kamikaze-4 Early in the 1980s, there were four premium channels to choose from on a local cable system, and my family chose all four. HBO, Showtime, The Movie Channel, and a channel the presented low budget drive in stuff, called Bravo. Bravo then became, Rendezvous, and I was having a field day with all the low budget films I could handle. New World Roger Corman titles, Crown International (BORING),Film Ventures International, and a slew of other films from one shot companies or small distribution companies that would soon be forgottenOne evening, I was treated to this film, The Dragon Lives, and as bad and most likely, inaccurate account of Bruce Lee' life, this was a hoot! The problem is, I couldn't remember the name of the film. The channel only showed it once or twice. Scenes of Bruce being a homeless dweeb walking around San Francisco, walking off the set of a racist Asian film, getting involved in Mixed Martial arts tournaments, and doing battle with a behemoth African-American martial artist, and bumping into his soon to-be-wife, Linda by accidentally snatching her sandwich while doing hand exercises remained to me to this day. BUT WHAT WAS THE TITLE OF THIS FILM? For years I was looking for this film. On VHS, writing letters to TV hosts of Kung Fu theater programs thinking they would really know the answer, and talking to martial artists who had collections of Bruce Lee films to no avail. Hell, even Joe Bob Briggs didn't recall the filmWith the invention of the Internet, I was able to locate fans of bad martial arts film wanting to know if they ever heard of the film, and if so, what was the title? The closest I got via the Internet was a sole person who replied, the movie was Bruce Lee: the Man the Myth. Uh-no, I recalled the film was Dragon Something or other. I had a EP copy of BL:TMTM and there wasn't anything remotely resembling this film. Someone sent me a scan of the film on VHS with the title, Bruce Lee Man and the Myth, and it seemed that was the right title, but my Alpha video with the same title wasn't the film.Well, thanks to folks of VCI DVD, I finally found the title, The Dragon Lives. It didn't have the Film Ventures International Georgia Peaches logo at the beginning (which I remembered vividly), but upon scanning through the film, I found it. I found my holy grail of Bruce Lee rip-offs and said -to-be true stories of Lee and his life. Widescreen, too! No classic, but hey on a nice Summer eve, this would play great on my HD 52 inch TV placed outside in my backyard and pretending I'm at the drive in.

lguard This is one of the "Bruceploitation" movies that Hong Kong produced in the 1970's and 80's. And "Bruce Li" (aka Ho Tsung Dao) was the premier actor in those days. Here he plays the legendary fighter from his teenage years up until his untimely death. This movie was actually better than most so called bios. It was more true to his life than most. Included was his relationship with his Wing Chun Kung Fu master Yip Man, friends in Seattle, Oakland, and Hong Kong. His wife Linda and 2 kids were also shown. Betty Ting Pei , who was there when he died, also is shown. This film was also chronologically correct, for the most part ( showing first Hong Kong, then Seattle, San Francisco/Oakland, Hollywood, and finally Hong Kong). Of course this film had it's exaggerated moments ( to put it mildly) such as Lee fighting mafioso in Rome ( while filming Way of the Dragon) or the fight to teach non-Chinese in San Francisco ( which in reality was in his Oakland school, not the street in San Francisco). They also at the end put out the various "theories" about his death , including the idea that he's still alive, hiding out in the New Territories ( maybe he's teaching Elvis how to fight and Elvis is teaching him how to sing and play guitar)! Still this film was actually more accurate than most films, including in many cases Dragon:The Bruce Lee Story ( maybe thanks to director Ng See Yuen who helped launch Jackie Chan's career). Overall, it's pretty good ( for the genre).

jim-ludtke I think this is the filck I first saw during a stormy night in San Francisco's Chinatown - terribly dubbed, choppily edited and I have been looking for this movie ever since. It was more fun that I remember having had watching a fake Bruce Lee movie -- ever!There are several heavily symbolic montages with sappy lounge-style romantic musical themes, my personal favorite involved cross-cutting between the usual "romping at the beach" footage with what I think was a dachshund running down a hill ... an obvious tribute to "Battleship Potemkin" -- foreshadowing a life out of control.I was so certain that this grindhouse goodie would disappear forever that I saw it 5 times in the course of the week it played at that Chinatown Cinema(THIS IS NOT A SPOILER, BUT SCROLL DOWN ANYWAY> I NEED TO REMARK ON THE FINAL FOOTAGEThere is a wonderfully unintentionally hilarious tribute in song to Bruce Lee --- as Bruce Li, that is... which ends with the repeated cry of "Bruuuuuce! -- Bruuuuuce!", with mondo echo effects.It just doesn't get better.

Movie Nuttball I saw this film a long time ago and bought it at the video many,many years ago! I loved it that much. The star maybe not Bruce Lee but is very exciting when it comes to the Martial Arts action. If you ever come across this film either rent or if it were possible to buy it then do so because this film is a treasure to have just not for Bruce Lee fans but Martial Arts fans as well! Its a great movie!