The martial arts legend explodes back on the pop cultural landscape with a miniseries, theme park and even a Broadway show devoted to him
March 15, 2008
Adrian Ma
Special to the Star
Call this the decade of the action hero comeback.
In 2003, Arnold Schwarzenegger showed us he could qualify for a senior citizen's discount and still kick cyborg butt in Terminator 3. Last year, Bruce Willis returned in a new Die Hard sequel, while Sly Stallone recently resurrected two of the greatest movie tough guys in Rocky Balboa and Rambo.
But some believe another action legend will be back in the spotlight, a hero who won over audiences with lightning-fast kicks, a cocky smirk and that often imitated (but never duplicated) high-pitched battle cry: the Little Dragon, Bruce Lee.
It's been more than three decades since Lee fell into a sudden coma and died at age 32, just before the release of his first Hollywood production Enter the Dragon (1973). Though he was already a star in Asia by then, it was this movie that ushered in a kung fu craze and gave the West its first Asian action hero.
Lee paved the way for Asian stars (Jackie Chan, Jet Li) to break through to the West and his unique fighting style – a self-developed combo of kung fu, boxing, and grappling – provided a blueprint for the mixed-martial arts exemplified by the increasingly popular Ultimate Fighting Championship matches.
For these reasons, Lee remains a prominent icon. But his daughter Shannon
Lee-Keasler feels his popularity is regaining momentum as several projects will introduce Bruce Lee to a new generation over the next few years. Though
Lee-Keasler couldn't go into details, an animated series and some musical short films are under development. A Broadway musical based on Lee's life, featuring music penned by Tony award-nominee David Yazbek (The Full Monty), is expected to open in 2009.
Even a theme park is being built in southeast China, which will include a martial arts academy and a memorial hall.
"I do think it's a good time," Lee-Keasler said recently over the phone from her Los Angeles home.
"A lot of people in Hollywood and the film industry have been wanting to do productions with the Chinese government. But also with the Olympics and the spotlight of the world being on China this summer, in general, I really feel there's just a resurgence of interest in my father."
Lee's re-emerging profile and the Beijing Olympics go hand-in-hand – China Central Television
(CCTV), the official state TV network, will broadcast a 50-part series chronicling Lee's life to coincide with the Olympics.
The Legend of Bruce Lee is being filmed in China, Hong Kong and the U.S. and features an international cast.
Lee-Keasler, who is an executive producer of the project, says CCTV will distribute the series worldwide this summer to promote Chinese culture.
In many ways, Lee is a perfect emblem for the Beijing games. Despite his unremarkable five-foot-seven stature, he truly was an athletic specimen – his unmatched speed and agility allowed him to perform those dazzling moves, while his wiry, chiselled physique drew admiration from Schwarzenegger himself.
His status as an internationally recognized Chinese star also fits, although his connection to the host country is perhaps a stretch.
As Lee-Keasler notes, Lee was born in San Francisco, grew up in Hong Kong during British governance and never lived in mainland China. "Quite honestly, I don't think my father was quite keen on the communist government in China," she says. "I think it is quite interesting the Chinese government has sort of grabbed hold of him as a symbol, but at the same time it's understandable."
Lee-Keasler says she didn't fully realize her father's popularity in China until representatives of CCTV approached her for The Legend of Bruce Lee.
She remembers one executive telling her he believed "there are two Chinese people beloved by the Chinese throughout the world, and that is Confucius and Bruce Lee. He said to me that he really feels it's their duty his legacy lives on."
Chinese kung fu, or wushu, is China's national sport and is deeply imbedded into the country's heritage and mythology. Beijing even unsuccessfully lobbied the Olympic committee to include wushu as an event in this summer's games.
But China's love affair with Lee may also stem from how he fought to change perception of the Chinese in the West.
Before Lee, Chinese males were largely portrayed in Hollywood films as docile, bumbling servant-types or evil genius villains like Fu Manchu. According to Lee biographer Bruce Thomas, his onscreen heroics "broke through the limits of the Chinese stereotype in the Western world and remade the image of the Asian man."
Thomas, who will publish a revised biography this spring, says as much as Lee was a Chinese hero, he bridged cultures by teaching kung fu to westerners despite being forbidden to do so by Chinese elders. He also defied social convention by marrying
Lee-Keasler's mother, Linda, his former student and a non-Asian.
"There are times I looked at his journey and went, `Oh, it must have been so lonely,'" says Keira
Loughran, an actor and playwright from Toronto who wrote and starred in Little Dragon, a play about a Chinese-Canadian girl who explores her identity through studying Bruce Lee. She says his struggle between two cultures epitomizes the "classic Canadian experience, especially as a visible minority."
"I wasn't one of those kids who grew up with Bruce Lee so I learned everything about him through my research – about how much he had to fight within in his own culture, but also how much he wanted to unite everybody."
It was Lee's spirit that captivated Loughran, which is exactly why Lee-Keasler believes her father will continue to win new fans.
"My hope is that, 30 years from now, he will still be around and making an impact,"
Lee-Keasler says. "He was just this amazing ball of energy that people can still feel and be inspired by."
There remains the intriguing possibility of using computer-generated effects to bring Lee back to the big screen.
In fact, two recent projects – one by a Korean film company and one helmed by Hollywood director Rob Cohen (who did the highly dramatized 1993 Lee biopic Dragon) – aimed to create a photo-realistic version of Lee, which would have made him the first digitally reanimated actor in a film. This would have allowed the filmmakers to finally recreate Lee's unique fighting style, something human actors have struggled to mimic effectively.
Lee-Keasler, who is a managing partner of the company that controls the rights to Lee's image, says while the potential for this kind of film exists, both projects have been shut down. "On the one hand I'm intrigued, but on the other hand, I think it has to be really thought through and done well," she says. "I haven't yet come across a project with all the right elements lined up."
Unlike some other famous tough guys, Bruce Lee can't make a comeback to cement his hero status. Then again, he never really needed to.
Toronto Star Link: http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/Movies/article/345839
MORE BRUCE LEE PROJECTS THAN YOU CAN SHAKE A NUNCHUCK AT
Bruce Lee hasn't appeared in a film in three decades, but his legacy continues to impress and intrigue people around the world.
Here's a look at some interesting Lee-related projects currently in the works:
THE LEGEND OF BRUCE LEE
(This spring or summer)
Starring Hong Kong actor Danny Chan (who played a Lee look-alike in the 2001 comedy Shaolin Soccer), this 50-part biographical series charts Lee's ascent
from skinny schoolboy to iconic martial arts superstar. While the series is biographical in nature, Lee's daughter, Shannon Lee-Keasler, says the plot was
"somewhat exaggerated" to make it as action-packed possible.
FIGHTING SPIRIT: BEYOND THE LIMITS
(This summer)
U.K.-based author Bruce Thomas is one of the foremost experts on Bruce Lee, having already published a few books about the martial arts
phenom. His revised version of Fighting Spirit promises to illuminate Lee's years before stardom and, according to Thomas, will be the "most informed and complete
account that currently exists of the life, work and legacy of Bruce Lee."
BRUCE LEE: THE MUSICAL
(2009)
This Broadway stage spectacular chronicles the life and times of Bruce Lee and will feature music by Tony-award nominee David Yazbek (The Full Monty).
"The show is in the beginning stages," Yazbek recently told Associated Press Radio. "I am now experimenting with various Chinese instruments and David Henry
Hwang (M. Butterfly) is writing the first draft."
BRUCE LEE LAND
(2009-2010)
A $29-million (Canadian) Bruce Lee theme park is being built in Shunde, China, Lee's ancestral home. The park will include a martial arts academy and a
memorial hall, but The Sunday Times of London has reported some bizarre attractions like "a rollercoaster that emits the martial arts actor's signature
grunts" and radio-controlled Bruce Lee "mannequin robots" patrolling the grounds.
Lee-Keasler says she plans to visit the site soon, but added the project will not be a Disney-style amusement park.
EVERYBODY WAS KUNG FU FIGHTIN'
Even in this age of computer enhanced, eye-popping Matrix-style martial arts sequences, the sheer intensity of Lee's fight scenes give them a gritty edge
unlike anything else. Here are three of the Little Dragon's finest fights on film:
BRUCE LEE VS. KAREEM ABDUL-JABBAR
While Game of Death (1978) is arguably the weakest in the Bruce Lee canon (Lee died as filming began and was replaced by stand-ins for most of the movie), it
did contain a gem of a fight between Lee and NBA legend Abdul-Jabbar, who studied under Lee.
Despite being dwarfed by the seven-foot-two Abdul-Jabbar, Lee's tenacious grappling made him victorious . . . and served as an example to Raptors players on
how to battle opposing NBA centres.
BRUCE LEE VS. CHUCK NORRIS
Despite rumours that Chuck Norris is so strong he can slam a revolving door shut, Norris has admitted he would be no match for Lee in a real fight.
Still, Lee respected Norris' fighting ability so much he hand-picked Norris to be the villain for the final duel in Way of the Dragon (1972). The showdown
goes down at the Colosseum in Rome, the perfect setting for these martial arts gladiators.
BRUCE LEE VS. AN ENTIRE KARATE SCHOOL
For a fierce competitor like Bruce Lee, the only thing better than defeating one opponent is to crush 30 of them at once. In Fist of Fury (1972), Lee
single-handedly takes on dozens of karate students to avenge his friends. During the brawl, Lee uses a pair of nunchucks, the weapon with which he would soon
become synonymous.
- Adrian Ma
|
