Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story (1993) Biography, Plot, Filming, Fight.

Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story (1993)

Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story is a 1993 American biographical drama film directed and co-written by Rob Cohen, and stars Jason Scott Lee, Lauren Holly, Nancy Kwan and Robert Wagner. The film follows the life of actor and martial artist Bruce Lee (Jason) from his relocation to the United States from Hong Kong to his career as a martial arts teacher, and then as a television and film actor. It also focuses on the relationship between Bruce and his wife Linda Lee Cadwell, and the racism to which Bruce was subjected. The primary source of the screenplay is Cadwell’s 1975 biography Bruce Lee: The Man Only I Knew. Other sources include Robert Clouse’s book Bruce Lee: The Biography and research by Cohen, including interviews with Cadwell and Bruce’s son, Brandon Lee. Rather than a traditional biographical film, Cohen decided to

include elements of mysticism and to dramatise fight scenes to give it the same tone as the films in which Bruce starred. Dragon was filmed primarily in Hong Kong, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story received generally positive reviews, with critics typically finding it entertaining despite criticisms of its veneration of Bruce. Jason was widely praised for his performance. The film was a commercial success and its revenue exceeded box office averages for biographical films, which was attributed to its romantic themes and its appeal to people outside the traditional kung fu film audience. A video game adaptation of the same name was released the following year. Dragon is dedicated to Brandon, who died several weeks before its release.

Plot.

In Hong Kong, Bruce Lee’s father Lee Hoi-chuen awakens from a nightmare about a phantom, known as the Demon, haunting his young son. He subsequently enrolls him in Chinese martial arts training with instructor Yip Man. As a young adult, Bruce fights British sailors who are harassing a young Chinese woman, resulting in him having to leave Hong Kong. His father insists he go to the US. In the US, Bruce works as a dishwasher at a Chinese restaurant until he gets in a brawl with four of the cooks. The restaurant owner Gussie Yang fires him but also lends him money and encourages him to go to college. While studying philosophy in college, Bruce begins to teach martial arts classes, where he meets Linda, a white American. Bruce marries Linda in defiance of her racist mother, Vivian.

Linda suggests Bruce establish a martial arts school, but his Chinese peers demand he train only Chinese people. When Bruce refuses, they challenge him to settle the matter in combat. Bruce defeats a challenger named Johnny Sun in a secret, no-holds-barred match but Johnny attacks Bruce after he has admitted defeat, and Bruce sustains a debilitating back injury. While Bruce is temporarily paralyzed, Linda helps him write the martial arts book Tao of Jeet Kune Do. Linda gives birth to their first child, Brandon, and the couple reconcile with her mother. Some months later, during a martial arts tournament run by Ed Parker, Johnny challenges Bruce to a rematch. Bruce not only defeats but humiliates Johnny, earning the respect of the audience. Bruce is unaware that Johnny becomes crippled from his injuries in the fight.

Jason Scott Lee trained with Bruce Lee’s student for Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story

After the match, Bill Krieger, who later becomes Bruce’s manager, offers him the role of Kato in the television series The Green Hornet. Bruce and Krieger also create the idea for the television series Kung Fu, agreeing that Bruce will feature in the lead role. At a cast party, Linda says she is pregnant with their second child, Shannon. Shortly afterwards, the cancellation of The Green Hornet is announced. Kung Fu later makes it to television but much to Bruce’s frustration, it stars the white actor David Carradine. Bruce believes Krieger has betrayed him. Bruce returns to Hong Kong for his father’s funeral. Philip Tan, a Hong Kong film producer, hires Bruce to star in the film The Big Boss. During the filming of the final scene, Johnny’s brother Luke attacks Bruce in revenge for Johnny’s humiliating defeat and

subsequent disability; Bruce wins the fight. The Big Boss is a success and Bruce makes several more films, working as an actor, director, writer and editor. This causes a rift between Bruce and Linda, as Linda wishes to return to the US. Krieger offers Bruce a chance to work on a big-budget Hollywood film, to which Bruce agrees, partly because of Linda’s wish to return home. On the 32nd day of filming Enter the Dragon, during the “room of mirrors” sequence, Bruce has a terrifying vision of the Demon that has haunted his and his father’s dreams.

This time, after being beaten and then shown his own grave, Bruce sees his son urging Bruce to save him. The Demon pursues Brandon, spurring Bruce to fight back, save Brandon and break the Demon’s neck with a pair of Nunchaku. Bruce later films another scene from Enter the Dragon, the film that would make him an international star. In a voice-over, Linda tells the audience Bruce fell into a mysterious coma and died shortly before the film’s release, and says while many people want to talk about how he died, she prefers to remember how he lived.

Filming.

Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story was filmed primarily in Hong Kong, Los Angeles and San Francisco. The opening scene was filmed at an 18th-century temple in Hong Kong, which Cohen found while scouting locations. Cohen, who wanted the audience to understand from the beginning that the film would not be a traditional biography, incorporated the theme of a demon chasing Bruce. Cohen wanted to film in Seattle but found little cooperation from local authorities and was denied permission to film at the University of Washington, which Bruce had attended. It was subsequently decided to merge the events of Bruce’s life that occurred in Seattle with those that occurred later when he moved to California, where much of the filming took place.

Filming was delayed multiple times; Cohen had a heart attack on 6 February 1992, delaying production for a month; another delay was caused when Jason became ill. Filming was also affected by a monsoon during which Hong Kong experienced its heaviest rainfall in decades, as well as an extortion attempt by a triad, who threatened Cohen and other individuals because the crew were working on the gang’s territory. Cohen sped up production so the cast and crew could vacate the area earlier than planned. The setbacks used up the entirety of the film’s $1.3 million contingency budget. The fight between Bruce and the chefs is set in San Francisco but was filmed on a set in Hong Kong, and some of the scenes that take place in Hong Kong were filmed in California.

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Box Office.

The film opened to the public in the US on May 7, and debuted at number one, grossing just over $10 million in its opening weekend. The film’s revenue outperformed expectations for a biography, which was largely attributed to the number of women who attended screenings; 45% of the film’s audience for the opening weekend were women, whereas audiences for Bruce’s actual films were overwhelmingly male. The success of the film and also the political satire Dave were credited with raising cinema audiences 65% from the same weekend period the previous year. David Fox from Los Angeles Times described the earnings as “impressive” for a debut in the historically-slow period of early May. Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story had a gross of $35.1 million in the United States and Canada, and a gross of $28.4 million in other territories, making a total worldwide revenue of $63.5 million.