Believe it or not, this is actually one of the better Bruce Lee rip-offs that plagued the Asian film industry after his death and Bruce Li, who happens to look a lot like Lee is perhaps the most well known and talented of all the impersonators.

In a twist on the Bruce Lee wannabe circuit, Bruce Li is Lee Ting Yee, a cab driver who gets spotted by a talent agent and ends up being the next big sensation after the recent death of Bruce Lee. The filmmakers deserve credit for making a film about the people who exploited Bruce Lee’s image for their own gain. But, the irony is that Dynamo does the same thing. Why? Bruce Li, who has played a Lee-like character most of his career stays in character through the whole film. Even when he’s not playing a Bruce Lee clone, he fights and grimaces like Lee. A lot of different elements were also added to play up the Lee-factor. Li wears Lee’s yellow jumpsuit seen in Game of Death (1978) and later wears a different colored jumpsuit in the film’s final match. Li’s teacher in the film, played by Guk Fung introduces his student to an electro-magnetic machine which Lee actually used to supposedly stimulate and tone his muscles.

The best element of the film is Lee’s relationship with Chow, his hard drinking and smoking martial arts coach. The two spar constantly as Chow refines his skill, teaching Lee to use surprise to defeat his foes. Of course, the real Bruce Lee never had so many foes as Lee Ting Yee who shuffles around the world while constantly being attacked by hired thugs out to do him harm. Its tedious, episodic and keeps the plot from doing much of anything except moving from one lame fight to the next. Bruce Li is a competent martial artist but trying to duplicate Bruce Lee on screen, with lousy choreography doesn’t work. Only Sammo Hung and perhaps Stephen Chow have managed to capture the spirit of Bruce Lee on film, albeit in a comical fashion.

Another oddity is the film’s attempt to throw in a bit of drama. Lee’s agent, who is portrayed as a manipulator arranges an elaborate setup for Lee to have a sexual tryst with a French actress to fan the flames of the gossip headlines. In one unintentionally hilarious shower scene, we see the camera begin to pan up the bare legs of this French woman only to have the camera cut away and show the exact same footage of her legs three more times! Although Lee temporarily succumbs to her charms, his heart belongs to his longtime girlfriend. His girlfriend is later kidnapped by the competing agency who tries to blackmail Lee into losing a high-profile match in New York. During the fight, Lee’s agency rescues the girl but tells him she’s been killed. Furious, he musters the strength to beat his hairy opponent, finds out the truth about his own agency’s deceptions and walks away from stardom with his girl in hand.

What puts the final nail in the coffin is Li’s wooden performance and the bad direction he receives. He’s supposed to be this guy getting abused and used by the system, all because he was lured by the promise of wealth and stardom. Yet, the viewer rarely has any idea what is going on in his head and the filmmakers simply fall back on mediocre fights to carry the film along. On its own, this film would be a hard sell to anyone, save for those interested in seeing what Bruce Lee wasn’t.

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