My initial Review of The Legend of Bruce Lee

[Raul4510]

After watching a full eight episodes of CCTV's The Legend of Bruce Lee on DVD I figured I should post a few of my initial thoughts on the series:

#1 I really enjoy the way Bruce Lee's early life in Hong Kong is flushed out. Danny Chan does an excellent job capturing Bruce's struggles in dealing with the many international adversaries he faces while attending school. There are many little plots that center on Bruce being rather over barring and bully like because he is insecure and looking to find his personal balance. The series is drama filled and unfortunately this Chinese DVD box-set does not offer English subtitles. So it makes it difficult to focus on the Mandarin dialect. However, I have paid close attention to everything and found that after a few episodes I was able to basically follow the gist of the language.

#2 The story is deeper than any Bruce Lee biopic ever released! This massive epic spans 50 hours and doesn't leave a whole lot to the imagination. The acting is all pretty convincing although because this series is so dialog heavy it requires a viewer with a good attention span. The fights that take place within the first eight episodes are good but do not have the impact of those seen in the opening credits or the trailer found on youtube. I'm confident as I get further into the show the fight scenes will improve dramatically.

#3 It seems that Bruce Lee is usually being challenged or feels as if he is being challenged by everyone! Be it family members, girlfriends, friends or school mates Bruce Lee always acts as though he has something to prove and wants to show how macho he is. Again Danny Chan delivers on mannerisms and Bruce's physical appearance better than any actor to date. This series portrays a very different Bruce Lee than the one depicted in Universal Pictures Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story. I find it very difficult connecting the two in anyway. Bruce is very serious here and his sense of humor isn't showcased much in these first eight episodes.

#4 I cannot say enough about Danny Chan! This guy is so much like Bruce Lee that it makes the viewer feel as though he is actually watching Bruce Lee's life unfold on the screen. Amazing!

#5 I have some issues with this series so far that are not in anyway related to the story itself. This MAJOR gripe I have is a character that is part of a faction of people who hate Bruce Lee wearing a Justin Timberlake T-shirt throughout all of his scenes! This is a terrible oversight on the part of the director! It cheapens the illusion of the time period. There is no excuse for this! I mean the shirt is plain as day and it says Justin Timberlake on the shirt and has Justin's image on the shirt! An even more frustrating oversight is when Bruce and Robert Lee go to San Francisco and are staying in a house where there are black and white photos of Bruce Lee hanging in frames on a wall that depict events from Lee's life that haven't happened in the story yet. Again this gives the show the feel of these are "actors" and this isn't real! I am hoping the remainder of the series is more accurate in it's depiction of the timeline. Granted I'm pretty sure that this series as a whole will be about 40% bullshit but glaring errors like that can potentially ruin the experience. The only way these kinds of things can be rationalized is if this series is supposed to be viewed as "legend" 100% with no account for accuracy or continuity. Under those terms though I would have to question why bother?

#6 My final point here is that this series has potential to be something great. It has good writing and solid actors. Decent action sequences and plenty of drama. I could see this series reintroducing Bruce Lee to the world and creating a huge international frenzy if marketed correctly. Hopefully the series will be released in North America with English subtitles and or a dub. It has been rumored that this series was dubbed in English with the intent of a North American release sometime next year. I will post more thoughts as I watch more episodes. So far I feel like my Yesasia.com $69.99 was well spent! :)

[Daigoro]

This MAJOR gripe I have is a character that is part of a faction of people who hate Bruce Lee wearing a Justin Timberlake T-shirt throughout all of his scenes! :)

Heh, man that doesn't sound too cool. Here he is Danny Lee (is that his name), portraying ''Bruce Lee'' in the 60's in his prime
time and glory a real life depiction and suddenly someone starts showing up with a ''Justin Timberlake'' T-shit (in all the fight
scenes), heh maybe later they are going to do a time travel episode you never know. In the meantime perhaps they should
call this one episode alternatively ''Back to the future''. How were the rest of the people dressed, did it correspond. Was it in
sync with what a period piece from the 60's might pre-warrant. And one last quick question. Do they include/cover Bruce Lee's
childhood in other words "Bruce Lee the Child", was that incorporated into the storyline or was it straight up Danny Lee trying
his best to portray Bruce Lee? Thanks to this review i have for the first time become slightly curious about this series Thank you.

[Raul4510]

I was thinking more along the lines of Star Trek's temporal cold war than Back To The Future. Most of the characters are dressed generic enough for the timeless feel rather than being specific to any period piece. It is almost impossible to eliminate evidence of the modern day unless they spend the money to disguise it. I was thinking it would be funny if during The Green Hornet sequence there is a guy on the set dressed in a Street Fighter IV T-shirt. :) To address your question about young Bruce Lee. Danny Chan is Bruce from the beginning throughout. However, there are plenty of pictures that show Bruce as a child actor with his father in the early episodes.

[GoldenFist]

Dude, Justin Timberlake! Didn't you know that Justin went back in time and showed Bruce his music and then Bruce Became a amazing Cha Cha dancer that way! Jk if that was true I'd probably kill myself :)

[dionbrother]

4 episodes in and I'm enjoying it. Don't find the anachronisms any more annoying than the endless stream of them in RAG ON: THE LINDA LEE STORY,oops, I mean DRAGON.

[Jesse Smooth]

4 episodes in and I'm enjoying it. Don't find the anachronisms any more annoying than the endless stream of them in RAG ON: THE LINDA LEE STORY,oops, I mean DRAGON.


Wow! I need to pick this up. Dion, coming from you this should be good (I know your feelings toward Bruce). XD

[dionbrother]

My opinion of Bruce has changed and evolved over the years, and some of the admittedly fascinating information revealed by the likes of George Tan (who I think is a thief, but one with a lot of knowledge) and Ron Van Clief have resparked my interest and given me a new perspective on the man. Plus the pushing of charisma-deficient talent like Tony Jaa (great skills but no screen presence) has given me some newfound respect and appreciation for what Lee brought to the table. Plus I got some interesting perspective on Bruce's cross-cultural appeal from some martial brothers who were around back in the 60s and 70s. I'll have to write more about that stuff on this forum in the future. Will be really illuminating for the youngsters on here. Yeah Jesse, pick the series up, expect some nonsense but overall I think you'll dig it.

[Jesse Smooth]

Imagine if George Tan were to have done a Bruce biopic. Though I feel he's (Tan) a weasel, I find him a fascinating person.

Problem has always been the lack of knowledge of Bruce and of martial arts in general by the general public (too many Bruce Li movies).