Li.
"The producer gave me the name Bruce Li, L-I. But, I don't like it, because I can act like him, but I can't be him."
While Ho was finishing his military service, he appeared in Good Bye Bruce Lee. He would star in other documentaries
in 1976 with The Young Bruce Lee and Bruce Lee: The Man, the Myth
.
As Li, his career improved dramatically. Some Taiwanese and Hong Kong producers decided to directly credit him as "Bruce Lee", even going so far as to use the real Bruce Lee's picture on posters. Li even appeared in Bruce Lee vs Supermen where he stars as Kato
, assistant of the Green Hornet
, a role originally played by the real Bruce Lee.
The producers really wanted to show Li as the "official" successor of Bruce Lee. In the 1976 movie Exit the Dragon Enter the Tiger, Li meets Lee who points to him as the one who shall replace him. Li was dubbed the "Tiger" to Lee's "Dragon". Li appeared in Return of the Tiger, starring Angela Mao
. In it, Bruce Li fights Paul Smith
.
Ho carried on by playing in two unofficial sequels to Bruce Lee's classic Fist of Fury
.
In 1978, Ho reprised his role as Bruce Lee in Bruce Lee the True Story (also known as Bruce Lee: The Man & Myth), a biography film. Li choreographed the combat sequences himself. Being very successful, fans recognize it as one of the best biopics of Bruce Lee.
Ho kept shooting martial arts movies until the 1980s. He also directed movies, including The Chinese Stuntman (1981).
Bruceploitation was jumping the shark
and Li knew it. He had trouble separating himself from his Bruce Lee roles and had many rivals in the genre. In 1985, Ho ended his career after his wife's death. He returned to Taiwan to become a physical education
instructor at Taipei
's Ping Chung University. He also has taught martial arts for comedian apprentices. Since then he has appeared only very briefly in martial arts cinema or Bruce Lee documentaries.
Li is considered one of the best Bruce Lee imitators, along with Bruce Le
of Hong Kong and Dragon Lee
of North Korea
.
Stage name
A stage name, also called a showbiz name or screen name, is a pseudonym used by performers and entertainers such as actors, wrestlers, comedians, and musicians.-Motivation to use a stage name:...
s of Ho Chung Tao , a Taiwan
Taiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
ese martial artist
Martial arts
Martial arts are extensive systems of codified practices and traditions of combat, practiced for a variety of reasons, including self-defense, competition, physical health and fitness, as well as mental and spiritual development....
and Bruce Lee
Bruce Lee
Bruce Lee was a Chinese American, Hong Kong actor, martial arts instructor, philosopher, film director, film producer, screenwriter, and founder of the Jeet Kune Do martial arts movement...
imitator who starred in martial arts movies from the Bruceploitation
Bruceploitation
Bruceploitation is a cultural phenomenon mostly seen in the 1970s after the 1973 death of martial artist and actor Bruce Lee. Movie makers in mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan hired a great number of Bruce Lee look-alike actors to star in many cheap knock-off martial arts movies to cash in on...
movement.
Early life
Born in 1950, Ho Chung Tao has spent his youth studying martial artsMartial arts
Martial arts are extensive systems of codified practices and traditions of combat, practiced for a variety of reasons, including self-defense, competition, physical health and fitness, as well as mental and spiritual development....
.
Career
He went to play a stuntman in TaiwanTaiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
and Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
under the name of James Ho.
At the death of Bruce Lee, Ho Chung Tao's real career began. Hong Kong studios noticed that Ho resembled the kung fu star. They first employed him in Conspiracy before the producers of Game of Death
Game of Death
The Game of Death is a 1972 film starring Bruce Lee. It was almost the last film Bruce Lee had planned to be the demonstration piece of his martial art Jeet Kune Do. Over 100 minutes of footage was shot before his death, some of which was later misplaced in the Golden Harvest archives...
asked him to finish their movie in Lee's role. Ho declined the offer.
After this, Ho was employed by producer-actor Jimmy Shaw who gave him the name of Bruce Li.
"The producer gave me the name Bruce Li, L-I. But, I don't like it, because I can act like him, but I can't be him."
While Ho was finishing his military service, he appeared in Good Bye Bruce Lee. He would star in other documentaries
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
in 1976 with The Young Bruce Lee and Bruce Lee: The Man, the Myth
Bruce Lee: The Man, The Myth
Bruce Lee: The Man, The Myth, originally released as Li Hsiao Lung chuan chi and also known as Bruce Lee - True Story, is a 1976 Bruceploitation biopic that stars Bruce Li as famed martial artist Bruce Lee. The film chronicles his life beginning with Lee leaving China to go to University in...
.
As Li, his career improved dramatically. Some Taiwanese and Hong Kong producers decided to directly credit him as "Bruce Lee", even going so far as to use the real Bruce Lee's picture on posters. Li even appeared in Bruce Lee vs Supermen where he stars as Kato
Kato (The Green Hornet)
Kato is a fictional character from The Green Hornet series. This character has also appeared with the Green Hornet in film, television, book and comic book versions. Kato was the Hornet's assistant and has been played by a number of actors...
, assistant of the Green Hornet
The Green Hornet
The Green Hornet is an American radio and television masked vigilante created by George W. Trendle and Fran Striker, with input from radio director James Jewell, in 1936. Since his radio debut in the 1930s, the Green Hornet has appeared in numerous serialized dramas in a wide variety of media...
, a role originally played by the real Bruce Lee.
The producers really wanted to show Li as the "official" successor of Bruce Lee. In the 1976 movie Exit the Dragon Enter the Tiger, Li meets Lee who points to him as the one who shall replace him. Li was dubbed the "Tiger" to Lee's "Dragon". Li appeared in Return of the Tiger, starring Angela Mao
Angela Mao
Angela Mao is a martial arts film actress best known for the string of kung fu films in which she starred during the 1970s. She is also known as Mao Ying, Angela Mao Ying, and Mao Fu Ying...
. In it, Bruce Li fights Paul Smith
Paul L. Smith
Paul L. Smith is an American character actor. Burly, bearded, and imposing, he has appeared in films and occasionally on TV since the 1970s, generally playing "heavies" and bad guys...
.
Ho carried on by playing in two unofficial sequels to Bruce Lee's classic Fist of Fury
Fist of Fury
Fist of Fury, formerly known as The Chinese Connection and The Iron Hand in the United States, is a 1972 Hong Kong martial arts film directed by Lo Wei. It starred Bruce Lee in his second major film after The Big Boss...
.
In 1978, Ho reprised his role as Bruce Lee in Bruce Lee the True Story (also known as Bruce Lee: The Man & Myth), a biography film. Li choreographed the combat sequences himself. Being very successful, fans recognize it as one of the best biopics of Bruce Lee.
Ho kept shooting martial arts movies until the 1980s. He also directed movies, including The Chinese Stuntman (1981).
Bruceploitation was jumping the shark
Jumping the shark
Jumping the shark is an idiom used to describe the moment in the evolution of a television show when it begins a decline in quality that is beyond recovery....
and Li knew it. He had trouble separating himself from his Bruce Lee roles and had many rivals in the genre. In 1985, Ho ended his career after his wife's death. He returned to Taiwan to become a physical education
Physical education
Physical education or gymnastics is a course taken during primary and secondary education that encourages psychomotor learning in a play or movement exploration setting....
instructor at Taipei
Taipei
Taipei City is the capital of the Republic of China and the central city of the largest metropolitan area of Taiwan. Situated at the northern tip of the island, Taipei is located on the Tamsui River, and is about 25 km southwest of Keelung, its port on the Pacific Ocean...
's Ping Chung University. He also has taught martial arts for comedian apprentices. Since then he has appeared only very briefly in martial arts cinema or Bruce Lee documentaries.
Li is considered one of the best Bruce Lee imitators, along with Bruce Le
Bruce Le
Bruce Le is a martial artist and actor who is known for the martial arts films he made in the 1970s and '80s...
of Hong Kong and Dragon Lee
Dragon Lee
Dragon Lee , is an actor and practitioner of Taekwondo and Hapkido.His birth name is Mun Kyong-sok but has been called Keo Ryong in South Korea. Soon after his birth, his family relocated to the former U.S.S.R where he was given the name Vyachaslev Yaksysnyi...
of North Korea
North Korea
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea , , is a country in East Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. Its capital and largest city is Pyongyang. The Korean Demilitarized Zone serves as the buffer zone between North Korea and South Korea...
.
Filmography
- Bruce Against Iron Hand (197?)
- Bruce Lee: A Dragon StoryBruce Lee: A Dragon StoryBruce Lee: A Dragon Story is a heavily fictionalized biopic about martial arts actor Bruce Lee. The film centres on his supposed affair with actress Betty Ting-Pei...
(1974) (aka Super Dragon) - Iron Man (1975)
- Goodbye, Bruce Lee: His Last Game of Death (1975)
- Bruce Lee Against Supermen (1975)
- Fist of Fury IIFist of Fury IIFist of Fury Part II , originally released in Hong Kong as Jing wu men xu ji and also released as Chinese Connection 2 and Fistful of the Dragon, is a martial arts film that is an unauthorized sequel to Bruce Lee's Fist of Fury , not to be confused with New Fist of Fury)...
(1976) (aka Chinese Connection 2) - Exit the Dragon, Enter the TigerExit the Dragon, Enter the TigerExit the Dragon, Enter the Tiger is a 1976 Bruceploitation film. It stars Bruce Li as David Lee , and is one of the most well-known films in the Bruceploitation genre.-Plot:...
(1976) - Enter the Panther (1976)
- Bruce Lee's SecretBruce Lee's SecretBruce Lee's Secret is a 1976 Bruceploitation martial arts film, which is also a pseudo-biopic of Bruce Lee. It stars Bruce Li as "Bob" Lee, whose life is essentially the same as Lee's and is on two occasions actually referred to as 'Bruce'...
(1976) (aka Bruce Lee's Deadly Kung Fu, Story of the Dragon) - The Real Bruce LeeThe Real Bruce LeeThe Real Bruce Lee is a martial arts documentary. It begins with a brief biography of Bruce Lee, and shows scenes from four of his childhood films, Bad Boy, Orphan Sam, Kid Cheung, and The Carnival, each sepia-toned and dubbed to English. Next, there is a three-minute highlight reel of Lee imitator...
(1977) - The Ming Patriots (1977)
- Bruce Li in New Guinea (1977)
- Bruce Lee the Invincible (1977)
- The Dragon Lives (1977)
- Bruce Lee, We Miss You (1977)
- Soul Brothers of Kung Fu (1978)
- The Image of Bruce LeeThe Image of Bruce LeeThe Image of Bruce Lee was originally released in Hong Kong as Meng nan da zei yan zhi hu , although the Bruceploitation title was added for its American release...
(1978) (aka Storming Attacks) - Fists of Bruce LeeFists of Bruce LeeFists of Bruce Lee is a 1978 film directed by and starring Bruce Lee imitator, Bruce Li.-Synopsis:Bruce Lee is assigned to go undercover as Lee Min-Chin to investigate a drug ring. The mob hires an assassin to kill him...
(1978) - Edge of Fury (1978)
- Dynamo (1978)
- Deadly Strike (1978)
- Bruce Li's Magnum Fist (1978)
- Bruce Lee vs. the Iron Dragon (1978)
- Bruce Lee: The Man, The MythBruce Lee: The Man, The MythBruce Lee: The Man, The Myth, originally released as Li Hsiao Lung chuan chi and also known as Bruce Lee - True Story, is a 1976 Bruceploitation biopic that stars Bruce Li as famed martial artist Bruce Lee. The film chronicles his life beginning with Lee leaving China to go to University in...
(1978) (aka Bruce Lee: True Story) - Return of the Tiger (1979)
- The Lama Avenger (1979) (aka "The Three Avengers")
- Blind Fist of Bruce (1979)
- The Iron Dragon Strikes Back (1981)
- Fist of Fury IIIFist of Fury IIIFist of Fury III is a martial arts Bruceploitation sequel. It was originally released in Hong Kong as Jie quan yingzhua gong , and has been informally called The Chinese Connection III. It continues the story of Chen Shen from Fist of Fury II, the brother of the Bruce Lee character in Fist of...
(1980) - The Chinese StuntmanThe Chinese StuntmanThe Chinese Stuntman was a Bruceploitation film starring Bruce Li released in 1981. It is largely based around the Bruce Lee classic Enter The Dragon.-Plot:...
(1981) - Powerforce (1982)
External links
- Clones of Bruce Lee – The Ultimate Guide To Bruce Lee Exploitation Cinema