So before we went on vacation in MX last week, I finished watching all of Bruce Lee‘s movies and a couple related documentaries. Not having seen any of BL’s movies despite being a fan of Jet Li and Jackie Chan and other martial-arts movies for quite some time is kind of like being a Star Trek fan and never having watched the original series – Blasphemy!

There are some earlier (fictional) shows out there with BL in them (not as the main star though) – namely the 60s TV series The Green Hornet (he is Kato, the ass-kicking sidekick); and Longstreet (BL plays a martial-arts guru teaching the main character).

And then here are the four full, original Bruce Lee movies out there where he is the central star:

Fists of Fury (The Big Boss) – This was the first of his 3 HK movies – this has a bit of wire work in it (even BL cannot just ‘jump’ over a 12-ft metal fence) but pretty good stuff. What I like is the way the boss of the ice factory tries to co-op people and if they don’t comply, whammo! But no other spoilers – check it out!

Fist of Fury – (remade more recently with Jet Li as Fist of Legend) – where the main character returns to his wushu martial arts school after the master is mysteriously killed, and vengance ensues! The Jet Li remake is a bit more polished and has a bit more plot and character development, but both movies are equally good.

The Way of the Dragon – a man comes to help a Chinese restaurant in Rome, Italy from the mob trying to take it over. This is the one where BL ultimately fights Chuck Norris (in all his TX-hairy-chest-homoerotic glory). I was very surprised at the start of this to see it was set in Italy – definitely a different feel to it for that reason alone. Also, there are a number of comedic touches throughout this movie that aren’t in the earlier two. They aren’t on the level of say Jackie Chan slapstick-style comedy, but prove that BL has some range as an actor, he’s not *just* about serious ass-kicking. 🙂

And finally, Enter the Dragon. This is the big ‘Hollywood movie’ that sadly came out only a few days after BL passed away and helped cement him as an international and permanent star – this was his first big movie in the USA and elsewhere, compared to his already huge stardom in Asia based on the earlier HK movies. The movie is in many ways like a James Bond movie (without the flashy gadgets or Q branch), with BL being an investigator sent to a mysterious island run by an enigmatic martial-arts ‘lord’ suspected of many criminal enterprises. John Saxon is good as BL’s co-star, and there are many great fight scenes, including a young Jackie Chan getting his neck broken by BL as he infiltrates the underground complex but then sets off a bunch of alarms and has to fight his way out.

The movie BL was working on when he got the call from Hollywood regarding Enter the Dragon was to be called Game of Death. He had filmed many of the penultimate fight scenes in it (incl. some former students as his opponents and/or henchmen, including Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) but with his passing the movie was never completed. Later some film execs took the footage and hacked it into a ‘movie’ with archival footage and other lame attempts at using doubles, etc. with a completely different plot than BL intended. However, all the original footage and a detailed plot discussion of the original script can be seen at the end of the Bruce Lee: A Warrior’s Journey documentary – definitely worth checking out. And you will obviously see where QT/Uma Thurman got the idea for her yellow suit in Kill Bill.

BL is even more amazing (IMHO) when you think about the following:

a) he was only 32(!) when he passed away;
b) for such a huge, huge star he only has a handful of movies and/or onscreen appearances;
c) he not only broke barriers in Hollywood but in society generally against racism and cultural understanding. To this day he serves as a huge inspiration for anyone/everyone who knows about him. Some of the documentaries touch on this (e.g. How Bruce Lee Changed the World) point specifically.

Finally, there is the ‘lost interview‘ available on VHS (I got it and the other movies from the best store on the planet, Scarecrow of course). This is a traveling interview show with some obscure Canadian(?) host who talked to BL for about 40 mins. about his career, experiences in show business and his various philosophies. The interviewer himself is pretty average, but it’s interesting to simply see BL just talk about his life and career and a bit about society too. And you can definitely tell he’s a child of the 60’s – he says ‘man’ in about every other sentence – it would have been so interesting to see how his career and life might have gone had he lived.

I’ll leave you with one of the quotes from the interview: “Be like water, my friend.” You will have to watch either the interview tape or the documentary mentioned above to get more on that one 🙂

candybowl

Watched Enter the Dragon again the other night. And now of course have to finally get around to watching Bruce Lee’s other 3 movies. But enjoyed this one again – my fave scene is when he jumps on Oharra and (I think, they don’t show it) snaps his neck? The expression on his face – slowed down for effect – is priceless! And BL is the guy who made random screams and yowls during fighting the gold standard (and spoofed many thousands of times since of course).

Enter the Dragon is a pretty decent movie on balance – I like John Saxon (seen him in several 70’s flicks apart from here, and he’s even in the first Nightmare in Elm Street if you can believe that) and the other actors are decent. There is more than a bit of the ‘James Bond villain’ aspect to the bad guy Han (especially given having his own remote island where he traffics in opium and drugged women, and holds Shaolin martial-arts tournaments?) which of course adds to the intrigue. Finally, the pacing is pretty effective – they never really get mired down in ‘too much plot, not enough action’ – the movie seeks to entertain, and not take itself TOO seriously (not as slapstick as Jackie Chan’s later movies though, either).

I also watched How Bruce Lee Changed The World tonight. I would call this a ‘faux’ documentary – some interesting factoids but is no Ken Burns movie by any means. While it doesn’t trace BL’s life in too much detail, and has some good interviews with his wife – it kind of uses some semi-lame people in too much screen time IMHO. I like LL Cool J well enough, but I really don’t give a crap about how BL made LL a bigger star and influenced him. There were a few other minor actors in there the same way – yet they gave fairly short shrift to Jackie Chan, Donnie Yen and others who might have had FAR more interesting things to say about BL and his legacy (in China, in HK and elsewhere).

They really tried to show a far-reaching influence of BL across fitness, activities like UFC and BodyBuilding (the former is not a sport, guys – it’s just people cruelly beating each other up!); music (RZA from Wu-Tang Clan) and of course movies and martial-arts pictures in particular. It is pretty amazing to see the influence BL has had after all these years (given only 4 movies?!), and like they said, it’s definitely not going away. But even as shown in this somewhat cursory way – BL was far more than just a martial-arts guy and movie star on the rise – he attained icon status (sadly) just about the time he passed away, and it’s also crazy to think he was only 32 (!) at the time. I will definitely have to visit his grave here in Seattle sometime this summer and pay my respects. What an interesting and complex guy – it is sad he died so young.

On to the other movies!

candybowl

Watched Ip Man yesterday afternoon. This is a martial-arts movie (somewhat) based on the life of Yip Man, a well-known and renowned kung fu master from the Fo Shan region of China – the movie is set initially around 1935 before WWII and before the Japanese invasion of China.

The movie is a bit slow in places (not unlike the early parts of Hero, another great martial-arts movie) but I liked it a lot. I hadn’t taken notice of Donnie Yen before (plays Master Ip), but will definitely have to seek out a few more of his movies. He seems less flashy than others, but has a disarming, quiet and powerful presence throughout the movie – until he lets loose against the Japanese near the end. I liked the fact (truthfully or not) that they tied his art back to the rigorous nature of his practice day in and day out.

One thing they aren’t clear about is how he actually makes a living – he seems to have the best house in town, but doesn’t work, refuses to have a martial-arts school of his own (despite beating everyone else else in town including the other kung-fu masters) and when they show him shopping with his wife, everyone gives him expensive stuff for free? Nice life. Of course he loses all of it later when the Japanese invade, the focus of the second half of the movie.

Even though this movie was made in 2008, much later than the Matrix movies – I kept thinking of several fight scenes in the second Matrix movie especially when watching Ip Man fight here. Apparently Donnie Yen is a renowned fight choreographer beyond his skill in martial arts, it wouldn’t surprise me if his earlier work had an influence on the Matrix fight choreography, and/or if the Wachowski brothers were fans of his.

Apparently the ‘real’ Yip Man had a bit of an issue with opium addiction (see Wikipedia link above) – they never talk about that in the movie. But they do mention that his later success in martial-arts education based in Hong Kong included such famous pupils as Bruce Lee among others. Yip Man passed away in 1972.

If you like kung-fu movies, check this out – it’s definitely one of the best! Apparently a sequel came out recently, will have to watch it soon.

candybowl