Without comparison, Bruce Lee is the greatest martial arts talent this world has seen to date. He revolutionized and modernized martial arts thru his philosophy of Jeet Kune Do, just as he revolutionized kung fu cinema.

Prior to Bruce Lee, fighting was just fighting and Kung Fu cinema was generally simple formalized stories about revenge. So was his first film, but his amazing skill and charisma, made his first film such a hit, that he was allowed to choreograph and direct the fight sequences. This should prove to become history, as the “Chinese are the weak people of Asia” fight sequence, where Bruce Lee takes on an entire Japanese school, still today, is one of the best fight sequences ever.

His idea was to extend his philosophy about martial arts onto screen. Static fighting is death, only by adaptation and rejecting form can one win. In his third film, “Way of the Dragon”, where he finally was allowed to direct himself, the final fight between him and world champion of Karate, Chuck Norris, would become a metaphor for traditional form vs. Jeet Kune Do. While the film is his weakest in story, this fight will always be the best fight ever of Kung Fu cinema.

Lee continued to modernize Kung Fu cinema. In his next film, “Enter the Dragon”, quiet possibly the best martial arts film ever, he played around with new forms of presentation of combat, amongst them using the mirror sequence from “The Lady from Shanghai” by Orson Welles to show that a kung fu fight could be more than just two men kicking at each other.

Sadly this should be his last film. While shooting his next film, he died. This caused massive conspiracy theories to be launched, but his death was contributed natural causes. The footage was later used in “Game of Death”, which then had added fight sequences and story; and part of his original idea was again later used in “Game of Death 2”.

His genius is the reason, that we today, 30 years later, still watch and are fascinated by his films!
 

Henrik Sylow

Screen Captures