“We are formless, we are shapeless, we can flow, we can crash, we are like water, we are Hongkongers!” Last month, Bruce Lee’s iconic quote (‘...Be water, my friend’), popularly used in the documentary Bruce Lee: A Warriors Journey (2000), became a symbol of the ongoing Hong Kong sit-in protests against the extradition deal with China.
The martial arts star’s philosophical beliefs mirrored his fighting styles and way of living. But it isn’t just on the political front that the icon has made an appearance this year — April saw the launch of Cinemax’s period drama Warrior, about a Chinese martial artist who emigrates to San Francisco in search of his estranged sister. The well-researched biography, Bruce Lee: A Life by Matthew Polly , is one of summer 2019’s recommended reads. And Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, a Cannes 2019 favourite, and releasing on July 26, has Lee in it too (played by Mike Moh). With the martial arts evangelist continuing to have an impact on global culture 46 years after his death (July 20), let’s take a look at the Lee legacy.
Rise of the Dragon
Well after his establishment in the industry, Lee Jun-fan, or the anglicised Bruce Lee, pitched the idea for TheWarrior , a TV series set in San Francisco’s primaeval era of Tong Wars in the late-1800s. The script included a Shaolin monk and his encounters in the Wild West. In what led to a good deal of controversy, Warner Bros. restructured Lee’s concept and put 1972’s Kung Fu on air, claiming that they had been working on the idea for quite a while and that any resemblance to Lee’s script was ‘purely coincidental’. Close to five decades later, the Lee family estate worked together with Jonathan Tropper and Justin Lin to bring his unfulfilled vision to life through Cinemax’s Warrior , which premièred this April. The show that follows Lee’s original concept, seeks to do justice to his legacy.
On Tarantino
Tarantino’s upcoming period piece set in 1969’s Hollywood — Once Upon a Time in Hollywood — pays homage to what he considers to be the finest filmmaking era. Following the story of an ageing television actor and his stunt double, the film features a star-studded cast that includes Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt and Margot Robbie. As if this wasn’t enough, it seems Tarantino felt no ’60s Hollywood show would be complete without an appearance of the Little Dragon himself.
Actor and martial artist Mike Moh was cast to play the part of the legend, and in the film’s teaser, Lee issues a warning to Pitt’s character Cliff Booth: “My hands are registered as lethal weapons. We get into a fight, I accidentally kill you, I go to jail.” Social media scoffed at the idea that someone like Booth could ever hold his own against Lee and the scene invoked further criticism for Booth’s prompt retort — “Anybody accidentally kills anybody in a fight, they go to jail,” he says. “It’s called manslaughter” — which was perceived as playing into the white male fantasy. The fact remains, Tarantino stuck to the reality of the situation back in the 60s. The racial undertones of the exchange between the two characters may as well be an allegory to the ongoing white against non-white feud of the time.
Mike Moh as Bruce Lee in 'Once Upon A Time In Hollywood'.
Fighting fit
The ‘Father of MMA’ taught martial arts (the 2008 Ip Man was based on Lee’s tutor of Wing Chun) to many of his Hollywood co-stars, the likes if which include James Coburn, Steve McQueen and Chuck Norris. Norris and Lee even face off in Way of the Dragon (1872), in a symbolic clash of cultures in which a bare-chested Lee walks out of the Colliseum after having snapped Norris’ neck. Conversely, in 1973’s Enter the Dragon , a theme of self-reflection is explored — the film ends with the sinister Han (Shih Kien) being impaled by Lee on his own spear, serving as a reminder that threats are not always white-skinned. Lee believed traditional martial arts techniques were too rigid and formalised to be practised in an environment such as the United States. ‘Jeet Kune Do’ or ‘The Way of the Intercepting Fist’ was what he called “the style of no style”, which employed a variety of different fighting styles, both Western and Oriental, to better adapt to the Western audience…fuelling his mastery of the art of Kung Fu.
Through his work, Lee laid the foundation for Asian, and in particular, Chinese representation in American cinema. “I’ll tell you how I got that job. The hero’s name was Brit Reed, and I was the only Chinese guy in all of California who could pronounce Brit Reed, that’s why” — his remark on how he landed a supporting role in '66s Green Hornet was aimed at Hollywood’s caricature of non-white actors. Lee struck a fine balance between Chinese nationalism and Western subversion, and was identified as an extremely progressive figure.
The ‘A’ list
Almost half a century after his death, Lee’s influence permeates every genre of contemporary western cinema and has paved the way for Asian representation in Hollywood. Oriental leads in major motion pictures and television series are at an all-time high. In a year where names such as Constance Wu, Awkwafina, Randall Park and John Cho appear on IMDB’s ‘Most Popular’ list, it’s safe to assume that the Orient is no longer viewed solely on the basis of its connection to martial arts. It is now, a thriving, multi-genre industry, which has only just begun and shall have so much more to offer.
