Media about Bruce Lee

Martial artist and actor Bruce Lee has been subject to extensive media coverage:

Biographical films

• In 1976, the Hong Kong film industry released Bruce Lee: The Man, The Myth, a largely fictional bio-film starring a Lee "lookalike," Ho Chung Tao, billed under the name Bruce Li.

• In 1992, ATV Home produced a Cantonese drama series called Spirit of the Dragon based loosely on Lee's life. The series starred Chinese American actor David Wu as Bruce Lee.

• In 1993 a biopic of Lee's life titled Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story was released in which Lee was portrayed by Jason Scott Lee (no relation).

• In April, 2007, Chinese state media announced that its national broadcaster had started filming a 50-part TV series on Lee titled The Legend of Bruce Lee to promote Chinese culture for the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics.^[1] It aired on CCTV on 12 October 2008 and starred Hong Kong actor Danny Chan as Lee.

• On August 22, 2007, Fruit Chan announced his intention to make a film on Bruce Lee's early years, in Chinese, entitled Kowloon City, produced by John Woo's producer Terence Chang, and set in 1950s Hong Kong.

• Stanley Kwan stated that he was talking with Lee's family to make a biographical film on Lee. Kwan said that his film would look at how Bruce Lee was affected by the absence of his father and how he brought up his own son, Brandon Lee.^[2]

• Directed by Raymond Yip and Manfred Wong, Bruce Lee, My Brother starred Aarif Lee as Bruce Lee; with Tony Leung Ka Fai, Michelle Ye, MC Jin and Christy Chung. The film was released to the general audience on November 25, 2010, a couple of days before what would have been Bruce Lee's 70th Birthday.^[3]

• QED International and banner Groundswell Productions are aiming to tell a Bruce Lee origin story with Birth of the Dragon, tapping scribes Christopher Wilkinson and Stephen Rivele to pen the tale.^[4]

Books authored

• Chinese Gung-Fu: The Philosophical Art of Self Defense (Bruce Lee's first book) – 1963
• Tao of Jeet Kune Do (Published posthumously) – 1973
• Bruce Lee's Fighting Method (Published posthumously) – 1978

Books about Bruce Lee, Jeet Kune Do or both

• Bruce Lee: The Man Only I Knew – written by his widow Linda Lee Cadwell. This book served as the basis for the movie about his life, Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story.
• Bruce Lee: Words of the Dragon : Interviews 1958-1973 – written by John Little
• Bruce Lee: The Art of Expressing the Human Body – written by John Little
• The Dragon and the Tiger: The Birth of Bruce Lee's Jeet Kune Do, the Oakland Years. by Sid Campbell
• Bruce Lee Between Wing Chun and JKD – written by Jesse Glover
• Bruce Lee: Dynamic Becoming – a book about Bruce Lee's philosophy
• Bruce Lee: Fighting Spirit – a biography by Bruce Thomas
• Striking Thoughts – thoughts and quotes of Bruce Lee
• The Tao of Jeet Kune Do – a book assembled posthumously that expresses Bruce Lee's notes on martial arts and philosophy.
• "On the Warrior's Path" by Daniele Bolelli (2003). The longest chapter of this book about martial arts philosophy is on Bruce Lee's philosophical legacy.
• Unsettled Matters: The Life & Death of Bruce Lee, Tom Bleecker (former husband of Lee widow Linda Lee Cadwell). 1996, Gilderoy Publications, ISBN 0-9653132-0-4
• Be Water, My Friend: The Early Years of Bruce Lee – a picture book for children, written by Ken Mochizuki and illustrated by Dom Lee, featuring an account of Bruce Lee's childhood and early manhood, which the author says is basically factual.^[5]
• King Dragon: The World of Bruce Lee – written by Norman Borine

Bruce Lee documentaries

• Bruce Lee Lives (2011)
• How Bruce Lee Changed the World (2009)
• The Intercepting Fist (2001)
• The Unbeatable Bruce Lee (2001)
• Bruce Lee: A Warrior's Journey (2000)
• Bruce Lee: The Path of the Dragon (1998)
• The Immortal Dragon (A&E) (1996)
• Curse of the Dragon (1993)
• Death by Misadventure (1993)
• Martial Arts Master (1993)
• Bruce Lee, the Legend (1977)
• Bruce Lee: The Man and the Legend aka Life and Legend of Bruce Lee (1973)

Other media

• Marvel Comics published, in the black and white magazine line under their Curtis Magazines imprint, a 35-page comic story-style biography of Bruce Lee in Deadly Hands of Kung Fu #28, September 1976. It was written by Martin Sands, with art by Joe Staton and Tony DeZuniga.
• Bruce Lee – a video game published by Datasoft Inc under license in 1984.
• Kim Dragon, from the World Heroes video game series is based on Bruce Lee.
• Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story – a video game published by Acclaim Entertainment in 1993.
• Bruce Lee (graphic novel); Malibu Comics published a 6-issue Bruce Lee comic book miniseries in 1995, although the story was a purely fictional adventure and the titular character had little in common with the real-life Bruce Lee. It was written by Mike Baron (who had previously written three comic stories for NOW Comics' range of Green Hornet comic books about the version of Kato played by Lee on the 1966 television series) and drawn by Val Mayerik (who had drawn the second Kato miniseries).
• Bruce Lee: Quest of the Dragon – a video game published by Universal Interactive Inc. in 2002.
• Bruce Lee: Return of the Legend - a Game Boy Advance video game published by Universal Interactive in 2002.
• In Super Mario RPG, when Mario is about to fight a boss, his comerade Mallow stops him and says "Who do you think you are, Bruce Lee. You can't go in there with your fists flying".
• Be Like Water – a play by Dan Kwong, produced at East West Players in 2008, featuring the character, Ghost of Bruce Lee.
• Fei Long, from the Street Fighter video game series is based on Bruce Lee.
• Marshall Law and Forest Law, from the Tekken video games, are based on Bruce Lee.

• Kenshiro, from Fist of the North Star displays most of Bruce Lee's fighting mannerisms and weapon choices. There is also a scene where Ken fights soldiers of the Mad Sergeant of the Golan Army that looks like the underground fight sequence in Enter the Dragon.
• Jann Lee, a Jeet Kun Do adherent from Dead or Alive is based heavily on Bruce Lee, adopting his battle cries, wardrobe choices, and fighting style. A cut scene shows Jann Lee watching what appears to be a Bruce Lee film as a boy.
• Liu Kang from Mortal Kombat is based on Bruce Lee.
• Lee Pai-Long from Shaman King is greatly modeled after Bruce Lee. He not only resembles Bruce Lee in appearance, but also shares many of his historical attributes as well as references, such as the movie adaptation of "Fists of Fury" being placed in the Shaman King storyline in manga format.
• Rock Lee from Naruto is based on Bruce Lee.
• Abyo, from the animated series Pucca, is also based on Bruce Lee.
• Hitmonlee from the original Pokémon series is an allusion to Bruce Lee whose fighting style primarily used kicks.
• Underground Arena kenpo fighter Blues Ebinuma (ブルース海老沼) from Yakuza 3 is modeled after Bruce Lee, wearing his famous yellow suit from Game of Death.
• "The Bruce Lee" was a 2009 tribute song to Bruce Lee by a Toronto based Dj "Abeer Sheikh". incorporating vocal samples of Bruce Lee from his expansive career.
• In the third season of the 2012 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles animated series, the character of Hun (originally a muscle-bound Caucasian from the 2003 cartoon series) makes his debut, with his appearance and behaviour closely patterned after Bruce Lee.

See also

• Bruce Lee filmography

References