After the tragic death of Bruce Lee, the world went into mourning and the hustlers of the world got a game plan: to clone Bruce Lee! Well, not REALLY clone him, just find some actors who look like him and start making movies! Today we look at this wild genre known as Bruceploitation.

Guess who is back! This is one I’ve been off/on working on for the better part of three years. The script has been done for almost that entire time, but I had to go back and adjust things along the way. The majority of the work has been completed over the past three months. I went from 15 minutes completed to the full 70 minutes we have here. Between last posting and now, my personal life has been wild – but currently I feel like jumping into this with full commitment. We will see how that goes. This is a one man operation, and I created more motion effects for this project than anything else that I’ve ever done. Probably referenced more movies than ever before either!

Music:
The Big Boss-esque theme by – Ajeng C (https://www.fiverr.com/s/pgG86p)
Funky song used during Bruceploitation montage – taken from here: https://youtu.be/khjhIibaCZI?si=kCwi9LdqSjad9CXB (I still don’t know the name of this song)
Rest of the music – Made by Me in Magix Music Maker

Special Thanks:
Lee Holmes – looking over the script, pointing out Fist of Unicorn to me, correcting some inaccuracies I had… lord knows there’s probably more.
Somu M. – Created the Thumbnail for the Video (https://www.fiverr.com/s/o0KVqg).
Michael & Matthew of the Clones Cast – Gathered a lot of information from The Clones Cast for this video. https://screenmayhem.com/the-clones-cast/ listen back on their archive to hear more great information!

Timestamps / Chapters:
00:00-00:32 – Big Boss Intro
00:33-06:53 – Bruce’s Death and Theories
06:54-07:46 – Bruceploitation Topic Intro
07:47-09:32 – Bruceploitation Historical Start
09:33-11:08 – Fist of Unicorn
11:09-12:40 – Bruceploitation Blueprint/Standards
12:41-19:36 – Documentaries/Docudramas
19:37-27:36 – Zany Exploitation
27:37-33:29 – Unofficial Sequels
33:30- 38:50 – Inclusion by Marketing
38:51-41:09 – Actors: Bruce Li
41:10-42:47 – Actors: Bruce Le
42:48-43:51 – Actors: Dragon Lee
43:52-45:32 – Actors: Bruce Lai
45:33-46:45 – Actors: Bruce Leung
46:46-48:40 – Bruce’isms
48:41-52:37 – Films Outside of Hong Kong
52:38-56:38 – Themes / Linda is out, Betty is in
56:39-01:02:06 – Reverence for the Hero while Rewriting History
01:02:07-01:05:13 – The discerning man of culture pines for home
01:05:14-01:07:00 – True exploitation or Just Marketing
01:07:01-01:08:58 – Official Exploitation (GOD)
01:08:59-01:10:41 – The End of an Era

Further notes: there are a lot of notable films not present in this video. Hard to believe I didn’t include Dragon Lee vs. The Five Brothers! There are many, many others. If I missed any greats, share them in the comments so we can all join in and talk about them!

A lot of the information here has been gathered from various sites, interviews, podcasts, etc. Quite honestly, I hope it is all accurate and up to date, but due to the prolonged period of working on this, and a terribly inefficient way of saving my sources (doh!) its hard for me to produce where I picked up every factoid. https://www.clonesofbrucelee.info/ was a great source of information during the creation of this video. I also used https://www.hkmdb.com/ and http://www.hkcinemagic.com/ like my life depended on it!

Please like, comment, and subscribe! If all goes well, I intend to pick up a new microphone (I know, I need it) and will start work on the next project immediately!

Contact:
[email protected]

#Bruceploitation
#VideoEssay
#BruceLee
#BruceLi
#ClonesofBruceLee
#BruceLeeClones

This video, as opposed to most of my projects, was a rather quick edit. I’ve had most of it written for a while, but the whole point was just to make a quick compilation of eye-catching scenes. This video required a whole lot less research than most of the big Weird Cinema projects, but the whole point was to make something cool and fun without putting a year into the work. Forgive me if there are a couple of incorrect facts or lines throughout, as I didn’t get to do as much vigorous fact checking with this project. However, if there are many mistakes throughout I would likely remove the video and re-edit – as that’s just the sort of weird fellow I am! Enjoy and post any clips or references in the comments about any other amazing stunt sequences!

I’m actually pretty proud that this video isn’t just Jackie Chan fights or Jackie Chan stunts, but some had to sneak in there of course! I am fairly proud of this video and feel the world of HK Stunts and action movies would be proud of me!

Some corrections (since I don’t want to re-upload the entire video):
– She Shoots Straight was actually directed by Corey Yuen. Unsure why I referenced Sammo Hung as the director. He does direct, but Corey Yuen was the credited director.
– Tsui Siu-Ming, director of Mirage, was actually co-director of The Buddhist Fist. I don’t want to short Yuen Woo-Ping for his proper credit as the director. Sorry about that!

Like I said, this was a video that was made quickly with the intention of showing off some very cool scenes from movies that I enjoy.

if you want to reach out, make sure to hit me up at my email: [email protected]

#hkstunts
#hongkongstunts
#actionmovies
#jackiechan

After years away, Weird Cinema returns with an episode that required hundreds of hours of research, writing, editing, and general brain power. Peeling back the curtain, this is mostly a one man operation. So, after the last episode of the show was completed, I knew I wanted to tackle the world of pinky violence. That means Reiko Ike, Miki Sugimoto, Toei, and a LOT of preparation!

Just going by the information available on the internet here in the West, this episode would have been a lot shorter. However, the Wikipedia entries for this genre leave a lot to be desired. So, after writing a couple thousand words on the genre, I started getting my information fact checked by my buddy Mikko who speaks and reads Japanese, loves the genre, and spends his time on this lovely island nation. I soon found that what we know of and think of as the pinky violence genre is a pretty small portion of the story. With that, it was back to the drawing board.

Around the beginning of the year, most of the script was written. Then the editing process began, with numerous sections being rewritten over and over again. Finally, here we are. I’m sure there are some inaccuracies here and there, but none of it intentional. Also, obviously, I am not a Japanese speaker – so my pronunciation is probably way off, but it is what it is.

Most of the music for the video can be found here:

The Japanese National Anthem: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29FFHC2D12Q
Most of the traditional sounding music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4xO5bqgYBk
Most of the rockin’ Pinky Violence music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtDHGCuAuok

I hope everyone who views the video can enjoy. Like, comment, share, and subscribe!

if you want to contact me, you can email at: [email protected]

#pinkyviolence
#pinku
#pinkfilm
#mikisugimotoMiki SugimotoReiko IkeToei

Like every other geek on the planet, I’m currently obsessing once again over Lynch’s latest creation. Just wanted to confirm this little Easter egg for myself. Not a new Weird Cinema update, obviously!

WARNING: THERE ARE SPOILERS AND A DETAILED PLOT SUMMARY FOR GODMONSTER OF INDIAN FLATS IN THIS VIDEO!

With school out of the way and laziness being my only true obstacle, here is the long awaited (as if anyone is waiting) episode 2 in the Weird Cinema series. As with the first episode, this took a great deal of time, energy, and research. The majority of knowledge on the subject of Frederic Hobbs comes from Nightmare USA which is mentioned in the video. It’s a great book and the detailed article about Hobbs is phenomenal and has been my greatest insight into this filmmaker’s vision. Definitely grab a copy if you can: https://www.amazon.com/NIGHTMARE-USA-Untold-Exploitation-Independents/dp/1903254469/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1485227781&sr=8-1

Although this episode has a much smaller focus than the previous, due to its reliance on video clips from these specific movies – it tends to take up more time. Hopefully there are others who are just as blown away by these films as I am and hopefully this information will give more of an insight into the work of this wild filmmaker.

Chapters
Intro 00:00 – 01:50
Intro to GOIF & Frederic Hobbs 01:51- 03:55
Life & Films of Frederic Hobbs 03:56 – 12:46
Geography & History behind GOIF 12:47 – 17:41
GOIF Breakdown 17:42 – 34:18

#GodmonsterofIndianFlats
#FredericHobbs
#AlabamasGhost

In this first episode of Weird Cinema, we take a look at everyone’s favorite ninja factory: IFD Films and Arts. This was a very large and arduous production and this episode only skims over the plethora of information that has been dug up on IFD. An entire episode could have been made based on the archivist work done by many fans (notably Jesus Molina) that have tried to track down all of the various Taiwan black movies, Thai, and Korean films that were used by IFD in the pursuit of flooding the market with their ninja adventures.

This episode was a work of pure love. Although these ninja movies aren’t “great,” there’s something about them that draws an audience. Myself included. So, sit back and enjoy this overview of IFD, Godfrey Ho, and some of the key talent behind their wildest movies.

Credits:
Much of the information used in the Richard Harrison segment comes from the book “Actors of the Spaghetti Westerns” By James Prickette. This book covers, in detail, much of Harrison’s work in Italy (he was a big Peplum actor), but also goes a bit into his post-Italy phase as well.

The Richard Harrison interview used in this episode comes from nanarland.com and can be found here: http://www.nanarland.com/nanarland-tv-2-richard-harrison.html The interview has much more than what is shown in this episode and comes highly recommended!

While looking at nanarland, also check out the following interviews that helped make this project possible:

Bruce Baron interview: http://www.nanarland.com/interview/interview-brucebaronvo-en-page-1.html

Stuart Smith interview: http://www.nanarland.com/interview/interview-stuartsmithvo-en-page-1.html

Mike Abbott interview: http://www.nanarland.com/interview/interview-mikeabbottvo-en-page-1.html

As mentioned in the episode, Pierre Kirby information is tough to come by, but this fansite is a good place to start: http://pierrekirby.toonfur.com/index.htm

Jesus Molina is thanked during the credits (and mentioned above), but he definitely deserves a mention here as well. His work in tracking down the original source films from the IFD catalog is essentially unmatched. His blog is something that all fans should have bookmarked: http://goldenninjawarriorchronicles.blogspot.com/

Kenneth Brorsson and sogoodreviews are also mentioned, but once again, Ken deserves so much credit for this particular episode. Not only does he regularly spotlight these movies on sogoodreviews.com and sleazykvideo.com, but he also went through this particular video almost as many times as I did. He helped with fact-checking and generally helped with quality control. So, special thanks to Ken, and please subscribe to his channel as well: https://www.youtube.com/user/KnetanB

There are many others I should thank. My friends Jay, Rufus, Will, and Mike. Thanks for viewing this stupid video that will probably never be watched, but your advice and encouragement was very welcome and helped make this possible.

Another name that probably should be in the final scroll is of course Mike Leeder. The man who used to work for IFD and who has helped give us a lot of great information, and even an interview with Joseph Lai (http://www.forcesofgeek.com/2013/03/the-man-from-hong-kong-chats-with.html). Mike definitely deserves some major shout outs!

Anyway, I think that about does it. I would like to go through my video and list every single movie clip used, but perhaps I will do that at another time. It would, obviously, be a very long and detailed project.

#ifdfilmsandarts
#videoessay
#ninjamovies
#godfreyho