Of all the post-death Bruce Lee cash-ins — and Lordy, there are many — Bruce Lee Fights Back from the Grave is among the most notorious, all likely because of its title. That and the 15 seconds that open the movie are all it has going for it. In that quarter of a minute, a lightning bolt strikes the grave of “Bruce Lee,” who then leaps out of it, looking remarkably fit, trim and non-rotting for a dead guy. The title comes up and thus ends any and all connections, references and insinuations related to the deceased screen legend.
What follows is a cheap and tired story of Bruce Lee Wong Han (L.A. Streetfighters’ Jun Chong, credited as Bruce K.L. Lea), who travels from China to L.A. to visit his kung-fu instructor friend. Arriving to find his pal has been killed, Wong does what any one of us would do: Drape a box around his neck bearing a handsome headshot of his slain chum and walk all over town with it, vowing to avenge his death.
During his stroll of vengeance, Wong meets, befriends and romances a skank in a tube top (Deborah Dutch, 976-EVIL II), and kicks the asses of countless white guys, very few of whom wear shirts. Although directed by one Lee Doo-yong, this mess has been erroneously credited to Italian sleaze magnate Umberto Lenzi, renowned for the controversial, vomitous Cannibal Ferox. Regardless, the mind aches for a crossover. —Rod Lott