The Legend of Bruce Lee

Martial Media, Culture and Other Arts Martial Media and Popular Culture
21

I hear the show is doing well in the ratings

I also hear it’s silly. Anyone know? Anyone watching it?

Living up to Bruce Lee’s legend
By MICHAEL CHEANG

Danny Chan Kwok Kuen rises to the challenge of playing Bruce Lee.

Make no mistake about it Bruce Lee is a real legend. He was the dragon who entered the film industry in the 1970s and smashed box office records all over Asia. He was the big boss who paved the way for other martial artists like Jackie Chan and Jet Li to become stars in their own right. His were the fists of fury that founded the Jeet Kune Do style of fighting. His birth in 1940 was a study in the way of the dragon he was born in the year and hour of the dragon; and in the end, it was while filming Game of Death that he met his own untimely death.

With a life as enigmatic and legendary as his, it is a wonder that there has only been one significant effort to tell his story the rather insipid Hollywood production Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story, which starred Jason Scott Lee (no relation).

Thankfully, Chinas state broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV) has stepped up to the task of paying a proper tribute to Lee by producing The Legend of Bruce Lee an epic 50-episode TV series based on Lee that fans hope will finally do justice to the life story of Asias most famous superstar.

And who better to play the legendary star than Danny Chan Kwok Kuen, 33, who is not only the spitting image of Lee, but catapulted to fame with an impressive showing as a Bruce Lee lookalike goalkeeper in Stephen Chows Shaolin Soccer?

During a telephone interview, Chan admitted that landing the role to play the real deal was a dream come true for him. I did feel some pressure at playing the role, but I was actually more excited than worried, to tell the truth, he said.

After making his debut in Shaolin Soccer, Chan went on to feature in other movies such as Its a Wonderful Life, Fighting to Survive, and Vampire Hunters. His other most prominent role was in Chows Kungfu Hustle, in which he ironically enough played down his resemblance to Lee to give Chow a chance to emulate the legend instead.

Besides Chan, the series also stars Michelle Lang as Lees wife, Linda Lee Cadwell; as well as guest appearances by Mark Dacascos, Ray Park, Gary Daniels, Ernest Miller and Michael Jai White, among others.

The script was approved by Lees daughter, Shannon Lee, who is also credited as an executive producer on the show.

The series was shot over nine month in various countries, including mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, the United States, Italy and Thailand; and gives a detail account of Lees life from his teenage years in Hong Kong and the US, his rise to prominence after returning to Hong Kong, and his death in 1973, at the age of 32.

While his resemblance to the adult Lee is irrefutable, Chan has been criticised for his portrayal of a high-school-aged Lee.

Of course I look too old to be in high school, Im over 30 after all, he said. But we couldnt help it, because we could not find someone who could play Lee as a high school student, so I had to do it instead!

In a past interview with CCTV.com, Chan also expressed confidence that the series would show viewers a different, seldom-seen side of Lee.

According to him, the television series will affect the way people think about Bruce Lee. His movies are good to watch … but you wont understand what he went through, what injuries he sustained, how he faced difficulties and overcame them. This series will shed some light on all that.

The Legend of Bruce Lee is now screening at 8.30pm daily from Monday to Friday on 8TVs Best of the East slot.

22

Look what someone sent me

Here’s a link to 50 episodes. I started watching, but then realized it would take a lot of time, so I’m hoping one of you watches it all and highlights the best episodes that we should watch.

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[QUOTE=GeneChing;900071]Here’s a link to 50 episodes. I started watching, but then realized it would take a lot of time, so I’m hoping one of you watches it all and highlights the best episodes that we should watch.[/QUOTE]

ill start watching this tonight at home probably

24

I started at lunch.

I barely made it through the opening song. Some one has got to document those lyrics and post them here on this thread. They’re almost as hilarious as the lyrics to Fist of Fury.

I couldn’t make it through episode one. I only got halfway through. The cha cha championships was too much. It’s like Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story, which I didn’t really care for except Lauren Holly - and this is spread out to 50 hours. In all fairness, that’s my snap judgment based on watching half of episode one.

I have some friends that are supposed to be in it, but who knows where?

25

might take me a while to get through all 50…but ill try.

26

:mad:awww crap. i dont speak chinese…

27

that sucks because i actually wanted to watch those

28

Sorry, no subs…

…but it’s fairly translucent. Honestly, how much dialog do you need in a kung fu movie?

At least they translated the theme song. Oh wait, that’s in English…sort of… :o

29

lol true.

i may still sift through them.

30

Bravo!

I applaud anyone able to sing that song without gagging!

The computer Bruce Lee kicking the Episode number is pretty funny.

The first episode beginning looks like a highlight of the series.

I find it funny that they replicate the poses of bruce lee but not of who he did his action or of his actual art. I know it’s just a tv series but frankly I bored and not impressed with the way HK and China been doing their wire-fu action for many years now.

All well…

and I don’t understand Mandarin.

31

The simple fact that the “legend of Bruce Lee” shows no JKD speaks volumes about the show.

32

its a movie a tv show, some times arts like jkd may not translate well on camera. so idk about speaking volumes. its just dumb entertainment anyway.

33

[QUOTE=doug maverick;900283]its a movie a tv show, some times arts like jkd may not translate well on camera. so idk about speaking volumes. its just dumb entertainment anyway.[/QUOTE]

Youtube Tommy Caruthers and see how JKD can translate well for the movies.

34

I just have to post those theme song lyrics

This is just awesome, and not only for the Chinglishy grammar. It’s worth watching the beginning of the first episode just to hear this alone.

When life is a hard game
Don’t you blame
It’s your chance to arise your arm
Always fight to hold your name
No matter how bad or rough
You never surrender
All the warriors in this world
Join the passion of this master of soul
From the Chinese hills and shore
We still listen to Bruce Lee battle call
(repeat)

Like I said, almost as good as the Fist of Fury lyrics (see Kung Fu Wisdom in our 2006 September/October issue)

35

A bit off-topic, but according to Bruce, JKD was not supposed to be a style, but a concept; an individual’s personal interpretation of what works for him/her in martial arts. In fact, Bruce seemed fervently anti-style. Yet JKD has become a ‘style’, with its own recognizable form and characteristics.

It’s strange to think how much Bruce’s ideas would have evolved and changed were he alive today. And it’s probable his ideas about JKD would bear little resemblance to what it was in the early '70s. I read he was even considering scrapping the name of ‘JKD’ because people were turning it into a ‘style’. I’d even speculate that had he lived, he might not be so anti-style/anti-system as he was back then. Sometimes striving toward non-traditionalism and freedom from conformity can itself become a trap when it becomes an overriding obsession.

36

im guessing if bruce were alive, he would have some guys fighting in MMA

37

This is playing in the S.F. Bay Area now

It’s on our local Chinese station, Channel 26 KTSF at 9:00PM.

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Now available on DramaFever.com

Watch for free here.

The Legend of Bruce Lee starring Danny Chan and Michelle Lang

A loosely biographical tale of the martial arts icon, The Legend of Bruce Lee broke two ratings records during its run in China. With an international cast including Hong Kong star Danny Chan (from blockbuster film Kung Fu Hustle) as Lee and American actress Michelle Lang as his love interest, it was filmed all over the world in China, Hong Kong, Macau, the United States, Italy and Thailand. Surpassing previous ratings winner Chuang Guandong in its first 14 episodes, it broke the all-time ratings record for any drama on Chinese Central Television with its final episode. Danny Chan is also set to appear in a film about Bruce Lee which will be released in 2011.

Bringing an iconic figure to life, The Legend of Bruce Lee tracks Bruce Lee through his life as he grows up in Hong Kong and emigrates to the U.S. before returning to his hometown. The son of a Cantonese opera star, he has an early start in films, appearing in a string of films in his childhood and early teens. After moving to the United States, he founds a martial arts school and takes on various film roles. He becomes an icon of martial arts cinema and a revered martial arts philosopher, as well as a famous public figure. This well-choreographed and fiercely acted series follows him through his sudden death at age 32.

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I couldn’t hang with the show

I only watched a few episodes. Some of my classmates were even involved - they shot the Oakland stuff in cooperation with O-Mei - but I never got to those scenes.

Blu-Ray Review: THE LEGEND OF BRUCE LEE – Sadly Not The Biopic Lee Deserves

January 9, 2012 7:13 am
Chris Wright

There have been a number of attempts to bring the short life of martial arts legend Bruce Lee to the screen. In the years following his untimely death in 1973 Bruceploitation was born, a whole new genre created to continue Lee’s legacy starring lookalike actors with names such as Bruce Li and Bruce Le in films either emulating Lee’s style and re-hashing his previous films or taking the biopic route and telling fantastical, mythical interpretations of Lee’s life. As new stars began to emerge from the martial arts scene the genre was thankfully short lived, despite this the desire to tell a definitive version of the Bruce Lee story never faded.

In 1993 director Rob Cohen made a valiant effort at bringing Lee’s story to life with Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story. Starring Jason Scott Lee (no relation) in the leading role the film had all the elements of a Bruceploitation flick with an added authentic attention to detail and at its core respect for Lee and his memory. However, the most ambitious attempt to tell Lee’s story must surely be The Legend Of Bruce Lee, a 50 episode Chinese television production which makes its UK debut, albeit in an edited form, on Blu-ray and DVD this week.

The Legend Of Bruce Lee follows the story of Lee’s journey from Hong Kong to America where he studied the many different forms of martial arts to develop and become the founder of his own style, Jeet Kune Do. The film sees Lee enter a number of martial arts competitions where he forges friendships and gains enemies in equal measure all the while supported by his wife Linda. As Lee’s star grows, the film details his rise to international fame in a series of groundbreaking martial arts feature films shortly before his death aged 32.

The makers of this Blu-ray presentation had the unenviable task of editing around 2000 minutes of footage from the television series into a more palatable 180 minute film and it is a testament to director Li Wen Qi and the series executive producer and Lee’s daughter Shannon that they have managed to produce a relatively coherent film with a beginning, middle and end.

Sadly the film’s television roots and production values are evident throughout with poorly designed, cheap looking sets, absolutely no attention to period detail whatsoever and for the most part the look and feel of a bad mid-eighties television soap opera. It might have been useful for captions to appear letting us know what year it is supposed to be as there really is no way of knowing. External scenes feature modern vehicles, extras dressed in modern clothes with fashionable haircuts, and in one scene a blatant advertisement for a PS3 game on the side of a San Francisco tram, in fact, it is only Lee who has been dressed in the style of the period in which the story is supposed to be taking place.

On the plus side Lee is played by Kwok-Kwan Chan, who many will recognise from Stephen Chow’s Shaolin Soccer, where he played a Lee obsessed goal keeper and Kung-Fu Hustle as the leader of the Axe Gang. He brings an authentic look to Lee and manages to capture the mannerisms, style and overall screen presence of the man himself. He more than holds his own in the numerous fight scenes and seems just as comfortable wielding nunchucks as he does with the more tender scenes demanding emotion and depth.

The film’s fight scenes are generally pretty good and varied in their approach. Often enhanced by some rather obvious wire work and nicely done, if a little over-used, x-ray visual effects showing the impact on the fighters’ bones. The action scenes also offer a number of cameo appearances for some well known martial artists, Gary Daniels, Ray Park (Darth Maul in Star Wars Episode I The Phantom Menace) and Mark Dacascos are all given a decent opportunity to show off their talents.

The film is at its strongest in the final hour when Lee makes his journey back to Hong Kong to star in a number of feature films. Here a number of his most memorable scenes are faithfully recreated offering a brief insight into the making of these films and Lee’s state of mind at the time.

The film’s three hour running time is a tough slog and although there are a number of decent scenes and performances the overall pacing means you have to sit through a lot of needless, poorly made material to get there. Cohen’s 1993 film tells almost the same story in a much more interesting way that it makes it difficult to recommend this film to anyone other than die-hard Bruce Lee fans.
Quality

While the picture quality is generally clear throughout it does not look like a film in the traditional sense. When the film begins during a karate championship I thought that it was using home video, camcorder footage for effect then after a few minutes I realised this was the look of the whole film, as I mentioned earlier, a poor quality soap opera visual style. It might be HD quality but it lacks the depth and feel of real film.

Sound quality is acceptable but the single choice of the Mandarin dubbed soundtrack is all that is on offer. It is badly synced during any dialogue exchanges but at least the subtitles are clear and well timed if, on a few occasions, oddly translated. Sound effects are typical for a cheap martial arts movie and the soft rock soundtrack seems out of place.
Extras

There are no extra features on this disc unless you count the ability to switch the subtitles on and off or a scene selection option featuring a choice of 12 chapter points as special.

Film – 1 out of 5

Despite the film having been edited from over 2000 minutes to just 180 minutes there are still too many superfluous scenes to spoil the overall pace and makes it a lengthy slog to get to the good stuff.

Visuals – 2 out of 5

It looks like a mid-eighties soap opera but at least it offers a clear picture in HD.

Audio – 2 out of 5

A standard cheap martial arts movie presentation with dialogue out of sync with the image.

Extras – 0 out of 5

No extras.

Presentation – 2 out of 5

Animated menu featuring scenes from the film and a typically Bruceploitation style cover artwork that will draw in Lee fans.

Overall – 2 out of 5

With the full co-operation of the Lee family this should have been the definitive telling of Lee’s story, instead it covers old ground and is let down by poor production values. Only a solid central performance and some well executed fight scenes save this from total mediocrity.

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The Legend of Bruce Lee?

I think this is supposed to kind’ve be about Bruce Lee. http://www.dramafever.com/drama/3909/1/The_Legend_of_Bruce_Lee/

Well, the character’s named Bruce Lee… not sure who’s story they’re telling though.