brandon lee & jkd

TenTigers

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What bothered me was that for a time, he seemed to rebel against everything JKD and trained with the guy who trained David Carradine, of all people. What crap. He eventually got back into it, with I believe, Jerry Poteet?
 

Jimi

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Brandon trained at the Inosanto Academy for a while among other JF/JKD people. I don't know that he rebeled against JKD, but he may very well have trained with the guy who trained David Caradine. But that is not where he got JF/JKD, or Kali or Muay Thai, he got that stuff from Dan and his associates. I am sure someone here can back this for us.
 

GBlues

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Hmmmm....I don't know what his skill level was like, but I do remember a Black Belt magazing from my youth with an interview with him. I guess the subject of a guy breaking into his house came up. Some dude broke in and I guess Brandon just kicked the living crap out of this guy. So I guess he was proficient enough to stop a burgular at the very least. Don't know if I remember correctly or not, but I believe he said the guy had a knife also. From everything I've ever read about the guy, everybody says, he was an excellent martial artist. He did take a break from the jkd for awhile he said. But he ended up going back to it. You know a thought just crossed my mind while I'm writing this. How hard must it have been for Dan Inosanto??? He loses his friend Bruce, and watches his best friends kid grow up, he must have felt like Uncle Dan....RIght? Then he loses Brandon, and in a way, you could say that he lost Bruce twice. I neve thought of that before........
 

Laoshi77

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Hmmmm....I don't know what his skill level was like, but I do remember a Black Belt magazing from my youth with an interview with him. I guess the subject of a guy breaking into his house came up. Some dude broke in and I guess Brandon just kicked the living crap out of this guy. So I guess he was proficient enough to stop a burgular at the very least. Don't know if I remember correctly or not, but I believe he said the guy had a knife also. From everything I've ever read about the guy, everybody says, he was an excellent martial artist.

Yes this is quite a famous story.
You are correct that the burglar was armed with a knife, I believe Brandon broke the intruder's jaw and some ribs.

I remember an interview with Dan from around ten years ago where he thought that Brandon was not far off the stage Bruce was at when they were a similar age.
This if true is obviously a glowing account.
 

ap Oweyn

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I don't think I would call what Brandon Lee did "a rebellion." I know that, if my father were some huge pioneer in a field I was interested in, I would want to pick my own path as well. If Brandon had simply gone straight into JKD, I think it would have been difficult for him to find his own voice. As was, I think that training elsewhere and coming to his own conclusions probably means that he came to JKD with a better understanding of what he wanted to get out of it.

People have to conduct their own experiments sometimes. Not just take what others have already done at face value. Experience is often a better teacher than observation.


Stuart
 

Stickgrappler

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hello:

it would not be a stretch to think that Brandon did train with the instructor who trained carradine. after all they were both in that made-for-tv movie where IIRC, Brandon played kwai chang caine's son.

very truly yours in the MA,

~sg
 

ap Oweyn

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hello:

it would not be a stretch to think that Brandon did train with the instructor who trained carradine. after all they were both in that made-for-tv movie where IIRC, Brandon played kwai chang caine's son.

very truly yours in the MA,

~sg

I believe the teacher's name was Mike Vendrell. He was the choreographer for Carradine's "The Legend Continues" series.
 

Smoke

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I somewhat enjoyed "The Crow", way back in the day....
 

chinaboxer

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Brandon didn't want to be portrayed as just a martial arts guy and son of Bruce Lee who could only do martial arts. He wanted to be seen as a serious actor first and foremost. But breaking into the business is extremely difficult and he realized later on that instead of trying to shy away from his relations of his famous father and martial arts, he decided to embrace it.

He soon began training in earnest at the Inosanto Academy, where he really took to Muay Thai and some Jun Fan. That's when he started to get parts in films. He was a great person and loved the physicality of training. In many ways he was the exact opposite of his father, Bruce was a martial artist first, actor second. Brandon was an actor first, martial artist second.

He also gave many friends at the academy their first stunt work job on his movies. such as Chad and Damon, who have now gone on to become heavy weights in the film industry stunt work division. they've gone on to create their own company and have done every major film in the industry such as "The Matrix", "300", "Spider Man" etc..

I'm sure that Brandon would have gone on to become a great role model and actor. I'll always remember him best rolling into the academy on his motorcycle, like James Dean.
 
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