When Bruce Lee died in 1974 at the height of his career, he had completed only four films. Within hours of his funeral, Hong Kong film studios began producing hundreds of unauthorized biopics, sequels, prequels, spin-offs and rip-offs, starring lookalikes of the recently deceased actor. Director David Gregory investigates the bizarre cultural phenomenon of bruceploitation and the limits of cinematic transgression, in the company of lookalikes of the Hong Kong star and other legends of martial arts cinema such as Angela Mao, David Chiang, Phillip Ko, Casanova Wong, Yasuaki Kurata and Sammo Hung.
Thanks to meticulous archival work, this documentary manages for the first time to shed light on the history, controversies and legacy of one of the most bizarre and successful genres of the last century.
Active for many years, producer and director David Gregory made his first documentary in 2000: Texas Chainsaw Massacre - The Shocking Truth. In the same year he founded the distribution company Blue Underground. Subsequently, he directed more than one hundred documentaries and short films for DVD such as The Deer Hunter, Badlands, Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill!. His debut as a director of narrative feature films occurred in 2008 with Plague Town. In 2020 he directed and co-produced Tales Of The Uncanny, a sort of horror anthology with Roger Corman, Greg Nicotero, Tom Savini and other illustrious figures of the genre. The film won first prize at the Abattoir Festival in Wales, where it premiered in October 2020. David Gregory is also co-founder and CEO of Severin Films, the production and distribution company dedicated to the world's most provocative cinema world. Founded in 2006, its distribution catalog includes projects from iconic directors such as Alejandro Jodorowsky, Dario Argento, Lucio Fulci, Just Jaeckin, Peter Greenaway and many others.
