Released: August 2017
Director: George Nolfi
Rated PG-13
Run Time: 103 Minutes
Distributor: WWE Studios
Genre: Action/Drama
Cast:
Phillip Ng: Bruce Lee
Yu Xia: Wong Jack Man
Billy Magnussen: Steve Mckee
Simon Yin: Vinnie Wei
Ron Yuan: Tony Yu
When people ask me what kind of martial arts movie to recommend, I pride myself on being extremely knowledgeable about the subject. I love the martial arts and it is the same with the movies. I can tell you which ones are amazing and which ones to avoid. I can say that with confidence and…mostly without ego. That is why I can tell you without any doubt to avoid Birth of the Dragon. Why? Three words: Bait-and-switch. “What is that?,” you may ask. Bait-and-switch is when you promise one thing, but deliver something else entirely. In my opinion, it is an extremely dishonest form of marketing, bordering on false advertising.
The story of Birth of the Dragon is supposed to be about the legendary fight between Bruce Lee and Wong Jack Man. The details of the actual fight are sketchy at best, since only a handful of people were witness to it. The movie was supposed to be about the battle between these two legendary martial artists, which would determine whether or not Bruce would be able to continue teaching Kung Fu to non-Chinese. While we do get that, the focus of the film is centered on one of Bruce’s students, Steve Mckee. Instead, the story tends to gravitate more towards Steve and his quest to win the heart of a girl who is enslaved to a Chinese gangster. A good chunk of the film is essentially Steve trying to get Bruce and Wong to help him free the girl. If the film makers had gone for the same approach that Wilson Yip did with Ip Man, it would’ve been a much better movie. Sure, you can have a fictional story set around Bruce Lee, I don’t think anybody’s really opposed to that, except maybe Shannon Lee, his daughter, but they would’ve needed to keep the character as true to the real life Bruce Lee as possible. But they didn’t do that here. Instead, they ended up trying to make the white guy the hero. Again.
You know what’s funny about all this? There was actually supposed to be LESS Bruce Lee in the film. If true, that would mean that the fight between Bruce Lee and Wong Jack Man would’ve been a secondary plot point. In a movie that was advertised to be about the actual fight. Apparently, early screenings of the film were disastrous with people being pissed off at the lack of Bruce Lee. It was so bad, the director was forced to re-edit and add more Bruce Lee into the film. If that’s true, the director fucked up royally. Evidently, he didn’t have approval from Shannon Lee, who is the executor of the Bruce Lee estate. So, in addition to not getting proper authority from Shannon Lee, the director had audacity to try and push Bruce Lee to the sidelines. The idea was that this fight was going to be seen through the eyes of one his students. That didn’t need to happen, and it shouldn’t have happened, because it didn’t work.
So, with the story being botched, what else got screwed up? For a movie about the greatest martial arts superstar in film history, Birth of the Dragon is rather boring. I don’t understand how that could’ve happened. When you have a movie titled Birth of the Dragon, you would expect to some pretty decent action. A martial arts movie should NEVER be boring. That is a cardinal sin that most action movies try or should try to avoid. I could honestly forgive the story for being not up to par, so to speak if the rest of the film was more lively.
The action that we DO get is actually pretty good. The fights were choreographed by Cory Yuen, who is second only to Yuen Woo Ping. The fights are well staged with solid camera-work so you can see what’s going on. There is some wire-work, but it’s mostly grounded in reality with Bruce Lee using Wing Chun and Yu Xia using a mix of T’ai Chi Ch’uan, Xingyiquan, and Northern Shaolin. Phillip Ng, who plays Bruce Lee is absolutely phenomenal in these fight scenes. He’s an expert in Wing Chun, so it’s used quite well. Yu Xia gives Wong Jack Man a very noble and sentimental performance as a man who is essentially searching for redemption. I loved that, actually. I like the fact that Wong Jack Man isn’t portrayed as a villain, because in real life, he wasn’t a villain. The battle between the two is as much a clash of ideas as it is a fight between two men. The fight scenes are really good and the performances across the board are pretty decent. I have to say, Phillip Ng really does look the part and he gets Mr. Lee’s mannerisms down to a tee.
While there are aspects of the film that I really do like, namely the fight scenes and the performances and some of the philosophical discussions, I can’t forgive the film makers for such a blatant and disrespectful account of one of the most interesting aspects about Bruce Lee’s life. Yeah, the acting and fights are pretty good, but the film that’s built around them is NOT good. I have to be honest: If you want to see a movie about Bruce Lee himself, watch 1993’s Dragon: The Bruce Lee story. Yeah, it definitely takes some liberties with the man’s history and background, but it’s entertaining and it focuses on Mr. Lee himself. That’s a much better film, and the director didn’t have to pull a bait-and-switch with his movie. What you see is what you get. Maybe George Nolfi could learn something from that movie.
My Final Recommendation: This one deserves a one-inch punch. 5/10