“I’ve sort of let the inner nerd come out and just gone with it – and it’s fun, I love it, I enjoy it. And I see Tarantino doing it all the time and I think if he can do it, I can do it.”

Today we celebrate the weird and wonderful world of Bruceploitation cinema with the martial arts action star, director, writer and fellow podcaster, Michael Worth. When he’s not making his own movies, Michael has been following his passion for kung fu movies with a number of exciting projects. I catch up with him during the filming of his own Bruceploitation documentary, which will look into the strange sub-genre of films which followed in the wake of Bruce Lee‘s untimely death in 1973. These films made cult stars out of a number of Bruce Lee imitators including Bruce Li, Bruce Le, Bruce Leung, and Dragon Lee. Many of these names feature in Michael’s documentary, as well as legendary kung fu movie actors, directors and producers like Angela Mao Ying, Godfrey Ho, Lee Tso-nam, Mars, David Chiang, Yasuaki Kurata, and the late Phillip Ko. Michael has also penned an accompanying book, The Bruceploitation Bible: The Film Clones of Bruce Lee; both the book and the film will be released later in 2017. He is also helping with the digital restoration of a number of classic Bruceploitation titles for Blu-ray release, working alongside the distributor, Severin Films. Michael is also the co-host of The Clones Cast, a great podcast which looks at a different Bruceploitation title on every episode.

In the 1990s, Michael Worth became a prominent star of martial arts action films with movies like Final Impact (1991), To Be the Best (1993) and Fists of Iron (1995). In more recent times, Michael has moved behind the camera to write and direct his own projects, which include Killing Cupid (2005), God’s Ears (2008) and the upcoming MMA drama, The Butterfly Guard (2017). On this episode, we discuss his earliest memories of Bruceploitation cinema, the reasons behind its continuing cult appeal, and some of his favourite titles. There are literally hundreds of Bruceploitation movies out there – some of them are pretty terrible. But if you’re wondering where to start to help you discover more about this strange sub-genre, then here’s a list of the titles mentioned on this podcast.

• Fist of Unicorn (1972)
• The Growling Tiger (1974)
• Goodbye, Bruce Lee: His Last Game of Death (aka The New Game of Death) (1975)
• The Big Boss Part II (1976)
• Bruce Lee Fights Back From the Grave (1976)
• Bruce Lee: The Man, the Myth (1976)
• Bruce Lee’s Deadly Kung Fu (1976)
• Bruce’s Fingers (1976)
• The Dragon Dies Hard (1976)
• Exit the Dragon, Enter the Tiger (1976)
• New Fist of Fury (1976)
• The Clones of Bruce Lee (1977)
• Fist of Fury Part II (1977)
• Soul Brothers of Kung Fu (1977)
• Bruce Li in New Guinea (1978)
• Dynamo (1978)
• Edge of Fury (1978)
• Enter the Fat Dragon (1978)
• Enter the Game of Death (1978)
• Fist of Bruce Lee (1978)
• Game of Death (1978)
• The Real Bruce Lee (1978)
• Golden Dragon, Silver Snake (1979)
• The True Game of Death (1979)
• The Chinese Stuntman (aka Counter Attack) (1981)
• Game of Death II (1981)
• Dragon Force (1982)
• Jackie and Bruce to the Rescue (1982)
• No Retreat, No Surrender (1986)
• Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story (1993)
• Birth of the Dragon (2016)

Keep up to date with the latest Michael Worth news by following him on Twitter and Instagram, and for his latest Bruceploitation activity, check out this Instagram page.

Mars, Michael Worth, and the late Phillip Ko during filming for Michael’s upcoming Bruceploitation documentary.

Michael Worth and Dragon Lee during filming for Michael’s upcoming Bruceploitation documentary.

Bruce Li holds a signed photograph of himself during the filming of Michael Worth’s 2017 Bruceploitation documentary.

Lorenzo Lamas and Michael Worth in Final Impact (1991)