Episode 20: BRUCE LEE
He kicked ass. He died too young. Bruce Lee’s biographer schools us on the man who popularized kung fu.
Fist of Fury (1972).
“Trying to kick someone in the head on the street is a good way to get your ass kicked. But if you do it in a film, it looks beautiful.”
Matthew Polly’s parents didn’t want him to study kung fu in China, but he went anyway. Polly wrote about the experience in American Shaolin, his 2007 memoir about learning martial arts at the Shaolin Monastery. It’s an insightful and funny book about learning a craft in a foreign land. (I especially liked his quest for Coca-Cola.)
Twelve years later, he published Bruce Lee: A Life, a biography of the martial arts superstar. Since I love learning about Chinese culture, Chinese history and the movies, it was page-turning read.
Here are a few of the things I learned:
Bruce Lee was born in San Francisco while his father worked for a Chinatown opera house; he was raised in Hong Kong.
Lee’s first film credit was for Golden Gate Girl (1941). He was two months old. Throughout his childhood, he appeared in many Hong Kong films under various stage names: Little Li Hoi Chuen, New Li Hoi Chuen, Dragon Li and Little Dragon Li.
In 1966-67, Lee appeared as Kato in 26 Green Hornet episodes. The series didn’t make him a star in the U.S., but when the Green Hornet began airing in Hong Kong, it catapulted him to fame there.
Lee appeared in five films as an adult. The most political was Fist of Fury, his second movie for Golden Harvest. Released in 1972, the movie takes place in Japanese-occupied Shanghai. Locals are second-class citizens. Private parks post signs reading, “No Dogs Or Chinese Allowed.” Lee’s character takes revenge on a Japanese dojo whose members have murdered a revered master.
Matthew Polly says he spent two years investigating the possible causes of Lee’s mysterious death. Conspiracy theorists cite a range of causes. In the episode, we talk in more detail about the likely cause of death.
— Todd Melby