Chinese-Hawaiian actor Jason Scott Lee plays Lee in the film by Rob Cohen, inspired by his widow Linda Lee Cadwell’s book Bruce Lee: The Man Only I Knew
At the heart of the film is Lee’s relationship with Cadwell. Much of it focuses on their life together and how she encouraged him to achieve success.
Although it plays fast and loose with the facts, the 1993 Hollywood biopic Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story is an enjoyable watch.
Directed by Rob Cohen, an established mainstream filmmaker who was neither an action specialist nor particularly familiar with martial arts films, Dragon takes the spirit of Linda Lee Cadwell’s 1989 update of her book Bruce Lee: The Man Only I Knew, and recasts Lee’s story as a typical 1990s Hollywood romantic drama.
The Lee of Dragon, played by Chinese-Hawaiian actor Jason Scott Lee, is a cheerfully optimistic outsider who battles against the odds to establish himself in the United States with the unfaltering help of his loyal American wife (played by Lauren Holly).
The martial arts scenes, choreographed by Hongkonger John Cheung Ng-long, are edited in the choppier American style, but are still exciting. The film’s unswerving depiction of racism, often shown in the treatment Lee receives from Cadwell’s mother, Vivian Emery – who said the portrayal of her in the film was relatively accurate – is unusually brutal, and still relevant today.
Jason Scott Lee as Bruce Lee in a still from Dragon: the Bruce Lee Story.
Although it plays fast and loose with the facts, the 1993 Hollywood biopic Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story is an enjoyable watch.
Directed by Rob Cohen, an established mainstream filmmaker who was neither an action specialist nor particularly familiar with martial arts films, Dragon takes the spirit of Linda Lee Cadwell’s 1989 update of her book Bruce Lee: The Man Only I Knew, and recasts Lee’s story as a typical 1990s Hollywood romantic drama.
The Lee of Dragon, played by Chinese-Hawaiian actor Jason Scott Lee, is a cheerfully optimistic outsider who battles against the odds to establish himself in the United States with the unfaltering help of his loyal American wife (played by Lauren Holly).
The martial arts scenes, choreographed by Hongkonger John Cheung Ng-long, are edited in the choppier American style, but are still exciting. The film’s unswerving depiction of racism, often shown in the treatment Lee receives from Cadwell’s mother, Vivian Emery – who said the portrayal of her in the film was relatively accurate – is unusually brutal, and still relevant today.https://www.youtube.com/embed/MDKTBiHBmeI?feature=oembed
“When a Hollywood executive asked me if I had any interest in making a film about I told her that I didn’t know anything about him, apart from Enter The Dragon,” director Cohen told the Post in an interview in 1992. “I asked her to give me the material on him, and she gave me Linda Lee’s book about their life together. I was thunderstruck.”
“Universal thinks we’re making a kung fu film, but I look at it as what [Martin Scorsese’s] Raging Bull is to boxing. I am not making a kung fu film, I am making a biography of a kung fu artist who is also one of the most complex, charismatic and interesting individuals that you could make a movie about,” Cohen explained.
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Jason Scott Lee as Bruce Lee in a still from Dragon: the Bruce Lee Story.Jason Scott Lee as Bruce Lee in a still from Dragon: the Bruce Lee Story.
Jason Scott Lee as Bruce Lee in a still from Dragon: the Bruce Lee Story.
Although it plays fast and loose with the facts, the 1993 Hollywood biopic Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story is an enjoyable watch.
Directed by Rob Cohen, an established mainstream filmmaker who was neither an action specialist nor particularly familiar with martial arts films, Dragon takes the spirit of Linda Lee Cadwell’s 1989 update of her book Bruce Lee: The Man Only I Knew, and recasts Lee’s story as a typical 1990s Hollywood romantic drama.
The Lee of Dragon, played by Chinese-Hawaiian actor Jason Scott Lee, is a cheerfully optimistic outsider who battles against the odds to establish himself in the United States with the unfaltering help of his loyal American wife (played by Lauren Holly).
The martial arts scenes, choreographed by Hongkonger John Cheung Ng-long, are edited in the choppier American style, but are still exciting. The film’s unswerving depiction of racism, often shown in the treatment Lee receives from Cadwell’s mother, Vivian Emery – who said the portrayal of her in the film was relatively accurate – is unusually brutal, and still relevant today.
“When a Hollywood executive asked me if I had any interest in making a film about Bruce Lee, I told her that I didn’t know anything about him, apart from Enter The Dragon,” director Cohen told the Post in an interview in 1992. “I asked her to give me the material on him, and she gave me Linda Lee’s book about their life together. I was thunderstruck.”
“Universal thinks we’re making a kung fu film, but I look at it as what [Martin Scorsese’s] Raging Bull is to boxing. I am not making a kung fu film, I am making a biography of a kung fu artist who is also one of the most complex, charismatic and interesting individuals that you could make a movie about,” Cohen explained.
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Like many late-20th century Hollywood biopics, Dragon takes the facts of Lee’s life as a starting point and changes them to fit the demands of a commercial narrative. All of the right elements are there, but they take place at the wrong places at the wrong times, and are all heavily fictionalised.
The heart of the film is Bruce’s relationship with Linda, and much of it focuses on their romantic life, and how she encouraged him, and helped him to achieve success.
The idea of the family curse became prominent during the film’s release in 1993, as Lee’s son Brandon was tragically killed in an accident on the film set of The Crow while Dragon was awaiting release.
Although Cohen says he knew little about Lee’s life and work before he started work on Dragon, he had attended the US premiere of Enter The Dragon in 1973, as a guest of the film’s US producer Fred Weintraub. “I went, and I had no idea what I was seeing,” he told the Post. “The audience looked like they had emptied out all the jails. It was the most street audience I had ever seen.
“This guy came on screen, this very handsome Chinese guy, who could do all this amazing stuff, and people were screaming and cheering like it was a sporting event. When the movie finished, I went up to Fred and said, ‘This guy Bruce Lee, he’s fantastic!’ Weintraub got a strange look on his face and said to me, ‘Yeah, he died three months ago’,” said Cohen.
Cheung, who choreographed the martial arts scenes, had choreographed ninja films in Hong Kong. He also appears in the film, playing Johnny Tan, a fictionalised version of Wong Jack Man, who fought Lee because he insulted the Chinese martial arts establishment in the US by claiming that his style was superior to traditional styles.
BY: www.scmp.com
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