ALL THINGS BRUCE LEE

[Bedrockgames]

Bruce Lee came up in another thread, and rather than derail it, I thought it would be better to start a new thread. He transcends lots of boundaries, whether you are a gamer, a martial artist, a movie enthusiast or a cultural commentator, he comes up a lot. I came to him largely by way of martial arts. As a kid I remember hearing about him a lot and eventually seeing his movies. But it was when I started taking martial arts, that I became obsessed. Because even though there is a cinematic quality to the fights in his movies, he was one of the few people who looked and moved like a real martial arts practitioner to me (and to be more specific he looked and moved like someone who understood sparring and full contact). Return of the Dragon is my favorite, followed by Fists of Fury and Enter the Dragon. What do others have to say on the topic?

 

[Morrus]

Weirdly, I have never seen a Bruce Lee film.

 

[Bedrockgames]

Weirdly, I have never seen a Bruce Lee film.

If you haven't seen him before, and want to, Enter the Dragon might be a good starting point because it is very accessible (you don't have to be a pure kung fu fan to enjoy it, it has some James Bond elements to broaden its appeal). And Fist of Fury is probably another good choice (just be aware some version of this one have different titles and another one of his movies, the Big Boss, occasionally is mislabeled Fist of Fury). But Fist of Fury is the one with the feud between the Chinese school and the Japanese school (which is a pretty standard Kung Fu craze trope). I will say there is a reason he is so famous. He has an amazing screen presence

 

[Ryujin]

Like many stars who died far too young, the very fact of his early death is part of what adds to his popularity as it also did with his son, and people like James Dean. It's that, "Just how big would they have been had they lived" thing that makes them even bigger than they were in life.

I got to know about him fairly early on, though he'd already done some acting in the Far East at the time. My exposure was the '60s "Batman" and "The Green Hornet." Like in Seth Rogan's "Green Hornet" movie, that came out a few years ago, Lee's "Kato" was the real star of the show. Van Williams' "Britt Reid" was supposed to be the main protagonist but had nowhere near the energy and charisma of Lee.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

Let's see-

1. There is a recent, decent ESPN Documentary about Bruce Lee called Be Water. It's pretty good.

2. Bruce Lee's filmed output is positively minuscule. There are multiple cuts, edits, titles, and so on of his movies ... but for all practical purposes he had 4 films (or 5, depending on how you count Game of Death which wasn't finished before he died) in 1971 and 1972 that are his "oeuvre," and that's it.

3. The fascination with Bruce Lee in the west is partly because he became a huge international star after he died. Enter the Dragon (a complete masterpiece) earned more than $1 billion (adjusted for inflation). It is the ur-movie for Hong Kong martial arts, to the extent that many movies of the 80s and 90s would have people searching for so-called books of Bruce Lee's techniques.

He was truly a star.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

 

[Mookus]

Bruce Lee, man did I have an obsession. Don't get me wrong, I still appreciate his artistry, his athleticism, his charisma, his philosophies, his bright-burning screen presence. But for a couple of years in high school, I consumed everything Lee (as did, tbf, quite a large number of young boys in the '80s "kung fu" explosion).

When I was around 11, I rented a VHS copy of "Enter the Dragon" and it broke my world. How does a man move like that? The grace, the power. It wasn't his character, it was him, really him, even though it looked like a special effect! I then watched all his movies, then watched really bad rip-offs of his movies with "stars" like Bruce Li, and Le. Read biographies (well, the two I could find!), magazine articles, bought posters, joined a McDojo. I jumped in with both feet (though I never did learn the cha-cha lol).

It eventually dimmed from that level of intensity, as most of my obsessions do, to be replaced by an implacable certainty that he was not just the greatest martial artist I may ever see, but a truly great man by the bulk of accounts. Personally, I find his life quite inspiring.

 

[BookBarbarian]

His fight scenes were spectacularly choreographed. It's tough to see them and then watch post Bruce Lee martial Arts movies (IE Van Damme) without being let down by the latter.

Besides that he broke a lot of molds. In an era were Asian men in film pretty much acted only one way he and a few others Like Jack Su and George Takei refused to fit the stereotype. He was brash, confident, and macho. He also accepted students of all backgrounds to his martial arts acedemy.

A philosopher, showman, entertainer and artist all in a pretty short life.

 

[Tonguez]

Let's see-

1. There is a recent, decent ESPN Documentary about Bruce Lee called Be Water. It's pretty good.

2. Bruce Lee's filmed output is positively minuscule. There are multiple cuts, edits, titles, and so on of his movies ... but for all practical purposes he had 4 films (or 5, depending on how you count Game of Death which wasn't finished before he died) in 1971 and 1972 that are his "oeuvre," and that's it.

3. The fascination with Bruce Lee in the west is partly because he became a huge international star after he died. Enter the Dragon (a complete masterpiece) earned more than $1 billion (adjusted for inflation). It is the ur-movie for Hong Kong martial arts, to the extent that many movies of the 80s and 90s would have people searching for so-called books of Bruce Lee's techniques.

He was truly a star.

Bruce Lee was the perfect package, not only was he a skilled and determined martial artist, he was also handsome, charismatic, confident, had a great physique and was a showman able to sell the package and thus introduce an entirely ‘new’ genre of movies to Hollywood and the global market.

Even moreso he embraced the whole ‘Artist’ aspect of fighting and honed and developed his philosphy and style into something remarkable. Enter the Dragon and Game of Death are entirely about Bruce showcasing his Art for the world to experience.

Morrus you really need to watch a Bruce Lee movie

personally I prefer Jackie Chan movies but Jackie Chan credits Bruce for his success too (Chan was an extra in both Fist of Fury and Enter the Dragon)

 

[Bedrockgames]

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