La vie fantastique de Bruce Lee

I saw this film under the title "Bruce Lee:the Man and the Myth" If this is the true story, he certainly led a pretty hectic life. All he seems to do is get into fights. But they are well staged and make exciting viewing.Li is a good lookalike for Lee and does a good impression of him. But he has neither the charisima or style of the man who meant as much to his generation as Valentino and Dean did to theirs. What is all boils down to is just another cash in on Lee's death. The exercise sequences are the most interesting.

I imagine that somewhere, somebody has sat down to watch BRUCE LEE - THE MAN, THE MYTH expecting to see a worthwhile biography of the late, lamented martial arts master and instead found themselves sitting through a plot less (though action-packed) fight flick. Bruce Lee's life story is told through action rather than words as its basically little more than one long series of elaborate fight sequences in different locations with only the bare backbone of a storyline that manages to incorporate footage of Lee's corpse at his funeral and even his gravestone (which I presume isn't faked). All is not lost, however, as this is actually a fairly big budget and official-feeling version of the big man's life and times, managing to convey at times his struggle to bring Chinese cinema and kung fu to the western world, and even managing a little foreboding towards the end of the movie as his death becomes imminent.

Production values are good, with crisp, clear photography and great locations. However, where this film really excels is with the action sequences which are exceptionally good. Bruce Li acquits himself beautifully with his imitation of the master and manages to be very close to the man he plays in terms of style, action and characteristics. He fights very well indeed (some of the slickest, fastest, most powerful fighting I've seen in a kung fu film here) and the choreography, being excellent, adds to the experience. About 80% of the movie consists of the action and the rest involves elaborate training sequences and plot filler, wasting time until the next inevitable bout of martial arts mayhem. The only flaw is in the occasional bad dubbing, especially the hilarious interlude with a crowd of British joggers! This is a solid actioner, nothing more and nothing less, that pays tribute to Bruce Lee as it should.

This is a biopic of the legendary martial artist Bruce Lee staring Bruce Li. It's actually quite an effective film about his rise to stardom. Li has one half the charisma of Bruce Lee but that's not unexpected. The plot follows his life especially in his epic fights. The action is solid with loads of hand to hand combat. Li is at least competently skilled in that arena. There are some missing story elements and some liberties are taken as always. His family life is mostly in the background. The production value may not be that high but in a way, it matches those Bruce Lee movies of that era. It's a functional biopic and that's more than expected.

Bruce Lee, the Man, the Myth and the Legend (1976) was one of the many and I do mean many Bruce Lee rip-offs, knock-offs and wannabe Bruce Lee films that were being cranked out of Asia and parts unknown after the "Master" died in 1973. One of them is this one. It details certain points in the young Dragon's life. Reportedly based upon his life but it's a cheesy, clichéd filled and heavy fictionalized account of his life. But it's perversely entertaining. A companion film to this would be The Game of Death II. which also stars several of the participates and is directed by the same man who directed this schlock.

Watch out for brief cameos from Mars, Yuen Biao, Lee Hoi Sang and Hark Fung-On. The woman co-starring as Bruce's wife looks just like her! Bruce's former buddy Unicorn Chan makes a guest star appearance. Karma would later claim his life a few years later. I would recommend this one for it's sheer lunacy. Check out his "electromagnetic" therapy and Futuristic computerized training!

I would give this film a B+

As a kid, Bruce Lee was (& still is) one of my biggest heroes.

I saw this movie on the big screen during a revival of it sometime in the early 80's and absolutely ate it up.

FF to this week I revisited this & watching it again through adult lenses gave me a very different perspective of it.

This often unintentionally funny movie is a wild hybrid- It's part documentary (complete with occasional narration), drama, low budget kung fu flick, & biopic.

Of all the Bruce Lee clones that came in his wake, Bruce Li was arguably the best of the bunch.

"The Man, The Myth" loosely (& I emphasize *loosely*) follows his life starting as a young man in Hong Kong before he was sent to the US. It takes enormous liberties with his real life story with several ridiculous embellishments & outright fabrications of altercations with rival martial arts schools. Also some greatly exaggerated depictions of his training regimen.

(The massive machine he threw punches in) The scene that stuck with me as a kid (that was likely yet another total embellishment) was when he was advised to go into hiding for 10 years & return in 1983. I recall hoping that was true.

What was funny to me about this film (& so many kung fu movies of that era) is the way they really drove the point of putting other martial arts down in favor of kung fu. Any long time fan knows this is something Bruce Lee would never do as he was always looking at other fighting styles to improve what he strove for. Taking what was useful & leaving behind the unnecessary.

I always wonder what Linda Lee went through during the 70s having to see all these sub-par movies being made with cheap imitations of her husband.

Still, nostalgia is a powerful thing & it was fun to revisit this movie again.

Do I recommend it? I'll say this is definitely Not a must-see. If you want a FAR more accurate retelling of Bruce's life watch "Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story" with Jason Lee.