Spirit of the Dragon-Never want to watch again

[Headbald]

This was a 30 episode series released by ATV in 1992. The language is Cantonese. Full of inaccuracies and made up-nonsense. Let's see...how do I start? First, Lau Kar Leung plays not Lee Hoi Chuen but Lee Pak Chuen who is a Hung Gar master. Bruce Lee already was already proficient in the Nunchaku in his secondary school days. He also managed to beat up the top black belts in the Taekwondo and Karate classes in his school during that time.When he founds Jeet Kune Do, no mention is made of him including non-Chinese martial arts moves from Judo,Fencing and Boxing etc. His wife's name has been changed to Brenda and his son to Jimmy. Oh yeah, just before "Brenda" meets him for the first time, she had just visited the Shaolin temple(in China during the 1960s!?). Dan Inosanto is never mentioned and neither are the real life Bruce Lee's other black and white friends. Taky Kimura is the only one mentioned.There's even a scene where Bruce visits a Betty Ting Pei-like character and then gets a headache. Roll end credits. At the start of the next episode, Bruce says "I wonder what people would be saying had I died in your house here." Just another Kung Fu-centric Hong Kong movie/series. Skip this one.

There is however another series that is more "accurate". The 2008 one called The Legend of Bruce. Bruce Lee's real life daughter is the executive producer of this series. True, there are many moments which are exaggerated but Bruce's associates like Dan Inosanto, Taky Kimura, Wally Jay, Ed Parker and even their version of Chuck Norris are mentioned. It covers all of the signature events of Bruce Lee's life. Bruce can lose fights in his learning process. The other characters close to Bruce are called by their real name. A cringeworthy moment is when Bruce says "that he hates the Japanese." Definitely made up since Bruce Lee was never mentioned in real life as such but did he really say that line in this series? I have to fast forward to watch it again. But at least this version shows Bruce being open to non-Chinese martial arts as with his JKD philosophy. This one is the better series although watching it alone without the 1992 one for comparison will also have you giggling at some exaggerated events. But to be fair, one thing that it has in common with the 1992 version is that it also avoids including a scene where Bruce dies in a Taiwanese actress's house. (Sorry, I just read the wikipedia for The Legend of Bruce Lee series and the way Ed Parker was portrayed is far from palatable).

 

[Darren]

This was a 30 episode series released by ATV in 1992. The language is Cantonese. Full of inaccuracies and made up-nonsense. Let's see...how do I start? First, Lau Kar Leung plays not Lee Hoi Chuen but Lee Pak Chuen who is a Hung Gar master. Bruce Lee already was already proficient in the Nunchaku in his secondary school days. He also managed to beat up the top black belts in the Taekwondo and Karate classes in his school during that time.When he founds Jeet Kune Do, no mention is made of him including non-Chinese martial arts moves from Judo,Fencing and Boxing etc. His wife's name has been changed to Brenda and his son to Jimmy. Oh yeah, just before "Brenda" meets him for the first time, she had just visited the Shaolin temple(in China during the 1960s!?). Dan Inosanto is never mentioned and neither are the real life Bruce Lee's other black and white friends. Taky Kimura is the only one mentioned.There's even a scene where Bruce visits a Betty Ting Pei-like character and then gets a headache. Roll end credits. At the start of the next episode, Bruce says "I wonder what people would be saying had I died in your house here." Just another Kung Fu-centric Hong Kong movie/series. Skip this one.

There is however another series that is more "accurate". The 2008 one called The Legend of Bruce. Bruce Lee's real life daughter is the executive producer of this series. True, there are many moments which are exaggerated but Bruce's associates like Dan Inosanto, Taky Kimura, Wally Jay, Ed Parker and even their version of Chuck Norris are mentioned. It covers all of the signature events of Bruce Lee's life. Bruce can lose fights in his learning process. The other characters close to Bruce are called by their real name. A cringeworthy moment is when Bruce says "that he hates the Japanese." Definitely made up since Bruce Lee was never mentioned in real life as such but did he really say that line in this series? I have to fast forward to watch it again. But at least this version shows Bruce being open to non-Chinese martial arts as with his JKD philosophy. This one is the better series although watching it alone without the 1992 one for comparison will also have you giggling at some exaggerated events. But to be fair, one thing that it has in common with the 1992 version is that it also avoids including a scene where Bruce dies in a Taiwanese actress's house. (Sorry, I just read the wikipedia for The Legend of Bruce Lee series and the way Ed Parker was portrayed is far from palatable).

never ever did like wire kung-fu. where they have all these fancy moves but the only way they do those fancy moves is floating around the place on wires, i want to real deal!