The film begins with a very, very fake tombstone with Bruce Lee's name on it. Then the title appears. Other than these two things, there is NOTHING about Bruce Lee about the film despite the title of the American release being BRUCE LEE FIGHTS FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE! In the 70s, lots of crappy film makers tried adding Lee's name to lousy films he had nothing to do with in an effort to sucker people into seeing them. Part of the problem is that Lee died at the height of his fame and only made a few films--people were eager for more. Considering that I have seen all of Lee's films, I knew right away this was the intention of the film, but decided to watch it anyways on a lark.The film stars a guy who isn't all that good at martial arts (Jun Chong), though because this is a rip-off film, they rechristen him 'Bruce K. L. Lea'! When you see his acting and especially is fighting, you know right away that this is no Bruce Lee--just some third-rate wannabe.So apart from poor martial arts, it there anything to recommend this film? Well, no....absolutely nothing. There are many dumb scenes--including a cremation that takes only 3 seconds (they must have used a microwave) AND immediately after the bones came out of the oven, they were cold to the touch! There was also a stupid (and pointless) scene involving a cab driver who got beaten up by Lea. Minutes later, he had crappy bandages all over his face--like in some bad cartoon! Some of the rottenness might be the fault of the company producing the horrendous English language dubbing (usually a very bad sign when a martial arts film isn't subtitled). The voices were all wrong, though it was enjoyable to hear Black American men with Asian accents! The soundtrack was also just god-awful--with it being often too loud and of dubious quality. However, I did get a chuckle at the stupidity of the music dubber who used the marine song "The Halls of Montezuma" for a Christmas parade! Seeing Santa on his sled as this song played was simply beyond words!! Oh, and I guess I forgot to mention that the print was very, very, very grainy.So in the end, this is a tremendously dull and badly made film--even if you DON'T consider the dubbing. Only watch this film if you want a laugh. It's just very sad that such a horrible product has cynically had Bruce Lee's name affixed to it!

Bruce Lee Fights Back From The Grave is a very misleading title from grindhouse distributor Aquarius, run by the late Australian-born exploitation genius Terry Levene. Aquarius, renowned for their lowest-of-low budget chop sockeys and Sonny Chiba tamperings, later recut scenes from Bruce Lee's films into an entirely fictitious documentary called Fist Of Fear Touch Of Death (1980), and released the Italian zombie/cannibal shocker Zombie Holocaust as Doctor Butcher MD (1980) - along with mock surgery performed on the back of a truck driving through New York City. I don't know about you, but it makes me proud to be an Australian.Levene's poster for Bruce Lee Fights Back... promises a zombie Bruce in a supernatural slap-down with the Black Angel of Death. The credits even feature someone suspiciously Bruce-like leaping out of a polystyrene tomb - then cuts to a film that has NO Bruce, NO Angel of Death, and is in fact some crummy nameless generic kung fu filler starring someone claiming to be "Bruce K.L. Lea". Ripped off? You may well feel so, but WAIT - it's one of the real howlers of bad kung fu cinema, in EVERY sense of the word."Bruce" plays Wong Han, a Korean immigrant in LA visiting his old friend Go Hok Khan who he discovers has committed "suicide" and is now being cremated in the basement. Heartbroken, "Bruce" starts to wander the streets of LA at random, carrying his friend's bones and a glossy 8x10 in a sling around his neck. Through a bizarre chain of coincidences he rescues a girl called Susan from a shirtless rapist who worked for Go Hok Khan, and remembers - with photo clarity, mind you - the five strangers who visited him before his death. A black guy, a cowboy, a Mexican... lady, you're channeling a Village People concert! A p*ss-and-vinegar-filled Bruce decides to slay his way through the list Kill Bill style - and there's a bit of EVERY kung fu film in Kill Bill, isn't there, kids? - but not before visiting a very keen Susan's crashpad. She asks him to stay; a very pale and humorless "Bruce" warns her it would not be proper - but leaves the box of human remains for safekeeping. What a guy.Bruce Lee Fights Back... is a real schizophrenic mess, filmed in America but dubbed in Hong Kong, with everyone voiced in the same petulant monotone. You can almost feel sorry for the American actors forced to exaggerate every motion, so that picking up the phone becomes a three-act Greek tragedy. The filmmakers break the cardinal kung fu rule by speeding up a fight in a wrecking yard into a Benny Hill chase spectacular, but best of all is the howling, yelping, whimpering and robot noises in EVERY fight scene.For years, horror fans thought it was a kung fu anti-classic directed by Italian cannibal maestro Umberto Lenzi - purely because Levene switched credits with a Euro cop thriller and was too cheap to change the poster. Well, there's no cannibals, no zombie Bruce Lee, just the sounds of R2D2 having a heart attack in Bruce Lee Fights Back From The Grave.

An oriental Kung Fu expert named Wong Han (played by Bruce K.L. Lea) travels to America at the invite of his long-time friend and former Kung Fu school training partner only to learn his friend is now dead, apparently the result of a suicide. Suspecting foul play, Wong Han sets out to bring down a gang of strange characters he suspects are responsible for his friend's death but when he attempts to do so, there's also quite a few unexpected surprises awaiting our hero.Despite the title referring to Bruce Lee, he actually has nothing whatsoever to do with this movie apart from an extremely cheesy, silly opening introduction title sequence in which we see a man resembling Lee jump out of a grave with the headstone behind him bearing Lee's name. What this movie is actually about is a man coming to America trying to avenge his fallen friend while protecting his deceased friend's last belongings. There he befriends a beautiful young woman named Susan (played by the delectable Deborah Chaplin) who tries to help him in his quest. However, the gang of colorful thugs, a true assortment of weird characters if there ever was one, are after him and Susan for some reason unknown to Wong Han and go all out in their efforts to bring them down meaning Wong Han has to constantly fight for his own survival while also trying to protect Susan.As you can tell, the basic plot for this movie isn't half-bad. The Kung Fu fighting scenes featuring Bruce Lea, who throws a mean-looking kick, also proved much better than expected although they fall rather short in comparison to the one and only Bruce Lee. The major problem here is that the movie seems to go on a bit too long, the pace feeling a little too slow, which isn't helped by the fact there's too much obvious filler footage of people simply driving vehicles from place to place. Also the colorful villainous assortment of characters Wong Han tries to bring down never evolve beyond anything other than one-dimensional caricatures.

Five minutes into this movie and you will know exactly how great it is! Starring the incredibly talented Bruce K. L. Lee (who can act every bit as good as he fights!) and the absolutely gorgeous Deborah Chaplin (good to know that old Charlie's genes are still out there doing good work) and a host of kung-fu-practicing baddies... this movie is not to be missed! I always found the original Bruce Lee's movies to be incredibly hokey and slow-paced. This movie never seems to let up for a second. B.K.L. Lee can't even get himself a cab without having it turn into a demonstration of his kicking prowess! The tentative romance between Lea and his buxom female lead is very well handled... her breathy sigh as he leaves her to go off and avenge his dead friend... magnificent! Even though the movie is dubbed, the voices are so well-matched to the lip movements that you probably won't even tell it's not the actors' real voices. To cap it all off is the devastating, heart-breaking finale. No, you can't practice kung fu without casualties... even the good must die in service of the art.