BRUCE LEE FIGHTS BACK FROM THE GRAVE (1976)

     There has been a lot of rip off movies that fail to deliver what they promised on their posters (Or now DVD case art) the movie BRUCE LEE FIGHTS BACK FROM THE GRAVE is a classic in ripping off the movie viewers.
      I first encounter the movie in the form of a newspaper ad that showed a picture of a muscle bound Bruce Lee leaping out of a grave in the middle of a grave yard as a pretty woman in a torn dress and a bat like creature with a humanoid head looks on. The poster told you that you would be seeing a weird kung fu supernatural thriller of some sort.
     I did not know at the time that the art work on the poster was a rip off of  the cover of singer Meatloft's  BAT OUT OF HELL record cover.
     I did not get to see that film at that time it was released to movie theaters. I did not get to see the trailer for it until recently.  In the trailer they show action scenes from the movie as the narrator tells the viewers that the movie is about Bruce Lee coming back from the dead to take revenge against those who killed him. It was all a lie. The film is not about Bruce Lee and his search for revenge.
     I saw the film a few years ago on DVD. I had always wanted to see the movie and see if it matched the great poster art. I bought the DVD cheaply by mail. I don't remember if I got it from eBay or Amazon.
     If you ever want to see just the first minute of a minute this is the one.
     After the opening credits there is a shot of a grave yard and there in the yard is a tombstone with the name Bruce Lee written in big letters so you can't miss it. The scene cuts quickly to a shot of lighting flashing and then back to the grave where a man is shown jumping out of the grave. You don't get to see the face clearly. What happen to the dirt that covered the grave? The shot then cuts to the poster art for the film as if you tell the viewers this is what the scene would have looked like if they had a lot of money to spend on the scene.
     The rest of the film has nothing to do with the opening scene. It's a run of the mill kung fu movie from Korea. It's as if they made an one minute long movie and decided to pad it out by adding a  feature kung fu movie after it. I never seen the whole movie after the opening minute. Some reviews say it's a funny movie in a chop socky schlock way.
     Directed by Doo-yong Lee.
     aka: AMERICA BANGMUNGAEG

Poster Art for BRUCE LEE FIGHTS BACK FROM THE GRAVE.
This art was used in the opening scene.