IPOE continues our in-depth, multi-post look at the Bruceploitation genre.
1980s WHAT’S YOUR STYLE? featured three Bruce Lee Clones, two of which were flesh and bone. One was not.
PLOT: Kraken Lee and Shitake Lee are two, frequently shirtless undercover cops, who are teamed up to bust up a Hong Kong heroin ring, most of whom wear shirts (very loud shirts). There is a long history between the two and they have to bury their differences to work together.
Kraken Lee was Terry Yang, who could actually lay claim to being a student of Bruce Lee’s second cousin Fred, who was his grade school substitute history teacher. Yang also appeared as a clone in 1979's EXIT THE BRUCE. . . ENTER THE BRUCE, WAR OF THE BRUCE LEE CLONES (1981) and under his own name in 1982’s SONIC DEATHPUNCH OF THE ONE-EYED DRUNKEN MASTER.
Shitake Lee was Wai Luk-Kim. He would appear in just three other films under his given name, BLACK MAGIC KILLERS (1979), KUNG FU COOKBOOK (1980) and THE CLEAN, THE DIRTY AND THE FUNKY (1980) and one more as a clone, WAR OF THE BRUCE LEE CLONES (1981).
WHAT'S YOUR STYLE? is a decent police actioner with the requisite, fights, chases and gun battles, and some toe sucking, but the one aspect that makes it stand out is the character of Mecha Lee, a metallic Kung Fu killer. Mecha Lee is created by a disgraced scientist, who controls him remotely, to act as an enforcer for the Heroin boys, to take care of anyone snooping around their dirty business. Mecha Lee's screen time is limited to only two scenes, but the character is the one thing that every viewer will remember.
Unfortunately, in this, his debut outing, Mecha Lee resembled an Asian tin woodsman more than a mechanical Bruce Lee. The metal suit is clunky and ill fitting. The actor playing Mecha Lee was Danny Ching-Ho, who would do his best to perform and do fight scenes with the costume, but it just doesn't work. For his second appearance in CRIME LORDS OF HONG KONG (1980), the metal suit was streamlined quite a bit, allowing more freedom of movement and more believability for the fight scenes.
Danny Ching-Ho, a Taiwanese martial artist and Pisces, who enjoyed long romantic training sessions and breaking cement bricks with the head of his dates.
He would play Mecha Lee two more times in 1981’s self-titled MECHA LEE aka NEVER MIND THE BOLLOCKS HERE’S MECHA LEE (UK video release). Then in 2020 KUNG FU FUTURE BATTLE (1982).
“MAKES THE SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN LOOK LIKE CHUMP CHANGE!”
The MECHA LEE suit is now rusting away next to a Mitsubishi Delica in a junk yard somewhere in Taipei.
Another two-time clone was Florsheim Lee, who's only starring role was in BRUCE’S DEADLY SNEAKERS (1977).
Florsheim Lee was an alias of course, for Florsheim Chi-Wan, who appeared under his birth name in two movies prior to BRUCE'S DEADLY SNEAKERS, CLAN OF THE KUNG FU KILLERS (1975) and FISTS OF THE ZODIAC (1976). He would be one of the numerous Lee's that starred in 1981's WAR OF THE BRUCE LEE CLONES, before heading off to that great used shoe rack in the sky.
PLOT: Florsheim Lee plays Warren, a put-upon loner, who buys a pair of used sneakers from an old coot who runs a roadside stand. The cackling salesman tells Warren that the sneakers belonged to Bruce Lee. Warren soon discovers that when he wears the sneakers, he has powerful kung fu, especially with his legs. He is able to tame his bullies with his newfound skill, but when he faces the final showdown with his toughest tormentor, he can’t find the sneakers.
Best summed up as a feel-good movie with plenty of bone breaking violence.
Released in the United States by Mantooth Releasing, who specialized in pornography before jumping on the Kung Fu bandwagon. In fact, Mantooth Releasing was one of the premier distributors of cinema filth in the seventies, and we’re talking some sleazy shit, for the total degenerate.
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