La Naissance du Dragon

It's been 23 years since the last major Hollywood biopic on Bruce Lee. While we're a full generation forward, the 20-odd year interval wasn't sufficient to outlast the durable media biases that afflict how minorities, in this case, Asian-Americans, are depicted.

Birth of the Dragon will pull in fans off the street by claiming to tell the story of Bruce Lee, an iconic figure in American history. However, they may be surprised to find that the movie actually has very little to say about Lee. About his love life. About who he is as a human being. In fact, he is dealt with in such a stylized, mysterious manner -- and not as a full human being -- it's unclear the movie gives the viewer anything more than he already knew. Instead, Lee's primary purpose is to serve the white protagonist Steve McKnee in various ways.

First, the film gives short shrift to the actual epic fight between Lee and his rival. We do not even know how that fight impacted Lee's life afterwards, what he learned from it, or how it changed his fighting style. But we do know Lee went through all that trouble, and the animating force behind it was that Lee's rival was against Caucasians like McKnee being trained to fight. What's happening here is that - this really isn't about Lee. It's more about some character we've never heard of but somehow has the country's greatest martial arts fighter fighting on his behalf.

It doesn't end there. Lee, a role model for Americans, including Asian-Americans, is seen as flat. He is shown as without a romantic interest. In contrast, McKnee has an Asian Girlfriend...and lo and behold he needs Lee to fight for him again to get the girlfriend back after she's abducted by "bad Asians". And Lee does.

I think we came to watch Bruce Lee. Not Bruce Lee aid some random fictional nobody on his mission to belong, and then his mission to get back said nobody's girlfriend.

It's just a movie, not a study of racism. One only has to look at the review dates and see a lot were done within a few days as if it was a class project by snowflakes who are insulted by the fact that whites breathe the same air as they do. Faux intellects claiming whites insult Asians / Japanese who have a sad history, like whites that included slavery and practices of racial superiority. What has that got to do with this movie? Really nuts to get phony intellect social study reviews by rabid hate mongers. Yes, Hollywood makes a lot of junk that I would not use to hold my garbage. But this film hardly merits the volumes of visceral hate lobbed against white people. The claim that Asians are not stars in Hollywood belittles the Asian community of stars that have made it big in Hollywood. Another meh popcorn movie for a rainy day that will not be added to my collection.

That this movie is being released now just proves that people are still completely ignorant and easily fooled. And will buy anything with the name Bruce Lee attached.

"Based on a true story" except all the "facts" are completely made up. Let's make Wong a Shaolin monk. The fact he had nothing to do with the Shaolin temple and wasn't a monk doesn't really matter. Let's put him in some monk robes because, you know, that's cool....

Let's completely avoid the real reasons why the fight happened. Let's avoid what really happened in the fight.

Let's go back to the story about "teaching whites" that Linda Lee made up and has been debunked for YEARS. The already established teachers in California were already teaching non-Chinese. Wong himself taught non-Chinese.

Let's pretend a demonstration that wasn't well received was a real fight that impressed everyone immediately.

Honestly, not sure who should be more ashamed, the people who buy this schlock or the people who had the nerve to make it

This seems like the worst movie I can remember in a long time. Probably because I had great expectations and always loved Bruce Lee. Seeing how egotistical he came across, showing him making movies before he ever did, ignoring his philosophy, and many facts distorted compelled me to walk out. So my review only goes to Jack Wong and Lee's first scene together.

If you still must see this movie after reading to this review, make sure another movie is playing near yours so you can switch theaters. Wonder Woman was better the 5th time than setting through this garbage.

I bought the tickets to this movie thinking it would be a cool Bruce Lee biopic. Or failing that, at least a good action film.

It turns out Birth of the Dragon was NEITHER, giving the focus instead to an obscure side character, and failing to entertain on the action front.

First, let's talk about the pacing. After slogging through the first half of the film, we finally get to the fight that's been promised, which actually turns out OK. But after that, we're dragged through a shoehorned side-plot about the side character's love life, which feels quite empty after it's been resolved.

After leaving the theaters in disbelief that I actually spent money on this movie, I looked on the internet for alternatives to scratch my action flick itch.

Lo and behold, the 1993 biopic DRAGON: THE BRUCE LEE STORY was a MUCH better action film, and a fantastic character study on the legend of a man we know today.

Overall, if you're looking for a biopic, skip this movie and watch DRAGON: THE BRUCE LEE STORY instead. If you're looking for an action film, watch literally ANY OTHER movie than this one.