Bruce Lee

Bruce Lee

Everybody knows the little man who gave his life to the martial arts. Bruce was my first fave, I remember how I used to pick up his movies at my mothers video rental store and then watched them with delightfulness, but I first saw him around the age of eight and although he didn't posses the acrobatic skills of Jackie (who I saw at the same time) he still impressed me more. Of course I loved them both, but for different reasons. He was like made for the screen, it was like all the ones that appeared in his movies were all in black and white while he just shined like a candle in the dark. And he didn't have to fight to amaze, he was full of charisma that took you with amazement. The scene that grabbed me was the first one in "Fist of Fury" (Chinese Connection) were he arrives to his masters funeral, I just love that scene and I remembered it until I saw the movie again about 5 years after that.
Born in 1940 in California, when his father (then famous Chinese actor Lee Hoi Chuen) was visiting the US (for one year). Bruce starred in about 20 films in Hong Kong wen little and as a famous youngster in Hong Kong he got beaten up in a fight. 13 years old he was when he started to train Wing Chun kung fu so he could defend himself on the streets. With almost no money he was sent to the US because he was getting in to many street fights, which could've ruined his family's reputation.
Bruce was the first Chinese who made a name for himself in USA. After studying several martial art styles he invented his own, Jeet Kune Do (the way of the intercepting fist) which is a mixture between the effective Wing Chun (he studied under Yip Man, a famous Wing Chun master) western boxing, different grappling techniques, kicks from various styles and any other effective stuff he could find. Bruce was a training machine, he used to train all the time having bodybuilding three times a week, special cardiovascular workout everyday, running everyday, stretching everyday and obviously martial arts training etc.
All this training made him the fastest puncher or kicker seen on the screen. Whithout wires, special effects or speed-ups he went back to Hong Kong (after several small roles here and there) to make his first kung fu film, The Big Boss and became the "kung fu king" overnight.
His best movies include "Enter the Dragon" and "Fist of Fury" (Chinese Connection), he has also been in the American TV series "The Green Hornet" and cameos in "Longstreet", "Ironside", "Batman", "Marlowe" and in "Unicorn Fist" (Bruce Lee and I) were he helped his friend Liu Yung (Tony from Way of the Dragon) and choreographed the fight scenes.
 
He thought one shouldn't be bound to the traditional techniques or religions/cultures, he also encouraged people to make up their own combination of techniques and in real life seek their own ways of life. But Bruce was not only a movie star and a martial arts genius, it's all becouse of him that we "gwailos" (non-Chinese, "round-eyes") are able to train Asian martial arts. It was he, with his modern ideas about showing the beauty of their culture (Chinese) and the equality of all races, that first started to teach non-Chinese the Chinese arts<. He said that non-Chinese would respect and understand them more if they were shown the beauty of Chinese culture.
Then he married an American woman (Linda Lee) breaking the racial and cultural berriears. Of course, today it sounds like anybodys ideas but in the 60's not everybody had ideas like that and it was out of questione to axept non-Chinese students.
So all we can do is thank him for everything he has done and miss him from the day he died in 1973.
Real name: Lee Jun Fan / Lee Yuen Kam
Aka: Li Siu Lung (Little Dragon)
Date of birth: November 27, 1940
Place of birth: Californa, USA
Style/School: Jeet Kune Do

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