Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story (1993)

[Phantom Dreamer]

If you hadn't cancelled Rob Cohen before, maybe this will speed up the process. 

https://mobile.twitter.com/ValkyrieWeather/status/1098628949243056128

[eledoremassis02]

If you listen to the commentary for Dragon, he comes off as super creepy and obsessed with Lauren Holly

[DragonClaws]

 

 

[DrNgor]

On 2/21/2019 at 5:48 PM, Phantom Dreamer said:

If you hadn't cancelled Rob Cohen before, maybe this will speed up the process. 

 

 

On 3/5/2019 at 7:06 PM, eledoremassis02 said:

If you listen to the commentary for Dragon, he comes off as super creepy and obsessed with Lauren Holly

I'm pretty sure I cancelled him after watching The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor.

[DragonClaws]

 

Original Script "DRAGON A Life of Bruce Lee" Pre-Production Draft 1/5/92

Link- https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/original-script-dragon-life-bruce-lee-1824632670

 

[Cognoscente]

From the November '93 issue of Impact.

[PandaPawPaw]

As a BL biopic it sucks but as just an action film, it's good fun. I really like the Big Boss ice fight.

[J.J. Hayden]

Watched this a million times as a kid, along with the UK Bruce Lee VHS collection. I cried when I found out Bruce had already been dead for over 20 years, lol. Randy Edelman's score is awesome, it still gets me emotional today.

[Cognoscente]

It inspired me to write a better biopic albeit one where I changed the names, gender, ethnicity, country and era.

[laagi]

While a lot seem to hate this for obvious reasons. This is still my favorite Bruce Lee biopic. Call it a guilty pleasure or whatever but I like it! I've only found out years later that the Nunchuck scene was cut from the version I remembered. Glad it's finally available uncut.

[Killer Meteor]

It's a great film, but mostly fantasy as far as being a biopic is concerned. It doesn't even show Lee dying!

[Cognoscente]

Given how the movie takes liberties with Bruce's life, they could have easily pulled a con by making his death seem innocent: Bruce "doing business" with Raymond Chow in Betty's apartment instead of Bruce going to Betty's place for some hash and sex.

With Betty's apartment being featured in the "Last Days of Bruce Lee doc" at the beginning of The Chivalrous Knight, you would think that set designers would have wanted to recreated it. It's unfortunate that we don't get to see what her bedroom looks like in full. Not only could the Star Sea (Sing Hoi) crew have filmed from wider angles overall, but they could have provided a "walking tour" so that we can picture Bruce's movements.

Come to think of it, it's strange how no photos were taken of the death scene like there was when Marilyn Monroe died or when John Belushi died. It's difficult to imagine that there wouldn't have been any forensic photographers considering how the police initially considered foul play.

[Killer Meteor]

5 hours ago, Cognoscente said:

Given how the movie takes liberties with Bruce's life, they could have easily pulled a con by making his death seem innocent: Bruce "doing business" with Raymond Chow in Betty's apartment instead of Bruce going to Betty's place for some hash and sex.
 

The first Bruce Lee documentary I ever saw, THE UNBEATABLE BRUCE LEE AKA BRUCE LEE IMMORTAL DRAGON, had Bruce dying during a discussion with Raymond Chow.

See here at 35:00

 

Mind you, we're talking about a documentary that got Robert Baker and Bob Wall mixed up!

 

 

[Cognoscente]

I'm reminded of Jackie's take on it where he said (at 6:57) that Raymond went to pick him up (as opposed to "wake him up").

 

 

Bruce really let Baker down since Baker really wanted to do more HK movies. Had Lee cast him in Enter the Dragon, Wall wouldn't have been as interviewed as much (for better than worse).

[Cognoscente]

On 6/10/2007 at 9:13 PM, Guest stormybman said:

Allow me this one comment... If Lo Wei was angry enough at Jackie Chan's desire to strike out on his own to put a contract out on him, what would Raymond Chow, who gave Lee his break, do to him, when all Lee talked about was getting back to the States, taking his stuntmen who all later became stars in their own right, with him? Lee would have cleaned GH studios, and the HK talent pool dry. No Boss would EVER let that happen.

If Run Run Shaw could ban Jimmy Wang Yu from filming in HK then Chow could do the same thing to Bruce. Jackie was lucky that Lo Wei didn't do the same thing to him. Had he done so, Jackie would have stayed in Taiwan or Korea during his Kung Fu comedy years (perhaps Macau for Project A) and then doing international films like Armour of God much earlier. Without Winners and Sinners, perhaps Wheels on Meals would have been filmed earlier.

 

On 6/10/2007 at 9:14 PM, Guest fabhui said:

Now Chan Wai Man might well be able to answer more questions about the night Bruce died more than anyone else, unfortunately he ain't talking!

Chan Wai-Man was affiliated with the company who Bruce wanted to sue for incorporating his image into Fist of Unicorn. Sing Hoi was a front for the 14K Triad. Betty Ting Pei is the common denominator between Fist of Unicorn and The Chivalrous Knight. She visited the set of the former, and appeared in the latter, which also incorporated images of Bruce.

In Sing Hoi's The Last Days of Bruce Lee, Chan Wai-Man and Chieh Yuan can be seen in a group shot of Sing Hoi's main players (these two men didn't even attend the funeral whereas Lo Wei did). The below footage of Betty and Chan in the Sing Hoi studio is rather telling. Chan turns around to say something to a man behind him, that man laughs and Betty lowers her head in shame.

 

On 6/11/2007 at 2:52 AM, Guest stormybman said:

Yes, i have DBM, however, i'm curious as to what Rebui had to say about Chan Wai Man...

Rebu Hui and Sam Hui have a lot to say about Bruce & Linda but have kept their cards close to their chests.

 

On 6/11/2007 at 2:52 AM, Guest stormybman said:

Notice i never mentioned them going to Betty's flat, for i feel they never did... and if Chan was with Chow that day perhaps as muscle, along with others, the body could have been dropped at Betty's later... Lots of time lapsed between when Linda SAYS she last saw her husband and his body turning up at the hospital... 2pm-11pm? Something's not right people!!!!!

In the phone call that Langford did that became a part of the audio commentary for DBM, he expresses disbelief about Betty's involvement in Bruce's final day. He speculated that it was just a way for herself to drum up publicity for her movie career. She is often thought of as a victim, but she did more films after Bruce died. 1974 was her banner year, so to speak.
 

On 7/19/2014 at 3:05 AM, Phantom Dreamer said:

The lack of real names used bothered me. They couldn't use Ruby Chow, Raymond Chow's names etc.? They couldn't even use Golden Harvest, instead it was "Pearl of the Orient".

In Clouse's 1975 script, he adopted the same approach. He must have realized that writing a book would be better but, even then, he deliberately refused to mention Wu Ngan or Bob Baker. George Lazenby wasn't referenced at all!

 

On 7/19/2014 at 9:03 PM, Tex Killer said:

For usa attempt this was pretty good. Hollywood knows how to make Bruce Lee movie without bruce more enjoyable than their wild west flicks(excluding clint eastwood stuff). Not sure if that is good thing tho...

For a guy who could speak English, it's ironic that Alan Tang never auditioned to play Bruce in Clouse's aborted '70s biopic. He could speak English, he was in an American movie (The Dynamite Brothers), and he even stole Bruce's thunder by making a movie in America with the same HK stuntmen who Bruce wanted to bring along with him.

 

On 8/25/2014 at 8:36 PM, Phantom Dreamer said:

Could they have made a "Chinese Raging Bull"? Should they have? Would it have been more successful and accepted by the audience?

Compare it with the same year's "What's Love Got to Do With It?" The Tina Turner biopic grossed 60 million versus DTBLS's 63.5 million.

 

On 2/11/2018 at 9:25 PM, Phantom Dreamer said:

Jason Scott Lee, as Bruce Lee, with an electrical muscle stimulation device hooked up. I wonder what Bruce's looked like.

In Clouse's ETD book, Bolo had an eccentric story about a contraption that Bruce used to heighten his powers of concentration. None of the other stuntmen have referenced it, and it was never depicted in any of the Bruceploitation films. It's a shame because it would have made for a fine slice of '70s psychedelia.

 

On 6/20/2007 at 3:05 PM, Guest Markgway said:

Chan needs to write an autobiography.

Chan Wai-Man will never reveal anything damning. The closest thing that we will get to a confession from him is that he was a friend of Unicorn Chan (who can be seen in Bruce's house after his death going by Sing Hoi's Last Days of Bruce Lee footage).

 

On 7/7/2009 at 6:34 PM, David Rees said:

Apparently the autopsy was covered up and a lot of people think he was murdered for whatever reason...probably a few of the above reasons

It always amazes me that so many people in Bruce's life either believe he was murdered or heard he was murdered (mostly the former). Bolo falls into the latter camp.

 

On 7/15/2009 at 1:44 AM, The Dragon said:

Wrong director, wrong action choreographer, wrong story.

Ideally, the man for each job would have been Oliver Stone, Sammo Hung, and Tom Bleecker respectively.

Edited October 15, 2022 by Cognoscente

[Killer Meteor]

Interestingly (or not), both EXIT THE DRAGON, ENTER THE TIGER and DRAGON: THE BRUCE LEE STORY call their Raymond Chow substitute Phillip.

[Cognoscente]

In Bleecker's novel, Tea Money, the Raymond cipher is called Curtis Hing. The Bruce surrogate is a singer named Andy Li, whose widow is named Ellen. The equivalent to attorney Adrian Marshall is Paul Janofsky.

The equivalent to Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story is Crooner: The Andy Li Story. I’m surprised that Tom didn’t opt for "Canary" as a title. Andy’s daughter "Brenda" is 23, which is actually the same age that Shannon was when Rob Cohen’s film was being made in 1992. Similarly, there is a character who is a cipher for George Tan. The character’s name is Jim Loeb, and he’s described as being a biographer in his late twenties. In a 2000 post from the Temple of the Unknown forum, George mentions that he was 36. He would have been 27 going on 28 in 1992.

Chapter 9 is when we are introduced to a character named Johnny Chen. Contrary to first impressions, it’s not Joey Chen. In fact, Johnny is meant to be a composite of Wu Ngan (Bruce’s butler) and Bob Baker. The Baker connection is only obvious in Chapter 24, where it’s revealed that “Johnny” is at a rehab facility called Baker House where Ellen has been paying for his treatment for quite some time.

In Chapter 10, Frank Bellows (i.e. Bleecker) receives a phone call from a stranger named Raymond Wong - the husband of Andy’s former mistress: Tianna Wu. Raymond wants Frank to write a book that exposes the truth, even if it means Frank being a ghost-writer. Despite the insinuation that Raymond is supposed to be Charles Heung (a gangster who married Betty), I got the impression that it’s meant to be Robert Lee. It could be argued that Robert didn’t go through with writing his announced book project because he would be put under so much scrutiny, and so elected Bleecker to be his scapegoat.

[DragonClaws]