Bruce Lee walks in on his pupils' conversation with piqued interest. "What do you mean you've met a legend? You see me every day." Bruce becomes perturbed when he finds out the students were speaking about Wong Jack Man. "Shaolin has sent him to spy on me. He doesn't like that I teach whites." Birth of the Dragon is directed by George Nolfi (The Adjustment Bureau) and stars Philip Ng (New Police Story, Big Blue Lake) as Bruce Lee, with Xia Yu (In the Heat of the Sun, Waiting Alone) as Wong Jack Man. The film just happened to coincide around the same time as the fight between MMA star Conor McGregor and the boxing champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. Two fighters from two different combative systems, much like this film. Wong Jack Man, a practitioner of Northern style Kung Fu to fight against Bruce Lee, whose main training was in Wing Chun, a Southern style Kung Fu.
The opening shows an exhibition match in China between Wong Jack Man and a Tai Chi master from another school. The Tai Chi master was winning and so Man, to hold on to his pride, severely wounds him with a dangerous Shaolin kick. The story then turns to Bruce Lee's martial arts class in San Francisco. One of his students, Steve McKee finds out legendary monk, Wong Jack Man is coming to San Francisco. When forced to choose between the two he decides to train with Man but acting as a go-between for the two masters. Bruce shows much anxiety as he thinks Man is there to shut him down for teaching to whites. Man however says Lee doesn't understand the true reason for practicing kung fu, nor do Westerners. Bruce demands a fight, but it becomes known that Man is in America only to do penance for harming the Tai Chi master. Meanwhile, McKee falls in love with an indentured waitress to the triads and conveniently enough a triad boss offers to free her if Lee will fight Man. With convincing, the fight begins, the two masters trading hit for hit. Then, in a moment of epiphany for Lee, Man jumps down two stories and lands without bending his knees. Lee, realizing he set limits for himself, also glides down as if walking on air. This is the turning point for Lee as he realizes the error of his ways. There was no winner so the triads could not collect money for their bets and they cancel the deal with McKee. McKee attempts to steal away his girl but is instantly humiliated by some low-levelhugs. Not to worry, Lee and Man are now good bubuddiesnd come in and swat the entire building of Triads like flys. They make their way from the ground up which appears to be an attempt at paying homage to the actual Bruce Lee's last film, Game of Death.
In reference to the title, Birth of the Dragon, the basic plot could be described as the rebirth of the hero (Bruce Lee). His role, written with character flaws such as extreme arrogance, is humbled by an older kung fu practitioner. He was shown that he has set limits on himself, later being reborn into a less obnoxious and better fighter. The first dissapointment in this martial arts flick is the fight choreography. The primary draw of Bruce Lees films were his fight scenes which helped ground the genre into more realistic sequences. Like the majority of American action films today, filming of the fights relies on an overuse of the cutting on action technique popularized by the Bourne Identity. Hardly enough time to pan the camera in a take, they have chopped what could have been well-crafted scenes by actual martial artists in the film such as Philip Ng. What you get is the rendition of a video game cutscene, complete with intermittent, slow-motion movements. Worst of all is the climax of the film for Bruce Lee. In an attempt to eradicate the versimilitude, the director decides to let Man glide down from two stories during the fight, landing without even bending his knees, Lee following suit. Lee, a prodigy street fighter who makes one spelled out character change at this point for the sake of the script. That seems to be another common theme in this film. Aside from Wong Jack Man, the characters all seem to be very one-dimensional. The same Steve McKee that goes into the movie is the same Steve McKee to come out. I would also suspect that the overwhelming amount of financing from a Chinese company led Nolfi to give too much credit to Wong Jack Man for his role in Lee's transformation and eventual development of his martial art, Jeet Kune Do.
I can not say that this film is very entertaining. It was hard to get through it a second time. With lack of much subtext in the dialogue and sub-par fight scenes, one might wonder what the point of this movie was. Marketed as a biopic of Bruce Lee (referencing him in the very title), a more compelling argument could be made that McKee or Man are the main protagonists—their roles seemingly in the foreground of the majority of the film. And that is what will detract from most viewers. People came for Lee and get McKee. The only part of this film I enjoyed was the use of an annoyingly cliche soundtrack which works good in a martial arts flick. A nice electric blast from a guitar to get you pumped up for a mediocre fight to come.
For those of you wanting to see a somewhat historically accurate dramatization of Bruce Lee, think twice before watching this. What you see is what you get, and what you see seems to be a shadow of the respect owed to this legend. Bruce Lee, the Little Dragon, who seems to take a lesser role in a movie titled after himself. He becomes a marketing gimmick. Instead you get stock characters such as McKee to tell a tale that no one is interested in. The movie is not boring, just lacking in substance. A martial arts flick to take up your time, complete with a stereotypical yin and yang dynamic between two masters.