Review: Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story

The life and death of legendary martial arts icon Bruce Lee (Jason Scott Lee), who after a fight with some racist British wankers in Hong Kong makes him notorious for the wrong reasons, is sent by his father (Ric Young) to live in America. Trained as a boy in Wing Chun by the legendary Ip Man, Bruce was actually born in San Francisco whilst his dad was assigned there temporarily, so he has an American birth certificate despite growing up in Hong Kong. In the US, Bruce endures humble beginnings as a lowly dish washer at a Chinese restaurant, until the owner (Nancy Kwan, of all people) fires him for getting into a fight with some of the staff. She does, however, suggest Bruce get himself an education. He does indeed go to University, even teaching martial arts, which is where he meets blonde American girl Linda (Lauren Holly), the woman who will eventually become his wife and mother of his children. Bruce’s life goes through the ups of international movie stardom and creating his own form of martial arts, to the lows of a serious back injury, racism, disagreements with Kung Fu elders over teaching the art to westerners, and a sudden and early death. He was also, like his father before him, apparently plagued by nightmarish visions of a demonic entity (played by Sven-Ole Thorsen) that haunted him throughout his life. Michael Learned plays Linda’s closed-minded mother, and Robert Wagner plays a TV producer who lands Lee his first break in America.

 

Solid, if corny and somewhat unremarkable 1993 biopic on the life of martial arts legend Bruce Lee from director Rob Cohen (“Dragonheart”, “The Fast and the Furious”, “The Mummy: The Tomb of the Dragon Emperor”). Scripted by the director along with Edward Khmara (“Enemy Mine”, “Ladyhawke”) and John Raffo (“The Relic”), it’s based on a book by Linda Lee Caldwell (played in the film by Lauren Holly) and another book by Lee’s “Enter the Dragon” director Robert Clouse (who also directed the hack-job piecemeal “Game of Death”), so bear in mind the POVs it’s from here. It’s no great masterwork, but for Lee fans it’s certainly worth a gander and a pretty entertaining, if surface-level film.

 

Californian-born, Hawaiian (with Chinese in there somewhere too) actor Jason Scott Lee was poised to be the next big thing after this and the live-action “Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book” (which I hated, mind you), but it never really happened for reasons I’ve never understood. He seemed to have it all: Good looks, charisma, acting talent, an obvious physicality to him (he’s a former dancer). What the hell happened? Aside from a small role in 2007’s “Balls of Fury” the only other things I’ve seen the guy in are those mediocre, direct-to-DVD “Dracula 2000” sequels with Craig Sheffer and Rutger Hauer. His inability to make it as an A-list star is one of the great, unfortunate mysteries of Hollywood I guess. Or perhaps it’s racism that played a part, I don’t know. Whatever it is, it’s wrong in a world that made stars out of much lesser talent. The guy is a perfectly fine leading man, as this film in particular shows. He bears only a passing physical resemblance to his namesake here (I think he looks more like actor/Cantopop star Andy Lau), but best of all he gets Lee’s mannerisms and vocal quirks down pat, and he’s an easy sell in the role. At least, Bruce Lee the movie icon. Whether Lee exhibited any of his on-screen persona off-screen, I cannot attest to. Trained in Jeet Kune Do by one of Bruce Lee’s former students, he also sells the fighting aspect of the character, too, despite not being trained in martial arts prior to this project. Being a dancer probably helped in that respect, I’d think.

 

The film seems to play awfully fancy with the facts at times, and this can be amusing but occasionally infuriatingly bullshit. Kicking the head chef into a flaming stove and then kicking the crap out of your co-workers is a helluva funny way to get canned, even though I highly doubt it happened like that (It looks like a scene out of “Way of the Dragon”). However, the scene of Lee filming his first starring role “The Big Boss” is just insultingly bogus. We’re meant to believe one of the people on set was the brother of the guy Lee earlier beats to get the Chinese elders off his back for teaching martial arts to westerners. Lee has a supposed fight with him (caught on camera), resulting in a subsequent moment where he storms off the set, rips out the footage, and the director claims he’ll never work in this town again. The director was Lo Wei, whom Lee would go on to make his best-ever film “Fist of Fury” with! I’ve heard Lee did get into a fight during filming, and stars and directors squabble a lot, but the way it plays out here? Yeah, I’m gonna call bullshit, Mr. Cohen. Truth be told, I noticed an awful lot of “La Bamba” in this film, especially with the visions of death and the relationship between Bruce and Linda. Am I the only one who noticed this? As much as I’m a bit of a conspiracy theorist, I’ve never quite understood the idea that old Chinese Kung-Fu masters got mad at Lee for teaching the art to westerners and killed him for it. It’s so commonplace now in the years since, yet Lee was the only guy murdered for it? Because he was the first to do it? Seems a stretch to me, though given what happened to his son Brandon, I’m at least willing to listen to some kind of conspiracy theory. It’s enough of a spooky coincidence that I can’t help but listen to the nonsense sometimes, just not that particular nonsense. Given how “Game of Death” pretty much walked all over Lee’s grave (even inserting footage of his real funeral!), I’m pretty glad it’s not dealt with too much, and it does set the record on the most likely (and sane) cause of death at the very end of the film. The film is mostly concerned with his life, however, and that’s the way it should be.

 

The film is worth watching just to see Lauren Holly play a nice, sweet and wholesome girl for maybe the one and only time in her career. She’s more than acceptable in the part. Ric Young is terrific early on as Lee’s dad, as well. Really solid Randy Edelman (“The Last of the Mohicans”, “Kindergarten Cop”) score, too. It touches on all of the important stuff without really going in depth on anything, but that’s fine. It’s surface-level entertainment and I doubt Cohen was aiming for much more than that. This is lightweight, slightly soapy biopic stuff, but that’s not exactly a bad thing, and Jason Scott Lee is effective and sympathetic in the lead. Cohen (and/or his co-writers) should be raked over the coals for blatantly making shit up at times. It probably works best the less you actually know about Lee, but see it if you’re a Bruce Lee fan anyway because it’s an easy watch and the only biopic you’re likely to get. It’s pretty good.

 

Rating: B-