Hey, everyone
So I was busy moving for the past two weeks
And didn't really have time to prepare a full video essay
So, let's do something light and fun instead
While researching for our retrospective on Bruce Lee
I've stumbled upon quite a lot of info
That I can't quite fit into the episodes
Let's be honest
We can probably talk about him for two more hours
So I'm going to show you some tidbits
And let's talk about the significance behind them
Let's all huddle around the campfire
Sit back, relax
Let's pay our respect a bit more
In the retrospective
We talk quite a lot on Bruce's impact on Hong Kong cinema
But we can't ignore his impact in the west, either
When I think of fight scenes that came before Green Hornet
It's either this...
Or This
That's Frank SInatra
In Manchurian Candidate
Using Karate
But yes, fight scenes from 1940s to 1960s are all pretty hilarious
Like, what the hell is that
I saw this in film school twice
And both times, the entire class laughed
The best fight scene from this period that I can remember
Is the iconic fight between Bond and Oddjob in Goldfinger
Here, you can see the fights are just people tossing things
And tossing each other
There's not a lot of martial arts in there
But as soon as the Green Hornet became a thing
Fight scenes in Diamonds Are Forever is immediately better
See the blocking and the punching
With that distinct rhythm and movement from martial arts movies
It's not quite this
But it's a pretty good step forward
Unsurprisingly, Bruce Lee had a massive impact on anime, too
The World Martial Arts Tournament in Dragon Ball
Is likely inspired by Enter the Dragon
There's Sailor Jupiter's fighting stands
And Seijuro Shin's appearance
The most popular interpretation, though, is probably Rock Lee from Naruto
Who's excellent physical strength and dedication
Allows him to rival those who has magical powers
And of course, there is Kenshiro from Fist of the North Star
Whose personality and battle cry
Copies Bruce Lee directly
Which is funny
Because those high pitch battle cries were dubbed
Yeah... they were not Bruce Lee's voice
A lot of us probably know this video
But not all of us know the truth
Yes, it's fake
It was a viral marketing video from Nokia
But, even though the video is fake
The public seems willing to believe its legitimacy
If it's anyone else, we'll question it from the start
But Bruce
With his maniacal dedication
It's not that hard to believe
That he's crazy enough to do it for real
What is real, is his demonstration on TVB
One of Hong Kong's most popular TV stations
Majority of the footage has been lost
But even with only the short clips we have here
You can still see Bruce's unbelievable explosive strength
That one inch punch
Lives on as an iconic move
There is another anime moment inspired by him
After Bruce passed away
A new genre emerged
Bruceploitation
Basically films that exploited people's craving for more Bruce Lee
From Bruce Lee Fights Back From the Grave
To Clones of Bruce Lee
And in some way
Robert Clouse's Game of Death is also a Bruceploitation film
It's clear that audience desperately wants more of him
And the industry scrambled to find the next big star
That star?
Jackie Chan
That's why Jackie's stage name is what it is
It was meant to capitalize on the fame of Bruce Lee
When Jackie starred in New Fist of Fury
Here we have Bruce Lee in a kickboxing tournament
In an exhibition match
What you may not know is that
This tournament was co-hosted by Bruce Lee
And it was one of the first demonstration of full contact
Outside of boxing and wrestling
So which one is Bruce?
Oh...
Bruce Lee is often referred to as the father of MMA
And that's no exaggeration
Supposedly, schools of Kung Fu were secretive
And are not willing to teach their techniques openly
"And now he begins to question why most martial artists..."
"Chinese and otherwise"
"Seem more concern with preserving tradition"
The lack of knowledge exchange and sparring between schools
Made kung fu quite dated and inefficient
Like the rebel that he is
Bruce changed all that
Not only did Bruce Lee creates his own school of martial arts
By combining and advancing multiple style of Kung Fu together
He also openly teaches his technique
Through film and events like this one
He help ignited public interests
In full contact martial arts competitions
There's this popular video on YouTube
That shows all the tiny movement Bruce did in his movies
It's a great video
You should go watch it
The one movement I want to show you is this one
See how he pushes his hand away and does the punch?
That's a move from the Wing Chun school of kung fu
Many of us know Bruce learnt Wing Chun from Yip Man
What you may not know is this lineage is quite legendary
Yip Man's master is Chan Wah-shun
Who's master is the legendary Leung Jan
Leung Jan is as far as the history of Wing Chun goes
Any history before him is lost in time
And is now just legends and folklores
The fun thing is
The Yip Man school of Wing Chun is probably the most radical lineage
With each apprentice taking the style and changing it greatly
It's even a plot point in Ip Man 3
"Our ancestors gave us Wing Chun"
"Once changed"
"Then it's no longer authentic"
So, in some ways
Bruce Lee's Jeet Kune Do is just a continuation
Of the Wing Chun tradition
The anti-tradition
Did you know Bruce Lee can dance?
No, they weren't making it up in Ip Man 3
"I'm a dancing expert"
"I'll teach you how to dance"
"You teach me how to fight"
Here is him, dancing in the movie Darling Girl
Bruce went around quite a few dancing competitions
And even won some of them
Before his martial arts career took off
If you watch his fight scenes closely
You can absolutely feel that sense of rhythm and movement
From a cha-cha dancer
Not a video, but a photo of Bruce Lee and Linda Lee
Lovely couple, no?
When talking about Bruce Lee
Race relations is always a topic that comes up
"How many times, in film, is a Chinese required?"
Which, to some, is annoying
Why does it have to be about racism?
Here's the thing
Bruce was such a rebel, so ahead of his time
We often forget about the social context surrounding his life
So, let's just say this
Bruce and Linda was married in 1964
The Jim Crow Law
Was abolished
In 1965
And that concludes our Bruce Lee retrospective
I learnt a lot making these videos
And I hope you learn something, too
Any way, sorry for the episode delay
Things will go back to normal starting next episode
And it's October
Which means
It's time to get spooky.