THE IMMORTAL
This ‘Legend of Bruce Lee’ series has gone a full circle. Apart from his martial art achievements, which is considered a heretic by the Chinese, he has uplifted their screen stature.
Joseph Campbell says about immortality,
"I’ve lost a lot of friends, and my parents and all, and a realization that has come to me very, very keenly is that I haven’t lost them, that that moment when I was with them had an everlasting quality about it that is now still with me. What it gave me is still with me. And there’s a kind of intimation of immortality in that."
And Ernest Hemingway,
“Every man has two deaths when he is buried in the ground and the last time someone says his name. In some ways, men can be immortal.”
In the film Troy (2004), a messenger boy told Achilles that the Thessalonian giant s the biggest he has seen and he would not want to fight him. To which Achilles answered “That's why no one will remember your name.
Also its epic soundtrack song ‘Remember Me’ says,
Remember me...
Remember, I will still be here
As long as you hold me
In your memory
Remember, when your dreams have ended
Time can be transcended
I live forever
Remember me…
In the end, this is not just this is your normal tv series (altho it might look normal) but it is almost autobiographical.
But then it is also not just any normal autobiography because at a point, he transcends the normal plane into the realm of cinematic immortality with the image of unabashed youth and energy uncorrupted by human aging. This solidifies his everlasting screen persona and presence. It is almost saint-like, prophetical if not god-like. (Joseph Campbell notion of mythical ‘God’)
Traveling across the sea (to America) to build himself and returned to the island (Hong Kong) to help his people.
In one documentary, Bruce Lee has been labeled as someone who has changed the image of the Chinese from the slant-eyed Eastern Orientals to a muscular fighting force Asian Americans.
Early Hollywood won’t even let real Chinese play a Chinese character. Compared to what we see now, a full-fledged Chinese MCU superhero flick, Shang-Chi.
On-screen, Robert Downey Jr. is Ironman. Off the screen, he is Robert Downet Jr.
On-screen, Bruce Lee is Bruce Lee. Off the screen, he is still, Bruce Lee.
