How Kung Fu legend Bruce Lee modified the face of motion movies

He was a hard-bodied blur of ferocious fists, swirling nunchucks and spinning kicks who revolutionised Hollywood and the martial arts. But even Bruce Lee’s gravity-defying agility and lightning pace couldn’t save him from a sudden demise 50 years in the past this week.

The legendary martial artist and movie star died shockingly younger aged simply 32, on July 20, 1973.

Yet half a century later, conspiracy theories abound: Was he poisoned? Was it a drug overdose? Did Chinese Triad gangs have him assassinated? Was he killed by a enterprise companion? Did he fall sufferer to a lethal household curse? Or was he a sufferer of the fabled kung fu “Touch of Death”?

“I never grew up believing in the Lee family curse,” says his daughter, former martial arts motion movie star Shannon Lee, 54, and the star’s solely surviving youngster.

But the jinx thought gained traction after Bruce’s actor son Brandon Lee was unintentionally killed with a prop gun in 1993 whereas filming darkish fantasy film The Crow.

“Brandon’s death was just a horrible tragedy,” continues Shannon. “But could there be some curse in our ancestral line?”

She hesitates: “I really don’t know.”

Bruce Lee’s faster-than-the-eye athleticism and indomitable dedication proceed to encourage new generations of artists and followers.

“His influence is felt today in film and TV, video games, comic books, martial arts and as a pop culture icon,” says his daughter.

Lee’s Hollywood legacy could be seen within the martial arts in movie franchises like The Matrix and from John Wick to Mortal Kombat.

The rising recognition of blended martial arts combating owes a lot to Lee’s dynamic motion motion pictures, combining karate, kung fu and different disciplines. And his affect extends past combating.

“His philosophy of self-actualisation, knowing and cultivating yourself endures,” says Shannon, whose American mom was Lee’s faculty sweetheart Linda Emery.

“He spoke of being ‘like water’ – finding a way through or around obstacles, flow or push downstream toward your dreams – which has guided people for half a century.

He was one of the first Asian movie stars, battled racism in Hong Kong and Hollywood, and fought for greater Asian representation, which after 50 years we’re only belatedly beginning to see. My father changed Hollywood, and changed action movies. His legacy lives on today.”

Indeed, when college students in Hong Kong had been resisting Chinese oppression in 2019, they adopted Lee’s maxim: “Be water.”

Lee, who died the identical day his star-making film Fist Of Fury debuted in British cinemas, like James Dean, discovered his biggest fame after demise.

His hits Enter The Dragon and Way Of The Dragon had been each launched within the UK posthumously, as had been 4 extra motion pictures.

Yet 5 a long time later, controversy nonetheless surrounds his demise.

The official coroner’s report said that Lee died from an allergic response to aspirin that triggered his mind to swell by 13 per cent.

But Lee had barely been buried earlier than conspiracy theories exploded. He died within the mattress of Taiwanese starlet Betty Ting Pei, sparking whispers of an affair and attainable poisoning by a jealous lover.

Despite Lee’s declare to stay a drug and alcohol-free life, after his demise personal letters revealed his use of cocaine, LSD and marijuana, inciting hypothesis he died of a drug overdose.

Mafia-style Chinese Triad gangs had been accused of killing him in retaliation for Lee’s refusal to pay safety cash on his Hong Kong movie units; whereas his filmmaking companion Raymond Chow got here beneath scrutiny for cashing in on Lee’s movies posthumously.

Others claimed Chinese martial artists had killed him with the delayed-action “Touch of Death” as punishment for revealing secret combating strategies to Westerners.

More not too long ago, a crew of docs analysing Lee’s medical historical past concluded he was killed by heatstroke, whereas others blamed hyponatraemia: the kidneys’ incapability to excrete extra water.

Despite the persevering with hypothesis, Shannon insists: “I don’t think of my father’s death much. More profound is how he lived his life.” Born in San Francisco in 1940, the son of a Cantonese opera singer, at 4 months outdated Lee moved along with his Chinese mother and father to British-ruled Hong Kong, the place he skilled in martial arts and appeared as a toddler actor in quite a few Asian motion pictures, earlier than returning to the US in 1959.

Combining varied martial arts disciplines in methods by no means seen earlier than within the West, he developed his hybrid acrobatic type of kung fu: Jeet Kune Do.

He bought his begin in Hollywood coaching college students together with Steve McQueen, Chuck Norris – who made his on-screen debut in The Way Of The Dragon – and Roman Polanski’s ill-fated spouse, Sharon Tate; choreographing battle scenes, and successful the position of sidekick Kato in crime-fighting tv collection The Green Hornet.

“He had to fight for every line of dialogue,” says Shannon.

Lee, whose maternal grandmother was Caucasian, confronted racism on two continents. “As a child in Hong Kong he experienced racism because he wasn’t 100 per cent Asian, and in America suffered racism because he was Chinese,” says Shannon.

“He was very, very disappointed when he was not cast as the lead in television series Kung Fu, where the role went instead to Caucasian actor David Carradine. Roles for Asians in those days were stereotyped, and they still are to a large degree.”

Lee grew annoyed with the restrictions he confronted in Hollywood. Realising the US was not prepared for an Asian main man, he returned to Hong Kong to make motion motion pictures, with Fist Of Fury and The Way Of The Dragon, which grew to become enormous hits.

But Lee was greater than an actor.

As effectively as his dazzling bodily expertise, his movies had been narratives of resistance. He stood with manufacturing unit staff in opposition to felony corruption in The Big Boss; whereas Fist Of Fury was a one-man campaign in opposition to colonial oppression in Nineteen Twenties Shanghai.

“My father wrote, directed, starred, choreographed and produced The Way Of The Dragon,” Shannon continues.

“He was headed to do the same on Game Of Death. And he was an entrepreneur. He set up a production company to produce Enter The Dragon. And he made fight scenes more realistic. Before, they’d be flying through the air swinging swords, fighting for 15 minutes. My father said: ‘Nobody can fight that long.’ He changed Hollywood’s approach to martial arts and storytelling.”

But Lee insisted on doing most of his personal stunts, taking a punishing toll on his physique. Two months earlier than his demise Lee collapsed, struggling cerebral edema.

Martial arts movie star Jackie Chan, who carried out stunts in Lee’s movies earlier than turning into well-known in his personal proper, believes Hollywood drove him relentlessly.

“People were always pushing him, pushing him too hard,” says Chan, 69. “He was under so much pressure to be a superhero, and that was not good for him. He influenced me a lot, but I knew I could never be him.”

Shannon was 4 years outdated when her father died, and says: “I have only a few fleeting memories of him, but I remember the feeling of him. I always felt loved, always safe.”

She now runs the Bruce Lee Foundation, which helps educate youngsters in Lee’s self-empowerment philosophy, with camps throughout America and in Hong Kong, and offers monetary help to varsity college students.

She additionally helps run her father’s property, presently creating a film about his life, to be directed by Oscar-winner Ang Lee, who made Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

“Over the next 10 years you’re going to see a lot more of Bruce Lee, as we have several projects in development honouring his life and legacy,” says Shannon.

“I still feel his presence. He’s on my shoulder, watching over me. I grieve his loss in my own way, but the 50th anniversary of his death won’t be a sad occasion; it will be a celebration of his life. It marks 50 years of his philosophy evolving and growing, as it will continue to for the next 50 years.”