It's amazing to think of what Bruce
Lee accomplished — and when. Years before martial arts action became a
staple of Hollywood and global cinema, and years before Asian-Americans
became a strong demographic presence in California, Bruce Lee brought
the majesty and discipline of centuries-old combat to America, and added
a little showmanship of his own. It wasn't easy.
In 1960s Oakland, a hotbed of hippie counterculture and
radical politics, young Bruce Lee (Philip Wan-Lung Ng) does some radical
cultural work of his own, teaching a martial arts style he himself
developed. The Bay Area Chinese community frowns on his sharing of
ancient ways with non-Chinese, but Lee is a rebel. He's intrigued when
rugged white American Steve McKee (Billy Magnussen) walks into the
class. McKee is a film actor and a risk-taker who proves an apt pupil,
and Lee, fascinated by the American's line of work, is equally eager to
learn the way of motion pictures.
But Shaolin martial arts master Wong Jack Man (Xia Yu) has
been sent from China to stop Lee's heretical education initiative. And
so things lead towards an epic showdown between Lee and Wong — with the
very legacy of Chinese tradition at stake.
Writers Stephen J. Rivele and Christopher Wilkinson craft
engaging macho banter that Ng and Magnussen make the most of, and
director George Nolfi (The Adjustment Bureau) expertly transitions the story of budding friendship into a thrilling account of the faceoff that made Bruce Lee famous.
Lee fought to make secret knowledge available to the whole world. To watch Birth of the Dragon is to be transported back to a crucial turning point in the cultures of both America and China.
Set against the backdrop of San Francisco’s Chinatown, this
cross-cultural biopic chronicles Bruce Lee’s emergence as a martial-arts
superstar after his legendary secret showdown with fellow martial
artist Wong Jack Man.
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