Welcome back!
Last time, we left off with Fist of Fury
In which Bruce Lee revolutionized Hong Kong martial arts cinema
Splitting the Kung Fu genre from Wuxia
Make sure to check out part one if you haven't
Because in part two
Bruce Lee is gonna flex, hard
Not only will he be writing, directing and producing a film of his own
He'll set out a trajectory for future Hong Kong martial arts movies to follow
Reaching international stardom in the process
Appearing in video games
Inspiring the Ninja Turtles
Influencing black culture
And a lot more
Curious yet?
Let's go.
After collaborating with director Lo Wei twice
Bruce Lee became the biggest star in Hong Kong
Naturally, the studio offered him a chance to write, direct and produce his own movie
Expressing his vision in its purest form
In The Way of the Dragon
What we got, surprisingly
Is a combination of action and humor
Bruce Lee plays an uneducated Kung Fu practitioner
Yeah, it's a weird running gag at this point
At a friend's request
He goes to Rome to help protect a Chinese restaurant
From being attacked by a local mafia gang
Bruce's ambition is clear from the start
Set in Rome
With multiple foreign stars
Even with some James Bond style action
Bruce Lee aims to be international
The story, I think, also draws inspiration
From Bruce's personal multi-cultural upbringing
With depiction of racism that Bruce Lee may have experienced back in the States
Not only from white people
But also from his fellow Chinese
"All Chinese boxing has is Taichi"
"Useless, no?"
You can see Bruce plays around with his persona quite a bit
Showing his body even more
One upping his past characters
In a delightful manner
But as I said, the most surprising new addition to the genre
Is the humor
The first 30 minutes of the film contains no action
Instead, it opts to entertain you with slapstick and situational comedy
The entire opening scene is Bruce Lee in a comedy routine
Indicating the intentionality
And even when the action kicks into high gear
The blood and gore of the past
Are replaced with humor
And cheeky intercuts with a kitty
Believe it or not
This is a real game changer
Before this film
Much of the martial arts genre in Hong Kong is gritty dramas
Similar to Kurosawa's samurai films
Additionally, Hong Kong has yet to develop its own brand of humor
The Hui Brothers Show began just a few years ago
And we are an entire decade away from the golden age of Hong Kong comedy
It would seem like Bruce Lee fundamentally understood that
Kung Fu films, in some way, are just heightened slapstick
Seeing people flying across the room
Is funny
And you most likely already know the impact
From this point on
Kung Fu and comedy became inseparable
If it's a Kung Fu film
It's most likely going to be a comedy, too
Jackie Chan, Gordon Liu, Sammo Hung and many others
Would cultivate the action comedy genre to international fame
And it all started, when Bruce decided to tell a joke
Not bad, for a directorial debut
After The Way of the Dragon
Bruce Lee began production on his next film
The Game of Death
But halfway through filming
Bruce Lee finally got his chance to enter true global stardom
As he was offered to star in an American film
Enter the Dragon
With 50 times the budget of The Way of the Dragon
Enter the Dragon is undoubtedly the most beautiful Bruce Lee film
Cinematography is great
And the music is so iconic
The theme became THE Bruce Lee music
And the fight scenes are just flawless
Coming from the American side of cinema
Much of the fights are as much about the people as they are about the movement
Close ups of people's faces and reactions give emotions to the fight
Sometimes, you don't need to see the hit to feel it
The film even took some cue from the wuxia genre it has left behind
Tropes like the woman warrior
Makes the genre feel fresh again
That's Lady Whirlwind, Angela Mao
No stunt double, this lady can kick
Another trope that is from wuxia films is the utilization of terrain
Fights are no longer held on flat ground
We see people fighting on Rooftops
In a treasure room
And of course, the iconic mirror room
This, too, will go on to inspire other Kung Fu films
In the film, Bruce plays a Shaolin martial artist
Who goes undercover in a martial arts tournament
To gather evidence of the illegal dealings of the tournament host
This plot set up is such a brilliant idea
It's copied by, well...
Almost every single fighting game at the time
Some of which even pitted a Bruce Lee look-alike
Against people who can literally throw fireballs
A testament to his strength
Leaving such a strong impression in people's mind
So many iconic things from this movie that'll live on in pop culture
There is no way I can talk about all of them
So, let's skip to the most important part:
Bruce Lee broke the racial barrier
Bruce Lee's punches and kicks finally hit the heart of audience around the world
It made this film an international success
An American film featuring a foreign, Asian star?
Bruce did the impossible
Everywhere you look, you can see influences from this film
It further pushes our collective fascination towards Eastern culture
Giving us gems like Ninja Turtles
And crap like Double Dragon
Films like Rush Hour and Shanghai Noon became possible
It made Hollywood much more willing to cast foreign stars
Such as Jackie Chan and Jet Li
While not strictly related to Bruce Lee
I'd be remiss to not also talk about co-star
Jim Kelly
Whose terrifically charming performance
Made him a big name star
He went on to star in many successful blaxploitation films
Forever associating Kung Fu with black culture
Making movies with African American leads much more widely accepted
You see the colorful landscape we have in Hollywood today?
Bruce Lee's Kung Fu literally shaped history
And the power can still be felt to this day
Sadly, Enter the Dragon will be Bruce Lee's final completed film
As he died from a cerebral edema
Cutting his promising career
Tragically short
Still Bruce Lee has left us with one final gift
The half finished film
Game of Death
Over the years
There were multiple attempts to finish this film
We are going to talk about none of them
I just want to show you what Bruce intended to be in the film
And through this
Show you something you may not have realized
In the film, Bruce plays a retired martial arts champion
Who is confronted by Korean underworld gangs
He's forced to go up a pagoda
To retrieve an unknown valuable item from the top floor
At least 39 minutes have been filmed
All of which are fight scenes
And they are the best of the best
Because here, you see one thing you don't see often
You get to see Bruce... having fun
"Surprised?"
This nunchucks fight begins with a dance off
That's how you know it's serious business
There's a lot more talking during the fights
"Do you speak any English?"
And Bruce actively teases his opponent
"How do you like that?"
great comedic effects
"How do you like that?"
There are, of course, dramatic moments as well
But clearly, Bruce wanted to be lighthearted
He wanted to continue what he started in The Way of the Dragon
Most of us remembers Bruce as this absolutely confident
Immensely wise young man
Every word from him
Is a word of wisdom
But really, I don't think Bruce wanted that
There's a reason why Bruce kept playing uneducated man in comedic situations
Look at his smile
Look at him, slightly embarrassed
Bruce Lee is a charming, funny man
Look at this man's expression
Doesn't that remind you of someone?
I think, Bruce would be very proud
So I'm going to end this retrospective
With a personal observation
I began this retrospective by pointing out that
Different people remember Bruce Lee differently
That means a lot more than you'd think
It's really because
Bruce never has enough time to express himself to us
To show us the version of himself he wanted to show us
Most of us only remembers his on screen persona
Mainly the wiseman badass from Enter the Dragon
Confident
Arrogant
Calm
Flawless
But if you look at the behind the scene footage from Game of Death
You get to see him fail at his iconic nunchucks play
A move that he must have practiced thousands of times
And he failed multiple times
And for a brief moment
You get to see him...
laugh it off
Having fun
This is how I'm going to remember him
From now on