If imitation is the sincerest form of filmmaking, then the Brucesploition picture is cinema’s sincerest sub-genre. I mention it in an article I’ve written for the upcoming edition of The Big Picture and, when talking to friends about what I’ve been working on lately, have subsequently mentioned it to them. I’ve been surprised – and, in part, gladdened – that so few of them had heard of one of the most absurd and exploitative series of movies in cinema history.

In case there is anyone else out there who has so far survived unsullied and un-amused by exposure to Brucesploitation, I’ll elaborate a little on the term. The Brucesploitation picture sprang up (and the metaphor is appropriate, connoting the spread of an opportunistic fungus in a murky and stagnant environment) almost immediately after the death of Bruce Lee – who was, then as now, the number one name in kung-fu films. Lee’s presence and skills were so extraordinary, and his output so tragically curtailed, that, among millions of moviegoers, there was an insatiable – and impossible – appetite for more of his work.

As its names suggests, Brucesploitation ensured that appetite was thoroughly exploited. Using a stream of Lee lookalikes (who were, sadly, seldom able to become what they aimed to be: Lee punch- and kick-alikes), these movies retold, extended or just piddled all over the plots and scenes Lee had played out onscreen. The works were sometimes sold as acts of homage to the movies’ finest martial artist, but often – and rather despicably – they were marketed as films that, though posthumously released, actually starred him.

Misleading names abounded. The ‘stars’ of these films were the likes of Bruce Le, Bruce Li, Bruce Lo and Lee Bruce, and the films had titles that were classically cut and shut versions of those of Lee’s films. For anyone who can’t recall the title of each entry in Lee’s oeuvre, I’ll list them. Before his death, Bruce Lee made movies called Fist of Fury, Way of the Dragon, Enter The Dragon and The Big Boss. He also, famously, filmed sequences for an unfinished film to be called Game of Death (the one featuring the oft-referenced black and yellow jumpsuit). After his death, Bruce Lee’s imitators made movies called Exit the Dragon, Enter The Game of Death, Bruce’s Fist of Vengeance and, least imaginatively of all, Re-Enter The Dragon. The plots, acting and action on show in these films, though not always as awful as you might expect, is very often far worse than you could imagine.

For a Hollywood equivalent, picture James Dean – who, like Lee, died a young icon who had completed only a few films – inspiring a slew of no-budget, no-brain faux-angst-fuelled melodramas, starring actors calling themselves James Dein, James Dane, Dean James and Jimmy Dine, and given titles like Rebel of Eden, East of Paradise and Giant Without A Cause.

One of the videos embedded in this article showcases the abilities of Bruce Lee, and the other those of Bruce Le. Look very closely and see if you can spot which is which.