Re-Enter the Dragon: Genre Theory, Brucesploitation and the Sleazy Joys of Lowbrow Cinema

This is the first in-depth look at movies that riff on tropes associated with Bruce Lee and that sometimes transformed this actor into a mythical superman.The period with the greatest cluster of Brucesploitaton productions lasted less than a decade from the mid-seventies to the early-eighties, but the genre spluttered on into the twenty-first century; and although it didn’t exist as a category before Bruce Lee’s death, there are several films that pre-date the Little Dragon’s demise that clearly belong to it. While death added another dimension to Bruce Lee’s celebrity status, he was already a huge star in South East Asia before he passed away; so cynical movie producers did not need to wait for his death to exploit popular interest in Lee - even if the term Brucesploitation had yet to be coined.Within Brucesploitation actors who copy and clone Bruce Lee make up one strand of the subgenre, but their importance can and has been over-stated. Much of the writing about Brucesploitation is fan and internet based, and many of those producing this discourse make little attempt to explain why they insist certain films belong to the genre. Too many fans write as if genre is somehow natural, rather than created and shaped both through bald assertion and by more critical discussion and thinking. It is all too common to find any martial arts film featuring certain actors and themes, or with Bruce in the title, being accepted as Brucesploitation without any debate around the issue.This book systematically explores the genre and controversially takes a close look at which flicks really should be seen as belonging to it.

Humor & Entertainment

Home, Stewart

Movies

Cripplegate Books

This is the first in-depth look at movies that riff on tropes associated with Bruce Lee and that sometimes transformed this actor into a mythical superman. The period with the greatest cluster of Brucesploitaton productions lasted less than a decade from the mid-seventies to the early-eighties, but the genre spluttered on into the twenty-first century; and although it didn't exist as a category before Bruce Lee's death, there are several films that pre-date the Little Dragon's demise that clearly belong to it. While death added another dimension to Bruce Lee's celebrity status, he was already a huge star in South East Asia before he passed away; so cynical movie producers did not need to wait for his death to exploit popular interest in Lee - even if the term Brucesploitation had yet to be coined. Within Brucesploitation actors who copy and clone Bruce Lee make up one strand of the subgenre, but their importance can and has been over-stated. Much of the writing about Brucesploitation is fan and internet based, and many of those producing this discourse make little attempt to explain why they insist certain films belong to the genre. Too many fans write as if genre is somehow natural, rather than created and shaped both through bald assertion and by more critical discussion and thinking. It is all too common to find any martial arts film featuring certain actors and themes, or with Bruce in the title, being accepted as Brucesploitation without any debate around the issue. This book systematically explores the genre and controversially takes a close look at which flicks really should be seen as belonging to it.

Denizen of the Dead: The Horrors of Clarendon Court

Literature & Fiction

Genre Fiction

The 9 Lives of Ray "The Cat" Jones

This is the story of Ray 'The Cat' Jones who wanted to become middleweight boxing champion of the world but eventually made his mark as the greatest cat burglar of all time. He is a legend thanks to his headline grabbing escape from London's Pentonville Prison in 1958, as well as endless audacious thefts.\nRay is a teetotal, fitness obsessed, working-class Welshman whose boxing ambitions are thwarted after corrupt cops fit him up for a crime he didn't commit. When Ray gets out of jail he embarks on a criminal crusade against the inequities of British society. He is a modern-day Robin Hood waging an ideological class war against the rich. From the jewels of movie stars Elizabeth Taylor and Sophia Loren, to the private papers of the Duke of Windsor, paintings by Rubens and Rembrandt, and the furs of the London aristocracy, Ray's carefully targeted burglaries are perfectly planned and thrillingly executed.\nA great London novel and a vision of the city's underworld from wartime to near present. The narrative weaves between the clubs of Soho, populated by gangsters and gamblers, to the mansions of Kensington and Hampstead, inhabited by corrupt politicians and millionaires, and on into the dingy cells of the city's prisons The narrative is based on the real-life escapades of Raymond Jones, who as a young man left the Welsh village of Nantyglo for adventures in London. He died from pancreatic cancer in 2001 at the age of 84.

The 9 Lives of Ray The Cat Jones

This is the story of Ray 'The Cat' Jones who wanted to become middleweight boxing champion of the world but eventually made his mark as the greatest cat burglar of all time. He is a legend thanks to his headline grabbing escape from London's Pentonville Prison in 1958, as well as endless audacious thefts.\nRay is a teetotal, fitness obsessed, working-class Welshman whose boxing ambitions are thwarted after corrupt cops fit him up for a crime he didn't commit. When Ray gets out of jail he embarks on a criminal crusade against the inequities of British society. He is a modern-day Robin Hood waging an ideological class war against the rich. From the jewels of movie stars Elizabeth Taylor and Sophia Loren, to the private papers of the Duke of Windsor, paintings by Rubens and Rembrandt, and the furs of the London aristocracy, Ray's carefully targeted burglaries are perfectly planned and thrillingly executed.\nA great London novel and a vision of the city's underworld from wartime to near present. The narrative weaves between the clubs of Soho, populated by gangsters and gamblers, to the mansions of Kensington and Hampstead, inhabited by corrupt politicians and millionaires, and on into the dingy cells of the city's prisons.\nThe narrative is based on the real-life escapades of Raymond Jones, who as a young man left the Welsh village of Nantyglo for adventures in London. He died from pancreatic cancer in 2001 at the age of 84.

Baron's Court, All Change

Baron's Court, All Change is the Holy Grail of hipster novels.\nTerry Taylor's book documents one summer in the life of an unnamed sixteen year-old narrator. Leaving home and his job he dabbles in spiritualism, is seduced by an older woman and gets rich quick from drug dealing. This is a world of sharp suits, jazz, kicks, "spades", nightclubs and sex. A London that is already swinging half a decade before the rest of the world catches on.\nTerry Taylor (1933-2014) was the much younger lover of Ida Kar, whose National Portrait Gallery collection includes a series of photographs of Terry getting stoned in London's Soho back in 1956. His proto-mod exploits as a young man are fictionalised in Colin MacInnes' famous novel Absolute Beginners. Throughout Taylor's life music, magic rituals and hallucinogenic drugs loomed large. Terry spent time in Goa and hung out with William Burroughs in Tangier before settling down in the wilds of north Wales, where he continued to dig modern jazz and perfect his occult practices.

Taylor, Terry

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Books by Cripplegate Books

See the best price to sell, buy or rent books by the Cripplegate Books publisher. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Re-Enter the Dragon: Genre Theory, Brucesploitation and the Sleazy Joys of Lowbrow Cinema

Re-Enter the Dragon: Genre Theory, Brucesploitation and the Sleazy Joys of Lowbrow Cinema

Denizen of the Dead: The Horrors of Clarendon Court

The 9 Lives of Ray The Cat Jones

The 9 Lives of Ray "The Cat" Jones

Baron's Court, All Change

Baron's Court, All Change