Bruce Lee Newspaper Clippings: Needles, MJ and blows to the head!

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Why Bruce Lee and kung fu films hit home with black audiences

"Cross-cultural stuff has been going on in the ghettoes for a long time," says producer-writer James Schamus, whoseCrouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon played big to black audiences, too. "Remember Bruce Lee was probably the greatest African-American star of the 70s. And that culture persists." That's certainly what comes across in new documentary I Am Bruce Lee, where one commentator goes as far as suggesting love for Lee ran so deep in the black community because, as Hong Kong's 1958 cha-cha champion, his footwork bore the hallmarks of a rhythm that ultimately had African roots.

https://amp.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2012/jul/18/bruce-lee-films-black-audiences?CMP=share_btn_tw&__twitter_impression=true

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Hong Kong is a city fighting for democracy, not just Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan.

http://m.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/2118028/joshua-wong-tells-foreigners-hong-kong-more-just-jackie-chan?amp=1&__twitter_impression=true

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The Bruce Lee Paradox & Me: Diversity in Media Representation

https://medium.com/advancing-justice-aajc/the-bruce-lee-paradox-me-diversity-in-media-representation-a892c229903a

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Who Was Bruce Lee's Best Hollywood Student?

http://m.scmp.com/culture/film-tv/article/2153112/who-was-bruce-lees-best-hollywood-kung-fu-student

So which Hollywood celebrity was Lee’s best student?

Lee says it’s either McQueen or Coburn. “It depends. As a fighter, Steve McQueen is good in that department because that son of a gun has the toughness in him,” Lee said in an interview on television. “He would say, ‘Here I am, baby,’ and he would do it. Now, James Coburn is a peace-loving man, he is really nice, he’s really mellow. He appreciates the philosophical part of it. So his understanding of it is different to Steve’s. It’s different, it depends on what you see in it.”

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1973 Life magazine Alex Ben Block

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45 years after his death, Bruce Lee's influence is still being felt in modern MMA and the UFC.

Imagine this, for a moment: We’re in the middle of a major UFC event, say, UFC 200, or a show at Madison Square Garden, or maybe it’s International Fight Week.

 

As the big card winds toward the main event, the camera pans between fights to some of the celebrities seated down in the VIP sections at ringside. Oh hey, there’s Mike Tyson. There’s Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. There’s whichever UFC champion is defending his or her championship on the next pay-per-view.

Then there’s a roar from the crowd as the camera fixates on a smiling Bruce Lee, with grey hair but otherwise looking like he could still whoop on people half his age if only they’d give him a chance, on hand to witness the latest edition of the billion-dollar enterprise his big-screen popularity helped spawn.

According to some who have studied him closely, such a scene would not be an outlandish idea.

“I don’t think Bruce would be a hardcore mixed martial arts fan, or someone who went to every show,” noted martial arts author Matthew Polly told MMA Fighting. “I think he would have been the sort of person who showed up every once in awhile, and we would have enjoyed the recognition for his contributions and his life’s work, and he definitely would have enjoyed the spectacle.”

https://www.mmafighting.com/platform/amp/2018/7/20/17593880/forty-five-years-after-death-bruce-lees-influence-still-being-felt-in-modern-mma?utm_campaign=mmafighting&utm_content=entry&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&__twitter_impression=true

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Who taught Bruce Lee Kung Fu?

https://m.scmp.com/culture/film-tv/article/2156574/who-taught-bruce-lee-kung-fu-he-was-born-be-fighter-martial-arts

 

 

 

Martial arts

 

FILM & TV

Who taught Bruce Lee kung fu? He was born to be a fighter, but the martial arts superstar also trained with the best

Despite coming from a relatively affluent family, Lee started to run with street gangs in Hong Kong when he was 12 and would never back away from a fight. It was through a gang member that he found Ip Man’s wing chun classes

Staff ReporterUPDATED : Wednesday, 25 Jul 2018, 2:32AM

 

 

In a special series commemorating the 45th anniversary of Bruce Lee’s death on July 20, 1973, we aim to set the facts straight – as well as exploring some little known trivia – about the life of the martial arts legend.

Bruce Lee didn’t enter the world magical kung fu powers – he had to study and learn martial arts, specifically under the school of wing chun, just like anyone else.

However, according to his former wife, Linda Lee Cadwell, Lee was a born fighter who liked to pick fights as a teenager. Despite being from a relatively affluent family – his father Lee Hoi-chuen was a Cantonese opera star who appeared in films and also rented out property – he started to run with street gangs in Hong Kong’s Kowloon area when he was 12.

By the time he was 15, Lee was a ringleader who, his brother Robert said, would never back down from a challenge. “You never had to ask Bruce twice to fight,” Robert recalled. Lee confirmed this in an interview withBlackbelt magazine in 1967: “I was a punk and I went looking for fights,” he said. “We used chains and pens with knives hidden in them.”

 

 

Lee reportedly preferred to use his fists in fights, which were often the result of trying to outstare other gang members, Cadwell says. He and his friends would also go “Limey bashing” – that is, picking fights with expatriate British schoolboys who they felt were overly privileged.

Lee’s aggressive behaviour led to him being expelled from La Salle College in 1956, and he was sent to St Francis Xavier’s College, which was a tougher institution.

According to Cadwell, Lee decided to learn martial arts because he was being bullied himself, although it has also been reported that he wanted to learn some new techniques to gain an edge in street fights. Lee himself says he took up kung fu when he started to feel “insecure”.

Jackie Chan on working for Bruce Lee: ‘Everyone thought he was a god’

Lee found a sifu, or master, through a street-gang member called William Cheung, who took him to a wing chun school run by Ip Man, who had begun teaching the style in Hong Kong around 1950.

Although Lee studied wing chun at Ip’s school, he was mainly taught by Wong Shun-leung, as Ip himself only taught advanced students, not beginners. Lee quickly became devoted to wing chun and practised diligently.

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How U.S. film critics reviewed Bruce Lee movies in his day.

The New York Times, May 13, 1973

Vincent Canby writes:

“I’ve been aware that karate has been in fashion for some time.

“. . . According to Variety, there hasn’t been such a comparably profitable movie fad since the early days of the Italian Western about 10 years ago. . . . Kung fu movies began as a local phenomenon in Hong Kong a couple of years ago, began to win audiences in Latin America two years ago, and in the last year have scored remarkable financial successes in Europe, especially Italy and Germany.

“The two I’ve just seen, ‘Fists of Fury’ and ‘Deep Thrust,’ make the worst Italian Westerns look like the most solemn and noble achievements of the early Soviet cinema.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/news/retropolis/wp/2018/07/31/the-new-yellow-peril-how-u-s-film-critics-reviewed-bruce-lee-movies-in-his-day/

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Could Beat Muhammad Ali. We Asked Their Biographers

Season 4 premiere asks a tough question. Don't read this if you aren't up for some very minor spoilers

The Season 4 premiere of “Better Call Saul” had all the tension, heartbreak and intrigue we’ve come to love from Jimmy McGill and his wily friends. But what haunts us most about the episode is the breakroom debate between two Madrigal employees: Who would win in a fight between Bruce Lee and Muhammad Ali?

Since we first saw a preview of the (excellent) episode a few weeks ago, we’ve asked ourselves difficult questions: Street fight? No weapons? What was Muhammad Ali’s weight advantage? And then we remembered something important: We know Bruce Lee’s biographer. His name is Matthew Polly, and he’s cool, and we spoke to him in June for our “Shoot This Now” podcast, which you can listen to on Apple or right here.

Also Read:How Did Bruce Lee Die? New Book Has a Sad, Strange Explanation (Podcast)

OK. If you’ve listened to the podcast, you now know some weird stuff like how Roman Polanski briefly suspected Lee in the Manson murders — and that Lee broke down racial barriers not just for Asians, but African-Americans as well. You probably want to buy Matthew Polly’s magnificent book, “Bruce Lee: A Life.”

But what you want most of all is Polly’s take on whether Bruce Lee, who died in 1973, could beat Muhammad Ali, who died in 2016. We get it.

First, the Madrigal Debate

Three-fourths of the way into the “Better Call Saul” Season 4 premiere, the debate breaks out. One Madrigal employee, played by Bechir Sylvain, astutely tells a co-worker: “I don’t care how fast you are. Muhammad Ali hits you, you’re going down. That’s a fact.”

Bechir Sylvain, Jonathan Banks and Brendan Jennings

“If he hits you,” replies his co-worker, played by Brendan Jennings. “Bruce Lee, he knows the anatomy. He’s got the moves. He’s gonna find an opening!”

“Without power though, the opening doesn’t mean squat. How much does he weigh? … Ali was the heavyweight champ. He’s got at least a hundred pounds on Lee.”

All of these are great points. We’ll address them below.

Ali Was Much Bigger

“I think it was John Saxon who asked Bruce if he could beat Ali, and Bruce laughed, “Have you seen the size of his fists? They are bigger than my head.” The story might be apocryphal as it indicates a self-deprecating sense of humor which was not Bruce’s forte. That’s why I didn’t include it in my book. But you can throw it with that caveat,” Polly told us.

But Polly is a man of honor. So he suggested we also contact Ali’s biographer, Jonathan Eig, author of “Muhammad Ali: A Life,” which you can check out here.

Eig’s response was swift.

“Street fight? No rules? Ali kills him. Ali’s twice the size of Lee,” he said.

Lee, who was 5’7”, never weighed more than 145 pounds, as Polly’s book notes. Ali, who was 6’3”, fought at between 210 and 240 pounds, Eig said.

That might seem to end the debate. Until you consider the problem of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

The author, actor, activist and basketball legend is 7’2” — nearly a foot taller than Ali. Over his basketball career, he weighed in at between 225 and 265.

He fought Lee on-screen in “Game of Death,” using his superior reach (see below) to tremendous advantage until Lee’s character discovered and exploited the only apparent weakness of Abdul-Jabar’s character. (Just watch it.)

Could Lee have beaten the real Abdul-Jabar? Lee thought it might be possible. And he was in a good position to know, because he was Abdul-Jabbar’s martial arts teacher.

Bruce Lee and Kareem Abdul Jabbar during the shooting of “Game of Death”

“Bruce did spar with Kareem Abdul Jabbar and his comment was, ‘His arms and legs are so long I couldn’t get inside to strike him. In a real fight, I would have to take out his knees first,'” Polly explained. “Based on that, I think that would be his strategy against Ali, who while not as huge as Kareem, was still almost twice as big as Bruce. Bruce would use low kicks to try to cripple Ali before Ali could land one of those skull-sized fists on Bruce’s face. Whether or not Bruce could accomplish that is anybody’s guess. I’ve lost a lot of money betting on fights with a great deal more information about the match-up than Lee v. Ali.”

Also, remember the first question we asked — the question first asked by one of the Madrigal employees and then by Eig.

Would this be a street fight?

Bruce Lee Was a Street Fighter

The no-rules format might work to Lee’s advantage. The fight style Lee practiced, jeet kune do, was built around the idea of constantly adapting. It evolved from Lee’ youth spent as an inveterate street fighter.

Ali, however, was a peaceful man outside the ring. He lost several years when he could have boxed in the late 1960s and early ’70s — years when Lee was becoming famous — because he was ensnared in a legal fight with the U.S. government over his refusal to be drafted to kill the Northern Vietnamese.

“He was not confrontational as a kid. He didn’t get into scraps on the street,” Eig noted.

That peaceful nature might not have served Ali well against Lee. The master of jeet kune do would have exploited every possible advantage.

“I’m certain Bruce, who was obsessed with Ali, spent a lot of time thinking about how he could beat the champ in a fight,” he said.

But Again, Ali Was Much Bigger 

We keep coming back to the same incredible advantage Ali held over Lee. Lee was famous for chain-punches, a series of quick, devastating strikes, delivered in close quarters. But to again quote Madrigal Employee #1: “Without power though, the opening doesn’t mean squat. How much does he weigh? … Ali was the heavyweight champ. He’s got at least a hundred pounds on Lee.”

Well: At Lee’s peak weight, and Ali’s lowest, Ali only had 65 pounds on Ali. But still.

“He’s so big and so strong,” said Eig. “In boxing, at least, if you’re a lighter weight class you can’t beat a heavyweight. Ali took punches from the biggest, strongest men on the planet –Sonny Liston and George Foreman and Earnie Shavers. I don’t see how those punches from Bruce Lee are gonna stop him.”

But Wait: Why Would They Fight?

It’s often said that a fight’s real winner is the one who walks away from it.

Lee, as Polly’s book recounts, passed up several challenges from cab drivers, drunks in bars, and people on the street who wanted to test their skills against his — but he had no reason to fight them. Ali didn’t look for trouble, either.

As far as Eig knows, Ali never even mentioned fighting Ali.

“It’s hard to imagine them having reason to fight,” said Eig.

Also, Memo to Madrigal

No disrespect to Mike, but he’s no Bruce Lee or Muhammad Ali, and while you were distracted over a debate that Lee and Ali could have easily settled, if they’d chosen to do so, during their remarkable lifetimes, good old Mr. Ehrmantraut exploited your weaknesses with the efficiency of Bruce Lee punching windows in “Game of Death.”

https://www.thewrap.com/bruce-lee-vs-muhammad-ali-better-call-saul-debate-matthew-polly-jonathan-eig/

 

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How Bruce Lee's Star Rose After His Death

According to the wishes of the widowed Linda, Lee mixed East and West even in death; he was buried in Seattle with a gravestone that was hand-carved in Hong Kong, identifying him as “Founder of Jeet Kune Do.”

In Dec. 27, 1973, Variety did a front-page story and chart summarizing the year’s “top key-city grossers.” The story said the star system was thriving, with most top films sporting marquee names. Among the stars with two films in the year’s top 50 were Barbra Streisand, Robert Redford, Gene Hackman — and Lee. “Enter the Dragon” was No. 20 for the year, with “The Chinese Connection” at No. 47.

The following month, Variety ran an unbylined story about martial arts action films, which had ballooned in popularity after years of being limited to “ethnic houses in the Chinatowns of major American cities.” The story said it was unclear at that point whether martial arts films would be a fad or become a lasting film genre, “but karate and related elements will surely be incorporated into standard actioners in the future.”

The story said that one reason was Lee, who died suddenly “before he could capitalize on his fame. Bruce Lee posters are now available in most cities, giving the actor a James Dean aura in some quarters.”

Like Dean, Lee created a legacy that lasted far beyond his few films. Forty-five years after his death, he is still a reminder that there is a huge audience for films starring Asian leading men.

https://variety.com/2018/vintage/features/martial-arts-film-star-bruce-lee-1202876010/amp/

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Quentin Tarantino says eff it, puts Bruce Lee in his new movie.

Look: We all wish we could flow like water, and be as cool as Bruce Lee. But it’s just not going to happen—at least, not until you read all these latest dispatches from the world of casting and development new. (Note: The A.V. Club in no way promises that reading Development Hell will make you as cool as Bruce Lee. Let us know if it does, though, because that would be pretty crazy.)

Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon A Time In Hollywood continues to serve up a veritable treasure trove of weird casting choices: Today, The Wrap reports that actor Mike Moh has joined the film’s cast, as Tarantino’s version of martial arts legend Bruce Lee. Moh—who’s appeared in the past on shows like Empire and Inhumans—is a devoted follower of Lee’s, filming multipletribute videos to the late actor and posting them to his social media accounts. Of course, it’s not entirely clear why Quentin Tarantino wants a Bruce Lee for his upcoming film—besides his usual catering to his various cinematic fetishes—but then, there’s not much clear about Once Upon A Time, anyway, which is being presented as a sprawling portrait of L.A. on the eve of the infamous Tate-LaBianca murders.

https://news.avclub.com/quentin-tarantino-finally-gets-to-just-straight-up-stic-1828372268?rev=1534370772099&utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=SocialMarketing&utm_campaign=SF&utm_content=Main

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Bruce Lee Seattle Chinatown tour

https://www.seattletimes.com/life/travel/bruce-lees-chinatown-tour-offers-a-personal-look-at-lee-beyond-martial-arts-stardom/%3famp=1

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Remaking Enter the Dragon in a post-Black Panther world.

https://www.firstpost.com/entertainment/remake-of-bruce-lees-enter-the-dragon-could-get-complete-overhaul-in-post-black-panther-world-5056771.html/amp

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The Life and Legend of Bruce Lee

http://radiowest.kuer.org/post/life-and-legend-bruce-lee

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Burglar Claims To Be Bruce Lee Son

https://www.redmond-reporter.com/news/burglar-claims-to-be-son-of-bruce-lee-police-blotter/

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Bruce Lee newspaper September 1973

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Statue of Bruce Lee permanently installed in Los Angeles' Chinatown.

http://www.ecns.cn/news/society/2018-10-01/detail-ifyyknzp7233237.shtml

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2 minutes ago, Phantom Dreamer said:

This website claimed/claims actor Tim Kang, who was cast in the CBS television series The Mentalist was Bruce Lee's son.

https://www.wireservice.ca/index.php?module=News&func=display&sid=6547

Fans of The Mentalist will get a treat when they watch the season 4 premiere episode tonight. The son of famed martial arts star Bruce Lee will be helping out the CBI, as Patrick Jane heads to prison.

Although it hasn't been promoted, actor Tim Kang, who plays Agent Kimball Cho, is one of the final sons born to Bruce Lee before the actor died mysteriously in 1973. Kang's mother was actress Mi Teng. As is typical of secret Hollywood birth's, their names hold a clue - the letters in Tim appear backwards in Mi Teng.

One can only imagine Agent Rigsby must find it pretty awesome that his partner is the son of the kung-fu icon who starred in "Enter the Dragon".

Don't believe everything you read

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You think this guy is Bruce Lee's son, Tim Kang? 🚼

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How Bruce Lee made Lee Kung Man’s everyday undershirt a fashion icon

https://m.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/fashion/article/2167860/how-bruce-lee-made-lee-kung-mans-everyday-undershirt

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Performance anxietyWhat if AI made actors immortal?

Once filmmakers have no need of human actors, expect more sequels, more lawsuits—and fewer opportunities for newcomers

Jul 5th 2018

In 2013 a computer-generated version of Bruce Lee was used in an advert in China for Johnnie Walker, a brand of whisky. Johnnie Walker says it consulted with Shannon Lee, Bruce’s daughter, who approved the idea. But many fans were cross, pointing out that Lee had been teetotal for much of his adult life, and asserting that, had he still been alive, he would never have appeared in such an advertisement.

https://www.economist.com/the-world-if/2018/07/05/what-if-ai-made-actors-immortal

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Spike Lee Shares How a Love of Connery’s Bond and Bruce Lee Made Him Realize ‘People Have to Tell Their Own Stories’ – Exclusive

https://www.indiewire.com/2018/10/spike-lee-cinematic-influences-diversity-1202012397/amp/

“Hollywood, in a lot of ways, has dehumanized people,” Lee said. “So that’s why it’s so important, people have to tell their own stories, that’s what it comes down to. But unlike a lot of art forms, it costs a lot of money. But it’s a powerful, powerful medium. … The first time I understood the power of film, I went to 42nd Street to see a Bruce Lee film, I don’t know if it was ‘Enter the Dragon’ or ‘Five Fingers of Death,’ but the movie came out, it was a thousand kids  running up the block, hitting each other in the head with nunchucks, doing supposedly flying kicks, landing on their ass, and that’s because they just saw Bruce Lee.”

[DragonClaws]

 

I'm not sure if this article has been posted before?, but this the best place for it.

 

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Bruce Lee, My Brother, still making a difference in the peoples' lives. 

https://www.nst.com.my/node/420185/amp

KUALA LUMPUR: For fans of kung fu legend Bruce Lee, don’t miss the biopic Bruce Lee, My Brother starring Aarif Rahman a.k.a. Aarif Lee on tonight at 9.30pm on TV2.

Born and based in Hong Kong, the 31-year-old actor and singer of Malay, Arab and Chinese parentage, plays the iconic and legendary martial artist and actor who died on July 20, 1973 at the age of 32.

He does look like a cross between Taiwanese-American singer-actor Wang Lee Hom and the character he plays, the legendary kungfu icon Bruce Lee.

“To be honest, I don’t think I look like anybody but people like to draw comparisons between me and other stars.

“I received a lot of comments that I look like Lee Hom since I was 16. However, only a handful said I resemble Bruce Lee,” said Aarif in a news report promoting the biopic a few years ago.

Bruce Lee, My Brother also features the martial artist’s family with Tony Leung Ka Fai playing the father, Christy Chung the mother, and Jennifer Tse as his love interest.

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http://thesource.com/2018/10/01/nike-air-darwin-wheat/

Q4, preparation for Halloween has also officially kicked off for those that celebrate the costume-driven holiday. Even though the actual day doesn’t arrive for another four weeks, it’s never too early to start getting your ghoulish ‘fit together from head to toe. Thankfully, Nike just dropped a new colorway for the Air Darwin silhouette that automatically reminded us of a classic Bruce Lee flick that might just give you a little inspo before October 31st hits.

For those that’ve seen the classic 1978 film Game of Death, which suffered major production setbacks due to the untimely death of the film’s star a whole five years prior to its release, this shoe is hands-down a perfect tribute to the Kung Fu legend. Originally worn by Dennis Rodman back in the ’94-95 NBA season, the Air Darwin is back in this cool autumn-inspired hue that will look good before and after Mischief Night comes around. The “Dark Russet”/”Wheat Gold” colorway makes for the perfect combination, balanced out even further with black accents on the eyelets, midsole and side panel Swoosh logo.

Whether you’re channeling your inner Bruce Lee or just getting fly for fall, pick up the Nike Air Darwin “Wheat” right now for $130 USD at select retailers, including Finish line.