Bruce Lee exposing the legend. Myths and reality in the world of martial arts

This is probably the most mythological of all the figures in world cinema and the world of martial arts. Despite the fact that Bruce Lee is admired by many, many consider him the founder of almost mixed martial arts and sports kung fu, yet you will not find a single Bruce Lee fight in any martial arts tournament. And I dare to suggest that his skill was recorded only in films, like the skill of other actors such as Seagal, Van Damme and other action heroes. In this regard, if we talk about truly “combat” actors, then this is, of course, Chuck Norris (though only within the framework of karate, although the actor influenced the creation of kickboxing), Don Dragon Wilson (10 or 11 times world champion in kickboxing, although the films with his participation were boring and naive), some other actors.

What is Bruce Lee - the inspiration for boys of the 70s, 80s and, a little, 90s to practice martial arts? Being a famous actor in Hong Kong, he moved to the States (where, by the way, he was born, being only half Chinese, and even less). Fame quickly turned his head and Lee felt truly invincible, which can be seen in his facial expressions, pathos, and boundless narcissism.

His death made it possible to promote Bruce’s already branded image, since his last film tells the story of an actor who fights the “film mafia”, which is why business tycoons from the world of cinema are trying to kill him.

In the film, Lee fakes his death while continuing to fight his enemies in secret. The film was completed after his death, which was especially reflected in the fights and the plot, which frankly did not shine with its originality.

During my childhood, I heard a variety of versions about the death of the legendary actor. Someone said that he was killed by the Chinese mafia, someone that he fell into the hands of a Shaolin monk using the “vibrating fist” technique for revealing the secrets of kung fu (there is so much mystery and enchanting mysticism in all these words) , someone, filled with special significance, expressed the opinion that Lee was killed by a representative of Thai boxing (about which, at that time, we knew nothing). Even now, ironizing all this and understanding the absurdity of such hypotheses, something awakens in me long gone from childhood, when the words “karate” and “kung fu” evoked sacred awe in my soul. Alas, we began to know and understand more, but it’s somehow sad that that same thrill has long passed.

In fact, Lee died from allergic reaction on a drug (and there is nothing derogatory in this; unfortunately, such cases are not uncommon). In addition, Lee began to lead a less than athletic lifestyle, and was also addicted to stimulant drugs, which were in use at that time and the world did not yet know doping scandals.

As Chuck Norris recalls, Lee did not know how to relax at all and had no sense of humor. His past is interestingly told in a documentary film that was released relatively recently. In it, Bruce's wife, daughter and producer remember what the famous actor was like.

Many martial arts fans will be surprised to learn that it was exactly half oriental in the Bruce Lee style. We can say that he created, through his films, the image of a certain invincible oriental master and, familiar to us, kung fu. Without his films, the little-known and completely unpopular style of Wing Chun would have remained a martial art in some Chinatowns.

For some reason, it is customary to consider collections of Taoist and Chan Buddhist aphorisms, spoken by Li or attributed to him, as his ideas, but this is excusable, the world was just beginning to beat in a wild fever of widespread fashion for everything oriental. And wushu and karate were just coming into fashion, eclipsing the once most popular jiu-jitsu and judo in Europe and America.

But don’t think that I only want to criticize and debunk the image of Bruce Lee. Yes, I admit, Jackie Chan is closer to me among Asian actors, although some “combatants” consider him to be a “clown.” But Jackie’s main merit is that he showed the vulnerability of the main character, he showed that everyone has inherent fear and anyone can be beaten, and this was important for those who were used to seeing the invincibility of the main characters, their fearlessness, not realizing that all this was just movie.

Still, what kind of style did the great Bruce profess? His family and producer recalled that the actor could watch boxing fights for hours, peering into every frame, scrolling through the film to review the moments that interested him. His idol was the unsurpassed Muhammad Ali, whose signature can be seen in some of the actor’s stage movements. Bruce Lee himself spoke of his style as a synthesis of boxing, Western fencing and only then Chinese Wushu.

But Bruce was famous not only in the world of martial arts, I would even say not so much in the world of martial arts. Bruce Lee was a cha-cha champion. Hence his super mobility, flexibility and speed. In general, many action heroes were either gymnasts or dancers, for example, the main characters of the films “Called the Beast”, “Fan”, “The Man in the Green Kimono”, “Throw Down”, etc.

Filigree foot technique famous actor also did not come to him right away, but was introduced into his technique by Chuck Norris, since Lee, initially, following the canons of South Chinese wushu styles, did not possess a wide arsenal of high kicks.

But I wouldn’t want readers to get the impression that I’m biased regarding Bruce Lee’s role in popularizing martial arts, but I still acknowledge his achievements. Firstly, he showed, even through cinema, that the main thing is in the synthesis of various systems, in the ability to listen to experience from any art, be it boxing or karate, and not to isolate yourself in your own style. Secondly, his roles and films inspired many to practice martial arts; by the way, the now popular V. Tsoi adopted facial expressions and movements from Bruce, whose films he loved madly. Thirdly, he cultivated the image, albeit ideal, of a martial artist with a capital M (although the first film with this type was “The Genius of Judo” by A. Kurosawa).

And for many talented stuntmen, filming in Bruce Lee’s films gave them a lucky ticket to a big movie, let’s remember Jackie Chan, who played bit parts for Bruce, Bolo Young and many others.

There are different ways to evaluate the role of Bruce Lee and his qualities as a fighter (which I personally have doubts, with all due respect to the actor), but he played his significant role in the world of martial arts and cinema, and still plays. Sometimes it seems to me that the popularity of this actor is experiencing a kind of renaissance; apparently, his deification has gone so far that from a realistic character, he has turned into a mythical image. Actually, all martial arts live on such myths, because even serious modern masters still believe that the ancient masters were far superior in strength to their frail descendants, breaking bamboo stems with their fingers and killing wild animals with their bare hands.

Bruce Lee is a legend. He burst into the world of cinema, transforming it forever. He defeated the best fighters and showed miracles of body control. Everyone knows him, but Bruce Lee is still a mystery.

American with a female name

Bruce Lee was born on November 27, 1940. Coincidentally, it was the year and hour of the Dragon. It is therefore not surprising that from birth he received the nickname Li Siu Lung, which translates as “little dragon”. It was his so-called "baby name" adult name"Bruce Lee - Li Zhenfan.

He had another name. The family preferred to call the boy Sai Fon, which translates as “little miracle.” It was female name, Bruce’s parents were sure that by calling the boy that, they would save him, since their first-born boy had previously died in infancy.

The name by which the whole world recognizes Bruce was given to him by a nurse in the maternity hospital. She was sure (and not without reason) that with an English name it would be easier for the boy to get a birth certificate. Bruce Lee thus had American citizenship from childhood. He was not a full-blooded Chinese; his maternal grandfather was half-German.

Dancer fighter

When Bruce was at school, he did not show much zeal for studying. He, as we know, was not a purebred Chinese, and this greatly hindered his ability to establish contact with his peers. Since childhood, Lee had to defend her right to exist. He constantly fought; his parents had to take their son away from police stations more than once.

Bruce had every chance to “rattle”, but he was saved by his Wing Chun classes, which he began to practice under the guidance of the legendary trainer Ip Man. It is characteristic that Ip Man himself was not delighted when Bruce came to study with him. Again, for the reason that Li was not a purebred Chinese. However, Bruce resorted to a trick: at that time he was already quite a professional dancer and made an original proposal to Ip Man: you teach me to fight, I’ll teach you to dance the cha-cha-cha. The teacher accepted the resourceful impudent man, and he soon became his best student.

Bruce mastered kung fu with such speed that one can only envy. A technique that took some years to learn, the talented guy mastered in a few weeks. After some time, Bruce decided to test his skills and immediately won the school boxing championship, knocking out the champion who had held this place for three years.

Actor from birth to death

Bruce Lee, as they say, was destined to link his destiny with an acting career. His father was an actor, Bruce, and was born while his father's troupe was touring in San Francisco. Lee played his first role at an unconscious age, when he was three months old. He played the role of a baby girl in the film "Golden Gate Girl". Then he repeatedly played the role of bully boys in films, which suited him very well. At the age of 6, he played a role in the film "The Origin of Humankind", at the age of 14 - main role in the film "Orphan".
Bruce Lee played his last role, literally, during his funeral. The actor died when his film “Game of Death” was not yet completed (during Lee’s lifetime, he managed to film only 28 minutes of the running time; the rest of the time he was replaced by a stunt double). The producers managed to squeeze everything out even from Bruce's funeral. The writers rewrote the script so that main character, hiding from the mafia, initiates his own death. Footage from Bruce's funeral was inserted into the film, including close-up Lee's embalmed face.

Diligence and passion

Bruce was certainly an incredibly gifted martial artist, but without extensive training he would not have been able to achieve such skill. According to the recollections of the actors who worked with Lee, he never stopped training. He trained while watching TV, while walking down the street, while driving a car. Bruce studied all aspects of bodybuilding with great interest and developed training systems for himself.

Over the years of his passion for martial arts, he mastered almost all types of martial arts. After he accepted the challenge of Wong Chek Man at the age of 25 and spent more than 5 minutes on the fight, his approach to the effectiveness of the fight changed. Bruce realized that there was no point in stretching the battle to several minutes if everything could be resolved in a few seconds. There is no point in wasting energy blocking blows if you can prevent them. Then he began to develop his own system - Jeet Kune Do, which translates as “the way of the leading fist.” It must be said that what Lee showed in his films is not at all similar to Jeet Kune Do.
In his training, Bruce Lee, in addition to traditional equipment, also used devices he personally developed. For his school, it was important that the fighter’s movements were honed to the level of a reflex, so Lee’s makiwara often had an anthropomorphic appearance.

Myths and facts

Legends are always invented about personalities of such magnitude as Bruce Lee. What are the versions of his death alone worth? According to one of them, his death was organized by the Chinese Triad. Allegedly, the Chinese mafia took revenge on the actor for teaching Chinese martial arts to Americans. The triad, according to some “experts,” is involved in Li’s departure from China (they say that Li killed a member of this group in a duel). They also say that Lee used drugs, they say that in fact there were several Bruce Lees...

Lee's real achievements are enough to recognize his supernatural abilities. When he started acting in films, the cameras simply couldn’t keep up with him, so Bruce had to film not 24 frames, but 36, and then slow down the film so that the viewer could see the movements. Lee's strike time from a free position was 0.05 seconds, he did push-ups on one finger, held a corner press for half an hour, changed coins in his opponent's hand before he could close his hand, he played tennis with nunchucks and caught grains of rice with chopsticks. .. And this is without any legends.

"Ah, it's not hard to deceive me
I myself am glad to be deceived..."
A.S. Pushkin

We bring to your attention a series of articles by expert Alexander Rodin on the topic “Myths and reality in the world of martial arts.” Part 1. Bruce Lee.

Today there are a lot of myths around such a popular topic as the martial arts of the world, and these myths in turn give rise to speculation, leading to the deception of many for the sake of enriching the deceivers. The emergence of these myths is primarily associated with the transfer of the product of cinema and advertising into real life without dividing into truth and fiction. In this regard, I would like to bring to your attention a number of excerpts from my manual, written for students of the Kyiv University state institute physical culture"in 1992, in which we will talk about Bruce Lee, the Shao-lin monastery, Wu-shu, Kung Fu, Aiki-do, Karate, Sumo, Cossack martial arts, Astral karate, etc.

Laziness is, perhaps, a universal and basic property of people. Everyone strives: to find a pill that, by taking it, will help them lose weight once and for all and be cured of all diseases; a book that, after reading, will gain wisdom; clothes and makeup that will make you irresistible; an injection, after which the body will be covered with voluminous and prominent muscles, etc., etc.
In our case, the dream is that there is some kind of mysterious style, the development of which does not require long and grueling training, but at the same time in the shortest time makes anyone an invulnerable and invincible fighter, and all that is needed for this is to find a mysterious master or, what is even simpler and more desirable, read secret book.

Let's remember the 50s - 60s judo, 70s karate, jujutsu, 80s wushu, kung fu, ninjutsu, aikido, muay thai, etc. Each new trend became fashionable and acquired fans eager to learn that great secret that would finally make them a superman. But life took its toll, it turned out that in order to achieve the goal it was necessary to work a lot and hard, and in addition to have certain abilities, if you like, talent, and the fans who had lost faith with enviable enthusiasm embarked on new searches.

The real popularity of martial arts came from the fusion of two arts - the ancient, eastern martial art and the modern, Western art of cinematography. Cinema, as the most accessible and easily perceived means of information and advertising, spread the legends and real achievements of eastern fighters around the world. The work of popularization was completed by television, which introduced invincible heroes into every home, every family, the result was not long in coming all over the world (and our country is no exception) schools, clubs, sections, federations of all existing martial arts were opened. Today it is hardly possible to find a person who does not know Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, Chuck Norris, Steven Seagal, Jean Claude van Damme, Cynthia Rothrock and many others.

The end of the Second World War opened up access for Western countries to the cultural and historical values ​​of the peoples of Southeast Asia. Film producers quickly discovered a new, untapped layer - hand-to-hand combat in oriental style. Having started filming, the directors were faced with a very serious and, at first, simply insoluble problem.

The paradox was that those who wanted and were ready to star in their films did not know how to fight and had a very superficial understanding of martial arts. Those whose knowledge and skills were beyond doubt flatly refused not only to act in film, but even to act as consultants or demonstrate their art. Warrior monks could not violate religious prohibitions, and secular masters, according to tradition, had to keep the secrets of their clan. Thus, despite the fact that there were a lot of masters around, it was impossible to find a movie character for filming, and therefore the first films of this genre were pale, boring and unartistic.

Bruce Lee, fighter or actor?

Everyone sees the skin of a tiger,
few people see his bones.

A qualitative breakthrough was the appearance on the screen of Li Zheng Fan (Li Xiao Long is a child's name, Bruce Lee is a movie name). Bruce Lee, unlike the Chinese masters, could drink whiskey and smoke, he was not embarrassed by naked girls, he did everything that the directors demanded, he knew how to fight, he made no secret of the techniques he performed, he was educated, modern, spoke English language, was artistic, had a pleasant appearance and, last but not least, was a US citizen.

So, a myth named Bruce Lee: “Champion among champions, the most perfect and unsurpassed fighter in the world, who never knew a single defeat, etc., etc.” Next we will get acquainted with his real biography.
On November 27, 1940, in San Francisco (where the Chinese Opera Theater was touring), the boy Li Zheng Fan was born, since he was born in the year and hour of the Dragon, he received the corresponding child name Li Xiao Long (Li Little Dragon), who became a citizen at his place of birth USA.

Lee Xiao Long first appeared in a movie at the age of 3 months ("The Girl with the Golden Collar"), and Bruce Lee himself considered the beginning of his film career to be the film "The Origin of Humankind" - 1946. As a film artist, Bruce Lee was very successful , until 1958, he starred in two dozen films, in addition, he successfully studied at a ballroom dancing school, in 1958 becoming the Hong Kong champion in Cha-cha-cha dance (Bruce Lee's only championship title).

At the age of 13, he began training in the Wing Chun style, at the school of master Ip Man, where, not without success, he studied for about 3 years (everyone who has encountered the traditional teaching system understands that during this time you can become, at best, a junior student). Due to the fact that Bruce Lee's youth was very turbulent, in 1958 he had to leave Hong Kong, the alternative was prison or death in a street fight. Before leaving, Ip Man reminds Bruce that the art of Wing Chun under no circumstances should become the property of outsiders, and especially foreigners. Lee swore allegiance to the teacher, the school and the covenants of his ancestors.

Upon entering the faculty Western philosophy University of Seattle, he immediately opened the only Wing Chun school for that period to teach American students (Bruce Lee certainly could not open a school for the Chinese, since he did not have sufficient knowledge and experience for this; it’s a different matter for Americans who know nothing about the Chinese martial arts). He soon realizes that he is exhausted and cannot give anything new to his students.

In 1965, he goes to Hong Kong, asks for forgiveness from his teacher and permission to continue his studies, he asks Ip Man to remove him while he is performing tao-lu (sets of formal exercises), so that he can continue his independent studies in the United States. Having strong convictions, Master Ip Man refused all of Bruce's requests. Lee begs to forgive him and offers to pay for his training at the highest level, to which the master replied: “Knowledge is passed on to the worthy from heart to heart, and not to the rich from hand to hand, like money.” Bruce Lee makes the same request to the master's son Ip Chun, but is refused there too.
There is a version that Ip Man, after some time, having opened his art to general study, introduced a number of changes to the teaching methodology that significantly emasculated it. Thus, only a very narrow circle of trusted students today study the authentic Wing Chun (I repeat, this is just a version).

Returning to the USA, Bruce Lee understands that he will not be able to study Wing Chun himself or teach anyone else Wing Chun, he has no knowledge and nowhere to get it from, he is at a dead end. But being an ambitious, talented and persistent person, he looks for a way out and, in the end, finds it. Having synthesized the techniques of Wing Chun known to him with elements of taekwon-do, karate, boxing, judo, jiu-jitsu, kung fu in 1967, he introduced to the world a new style Jeet Kune Do (the way of the leading fist), the essence of which he defined as “style without style” (in other words, a haphazard set of techniques pulled from everywhere). The style gained wild popularity, since it was presented by Bruce Lee himself, but it did not prove itself to be anything good, not for sports, not for special forces, not for the street.

In 1966, Bruce Lee got on the set of the television series "The Green Hornet", and this is how his brilliant career movie hero. But show business has its own laws and he unconditionally accepts them.
He creates a myth about an unsurpassed “inch punch”, available only to him, while the “fa-li” (force release) technique is studied and practiced by adherents of absolutely all internal styles, and tens, if not hundreds of thousands of fighters perform the “inch punch” no worse, and often much more effective, than Bruce Lee.

The hero must have an ideal figure, from the point of view of Europeans, and Bruce begins bodybuilding, using all available chemicals to increase performance and growth muscle mass, burning fat and removing moisture from the body.
The actor should not be forgotten and films with his participation are being released one after another: “Big Boss”, “Fist of Fury”, “The Chinese Connection”, “Enter the Dragon”, “Way of the Dragon”, in total he starred in 36 films. He is in a hurry to live, striving to gain all the fame and money in the world. The cost of one hour of training with him reaches $500; he is not only an actor, but also a director, screenwriter, fight scene director, producer, and since 1973, the owner of his own film studio, Concord.
And the body cannot withstand this race; on July 20, 1973, during the filming of the film “Game of Death,” he takes a pill for a headache, after which he begins to have convulsions and dies without regaining consciousness.

Death, like the life of an artist, gives rise to a lot of legends and rumors:
- Triad revenge for refusal to cooperate
- revenge of the Shaolin monks for disclosing secret knowledge (touching slow death)
- lover's revenge
- suicide, drugs, poisoning, etc., etc.

The most exotic, perhaps, was the following:

In 1971, Bruce Lee (Li Xiao Long - Little Dragon Lee) moves to Hong Kong and settles at Nine Dragon Lake. The version is as follows - nine dragons who lived there previously did not tolerate the appearance of another dragon on their territory and killed him. This is the version of experts in Feng Shui, the ancient science of interaction between man and the world around him.
An autopsy showed that Bruce Lee's death was the result of a disorder of brain activity that arose as a result of increased sensitivity to the chemical components included in the headache pill he took.

Bruce Lee's body was sent to the United States and buried in Seattle. His funeral was grandiose and tragic, several young people committed suicide, unable to survive the death of their idol, the girls swore not to marry, his death was perceived as a world tragedy.

So, let's summarize:
- How great is Bruce Lee’s contribution to the popularization of martial arts? They are huge; no one, perhaps, has done more.
- Was he an outstanding film actor? Undoubtedly.
- Was he a champion? Yes, in 1958 he became the champion of Hong Kong in Cha-cha-cha dance, but he did not take part in any competition, be it duels or performing Tao-lu complexes.
- Was he a fighter? Perhaps, but only one out of millions.

Images:
budopeople.ru
brucelee.com
moikompas.ru
oboisunsve.bestoboi.no-ip.org

Yes, I expected a lot from this film, but alas...

I've looked at a lot before this documentaries about Bruce Lee, filmed about him after his death.

I studied his biography well enough to be aware of all the nuances of Lee’s life.

And what do we see in this Legend... ?

Little truth, a lot of nonsense. If the viewer only watched this hack, then he may have the opinion that the great Bruce Lee was a simple average person.

But he was not an ordinary person. Bruce was always improving, reading books and taking ideas from them. Lee worked a lot on himself, on creating universal wrestling, shocked himself, lifted weights, ran a lot, and we can say that his whole life was continuous training.


The way this film shows how Bruce was injured is also a complete lie, he injured himself when he lifted the barbell without a good warm-up, it’s as simple as that.


The director of this film is Bruce's daughter, Shannon Lee. As we can see, she does not do a quality job and did not want to tell the truth about her father.

Aunt Shannon decided to make more money on famous name his father, which is a pity.

Although how can she remember something about him when she was still a child? The film, based on the book by her mother and Bruce’s wife, is even more truthful, although there are also flaws in the truthfulness and authenticity of the actions.



The actor who played the main character, that is, Bruce Lee himself, well conveyed the behavior of the real Bruce Lee. The way he looks down on the enemy, the anger, the bulging eyes, I liked all this. The real Bruce did exactly the same thing.

But the way they show Lee when he is at home, came and lay down on the sofa, this does not coincide with the facts.

Well, of course, everyone has the right to rest, but Bruce is not an ordinary person, as we remember, that’s why he worked out at home, reading a book, and pumped a dumbbell with his other hand and changed them after a while.

Even when Lee ate in the kitchen, he held a spoon with one hand and held a chair with the other extended from the table.

You can also hear a couple of things from his students: interesting stories. For example, once Bruce was flying on a plane and the whole time he was holding a notepad in one hand, and hitting him with the other, alternately changing hands. One passenger didn't like this and asked Lee not to do it. To which he reacted like this.

Bruce apologized for the noise and said that he should always be in shape and continued.

Another story was told by Dan Inosanto, a friend and student of Bruce. One day they decided to go to lunch at a restaurant together.

They got into Bruce's Porsche and drove off. At all the traffic lights where there were stops, Bruce put a makiwara (something like a bag for practicing punches) between his legs and hit until the traffic light turned green and they drove on.

Here's what Wikipedia says about the Makiwara (Japanese: 巻藁, “rolled straw”) - a punching machine that consists of a bundle of straw attached to an elastic board dug into the ground. Used in contact martial arts and archery.

Even at home, Bruce watched TV on the floor, pumped up his abs and at the same time played with his son.

Lee spent little time with his family and even in those moments he was mentally not with them, but somewhere far away. This made itself felt when, after his death, his son Brandon ended up in a juvenile detention center.

He wasn’t a great owner either, he couldn’t even hammer a nail at home to hang a picture, he invited his friends and they did everything, his wife recalled.

But since he became a LEGEND and ICON of martial arts, many moments try not to be remembered. After all, there are no ideal people, but a LEGEND cannot have flaws or flaws.

Bruce Lee is undoubtedly key figure in our perception of martial arts. Everyone knows him. Everyone admires him. Without him, frankly speaking, the development of martial arts on today's scale would not be possible.

What is the meaning of his appearance? What did Bruce Lee achieve?

The fame of the highest paid Chinese actor - yes. The fame of a capricious and eccentric person - yes. Cerebral edema - yes. What was left after him? The only book that is unprocessed and consists of a bunch of scattered notes, students who turned out to be ordinary dropouts because they did not know the classical base, and films in which he beats crowds of amateurs... He didn’t have a single serious opponent! Even Chi Hwang-jae and Inosanto fall under his script - and, by the way, only Inosanto looks like a serious opponent.

The main problem with Bruce Lee and his legacy is that the Chinese masters did not recognize his Jeet Kune Do as a Chinese style - or any style at all. And for some reason this made the founder of the “style without styles” always very angry, blaming the Chinese for nothing. Why did this bother him so much? After all, according to the logic of things, he should have taken this at least calmly. Well, yes, this is not a style - since it’s “style without style.” Why did he have to impose himself so much on the traditional shifu, whom he did not value at all and could do them all with one left?

The fact is that the image Bruce created of himself as a representative of kung fu, and a SIMPLE, ordinary representative of it, was very beneficial to him and extremely necessary. His whole super task, the whole idea of ​​the “project” that he promoted, rested on it.

To abandon this image meant to lose the exclusivity of a representative of a great civilization, the keeper of some secret knowledge that was supposedly forbidden to be disclosed - but he, a revolutionary, boldly made it public. Refusal of this image immediately put Bruce on the same level as many film fighters who never rose above second or third roles. And the fact that Bruce perfectly studied the techniques of taekwondo, Philippine kali, boxing, hapkido and wingchun would not interest a Western viewer at all. There was no fashion then – Bruce created exactly that, created a whole layer of culture. The task was enormous, and the image of kungfu as a magic pill for all problems, accessible to the SIMPLE guy, was one of the most important conditions.

The loss of this image would immediately mean that he did not reveal any “ancient” secrets - that is, the average person (especially the Yankees) could decide that anyone else could do the same. Bruce would have to bear the entire burden of organizing new system– and he didn’t need this at all. He wanted to act in films and earn money from films, and not from teaching.

But the film image he created required precisely the halo of “kung fu” - otherwise how could he play “a simple Chinese boy”, who at the same time practiced several styles of hand-to-hand combat, some of which were unique at that time? There are no such “simple guys”.

Instead of the cute image of a village truth-seeker, who is forgiven a lot because of his naivety, we would get a caricature portrait of Bruce himself - an ambitious brawler who prefers to solve all problems with his fist. Moreover, he is narrow-minded and does not like to think, which would hardly suit Bruce himself, a master of philosophy. Agree, this image would not be so popular. Most likely, Bruce would have to focus on “evil” roles, like Bolo Young and Toshishiro Obata - excellent masters who were captured by their image.

Bruce was not happy with this situation.

What is characteristic of Bruce is the clarity of his movements, their CONVINCABILITY, even though there is a noticeable bias towards purely external effects. So few people know how to move - even today, although Bruce created an entire film industry and there are plenty of skilled fighters on the screen.

Few words. Tendency to act rather than talk. The absence of any reflections (so familiar to Americans) regarding “should or should not” - and not because of the hero’s stupidity, no: he is simply ready to accept any outcome of the battle, to answer for decision, even if it turns out to be incorrect. And he expects the same from his opponents: he warned the crippled American Norris in the Coliseum: don’t rock the boat. And once he made his decision, he killed him without the slightest hesitation. And only then he went - not to pray in church and not to hang himself, but to deal with those bastards who set up a colleague like that...

Then, most of the fights he performs are very fleeting. And this is correct, if we proceed from reality: having come under the right strong and hard blow from a master of this level, people then do not get up, and if they do get up, they do not rush into the fight again. Any boxer or street fighter knows this. “Final fights,” as a tribute to the genre, can last a long time, but they are also quite logical. Otherwise, with Van Damme, as a rule, it’s like this: first it’s in his face, he’s lying down, then he gets up - and in response. And no attempt at care or protection. Boring. Unconvincing. Stupid.

In Hong Kong action films, as you yourself know, the classics are “turn-based” fights, where there are a lot of unnecessary movements, swinging through the air and flying on ropes. And Bruce, apart from the naive “stencil” made by the bully’s body in the wall in “Big Boss,” does everything live. Well, or almost everything - maybe I didn’t notice something. That's where the persuasiveness comes from.

Jackie Chan does everything himself, which requires considerable experience, solid training and excellent practice, not to mention developed thinking. At the same time, even if Jackie sometimes uses “strings,” he tries to make them INSPECTIVE, which cannot be said about other luminaries of Hong Kong cinema, for whom the “string” is the most important and practically the main part of the trick. Here is Jet Li: although he is a good actor and an undisputed master, he constantly strives to cheat: he will either break the laws of gravity or break through a wall... Against the background of excellent technique and good acting, this is such a sharp falsehood that it hurts your cheekbones. HACK!!! This not only does not help the film, but also spoils the entire effect. And with tenacity worthy of much better use, he flies and flies on his ropes. By the way, the plots in traditional Hong Kong films are usually not very clever either. That is, the plot, since, in my opinion, they generally have one. Although there are simply delightful exceptions: “Razor”, aka “Blade”, aka “Tao” and “A Chinese Ghost Story”. And Bruce, while remaining within the genre, still tried to somehow diversify the plot.

In my opinion, "Way of the Dragon", where he guards a Chinese restaurant, is his best film. And if you want a good movie with good fights and good Samo Hun, then watch “The Sacrifice.” Which class! And the plot is not quite standard, and it’s funny, and the technology is quite real, and there are fights every two minutes - but at the same time they fit quite logically into the plot, without setting one’s teeth on edge.

I wish you pleasant viewing.