Reel Steel, an indie publication and film screening event group, is presenting an upcoming Bruce Lee double-bill at Sheffield’s historic Abbeydale Picture House.
The Abbeydale Picture House opened in 1920, screening some of the most important films of the 20th Century – including Charlie Chaplin’s debut feature film The Kid (1921), Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds (1963), and Bruce Lee’s Enter the Dragon (1973) – until the cinema closed in 1975. Today, the Grade II listed venue continues to serve audiences by hosting cultural activities throughout the year.
The event this August bank-holiday weekend will showcase Lee’s career-launching movie The Big Boss (1971), which set a new standard for martial arts action, as well as Bruce Lee vs Superman (1975), reminiscent of the golden era of gonzo exploitation filmmaking.
In The Big Boss – Bruce Lee stars as Cheng, an immigrant worker who takes a job with his cousin at an ice factory in Thailand and discovers a host of suspicious activity. Cheng once made a family promise never to fight again, but when he begins to investigate a series of disappearances – the latest of which has seen his own cousin go missing. Taking on one opponent after another, Cheng will not stop until he has fought his way to the truth and the inevitable confrontation with the man known as ‘The Big Boss’.
Following Bruce Lee’s untimely passing in 1973, a wave of low-budget exploitation films, which entirely revolved around the image of Bruce Lee, flooded cinemas in the years following his death – creating a new genre of their own, known as ‘Bruceploitation’.
In Bruce Lee vs Superman; gangsters call Superman out of retirement to kidnap a scientist who has solved the global food shortage crisis, which he agrees to do in exchange for money, girls and booze.
The authorities enlist Kato (the TV character initially performed by Bruce Lee – played here by Bruce Li), the Green Hornet’s partner, to help. Kato hires his friend Carter (also played by Bruce Li), who looks, dresses, acts, and wields nun chucks like Bruce Lee.
The American Genre Film Archive has preserved and released these films, from the only known 35mm print.
All details and tickets can be found at https://reelsteelcinema.com/.
