Enter the Dragon
Place on List:
III. Period: 1960 - 2009
2.
Primary Texts: Film
Robert
Clouse. Enter
the Dragon.
(1973)
Key Terms (tags): period, film,
chinese, immigration, martial arts
Supporting References:
http://go.galegroup.com.libproxy.cc.stonybrook.edu/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CCX3404707209&v=2.1&u=sunysb&it=r&p=GVRL&sw=w
“Bruce Lee. At
the time of his sudden and mysterious death in 1973, actor and
martial arts expert Bruce Lee (1940-1973) was on the verge of
international super-stardom. Rooted strongly in both Oriental and
Western cultures, Lee brought to the ancient Chinese fighting art of
kung fu the grace of a ballet dancer. He was an actor as well, and
infused his performances with humor and a dramatic sensibility that
assured a place for king fu films as a new form of cinematic art.
“Raised in San Francisco,
California, Hong Kong, and Seattle, Washington, Lee had gained his
first American audience with a groundbreaking role on the 1966-67
television series The Green Hornet. Eager to challenge
Hollywood's stereotypical images of Asian Americans, he returned to
Hong Kong and ultimately developed his own style of kung fu. On the
strength of his film, Enter the Dragon (1973), Lee returned to
the attention of American audiences and posthumously ushered in a new
era of cinematic art. Stars such as David Carradine, Chuck Norris,
Jean-Claude Van Damme, Steven Seagal, and fellow Hong Kong martial
artist Jackie Chan would follow his example, making Lee the father of
an enduring style of action hero.
The "Strong One"
“In 1939 Lee's father, a popular
Chinese opera star, brought his wife and three children with him from
Hong Kong to San Francisco while he toured the United States as a
performer. At the end of the following year, on November 27, 1940,
another son was born to the Lees. In accordance with Chinese
tradition, they had not named him, as his father was away in New
York; therefore the mother took the advice of her physician and
called the boy Bruce because it meant "strong one" in
Gaelic. Lee reportedly had a number of Chinese names, but it would be
by the name of Bruce that he would become famous.
“Stardom began early, with his first
film appearance at age three months in a movie called Golden Gate
Girl. By then it was 1941, and though their native Hong Kong was
occupied by Japanese troops, the Lees decided to return home.
According to Chinese superstition, demons sometimes try to steal male
children. Out of fear for the young boy's safety, they dressed him as
a girl, and even made him attend a girl's school for a while.
Meanwhile Lee grew up around the cinema, and appeared in a Hong Kong
movie when he was four. Two years later, a director recognized his
star quality and put him in another film. By the time he graduated
from high school, Lee had appeared in some twenty films.
“As a teenager, he became involved in two seemingly contradictory
activities: gang warfare and dance. As a dancer he won a cha-cha
championship, and as a gang member he risked death on the streets of
Hong Kong. Out of fear that he might be caught at some point without
his gang, helpless before a group of rivals, Lee began to study the
Chinese martial arts of kung fu. The style that attracted his
attention was called wing chun, which according to legend was
developed by a woman named Yim Wing Chun, who improved on the
techniques of a Shaolin Buddhist nun. Lee absorbed the style, and
began adding his own improvements. This proved too much for the wing
chun masters, who excommunicated him from the school.
“Lee's film career continued, and he
was becoming a popular actor in the Hong Kong film scene. Producer
Run Run Shaw offered the high schooler a lucrative contract, and Lee
wanted to take it. But when he got into trouble with the police for
fighting, his mother sent him to the United States to live with
friends of the family.
“Teacher and Actor
“Lee finished high school in Edison,
Washington, near Seattle. He then enrolled as a philosophy major at
the University of Washington, where he supported himself by giving
dance lessons and waiting tables at a Chinese restaurant. As a kung
fu teacher instructing fellow university students, he met Linda
Emery, whom he married in 1964.
“The newlyweds moved to California,
and Lee-who had begun developing a new fighting style called jeet
kune do-ultimately opened three schools in Los Angeles, Oakland,
California, and Seattle. He also began to pursue his acting more
seriously, and landed a part in the TV series The Green Hornet.
The show was based on a 1930s radio program, and Lee played the role
of the Hornet's Asian assistant, Kato. He virtually created the role,
imbuing Kato with a theatrical fighting style quite unlike that which
Lee taught in his schools. The show would be cancelled after one
season, but fans would long remember Lee's role.
“After the end of The Green
Hornet, Lee made guest appearances on TV shows such as Longstreet
and Ironside. His most notable role during this time was in
the film Marlowe (1969) with James Garner, when he played a
memorable part as a high-kicking villain. Clearly Lee had the
qualities of a star; but it was just as clear that an Asian American
faced limitations within the Hollywood system, which tended to cast
Oriental actors in stereotypical roles. Therefore in 1971, the Lees,
including son Brandon (born 1965), and daughter Shannon (born 1967)
moved to Hong Kong.
“Dramatic Rise, Tragic End
“Back in Hong Kong, Lee soon signed
a two-film contract, and released the movie known to U.S. audiences
as Fists of Fury late in 1971. The story, which featured Lee
as a fighter seeking revenge on those who had killed his kung fu
master, was not original in itself; but the presentation of it was,
and the crucial element was Lee. He combined the smooth, flowing
style of jeet kune do that he taught in his schools with the loud,
aggressive, and highly theatrical methods he had employed as Kato.
With the graceful, choreographic qualities of his movements; his good
looks and charm; his sense of humor and his acting ability, Lee was
one of a kind-a star in the making.
“Fists of Fury set box-office
records in Hong Kong which were broken only by his next picture, The
Chinese Connection, in 1972. Lee established his own film
company, Concord Pictures, and began directing movies. The first of
these would appear in the U.S. as Way of the Dragon. Lee was
enthusiastic about his future, not merely as a performer, but as an
artist: "With any luck, " he told a journalist shortly
before his death, "I hope to make … the kind of movie where
you can just watch the surface story, if you like, or can look deeper
into it." Unfortunately, Lee would not live to explore his full
potential as a filmmaker: on July 20, 1973, three weeks before his
fourth film, Enter the Dragon, was released in the United
States, he died suddenly.
“Lee's death became a source of
controversy. Officially the cause of death was brain swelling as a
reaction to aspirin he had taken for a back injury. But the
suddenness of his passing, combined with his youth, his good health,
and the bizarre timing on the verge of his explosion as an
international superstar, spawned rumors that he had been killed by
hit men. Some speculated he had run afoul of the Chinese mafia and
other powerful interests in the Hong Kong film industry, and had been
poisoned. Throughout his life, Lee had been obsessed by fears of his
early death, and some believed that the brilliant young star had some
sort of bizarre "curse" on him.
“According to legend and rumor, when
Lee bought a house in Hong Kong shortly before his death, he incurred
the wrath of the neighborhood's resident demons. The curse is said to
last for three generation. Tragically, the notion of a curse gained
eerie credence on June 18, 1993-a month and two days before the 20th
anniversary of Lee's death-when Brandon Lee died under equally
strange circumstances. While filming a scene for the movie The Crow,
he was shot by a gun that supposedly contained blanks but in fact had
a live round lodged in its chamber. Like his father, Brandon Lee was
on the verge of stardom.
“Lee gave the world an enormous
artistic legacy, in the process virtually creating a new cinematic
art form. By the 1990s, Enter the Dragon alone had grossed
more than $100 million, and Lee's influence could be found in the
work of numerous Hollywood action heroes. In 1993, Jason Scott Lee
(no relation) appeared in Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story,
directed by Rob Cohen. Actress Lauren Holly played Lee's wife Linda,
and Holly became friends with Lee's daughter Shannon.
“Shannon Lee once told People that
she had not inherited any of her father's or brother's fighting
abilities. Although she became host of a TV show featuring martial
arts competitions, she has said in most respects she was quite unlike
her father.”
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“Martial Arts. A group of Asian
skills combining mental, physical, and spiritual energies for
self-defense in weaponless fighting, or the achievement of apparently
paranormal feats of strength and control. The martial arts derive
from the samurai or warrior caste fighting systems of ancient Japan,
which were conditioned by Zen Buddhism; hence they have a
spiritual basis. They are closely related to similar systems in
ancient China. Japanese and Chinese martial arts are widely diffused
throughout Asia.
“These arts have become more widely
known and taught in the West since World War II, when many servicemen
encountered them in Asian campaigns, and there are now many schools
for specific training of the different martial art forms. Symbolic of
the growing interest in martial arts has been the popularity of the
late Chinese film star Bruce Lee, who popularized the art of kung-fu
in such films as Fist of Fury and Enter the Dragon.
That particular martial art was further popularized in the television
movie series Kung Fu starring David Carra-dine, first shown in
the 1970s and revived in the 1990s.
“The main martial arts are: aikido
(a kind of judo of graceful movement in which an opponent's
force is used against him), bando (Burmese boxing and
wrestling), judo (wrestling with special emphasis on balance
and leverage), jiu-jitsu (a more comprehensive and aggressive
forerunner of judo), karate (kicking, striking, and
blocking with arms or legs), kung-fu (a group of various
styles of fighting and defense), shaolin (Chinese shadow
boxing), tae kwon do (Korean system of kick-punching), and
t'ai chi chuan (originally a self-defense art, now a system of
physical exercises to harmonize body and mind).
“The various forms of martial arts
have, as their basis, the attainment of spiritual enlightenment and
peace, from which point remarkable feats of skill and strength in
self-defense or attack can be generated. In the process of training,
practitioners claim to become aware of a subtle vital energy named
ch'i or ki. Ch'i is accumulated, amplified, and
directed by willpower to specific parts of the body, which develop
strength and resilience. This process is sometimes preceded by a
sudden exhalation of breath, often accompanied by a shout or yell.
The intake of breath that follows appears to result in
hyperventilation of the system, generating vitality that can be
directed to hands, feet, or other parts of the body.
“This process has been widely
demonstrated by practitioners of karate in apparently
paranormal feats such as breaking bricks, tiles, and planks of wood
with a bare hand. It has been suggested that these feats are related
to such psychic phenomena as psychokinesis, the ability to
move objects at a distance by mental action.”
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