Films of Fury: The Kung Fu Movie Book Read Online Free PDF Page B

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    Picture identifications (clockwise from upper left):
    Bruce Li in Dynamo ; Jason Scott Lee in Dragon : The Bruce Lee Story ; Mike Stone , James Coburn, Chuck Norris and Bruce Lee ; Bruce Le in Cobra ; The Dragon Dies Hard , Brandon Lee in The Crow .
    Bruce Lee remains the man who has brought more people to kung fu in general, and kung fu films in particular, than anyone else in the world. He is personally responsible for introducing kung fu to the Western world, and for forging the modern kung fu film. Through his life, he did more to educate Americans to kung fu’s benefits than anyone. Through his death, he has done more to clarify its detriments. Through his legacy, he represents the full spectrum of kung fu’s physical possibilities, as well as its mental limitations.
    It was his superlative martial arts ability and canny filmmaking knowledge that galvanized audiences everywhere. But it is also Bruce Lee , simply by being deprived of the opportunity to mature, who set a trap for the kung fu film that it is still in the process of escaping. Everyone in the industry is compared to him, or forged himself in, and out, of his image. Decades after his untimely death, he remains a universally known cinematic icon. Simply put, without him, this book probably would not exist.
    It started November 27, 1940, when Lee Jun-fan was born to Lee Hoi-chuen and his wife Grace in San Francisco. Since he was born in the United States, the hospital requested an Anglicized name. Supposedly, it was the supervising doctor, Mary Glover , who suggested “Bruce.” He was born into a family that included two older girls, Agnes and Phoebe, and an older brother named Peter. Soon he had a younger brother as well, Robert. To his siblings, Bruce was better known by the name Lee Yuen-kam (an adaptation of his birth name).
    Their father was a well-known actor for Chinese audiences on both American coasts as well as in Hong Kong. Just three months after his birth, Bruce joined his father onstage, in a production of Golden Gate Girl . When the family returned to Asia soon after, Bruce continued his thespian ways … while starting a few new distressing ones as well. He was a thin, small, and somewhat sickly child, prone to nightmares and sleepwalking. Compensation came in the form of energy. He always seemed to be moving, never satisfied with being still. Friends and family remember Bruce as an extremely positive, assured youth, and his assurance became brazen as he grew.
    His progress was marked by appearances in Hong Kong movies, starting just after World War II, when he was six years old. The director of one of his father’s films was impressed by Bruce’s attitude and cast him in a small role for Birth of a Man (1946) , which was also known by the title The Beginning of a Boy. Only a year later, Bruce was already starring in films such as My Son A-Chang , in which he played the title role of a street-smart kid trying to get ahead in the sweatshop world of Hong Kong. As was fairly common at that time, he was given a movie star name: Lung, or Siu Lung, which means “Dragon ” or “Little Dragon.”
    Even at the age of seven, Lee’s screen persona was strong. He was a clever, capable, but short-tempered little ruffian who specialized in the scowl, the pout, the stare, and the slow burn. This character served him on the streets as well. Ignoring the lessons of his films and his family, Lee, in his own words, “went looking for fights.” By the time he hit his teens, he was already well equipped to handle those fights. He was a natural dancer, becoming quite proficient in the cha-cha, and his natural grace lent itself to wing chun , the physically economical, but extremely effective, martial art he decided to follow.
    Created by a woman of the same name, wing chun was popularized by Yip Man, a venerable teacher who