This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

A Brilliant Conflict

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

I saw this dodgy pseudo documentary under the title YOUNG BRUCE LEE: THE LITTLE DRAGON. I see that it's variously called THE REAL BRUCE LEE as well as about half a dozen repackaged titles. The year of release wasn't 1973 but rather the late '70s, either 1977 or 1979, although the finished product is so low budget and obscure that it's difficult to tell much about it.In any case, this is an ultimate 'Bruceploitation' movie; a look behind the scenes at Bruce Lee's life which basically consists of two elements: footage from movies that Lee made as a child actor, and clips from films featuring Bruce Lee imitators which pretend to be the real deal. Both elements are uninteresting; I've seen the clips of Bruce as a child actor in other, better documentaries (you know, ones that actually had narration and context) while the other bits simply consist of Bruce Li or Dragon Lee training in gardens and beating up random people. It's a pointless, plot less affair, and one I found that tested the patience to the ultimate.

After Bruce Lee died in 1973 and as a way of exploiting his international fame, there seems to have been several south-east Asian films released with his name emblazoned in their titles. The Spirit of Bruce Lee (1973) and The Image of Bruce Lee (1978) being a couple of infamous examples, the films themselves had nothing to do with Lee whatsoever and were merely cashing in on his name. The Real Bruce Lee is yet another in this ilk, except that it justifies the use of the Bruce Lee name in its title by actually featuring him and being about him. Sort of.It compromises of three sections. Rare footage from the first four Lee screen appearances, a short documentary section and finally a look at the Bruce Lee imitators. The only part that was vaguely interesting was the documentary part and that only lasted ten minutes tops. The rest of it just compromises of very lengthy clips from those old Lee films and newer copycat features featuring Dragon Lee and Bruce Li. Sometimes it is bad enough watching cheap old chopsocky movies in their full versions but to watch extended , long sections but minus any context is almost unbearable. This film is only for the most committed Lee aficionados but even they might struggle with this one.

Sure, there are several vintage clips of Bruce as a child on this DVD. I may be mistaken but I believe these are available elsewhere and in better form. There are also some essentially worthless clips of Bruce Lee doing Kato, and some Bruce Li clips.Skip through all that if you like. Get to the "Dragon Lee" film, which begins near a waterfall with "Dragon" practicing. This begins one of the most surreal and satisfying bad kung fu movies you will ever have the joy to watch.There is so much to describe, I couldn't possibly contain it all here. The plot is the standard baddie doing the usual "control all the local kung fu schools" routine, but here it is being done by some *really* fake-looking Japanese characters, who mostly all sport Hitler-style mini-moustaches. Wonderful! Later in the film they bring in their "champion" who is of mixed Japanese-German descent. Perfect! There's a lot of Japan-bashing going on here.The real enjoyment of the film comes from this kind of thing: The wonderfully awful dubbing, some of the worst I've ever heard. Over the top evil giggling from the bad guys; WAY excessively long grunts and groans from injured thugs; and of course, plenty of squeals and whoops and "bucocks!" from the Bruce imitator. (Did Bruce ever really make that chicken sound? I wonder).The sets and costumes. Sets are horribly claustrophobic. There seems to be no space in the movie larger than an 8 x 12 foot sound stage, and most are even smaller. Costumes are painfully dowdy, raggedy, and crudely made, like cheap Halloween costumes.The kind of wire-work you only see in your dreams. You just have to see it to believe it.The almost total lack of back-story, or any attempt at providing a story of any kind. This movie plays out like a great Nintendo 8-bit game from the 1980's (if you know what I mean) - just tons of action. It jumps from action sequence to plot contrivance and back again, with the barest whisper of dialogue and characterization in between. There are actually one or two characters we see several times, who are important to the plot, but whom we never get formally introduced to! We know almost nothing about them, and so feel nothing at their involvement or passing. It's great, one-dimensional fun - never preachy, always entertaining.Someone in another comment here said this was a Korean production, which would suit me just fine. The film *completely* lacks that Hong Kong or even mainland-China feel to it, and it is certainly not Japanese! Looking at a film like this, made in Korea in the early 1970's, is like finding a time capsule - you see things you didn't know existed, shown in ways you couldn't have possibly imagined.The movie is like a fever dream that you just can't wake up from, and I mean that in a good way! Small, sweaty, illogical, and lots of unnecessary closeups.

This movie has all the looks of a quickie movie that was made to capitalize on the death of Bruce Lee in Hong Kong in 1973. I am sure there were many , many movies like this made back then. Luckily for us, this one survives and is dubbed in English. The high points of this 2 hour film which is really a half-hour documentary about Bruce, followed by a full-length Kung Fu feature supposedly called " The Ultimate Lee" and is claimed to be the next scheduled movie was to have done ( yeah, right...). The first half-hour is where this feature shines as we see selected clips from Bruce's first four films made while he was a youngster in China. We see clips from "The Little Dragon", "The Bad Boy", "Carnival" and "Orphan Sam". Included is the only scene Bruce ever did with his father. We see scenes of Bruce behind the camera and casual. We also see scenes of Bruce's funeral. This is all very good and the collector would love to get his hands on footage like this. I will offer a caveat though when seeking this documentary out. Beware of inferior dubs. There is a video copy of this being sold that has Bruce on the cover with no shirt and with the pattern of a rising sun Japanese flag behind him ( strangely enough...), this is an inferior copy that looks like it was copied by a handheld camera with the movie being shown on a flapping sheet. The picture is out of focus a lot of the time and is very frustrating to watch, especially the rarities when you would like to see clearly. But if you can find the clear version, it is worth seeing for the Bruce Lee fan.