Straight Up Reviews: Birth of The Dragon

 

What can be said about Bruce Lee that wasn't already said for the past 49 years?  Some view him as a legend and a pioneer of Mixed Martial Arts, as well as an amazing entertainer in the Action circuit. One that was gone too soon, before he could even make it big in the world. Others see him as a phony arrogant asshole actor that got lucky. With no martial arts skills and no competitions in his belt.  

Myself, I'm the former, however I try to put the Legend aspects into real world perspective.  I admire him as an actor and a teacher and he was one of the main inspirations for me getting into Martial Arts.  However at the same time, I don't treat him at all invincible like most Lee fans. If anything what reveres me to him the most are the little moments I hear about in his life where he does claim vulnerability.  To me a Legend isn't immortalized by the feats they commit, but why they commit them. 

Which brings me to this movie.  Birth of The Dragon.  When I saw the trailer, I was hyped.   This was the first time ever, even in broad strokes someone decided to make a movie based on the moment that truly defined Bruce Lee.  However, I was hesitant to watch it, due to the numerous bad reviews on it.  Which I will get to.  However first a little context.

The movie itself, was based off an article by Michael Dorgan.  Which in turn documents the story of an alleged encounter between Bruce Lee and Wong Jack Man.  Said encounter has been debated endlessly by all sides.  Among most things, why the fight happened and who won.  

I recommend everyone read it: http://www.kungfu.net/brucelee.html

Now, before I get into that part I want to make something perfectly clear.  I do not think any of the people involved in this movie intended to do harm to Bruce Lee's name nor his family. Which is more than I could say for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

See, many people wonder why a biopic is so hard to make on this person, when there have been so many biopics about others for less than what he accomplished.   Here's the thing though.

When it comes to Musicians, Sports Stars, Famous Scientists and other people Hollywood finds interesting enough to make a movie about, there is not much to do. Just show what their story is about, what their occupation is and with some artistic liberties make even the most mundane aspects of it entertaining.  

With Bruce Lee however, it's notoriously difficult.  Because even to this day, not everyone can separate the legend from the real man, many movies,  even the ones that gain a more positive reception than others,  feel they have to invoke more on his legendary movie persona, than the actual person behind it.  This movie is no exception and much like this movie, the others got it way wrong too.

For example, Dragon The Bruce Lee Story.  Considered the definitive biopic of Bruce in the 90s.  Yet a lot of it was grossly inaccurate.  From minor details like Bruce neglecting his family for his career to major ones like a family demon curse.  Yet that ends up being the best one despite making roughly the same mistakes, Birth and others made after.  

Now with that out of the way here's the movie itself.  

The story revolves, not around just Bruce, but around 3 people.  There's Bruce himself, which in this case takes place in 1964.  In real life, this was around the time Bruce founded Jun-Fan Kung-Fu.  Which became the starting point of his career.  Here though it's a more actionized setting in which he runs his school in the "bad" side of Chinatown run by gangs.  So naturally on top of being a simple Martial Arts teacher trying to make it in the Movie World as well, he's the resident vigilante protecting people.  Then there's Wong Jack Man. A shaolin Monk who arrived in America, to work as a dishwasher in Chinatown. Then finally there's the character, many wish weren't in the movie, yet despite that talk about him the most. Steve McKee.  I'll get to that later.   Anyway,  Steve is Lee's student of Jun-Fan Kung Fu and he works as a laundryman in Chinatown with his friend Vinnie Wei.  During a delivery, he meets Xiulan, who works as an employee for Auntie Blossom. A gangster who runs a restaurant/brothel and refuses to let Xiulan talk to anyone outside the establishment.  Of course forbidden love ensues at possibly the worst time.  While McKee, gets along well with Wong Jack Man, Bruce has reservations.  He believes Wong Jack Man was sent by the locals, to cease teaching Non Chinese Students Kung Fu.  Wong however denies it, only stating that he notices limitations in the current style Bruce was trying to advertise.   One of many things that prompt Bruce to challenge him to a fight. Which he refuses.  In a bid to know why, McKee gets to know Man and finds out, he's here to atone for nearly killing a fellow student in a demonstration of his style.  One of the reasons why he refuses to fight Lee.  Seeing an opportunity to pass on his lessons, he teaches Steve a few.  Which in turn causes Steve to leave Lee's academy.  Further increasing tension between them.  When news about the feud spreads all over Chinatown, Auntie Blossom, sees a gambling opportunity and using Xiulan as leverage, forces Steve to get both to fight.  Offering to release her regardless of who wins or loses.  

Wong accepts the challenge, but there is a slight snag.  Xiulan refuses to leave without her roomates.  All of which are under the control of Wing Lo. A gangster associate of Auntie Blossom.  

Lee and Man set the conditions of the fight, with 12 witnesses and an empty warehouse.  Blossom and McKee being among them.  

The fight ensues, with each side gaining an upperhand on the other.  However it doesn't go as you would expect.  Despite both being winded after a spectacular battle (No seriously. If not for anything else watch it for this fight.),  there was no clear winner and neither side wants to fight the other anymore.  Both go home to reflect on the fight, leaving Blossom enraged as she wanted at least one winner.  Wing Lo even gives her an ultimatum, 24 hours to get an official winner or Xiulan as well as the other girls get trafficked.  

Lee is at home reflecting on how despite it all, in his mind, the fight took too long.  Causing him to reflect on what Wong mentioned about his limitations.  Steve after getting the message from Blossom, implores Wong to declare himself the winner or loser, but due to the complexity which he also believes Lee to be aware of, he cannot make a clear decision.  After sending a message to Lee, Steve goes to get Xiulan out himself.

Knowing he'll be killed, Lee asks Wong for help and the two storm the Restaurant taking down as many of Blossom and Lo's men as they could, before confronting Blossom and Lo.  Wong concedes in hopes it would let Xiulan go.  However Lee refuses.  It seems like he was trying to be the better man, but he proved he is the better man.  By demanding that all the girls get released, not just Xiulan.  They accept and let them go.  

Wong leaves America, in hopes that Lee may carry on the legacy without him and Lee discusses the idea of a new style, which basically is the precursor to Jeet Kune Do.

First things first.  The elephant in the room.  Steve McKee.  This character was accused of Whitewashing, for being the thing that drives the plot, instead of Lee or Wong Jack Man.  I respectfully disagree.  It wouldn't be much of a movie about the differences of styles, if there wasn't at least one student that serves as the audience surrogate.  In fact, the fact that it's a white person, has no bearing on it whatsoever, save for leaning to Lee's side of the story, that he was told not to teach non chinese students.  If anything if they were taking that part of the story seriously, then Steve should have not been the only Non-Chinese Student.  If you looked at one of the Student photos, you'll notice that there are a boat load of non-chinese students in Lee's Roster,  including but not limited to James Coburn and Kareem Abdul Jabbar. Now could they have done it better in that department, yes.  But the fact that they stuck to one, means that they limit it to one story. Second thing.  To those that claim Steve McKee never existed.  While yes, there is no one by that name in any of Bruce Lee's history.  However Steve McKee is a real person.  His name is really Steve McQueen.  In fact when I first heard his name in the trailer I immediately thought that maybe this was a story about Lee told by McQueen.  I was wrong, however the character itself can literally be copy and pasted from what is often been told about McQueen in life.  His love of motorcycles, his hot headed attitude and reckless behaviour are literal dead ringers to it and I am shocked and disgusted that many so called Lee fans, never picked up on it. Now granted McQueen never witnessed the fight in real life. So safe to say, they were more into the characterization of him rather than anything true about him.  Just like Lee. 

Now onto the meat of the review.  As a movie itself, I loved it.  It had lot's of action and Phillip Ng, did portray a great Lee.  He had a good balance of the movie persona and the persona we all want to really know. What he succeeded in where Once Upon A Time In America failed at, was that they never made him too arrogant. If anything he was more like a prankster, like Hong Kong's answer to Spider-man.  Ironically this took place 2 years after Spider-man was first created.  Wong's Actor Xia Yu is no slouch either.  He really made me believe that Wong was less like an arrogant bigoted prick and more like a victim of circumstance.  Then there's Steve's actor.  Billy Mangussen had the difficult task of playing a character, no one liked in real life and had to live with the torment he would eventually receive for angry fans.  Many of which wrongfully blaming him directly for the way the movie went.  As Steve, he did a great job making me believe that McQueen really did witness all this. 

The movie itself had spectacular fight scenes and has even took me by surprise numerous times. 

For starters, despite being a Bruce hyped movie, it gave a lot of wiggle room between Bruce and Wong Jack Man, so that the audience could decide for themselves who won and who was in the right.  Giving hints that it could be either or.  Which personally I loved, because let's face it odds are there are people whom have thought fondly of Wong Jack Man in his own circle and would be dissapointed if he wasn't given some leeway.  Personally I believe Lee won and that he was in the right. The fight had to start from something. 

Second, I would never thought in a million years they'd do a bit with Wong Jack Man and Bruce Lee working together.  Now granted, regardless if it's a biopic, a brucesploitation film or even something as stupid as Once Upon A Time in Hollywood, a fight with Bruce is inevitable.  Yet, not only do they work together, they work together well, mixing old fashioned Kung-Fu with what would eventually become Jeet Kune Do at the time.  Not to mention, Bruce seemed to take his cue from The Doctor, using spoons as weapons. It's the little things that make it worth watching.

Now I understand why many people are upset with this movie, but come on.  You really should have seen it coming for the following reason.  While Universal and Blumhouse productions are well revered today with coming up with the best works, especially in the horror villains, there is one studio, that brought even them down hard.  WWE Studios.  These guys are not really known for a great track record in movies considering most of them are just made to plug their wrestlers.  That being said, if you look at it less in a Universal/Blumhouse light and more of a WWE light, then you'll see this movie is absolutely perfect in that genre, because it's looked through the lens of a professional wrestling story. Let's do a checklist.

1. Mix-Matched historically inaccurate events that hype up the characters? Check.
2. Pre-Fight Taunting with post-Kayfabe talks in private?  Check. 
3. Spectacular entrances, demonstrations and moves by each opponent? Check.
4. A Heel (Bruce) vs A Face (Wong). Double fucking check. No seriously, while they toned it down for him, Bruce literally comes off as his version of a Wrestling Heel.
5. Enemies becoming friends after spending most of their story taunting and beating each other? Check fucking mate.

I could go on, but I don't want to have all the fun.  All and all, as far as adaptations and biopics go, this isn't the worst one.  It's not perfect, but they at least tried.