Bruce Lee - Tale of the Dragon HQ

when Bruce Lee died at the age of just 32 he was virtually unknown outside Hong Kong but the films he left behind have made gongfu famous his physical prowess and extraordinary screen charisma overwhelmed the West and made him the world's first Asian superstar I have already made up my mind that in the United States I think something about the oriental the dumbing the truth oriental should be shown Hollywood sure as heck hasn't you better believe it man I mean it's always that pigtail and bouncing around chop chop you know with the Iceland and all that if you go to any small town in America today you will see a church you'll see a beauty parlor and a karate school before booths there was just the church for the beauty parlor Americans had stereotypes about what Asians were like and he took those stereotypes and just turned it upside down on their head you know he's got this intense desire to be good he is not a natural athlete you know senses small frame you know like way but he become super human being shiri by sheer training a lot of people ask him are you the best and he will always say if I tell you I'm the best you know you probably think I'm boasting but if I tell you I'm not you know I'm lying Bruce Lee arrived in America in 1959 he'd been in trouble for gang fighting in Hong Kong and his parents were worried about his future they sent him to Seattle to live and work in a friend's Chinese restaurant Bruce was eighteen-years-old self-confident and ambitious he'd spent five years training as a martial artist in Hong Kong and he was already fascinated by kung Fu's philosophical teachings in Seattle he enrolled the University to study philosophy he was soon lecturing younger students Bruce used to come to my high school in Seattle Washington and Garfield high school and he used to lecture about Chinese philosophy in the philosophy class and although I was not in that class it seemed that the whole school knew when Bruce Lee came to Garfield High and so we would often stand at the end of the hall and go whoo that Bruce Lee guy is here you know those set up a martial arts school in a basement in Seattle's Chinatown in Hong Kong gongfu was only talked to Chinese but Bruce welcomed all races and backgrounds his speed was fast enough that you literally couldn't see the hands move and he had a lot of little tricks he developed gimmicks to demonstrate that he would ask you to put a coin in the palm of your hand and he would be standing five feet away and he would say now I'm gonna take that coin from your hand but as soon as you see me move close your hand and the person would close your hand real fast you saying you have that claim you say yep so you think right I've beat him you know you'd open it and it's a penny he had the coin this supermarket in Seattle is owned by one of Bruce's closest friends taktik Kimura he still holds classes in the gym downstairs where he was taught by Bruce taki was twice Bruce's age when he became his student he had suffered years of racial prejudice a japanese-american he had been held in an internment camp during the Second World War he lived in fear of discrimination Bruce urged him to take pride in his Asian identity he began to talk to me to say like God come here you know get your hair cut differently look at those clothes you're wearing I mean they're just you're just an old man at 36 or 37 whatever I was at that time and but I couldn't help it you know but he kept you know pumping me up with you know things like you know you're just as good as me not any better you're just as good as anybody else not any better not any worse in the 1960s Americans still looked down on the Chinese they were expected to be subservient but Bruce had a very different vision of himself and his people he had a sense about himself and his worth that he wasn't looking for people who were going to discriminate against him or look down upon him for being Chinese in fact he was I would have I think he would have thought that idea absurd in 1963 Linda Emery became a student in Bruce's gongfu class she was 18 he was 23 and really I didn't think that Bruce would ever be particularly interested in me you know to me he was the teacher and the show man and the magnet so to speak but one day we happen to be practicing there in that grassy area on the University of Washington campus and he was showing me a certain throw and so he threw me down to the ground and then said to me how would you like to go to the Space Needle and I said you mean all of us go to the Space Needle isn't that rather exotic and he said no just you I was like who be still my heart you know so I guess that was our first date Bruce's reputation as a martial artist was beginning to spread in 1964 he was invited to California to demonstrate his skills at a major karate tournament I actually saw Bruce Lee's demonstration in 1964 the long beach tournament held by mr. Parker and I was really impressed with his speed ability and the way his personality that was just fortunate to be there and to see his demonstration and other people mention of other men fixes for him and I said I was there I saw that the assembled karate masters were astounded by his power and speed most of them had never seen chinese kungfu before and were captivated by Bruce's display and most of all by a new move he had developed the one-inch punch tucking his Bruce's assistant he was able to generate that that force that seemed to just come from the tip of his toes well after the end of each part of his extended hand he could just hit you just like a high-speed bullet I always remember that moment when into that one-inch punch I think a lot of people remember that punch I mean everybody is shocked including all the karate or all the professional people over there and at the power that this guy had and one inch and the guy boom just flew till to the chair so it was very very impressive and that moment and that punch you know then I know he's the man and he will be the man and will always be the man Linda hadn't told her family about a Chinese boyfriend she had been seeing Bruce for almost a year when they decided to get married the plan was that we were going to elope and tell them later we thought we knew everything you know and what we didn't know was that in the state of Washington when you apply for a marriage license there's a three-day waiting period and then they published it in the vital statistics of the newspaper we had no idea and you know those very tiny little printed lines in the paper whoever reads them anyway except my maiden auntie who happened to read it and it said Linda C Emery to marry a Bruce Lee and also anyway we were discovered a big family powwow was held and they they wanted to dissuade us because it's quite a quite a load to dump on my mother's plate that all of a sudden her 19 year old daughter is going to run away and marry a Chinese man her mother relented and Bruce and Linda were married with a ring that they had borrowed for the afternoon within nine months the son Brandon was born Bruce decided the time had come to take his wife and son to meet his family in Hong Kong Hong Kong is a very exciting city there really is it's a it's going all the time the city is on all the time there's very many you know people are hurrying here and there all the time and it certainly is a different culture than Seattle Washington where I grew up you know but it was so very exciting and very exciting to learn about and I didn't feel like a fish out of water the family was very accepting of me I think it was fairly unusual both in the United States and in Hong Kong at that time that we were a mixed couple his family was quite accepting of it though you know his mother had a small percentage of German heritage already Bruce Lee had been born on November 27th 1940 in San Francisco his father a Cantonese opera singer and film actor was on tour in America when his wife gave birth to their third child the boy was called syphon a girl's name to ward off the evil spirits who might steal away a male child later renamed Jun fan which means return again the doctor on duty nicknamed him Bruce in Hong Kong Bruce made his first screen appearance at the age of three months in one of his father's films he was already a successful child actor when he met Tony Leo oh yeah yeah yeah over there they don't male lenta a ton see Mamma Mia Lightman could go he got out Tom be dead he had to hosting had yeah yeah yeah consider European Jager high sample here simple the chapel Hadrian the messing up too high Pinchot hibachi entitled oh hi Rocco Nancy a curatorial supernal Union multivariant I gotta come to mama Italia 100 I call candy foyer Nancy one much higher so much higher package oh yeah Terry McAuliffe commodity becomes a very how big a Salaam long length I am young bum chi-gong Somalia also by older I went to same school bruised but he know he's old I mean he's seven years old and then I am the squeeze in Francis Xavier and at that time having met Bruce but everybody's talked up Presley because he's a big bully always say that he know he'd getting the fights and he always be be everybody up Bruce also had a reputation as a dancer in 1959 he was crowned Hong Kong's cha-cha champion but his first devotion was to Wheaton a style of kung fu which he studied under the master Yip Man kung foo was never taught to Westerners it was a Chinese secret weapon when fellow students discovered that Bruce had a German grandparent they refused to train with him but master Yip Man gave special training to his most promising pupil Bruce loved to test his skills in real street fights and soon became known to the police as a troublemaker so when Bruce turned 18 his father sent him away to America by the age of 23 Bruce was married with a young son he dedicated himself to training he wanted to prove to the West the power of Chinese food he was never still he was always busy employing himself toward achieving his goals in life so he was either working out or practicing his martial art and we always had all the fellas over at our house his students and friends that would come over and work out at our house so our house was always busy with people around we had equipment hanging off the rafters on the patio and in the garage and everywhere you might see or I was often the guinea pig you know he would ask me come over and stand in this pose or that poser try out some techniques on me Bruce knew there was a way to bring gongfu to a wider audience he set his sights on a film career and in 1965 his chance came a Hollywood producer had heard about Bruce from his hairdresser who'd seen one of his demonstrations Bruce was summoned to a screen test Bruce Lee I was born in San Francisco in 1940 I'm 24 right now yes yeah I would buy everything at the age of 26 Bruce landed his first American acting role the producers of Batman had devised the similar series The Green Hornet about a heroic duo Bruce was to play Britt Reid's sidekick Kato you think Jimmy key will talk if it means endangering Mary's life no obviously Dukes lateness Chinese friends don't either okay we've got Jimmy they've got Mary what do we do now there's one thing we can't do we can't turn him over to Scanlon in 1966 Bruce Lee moved his family to Los Angeles to be closer to Hollywood he opened a new come for school in Chinatown Dan Lee is now 76 years old 30 years ago he was one of the school's first students dedication he has a training he just you know I couldn't believe it it's a tee from morning to evening his sister Mary training your arm the legs this and that and I was told that when he make a left punches extrude how fast his punches that well he he do he did 2,000 punches a day 2000 punches night I went out 500 500 punches my shoulders worn out so hard Bruce was developing his own unique style of martial arts he was constantly innovating studying boxing fencing and wrestle to create a more complete fighting system he called it to kundo a way of the intercepting fist Bruce was impatient for perfection his temper could be explosive when Bruce get angry or something he get into a different mode and when it's all over take him back to his senses and Bruce just happened to bought some new 16 of boxing gloves so we just Lord Mari in the kitchen and all of symbaloo says let's give a try then put a girl holla t go I being four brothers yeah so all of a sudden she is away we start sparring yeah because I know this was this that's the gloves not three for sparring then Bruce made a made a made a punch too with me and from my boxing is I just instinctively sleep and counter it ah it was so fast I wouldn't end it was just my double boxing subbu sip it now he's got angry he's got frustrated so he's not coming all army oh I'm fine yeah I'm fine dear monster yeah you just keep on chasing me he's hit me and I'm coming back off back off and hit the kitchen table and I was ready for the kid and put my hands over there and I was ready to brace myself put my hands down brace myself wow I tried my chain but next day no I was doing something in that y'all when I'm young suddenly my jaw locked out knocked out shaking around and funny Fido that's got came loose and I went to see a dentist and dentists a Dan you got B injury here there's a little cheaper poem I say Bruce Lee gave it to me go back Bruce adored his young son Brandon when he was only two years old Bruce was already teaching him to kick and punch in April 1969 Linda gave birth to their second child a daughter Shannon Moose's royal in the Green Hornet had given him high hopes for his Hollywood career he bought a red portion rented a larger house celebrities became his students among them James Coburn and Steve McQueen Bruce had decided that he would be a bigger star than either of them but one morning in 1969 beuse lifted a barbell without warming up he damaged his sacral nerve a permanent back injury doctors warned him that he might never walk again but Bruce's self belief was unshakable and despite any way what any of the doctors had said Bruce never believed that he was never going to do his gongfu again or walk or any of the or continue making films so he always had the faith that he was going to recover from this Bruce faced months of painful recuperation he used the time to develop his theory and philosophy of martial arts he really was a self educated man and he had collected in his library Oh probably in excess of 2,500 books on the subjects in which he was interested which would have been all types of combat hand-to-hand combat Western Eastern ancient modern combat with weapons without weapons all types of philosophy Chinese philosophy Western philosophy modern ancient psychology self motivation fitness training Bruce battled through his back injury although it was to remain a constant source of pain frustrating times lay ahead audiences for the Green Hornet were disappointing and it was canceled after one series Bruce was struggling to get even minor parts he's always got bit for us he never gets something really major because during that time you know the whole Hollywood the thing is that you can't have oriental you know Pia or you know man be a major B star sorry ro so he was there frustrated and he knew that the Chinese whenever they were you know put into movies in this country they were they had the pigtails and they had their hands and their sleeves and about the only thing they said was chop-chop and and he told me you know quite often than he was he was very concerned about the de meaningless of how the Chinese were portrayed Bruce had hoped to play the hero of a new TV series called confer it had been devised with him in mind but the producers rejected him for David Carradine a white actor made up to look Chinese Bruce was furiously disappointed but there was one American producer who saw his potential Fred Weintraub Bruce was very smart you have to say and you know what Lola want Lola gets what Bruce what's he originally got that's why there was that dynamic part of him Bruce would use and and control and be friendly and do whatever it was necessary to get moving up a little bit on his own life and it was great I mean people do it that's what that's for people too I said Bruce's the thing I have to have from you is they don't realize how good you're gonna be I need a piece of film Fred advice Bruce to go back to Hong Kong where he'd been approached by the film producer Raymond chow I was so impressed by not just this two farmers that his Maserati performance but his personality the ability to come through the screen and make you feel really his presence Raymond offered him a small fee to star in a low-budget action film reluctantly Bruce gave up on Hollywood and took his family to hometown the big boss was filmed in a small village in Chinese labour Bruce was a perfectionist he wanted more control than actors were usually given he had the first director sacked no way a famous Hong Kong director took over but Bruce was still dissatisfied cameto Tonkin Yoko I'm sorry today hey Yahoo talk us y'all go to heijunka do a palm to the teleology lower purgatory natural way high pick out Mia booth the marking guide me on ma cherie listen madam hiya South Dallas alluvium hi mr. Leger hi oh I'm a go fund I don't even start with the way okay parrot Allah I come up don't you know why : I thought I don't think I could I could come again come sorry sorry I'll pick I'll take a look I didn't employ some jelly lame explain more ginger more thought oh you nearly I never would imagine you'd enjoy welcome yeah definite saya - yo did it now kill the big boss showed Bruce defending his fellow Chinese workers from being exploited and bullied by the Thai bosses it was to make him a national hero considered a type of model is she fine Kirk you know forget it bata bata bata hey sorry it's our choice tell her hey hey say could he tell Jim hold hisses well he's really fantastic the big boss broke every local box office record it played eight hundred and seventy five times in Hong Kong and was shown all over Asia Bruce was an overnight sensation he can walk the street with the roof we there be ten thousand people behind you an hour later you know she walked down the street and it's just amazing to win a new restaurant he came out there were thousand people waiting him to come out of the restaurant something says it's hard to understand the way he captured the imagination when he was through with his busy day he'd come home and we spent most of the time at home and didn't go out that much because of the difficulty of just maneuvering around even you know people were well-intentioned but it was just hard too hard to be out amongst on them all the time it changed him a lot starting to change him every year act I haven't managed in my life when they made it changed some of them handle it better than others when he ain't get to that status I know he'd become very lonely I know that he's a very lonely person because he's hard for him to find somebody to understand you know where he were he'd been through you know from from nothing compared to you know to him money to pay rent at the end of the month and then in a two years time which that level is it's not easy because you know he boobs don't really trust a lot of people he don't really know it's like who is really my friend Bruce followed the success of the Big Boss with another Hong Kong smash Fist of Fury increasingly impatient to make films his own way Bruce determined that he would direct his next film himself he went to Rome to make way of the Dragon the scene with Chuck Norris in the Coliseum is one of his most famous screen fights my favorite is the way of the Dragon and that is because it is the most like Bruce was in real life he has that kind of impass in some rural parts in the film that kind of comedic sense comes through the kind of cute guy cutting up you know I just really like that because that's the way he was in real life often you know so and besides that was his baby that film because he wrote it he directed it did the fight choreography the whole thing his third film confirmed his status as Hong Kong's most famous film star but Bruce was still virtually unknown in America and growing impatient for an opportunity to get back to Hollywood in 1972 Bruce Lee was working on ideas for a film called Game of Death he wanted to fight duels in a pagoda with a new more dangerous opponent on each level when his friend the great American basketball star Kareem abdul-jabbar came to Hong Kong Bruce quickly arranged the fight scene Kareem has over seven foot tall Bruce was five foot seven Bruce was still living in Hong Kong and in 1972 Fred Weintraub flew over to negotiate with Raymond chow they made the deal which was to make boost an American star Warner Brothers and Golden Harvest agreed the Cobra deuce entered the dragon rolls Hollywood major studios would not entrust in just the job of producing the film by us by any outsider for that they were to send their own people the whole units and all that we said no we can handle it we've already made many films including two and a half of those films so we know how best to do it and we can save a lot of money Enter the Dragon was the first ever co-production between an American and a Hong Kong company Fred Weintraub flew from Los Angeles to Hong Kong to produce the film the first day's shooting was horrible he came on at a very simple set and boosts did not because it wasn't it wasn't an action film was just a simple scene and Bruce had a slight twitch and I must say we took 20-25 takes and the director came over and said they still I said keep going just just keep going and about the 25th take you calm down didn't that came out you know but he was scared he was nervous about it when Enter the Dragon was set to be made you really have to go back and think about what it meant to Bruce at that time because here he had spent years in the United States knocking on the doors of the studios saying Here I am I can do great things and the doors had been shut in his face so enter the dragon being the first American Hong Kong co-production was going to be Bruce's entry into the United States so it had to be good right it couldn't be a flop it had to be what Bruce envisioned it as being hundreds of extra stuntmen had to be drafted in from rival Hong Kong street gangs the result was grudge fights on set and Bruce was repeatedly challenged by the extras a lot of them by that time already heard about Bruce Lee one of the things in the martial art circle has always been on maybe like boxing is that also you are saying so let's see how good you are you want to fight they start their foot and they cross their arms and they came over they were supposed to I want to fight too you know I grabbed Bruce and I'd say Bruce have a picture to do when the picture is over you can fight him you know he was ready to go and beat the any water there were cultural clashes between the American and Chinese crews they found it hard to communicate and have different ideas about filmmaking the key that kept it together was Linda his wife every time it looked like the whole thing was gonna fall apart and I was almost sometimes ready to leave town Linda would come over and talk to me first of course she would explain to him in her best that nobody is trying to do a bad job or a sabotage this thing you know there's a lot of things misunderstanding you don't have to take this very seriously and then she would talk to the other people the other side sometimes come to me that's a problem I don't think it'd be correct to say he sent me along to be as intermediary but I was kind of involved because the American crew was there and the American producers so I could talk as easily to them as some of the others you know because they have difficulty communicating with some of the Chinese people so I guess maybe I helped out a little bit in that way of being able to talk to these people and then talk to these people and without her they would have never been invented the dragon I mean I would have just left and without her there would have been a Bruce Lee in a funny way you know it's amazing how important she was in his life I mean and nobody realizes you know it's like one person Bruce Lee but it wasn't really it was Bruce and Linda and then there was the rock that he stood on his pedestal compared to his earlier films Enter the Dragon was far more American in its structure and style it was intended to appeal equally to Western and Eastern audiences Bruce had pushed his body to the limits during filming friends noticed that he had lost weight and seemed tense on the 20th of July 1973 he started to feel ill during a meeting with Raymond chow an actress friend gave him a painkiller and he went to sleep in her flat when later she couldn't wake him she panicked and called Raymond for help we call and won't get any doctor there at first we couldn't get Bruce unpopped and then try to cause several doctor friends until finally we called a doctor who actually prescribed the medicine to the actress dr. Chiu came as actually over the phone when I described how Bruce was he said we better call an ambulance right away I rang and Linda before the ambulance came and said we'd better meet that Hospital at Queen Elizabeth Hospital Linda came immediately but Bruce was dead on arrival the press was quick to discover that he had not collapsed at home and speculated that the actress had been his mistress five days later a funeral was held in Hong Kong police had to control the crowds of up to 30,000 mourners who filled the streets I was very upset I mean this I wasn't the truth is I was passed out in the back I was just devastating I was thinking to take care Linda but end up Linda taking care of me you know I was very embarrassed she's a very strong woman I determined that I would bring Bruce's body back to Seattle because Bruce often said during the time of our marriage that one of the happiest periods of his life had been when he lived in Seattle and we had another private smaller funeral it was a just a gathering of family and friends Bruce Lee was only 32 when he died the cause of death was unclear amid rampant speculation that he had been murdered the Hong Kong authorities called an inquiry Linda appealed for privacy the inquest concluded the Bruce had died of a brain edema in reaction to the painkiller he had taken despite the verdict of death by misadventure wild rumors about Bruce's death have continued to this day I know it's not satisfying but you know it's really not important either because the fact is that Bruce is gone and I have had to learn to live with this and the really important part is when Bruce was alive and the life he lived not why he died or how he died we don't always have answers to all our questions so one month after Bruce's death Enter the Dragon was released in America it was to become a cult classic and has taken over 200 million dollars Linda attended the premiere on Sunset Boulevard with Fred Weintraub the saddest part was Bruce wasn't there to see it that's what the thing that I was with Linda that night and with tears to the CEO and it was sad to see the audience react so strongly conduce not to see it in American audience he would have just loved that one wonderful it was devastating to Brandon when his dad died I mean I just can't even describe to you how an eight-year-old boy losing his father especially a father who was much bigger than most fathers right at that age and and so Brandon had a lot of internal difficulties dealing with that after Bruce's death Linda - Brandon and Shannon away from hongkong and started a new life in America Brandon and I were just two kids just like all the other kids in school we didn't go around telling people oh my father's Bruce Lee you know aren't I cool because to us we wanted acceptance on our own terms Brandon grew up determined to become an actor but Bruce Lee's son was only offered martial arts films he knew intellectually that it had been a blessing to have the dad that he had and it was also a burden to have to be under that shadow all the time and live up to people's expectations not be able to live his own life in 1992 Brandon was at last offered a major acting role the lead in the crow he never saw the finished film in a freak accident he was killed on set by a faulty blanks gun the cemetery was the night right safest place in the world to be because everybody's dead I need come here it's really late sir it was difficult to go see it and I didn't know if I wanted to go see it but then I knew from having talked to Brandon when he was on the set how proud he was of this movie and how excited he was about doing this movie and I thought that I had to go see it and so I think in a way that was sort of the even though it wasn't several months later the closing of of a lot of events going and seeing the film and being so impressed with him and his work he's buried next to my father which was actually a plot that was owned by my mom but in light of the events seemed the natural place for him to rest finally their graves are visited by people from all over the world Bruce's films are still cult vewy new audiences continue to fall under his spell to be captivated and inspired he remains the biggest Asian superstar the West has ever known he's just like a beautiful meteorite just blowing up stir up the whole world and then fade it away you know and I was feeling like head Bruce live you know longer probably there'll be even more contribution they're not step back say you know what happened some people can live you know the whole lifetime nothing happened but Bruce in that short few years he's already contributed so much you never can understand it the Bruce Lee sedative just keeps coming back every 10 years every you know it's just amazing like a James Dean you know that kind of Elvis Presley and Bruce Lee you know nobody knew when my father died that he was going to be this huge international sensation Enter the Dragon had not been released yet and so it's been an adjustment period over these many years a constant adjustment period of learning to deal with this phenomena that has happened people from all over the world not just America and the Far East but all over the world think of Bruce as their hero and not because he's Chinese or because he was American or or his nationality or racial origin or any of that but because of the person he was and what he achieved definitely is something we can learn from each other east and the west and that's how Bo's put it together he's and the West something good from the east something good from the West you put it together Chinese or do you ever think of yourself as North American you you know what I want to think of myself as a human being because I mean I don't want it sounds like you know as Confucius say but under the sky under the heaven man there is but one family it just so happened man that people are different okay we gotta go thank you Bruce Lee for coming here thank you for watching continuing our Bruce Lee weekend next Brandon Lee stars in the crow followed at 11:55 by an episode of the 60s cult TV series the Green Hornet

Channel: Pendeka Sutan

Views: 370,247

Rating: 4.8303671 out of 5

Keywords: Bruce Lee, The Dragon (story), kung, fu, martial, arts, jeet, kun, do, hq, high, quality

Id: ItYkIhupd5E

Length: 49min 52sec (2992 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 15 2012