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A not so accurate bio-pic of Bruce Lee's life starring Bruce Li. The actual events the filmmakers actually stick to are so distorted it's nothing less than DISHONORABLE! The other stuff that happens seems ridiculous and makes no sense. The movie opens with Bruce Lee's birth on a "dark and stormy night", which is an omen of some kind. This guy tells his father it means he's meant for big things, so Bruce's father says he'll send Bruce to America with this guy. Bruce is now a little kid and getting in trouble for fighting, he beat up some older kids. His master gives him hell because he's always getting in fights. How much damage can a five year old do? Cut to San Francisco and Bruce as a teenager. For some reason he keeps running into a cop, who has a patch on his uniform that reads "Los Angeles", hey I thought he was supposed to be in San Fran? Bruce and the cop eventually become friends after three scenes together. While wondering the streets which Bruce seemed to do a lot he comes across a movie being filmed. Bruce is selected to be an extra, and to demonstrate what he can do, he jumps up and kicks out two set lights. Crew members mob him, but the producer breaks it up and after asking his name, sends Bruce to get a costume. They give Bruce traditional and stereotypical Chinese clothing, but Bruce refuses to wear it as it's insulting.
Bruce now takes off for the Long Beach tournament. He tries to hitch a ride by standing in middle of the road and when cars don't pick him up, he jumps around and yells "Bastard, damn you!" at them. If I saw some weirdo in tight jeans, tight jacket too, standing in the middle of the road yelling at other cars I sure as hell wouldn't pick him up. If was stupid enough to they'd be dragging my violated corpse from out of some ditch in the next state. Bruce gets to Long Beach where he meets his cop buddy and the cop's friend a sports writer. After some matches the heavy weight boxing champ, Sam Curtis, takes the ring, after defeating all challengers Bruce enters as a last minute contender and goes against the champ. After entering the ring the champ and the audience laugh at the "little china man". The champ takes to pounding Bruce and only after telling Bruce "Go on home now China Boy and take your kung fu you...and take your kung fu with you...and take your kung fu with you..." does Bruce wake up and unleashing his fists of fury and KO's the champ. In yo face!
Now a big star Bruce is approached by a producer to star in a TV series. Surprise, it's the same producer Bruce had an earlier run in with. The director tries to pull the same stunt making Bruce wear a pigtail. Bruce returns to Hong Kong to make movies without being exploited by the white devil. Bruce signs a deal to make movies and his first movie is a big hit. He starts on "Fist of Fury" and it's funny cuz Bruce Li has a mustache that looks pretty cheesy. I guess the mustache is to set him apart from the real Bruce Lee. Bruce moves into a new house, it's huge and has pool, which he jumps into with all his clothes on. Bruce has his own room and it contains a "training machine". This thing just looks disturbing and evil. It has a giant face on it that looks like something off a tiki glass and has two boxing gloves on it. It goes from the floor to the ceiling and has a knob for controlling the pressure of the gloves which shoot out. How the hell is that supposed to help? Other than you stand in front of it and get pummeled.
Suprise, the American producer is back! Bruce signs a deal with him to make a big American picture. Bruce meets his co-stars and one of them happens to be Sam Curtis and he's looking for a rematch! Tensions are high on the set and Bruce can't take it anymore and has no choice but to beat some respect into his ignorant co-stars, Sam Curtis included. At home Bruce is constantly locking himself in his room with the evil training machine for days without seeing anyone. Bruce works harder to be better. Everybody is concerned about him and Bruce eventually comes out and is all okay and says he won't do it again. Bruce visits Betty at her home during a "dark and stormy night", just like the one he was born on. Before you know it the two are in bed doing "it". While they are doing the nasty it keeps cutting to shots of the storm outside and the water running on the ground. The best shot is a far shot of the two in bed with a coffee pot blocking the action. The coffee pot is percolating or whatever. It just shows a them in bed with the coffee pot blocking the midsection area and it's got hot coffee dripping in it. I wonder if that's supposed to symbolize something? After they're done Bruce breaks out in to fit of maniacal laughter and then it fades back to his first match with Sam Curtis. After he KO's Curtis, Bruce is just standing there is the ring and everyone is quiet. Then they start cheering and yelling for Bruce, Bruce Lee.
Not Bruce Li's best by far, but you could do worse, if you tried really hard. It starts off pretty bad, I was like "What is this?" and "That's stupid." As the movie progressed it got better, slightly better. Bruce Li's portrayal of Bruce Lee came off making Lee look like a grinning idiot most of the time. I'm suppose it's not his fault, we can blame the director and script, if they used one(a script I mean). The movie does have several funny moments, all unintentional though, but still funny. The dubbing is awful, especially the voice for Sam Curtis. The voice is high pitched and annoying. He's supposed to be this big muscular imposing fighter, but sounds like a little kid. How intimidating. I'm tired from writing all the description, I took me an entire week. I shouldn't say that because if it took me a week to write, because it should written gooder. It's not all as bad as I'm making it out to be. If you're a big Bruce Li fan, I'm sure you'll enjoy. If you're an old school kung fu fan or looking for a fight flick, then pass on this one. Which reminds me that the fights weren't too bad, better than I was expecting, so one good thing came out of this movie.
Someone even went to the trouble to write a funky disco-y theme song that I found embarrassingly catchy. After I watching the movie I found myself walking around the house and sitting in front of the computer with the song stuck in my head and signing the lyrics. If this happens to you I have a simple remedy. Simply walk up to a wall and beat your head on it. Repeat until the song is replaced by an extreme throbbing pain. All fixed! Just for fun here are the lyrics to the theme song.
He's a Legend, He's a Hero
See his feet flying through the air like a hurricane.
He's got hands of steel, and he always gets his man.
He's a legend, he's a hero,
He's everything a man could be.
Little Dragon, he's a hero,
He's the man they call Bruce Lee.
He can kick so high, he can almost reach the sky.
He's a kung fu king of the world and that's no lie.
He's a legend, he's a hero,
But his life's a mystery.
Little Dragon, he's a hero,
He'll go down is history.
Bruce Lee!
Bruce Lee!
He's a legend, he's a hero,
But his life's a mystery.
Little Dragon, he's a hero,
He'll go down in history.
Bruce Leeeeeee!