Bruce Lee by Matthew Polly

Author:Matthew Polly
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Bruce’s next movie, Fist of Fury, nearly foundered over clashes with director Lo Wei. It began with the first draft of Lo Wei’s “script,” which the director had scribbled in the typical slapdash fashion of Hong Kong cinema. Having spent months carefully crafting the screenplay for The Silent Flute with Coburn and Silliphant, Bruce was disgusted by what he considered a lack of professionalism. He refused to begin filming until a detailed screenplay was written, bringing production to a screeching halt. Bruce was still only a contract player, but he was already acting like he was Steve McQueen. “Raymond spent the weekend rewriting the script,” Andre Morgan says. “When Bruce saw the new script and saw it was going to work and he was going to have more input on the fight scenes, he agreed to make the movie.”

The story Raymond Chow, Lo Wei, and Bruce agreed upon was based on the life and legend of Master Huo Yuanjia. He was the founder of the famed kung fu school Jing Wu (“Excellence in Martial Arts”). Huo Yuanjia became a national hero in 1902 when he challenged a Russian wrestler who had called China “The Sick Man of Asia.”  The Russian immediately apologized for his remarks. In a country ravenous for heroes, Huo Yuanjia became an overnight legend. His life was first fictionalized in the seminal novel Modern Chivalry Heroes, by the founding father of the martial arts genre, Ping Jiang. In the novel, Huo beats martial arts champions from Russia, Japan, and England—restoring pride to his people. At the end, he is killed by the trickery of the Japanese.

Fist of Fury cleverly avoided retelling this tale—what the Chinese call “warming over yesterday’s rice”—to focus on the fallout after his death. Instead of playing Huo Yuanjia, as one might expect, Bruce Lee was cast as his top student, Chen Zhen. Bruce explained to reporters, “That is more interesting because Huo Yuanjia is sort of limited as a character for a film because you’ve got to follow how his history goes.”

In the movie, Bruce, as Chen Zhen, arrives late for his master’s funeral. After the burial a delegation of Japanese judo students shows up with a mocking gift: a sign that reads “Sick Man of Asia.” Out of fear of the consequences (the school is located in the Japanese-controlled concession of Shanghai), the Chinese kung fu disciples restrain themselves. But Bruce, appropriately playing the hothead of the bunch, goes alone to the Japanese school to return their gift with an extra helping of his furious fists. After beating the stuffing out of everyone in the room, he rips the sign into pieces and says in the Chinese version, “Now you listen to me, I’ll only say this once, the Chinese are not the sick men of Asia!”

While a Hollywood movie would likely have ended on this triumphant moment, Chinese fatalism turns the flick into a cautionary tale about the cycle of violence. After Bruce humbles and humiliates the Japanese, they attack his school, severely injuring his friends.

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