Bruce Lee and popular culture

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Marshall Law of Tekken
Marshall Law of Tekken

In popular culture, there exists a large number references to Bruce Lee, a Chinese American martial artist and martial arts actor widely regarded as one of the most influential martial artist of the 20th century.

Contents

[edit] Anime and manga

  • In the anime Bleach, there is a female character named Soifon, the same as Lee's feminine name. Her fighting style and appearance resembles Lee's. Also, the chapter cover art for one of the Manga's chapter shows Rukia and Ichigo clad in the famous yellow tracksuit seen in the Game of Death.
  • Kenshiro from the manga and anime Fist of the North Star has the same famous "cat screech" noise and "atatatah" battle cry as Lee whenever Kenshiro is punching his enemies. The creator Tetsuo Hara admits that he is a big fan of Lee's movies and his character Kenshiro is a tribute to Lee.
  • In the anime Tenjho Tenge, there is a minor character named Dan Inosanto (borrowing the name from one of Bruce Lee's students and friends). He not only resembled Bruce Lee, but his attire is a "reverse color" of Lee's "Game Of Death" jumpsuit (black with yellow stripes), and he is seen using nunchaku as well as Bruce's trademark battle cries.
  • Seta Noriyasu from Love Hina the anime is featured as a character who is an exceedingly good martial artist, its mentioned in the English dubb by Sarah McDougall in episode 14 that Seta will beat Keitaro up with his skills in Jeet Kune Do, in episode 16 Motoko challenges Seta to a fight due to her noticing his fighting stance (Similar to Bruce Lee stance), No one ever actually defeates Seta in the anime, the most frequent Bruce Lee references are made in DVD volumes 3 and 4, episodes 11, 14, 16
  • A monster in Kirby: Right Back at Ya! named Kung Fu Lee (seen in Episode 53/46 of the anime as one of the 6 kinds of monsters that appears in that episode) strikingly resembles and is possibly named after Bruce Lee.
  • In one episode of Azumanga Daioh, Tomo, Osaka and Kagura talk about Bruce Lee's nickname, "Blue Three".
  • In Yu-Gi-Oh!, Chu-Ske the Mouse Fighter, is one card that is part of a "Kung-Fu deck". Not only is it dressed like Bruce Lee in Enter the Dragon with its black pants and hair, but it even has claw marks on its cheek and chest. Its text reads "A fiery mouse, travelling the world to become the strongest fighter in the world of mice. Be careful not to touch him, or you will get burned."
  • Baki Hanma from the manga/anime series Grappler Baki can be seen in some manga images posing like Bruce Lee (notably from New Grappler Baki: In search of our Strongest Hero).
  • A warrior resembling Bruce Lee is in the anime series Moeyoken.
  • Papuwa character Marker of the Ganma Army's Special Battle Unit resembles Bruce Lee.
  • in One Piece, the ultimate attack of Rob Lucci is the Rokuougan, which physically resembles Bruce Lee's One Inch Punch
  • In OMFG!, character Li Xiao Hû (a.k.a. "Super Sensei") bears a striking resemblance to Bruce Lee. Creator Jason Wu reveals that he had first thought of his final character sketch of Super Sensei to resemble Bruce Lee and even intended for the character to wield nunchakus. His fighting style (though it is stated that Super Sensei is a master of thirteen styles) is similar to that of Bruce Lee. A chapter in the manga portrays Super Sensei whooping and shouting and beating up his opponent in a fashion similar to that of in Enter the Dragon.

[edit] Video games

Lee is one of the very few actors to have commercially released computer and console videogames named after themselves, not after a character they played.[1] These include

In addition, many fighting games have characters based on Bruce Lee, enough that it has become an archetype within the fighting game genre. Notable examples include:

  • Fei Long in the Street Fighter series, strongly resembles Bruce Lee as do his movements and fighting style. This Bruce Lee tribute has been featured in several movies and games.
  • K' and Kula Diamond from King of Fighters 2000/2001, the characters use Bruce Lee's fighting stance and even have a move that imitates Bruce Lee's One Inch Punch, the move is named One Inch.
  • Kim Kaphwan from the King of Fighters and Fatal Fury series occasionally screams out "Watatata!" and other of Lee's screams (Although Kim uses Korean Tae kwon do)
  • Marshall Law and his son Forest in the Tekken series. In the early Tekken games, one of Marshall's outfits was a yellow tracksuit from the Game of Death. In addition, the sounds Marshall Law makes when he attacks are like the whoops and shouts Lee is famous for. The player can equip him in Tekken 5 with the nunchaku seen in Game of Death. He can also be equipped with the black mask and chauffeur hat to make him resemble the character Kato, which Bruce Lee acted as in his early career.
  • Furthermore, in Tekken 5, the name of the song played in the Waterfall stage is Formless Like Water, a reference to Lee's quote, "Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless — like water."
  • Kim Dragon in the World Heroes series.
  • Liu Kang in the Mortal Kombat series. In the game Mortal Kombat: Deception he fights with the style Jun Fan. Also he uses nunchakus as his weapon. Even his screams resemble Lee's. Some referred to his yells as " turkey calls."
  • Johnny Cage in Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance uses both nunchaku and Jeet Kune Do. Although, originally he was based on Belgian actor Jean Claude Van Damme, he sort of replaces Liu Kang because of his absence in the game. He's also known for being a great martial artist and a movie star. His clothing in Deadly Alliance resembles Bruce Lee's clothing.
  • Jann Lee in the Dead or Alive series shares many similarities with and is closely modeled after martial artist Bruce Lee (having the same birthdate of November 27). The character have the same body type as his real-life counterpart; that is, "steely" abdominal muscles and a generally lean but well-muscled physique. In fact, their personas and attires are almost identical. Also, Jann Lee often yells and whoops in a Bruce Lee-like high pitched voice. The most obvious connection is their actual fighting style. "Light feet" play heavily, with neither staying motionless for more than a second a time. Jann Lee is one of the fastest striking characters in the Dead or Alive video game, with quick, intricate, string combos as well as sudden, hard hitting, jab moves. In Dead or Alive 4, Jann Lee has the yellow track suit with the a dragon on the back as well as the Kanji for it in reference to Bruce's nick name little dragon.
  • Li Long in the Soul series of fighting games is based on Bruce Lee, uses Bruce Lee's style of nunchaku and is seen to have a similar fighting stance to Bruce Lee. Li Long also yells and screams like Lee. Many of his moves are fast and showy. (Li was replaced in Soul Calibur and Soul Calibur II by the character Maxi, who inherited much of Li Long's style and techniques, but who also closely resembles Elvis Presley.)
  • Ling Tong in Dynasty Warriors 5 uses a Nunchaku, moves quickly, and has similar physical characteristics and movements as Bruce Lee.
  • Fei Fong Wong in Xenogears has a similar fighting style, techniques, and stance as Bruce Lee. The character's name Fei Fong Wong is Chinese and also tributes the martial art master Wong Fei Hung and Bruce Lee. His moves also similar to Jeet Kune Do. Fei also wears similar pants Bruce Lee wore in many of his movies.
  • Reiji in Kakuto Chojin fights using Jeet Kune Do. Reiji's physical appearance also resembles Bruce Lee and wears sunglasses similar to Bruce Lee's
  • In Double Dragon, Billy and Jimmy Lee are a tribute to Bruce Lee (the surname Lee is a big give away). In the remake Double Dragon Advance, there are Bruce Lee posters during the China Town level and in the cutscenes Billy and Jimmy looks similar to Lee when angry.
  • When Dante Sparda wields his three-pronged Nunchaku in Devil May Cry 3, his shouts emulate Lee's famous whoops and howls.
  • Jacky Bryant in Virtua Fighter has Jeet Kune Do, listed as his fighting style. Many of the moves resemble Lee's. One move includes a grapple, known as the one inch punch.
  • In Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories a set of clothing the player unlocks is the jump suit Lee wore in Game of Death. The mission that must be completed to unlock the suit is named "Crazy 69" an obvious reference to the "Crazy 88" from Kill Bill.
  • Kung Fu Master (1984) resembles the movie Game of Death.
  • Super Punch-Out!! and Super Punch-Out!! (SNES version). Appearing in the Major Circuit as the second opponent, Dragon Chan is a fighter with Bruce Lee's physique and often yelps like him.
  • Mallow, from the SNES Squaresoft game Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars says the line "...who do you think you are? Bruce Lee?" while stopping Mario from rushing to attack Bowser.
  • In Yie Ar Kung-Fu, the main boss Blues is a pun-intended reference on Bruce Lee, since Blues and Bruce sound almost phonetically similar.

[edit] Film and television

  • Saturday Night Fever's Tony Manero (John Travolta) has a Lee poster from Enter the Dragon and another of Stallone from Rocky in his bedroom.
  • In 1988's I'm Gonna Git You Sucka, an African-American martial arts expert stares at a photo of Bruce Lee around his neck. Another character asks, "Master Lee was your kung fu teacher?!" The other character responds, "No! Acting teacher."
  • Stephen Chow, Hong Kong actor and director, is a fan of Lee and has played and directed roles which are reminiscent of Lee, such as: Sing (Brother #4) in Shaolin Soccer (2001), and Kung Fu Hustle (2004). Also, in Shaolin Soccer, during the game before the finals, the goalie uses moves reminiscient of Bruce Lee, and wears a yellow jumpsuit like the one worn by Bruce Lee in Game of Death. Chow also made a film called Fist Of Fury 1991, which, although sharing the name with Lee's 1972 film, has in fact little in common with it.
  • Lee from Rush Hour and Rush Hour 2 was named after Bruce Lee and has a similar fighting styles to Bruce Lee.
  • In the film City Hunter, there is a scene where Hunter fights a number of thugs in an on ship cinema, which is playing Bruce Lee's Game of Death. During the scene, Hunter has to fight a tall black man, similarly to Kareem Abdul Jabbar's character in Game of Death. After Hunter's fight, he converses with Bruce Lee on the big screen, before running away when Bruce responds.
  • In the film No Retreat, No Surrender, Bruce Lee's ghost trains a young Bruce Lee enthusiast.
  • In the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2003 episode A Tale of Master Yoshi Hamato Yoshi wears Bruce Lee's yellow outfit from Game of Death.
  • In the 1983 film D.C. Cab, the character Dell played by Gary Busey is a Bruce Lee conspiracy theorist, stating, "Bruce Lee ain't dead you know. They got him frozen in carbonite down under Chatsworth. They're gonna melt him down as soon as the economy gets better."[2]
  • In the film They call me Bruce the main character has an altercation with some thugs, after which he goes home and looks at a poster of Bruce Lee on the wall and says "If I was half as good as you I could have taken those guys in the bar".
  • In the film The King of the Kickboxers the character Jake Donahue played by Loren Avedon watches a martial arts film and says "This is like a Bruce Lee film without Bruce".
  • In the film American Shaolin a fighter who challenges one of the main characters at the beginning of the film has a fighting technique that is the same as Lee's.
  • In the film The Last Dragon A young man in Harlem named Leroy Green studies martial arts in order to reach the 'final level.' Bruce Lee is his idol, and this ideal motivates him throughout the film. He is often referred to as Bruce Leroy. His style is similar to Bruce Lee's.
  • In the TV show That 70's Show, Fez portrays Lee's character in Enter the Dragon.
  • In the TV show Family Matters, Steve Urkel creates a machine called the "Transformation Chamber" and "Bruce Juice", which allows him to become a completely different person (acquiring new attributes and traits.) However, he doesn't change physically. Bruce Lee's persona is among the few that Steve takes on, thanks to this machine. Steve first took on Lee's persona, because he wanted thugs to apologize to Laura (another character in the show) for insulting her at a bar. He felt weak, mainly because the thugs beat him up and he couldn't defend Laura's name. He returned as Bruce Lee and defeated all of the thugs in the bar. As Lee, Steve speaks with an exaggerated Chinese accent, wears a wig that resembles Lee's hair, and wears a kung-fu suit.
  • In the TV show Monk, in the episode Mr. Monk vs. The Cobra the character of Sonny Chow is based on Bruce Lee.
  • David Carradine played the characters written for Lee in the 1978 version of The Silent Flute.
  • In the series The Life and Times of Juniper Lee the title character Juniper Lee could be seen as a tribute as she has a mixed fighting style, name, and she is not portrayed as a stereotypical Asian.
  • In the Japanese drama series Gokusen, Yankumi, after defeating a group of gangmembers, tells that she "learned her moves from a Bruce Lee book" then poorly imatates fighting stances to hide the fact that her family is a part of the Yakuza.
  • In the animated series Pucca, and especially in the TV series, Abyo is clearly a character intended to be a 'tiny version' of Bruce Lee. A friendly rival of Garu (the main character), his face and appearance is strikingly similar to Lee's. He always shows off his combat abilities while performing vocal expressions not unlike those of Lee; and he likes ripping his shirt off to reveal his bare chest, to further resemble the familiar appearance of Bruce Lee while fighting. He can usually be seen using the Nunchaku in battle like Lee, and he can sometimes be seen wearing the characteristic yellow jumpsuit Bruce Lee wears in Game of Death.
  • Bruce's old martial arts short films were parodied in the TV program Almost Live!
  • In The Karate Kid, Part III, Terry Silver taunts Mr. Miyagi with Bruce Lee's sound effects.
  • In Boogie Nights, Dirk Diggler played by Mark Wahlberg is obsessed with Bruce Lee, having posters of Lee in his room and doing kicks while receiving awards.
  • In the 1993 motion picture "Meteor Man", starring Robert Townsend, the title character has the power to temporarily absorb knowledge from any book at a touch. In one scene, he grabs a book called "Bruce Lee's Fighting Method", and acquires Lee's martial arts skills.
  • Bruce Lee is listed as one of the three people a student suspected of a bomb-threat would ideally have over for dinner in the drama Veronica Mars. All three people are dead.

[edit] Periodicals

  • The California-based pop culture magazine Giant Robot featured a photo of Bruce Lee at a turntable with the motto "Bruce made tapes" as one of their early promotional logos; printed on shirts, posters, etc.

[edit] Music

1975 album cover of Kung Fu Meets the Dragon by The Upsetters
1975 album cover of Kung Fu Meets the Dragon by The Upsetters
  • The Jack Johnson song "Inaudible Melodies" was reportedly inspired by Bruce Lee. The original lyrics were "Slow down Bruce you're moving too fast, frames can't catch you when you're moving like that," instead of "Slow down everyone." Jack Johnson said that in film school, he learned that Bruce was told to slow down his moves because some of his motions were actually too fast to be caught on film.
  • Buckethead, a guitarist, lists Bruce Lee as one of his greatest influences. Recently he released an album entitled Enter the Chicken. He plays the theme songs to Enter the dragon and Game of Death. He has also named songs after Bruce: Warcraft (Bruce Lee's Black Hour Of Chaos) and Skull Crack (We Are Not Sick Men). At live shows Buckethead occasionally brings out nunchucks and uses them on stage.
  • In the song "Game Over" By Scarface, Ice Cube, Dr. Dre, and Too Short, They used samples of the Enter the Dragon theme song.
  • Instrumental trio We Be the Echo from San Francisco have a song inspired by Bruce entitled "Don't Concentrate on the Finger or You'll Miss All the Heavenly Glory".
  • Britpop band Blur's self-titled album contains a song called "Chinese Bombs." In it are references to martial arts and the invocation, "Bruce Lee, come save the day".
  • The Bruce Lee Band released their first CD in 1996 with the song "Don't Sit Next to Me Just Because I'm Asian." The song references Bruce Lee in the beginning: "My name's Anita, what's yours?" "They call me Bruce." "You mean like Bruce Lee?" "Yeah, who else?" "Then you must know kung fu." "Oh yeah, I once stepped in it." The Bruce Lee band released their Beautiful World CD in 2005, featuring the progressive rock band RX Bandits as backup musicians. The group had to change their name to the B. Lee Band for legal reasons).
  • The British band Underworld's album Beaucoup Fish contains a song called "Bruce Lee", whose lyrics make numerous references to Bruce Lee, including a detailed poetic description of his appearance, his fighting style, and "Tang Lung", the character he played in Way of the Dragon.
  • There is a Gypsy song in Serbia that apparently was composed sometime 2003. titled "Ud'ri Brus Li" (English: "Hit'em Bruce Lee"), that is somewhat an underground classic. The song talks about people watching Bruce Lee in the cinema and cheering while watching the movie.

[edit] Advertisement

a drawing presumably referring to Bruce Lee's popularity in mass culture, advertising a small stationery shop
a drawing presumably referring to Bruce Lee's popularity in mass culture, advertising a small stationery shop

In 2006, the "Be water" teaching from Longstreet was used for a BMW advertisement that became a popular meme in Spain. Bruce Lee is also in an Australian advertisement for Mars company

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^  MobyGames [3]

It was created by Spanish agency * S.C.P.F... based in Barcelona and Madrid. Creative team was Allan Batievsky, Carlos Lanzon, Ainhoa Nagore and Fran Segarra. Account execs qere Daniel Martinez Tessier, Mercedes Garcia and Fernando Hernandez.

[edit] See also

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