Review: Birth of the Dragon

Set in 1964, martial artist Bruce Lee (Philip Ng) hopes to teach Wing Chun Kung-Fu to westerners through his own school but also the entertainment industry. Meanwhile, reserved Shaolin monk and martial arts Master Wong Jack Man (Xia Yu) is also in San Francisco, supposedly trying to atone for nearly killing a man in a fight. The cocky and charismatic Mr. Lee, however believes Wong Jack Man is in town as a representative of those who believe he is committing a great sin by teaching Kung-Fu to westerners. Billy Magnussen plays Steve McKee, a student of Lee’s who becomes friendly with the quieter, milder Wong Jack Man and wants to see them fight.

One of the lousiest biopics to come along in quite a while, this 2017 film from director George Nolfi (the excellent Matt Damon film “The Adjustment Bureau”) is unlikely to satisfy anyone. Curiously released by WWE Studios and a subsidiary of Blumhouse, apparently the film went through significant changes in post-production due to poor test screenings that suggested the film cut down the fictionalised Steve McQueen character’s role in the film. Having seen the completed and released effort, I’ve got to wonder just how colossally askew the original vision was, because the film still has a massive identity crisis. Nolfi and his screenwriters Stephen J. Rivele and Christopher Wilkinson (who teamed up for two other unconvincing biopics, “Nixon” and “Ali”) have no clue whether their main character here is Bruce Lee, Billy Magnusson’s fictionalised ‘Steve McKee’ (Seriously, if you’re gonna call him that, just call him Steve McQueen, right?), or Xia Yu’s Wong Jack Man. If I had to make a call, I’d say it still leaned too far towards McKee, at the end of the day. It’s a big bloody problem, too.

I knew I was in trouble here when a credit flashed that the film was merely ‘inspired’ by the fight between Bruce Lee and Wong Jack Man. Things get even worse with the vague opening setting ‘The birthplace of Kung-Fu’. Yeah, this one’s a storytelling mess of pretty sizeable proportions. Worse, the whole thing comes across as very TV-movie in its treatment of some genuinely fascinating events (in theory at least). It’s incredibly bland, and (opening a whole can of cultural worms) told mostly from a white dude’s peripheral (and unnecessarily fictionalised) POV, the film never grabs you like it really ought to. I mean, Bruce Lee was a fascinating and magnetic guy whose story should’ve made for a great film. It made for a pretty OK one in “Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story”, but in Nolfi’s film, it’s not clear just what the film is interested in. Certainly not the two participants in the central conflict, as they remain supporting players. Certainly not martial arts action (crafted by Ng and Corey Yuen), which is staged too simplistically and clichéd. Funnily enough, I don’t think the film has much interest in Mr. McKee either, as although he gets quite a lot of screen time, the film never bothers to give the character much depth. We don’t find out anything about him or what he does beyond Kung-Fu. I understand paring down the role to decrease his significance to a story that he frankly shouldn’t be front and centre of, but the editorial efforts weren’t enough and leave a film that makes very little narrative or character sense. What motivates McKee to interact with Wong Jack Man in the first place? ‘Coz he wants to see him fight Bruce Lee? That’s a bit of a dickish motivation, certainly a superficial and unsatisfying one. Not to mention there’s no way on Earth Steve McQueen was anything like this guy, and giving him a barely different name is no excuse to create unconvincing bullshit.

Billy Magnuson is just OK as the McQueen substitute, and Philip Ng is fine as Bruce Lee despite looking nothing like him (He sounds and acts a bit like him). He doesn’t have the charisma or presence of Lee, but who does? He was one of a kind. The character of Wong Jack Man is pretty interesting, however the wooden Xia Yu is not. I’ll give the filmmakers credit for not simply giving us yet another tale of Lee teaching Kung Fu to westerners leading to his eventual downfall. Lee is shown to be a show pony, Wong Jack Man a reserved Shaolin monk. They obviously have big philosophical and stylistic differences. However, I do think the film overplays Lee’s arrogance and aggression at times, especially in the final fight where Wong Jack Man causes Lee to fight with too much aggression and anger. This is the very thing we hear Lee teach McKee not to do at the beginning of the film. That’s not clever and ironic, it’s simply unbelievable and stupid. The film goes completely off the rails after that when it turns into a buddy action movie with our two former adversaries awkwardly teaming up to kick arse and mount a rescue mission. WTF? For starters, it goes completely against everything we’ve known (which isn’t much) about at least one of those characters thus far. Yeah, this…isn’t good. Why take this story and then just make shit up? I’m sorry, but renaming the McQueen character to McKee doesn’t allow you the right to make up the idea that Wong Jack Man was Steve McQueen’s sifu. It’s just dishonest storytelling. Also, why is Wong Jack Man using a modern MMA takedown at one point? Because the film is bullshit, that’s why.

The film falters by trying to tell three stories at once, with simply not enough depth afforded to any of the three and a whole lot of unconvincing nonsense thrown in. Also not helping things is that the plot (and to an extent Wong Jack Man as a character) reeks far too much of an “Ip Man” film, before descending into inappropriate action movie heroics at the end. So not only is it poorly written and unconvincing, it’s also completely clichéd, tired, and stupid. This just won’t do, read a book about the man, or just watch “Fist of Fury” instead of this fictionalised nonsense. Next time guys, just dispense with any historical figures/events at all and make a straight-up fictional martial-arts movie, OK?

Rating: C-