5 comments about Bruce Lee Box Set (4 Tapes).

1. This product was in great condition and arrived earlier that I had expected. Thank you.



2. Amazon has great customer service. The Bruce Lee Collection was new- still in its original packaging and still at a great price.



3. This is easily one of the best investments to my collection, I mean 4/5 of bruce lee's movies, and a documentary.
   
   Now fisrt of all, all of these movies are the original dub and very watchable picture.
   
   Fist of fury(Big Boss)----- very fun movie with bruce beating up a lot of people. The end fight is prettygood because it was so authentic. Pai ying is the man, he is also the action coordinator on this.
   
   Chinese Connection(Fist Of Fury)------ One of the best movies of all time. Great fight scenes(check it out when he takes on the whole gym), great score, great acting, hell, even Lo wei is an actor in this movie, and he is pretty freaking good.
   
   Return of the dragon(enter the dragon) directed by bruce lee, action directed by bruce lee, and starrign bruce lee. Come on bruce, you could have put your name as composer too. This movie kicks ass, better than big boss, but not as good as chinese connection. Everyone knows this is the one where bruce fights chuck norris at the end. And it is everythign it is made out to be, certainly not the best though.
   
   Game of death---this is your classic case of fastforwarding kungfu cinema. The fight scenes are pretty good, but a VERY FORGETTABLE story.
   
   Documentary-------very good doc. that talks a lot about what bruce was planning for game of death(sounds sweet), and what other characters he wa experimenting with for hsi future movies. Can you believe he had a blind swordsman idea in mind for himself. There is a lot of other important info also. 5/5 for the documentary, good for any bruce fan.
   
   So I have seen this at cd tradepost for 14.99, and 19.99 at Best buy, so I don't know where the hell that $38 price comes from.



4. i bought this set at a used dvd store for $15.00 and was very happy to find it. watching it i was struck by how much talent and energy this man had! had he lived he would have one of the most bankable stars in the world.to be sure these are low buget action movies, but mr. lee brought a style to them that no other actor could have brought, his every move was a graceful and well thought out move,even just walking down the street. these are all the films he made(except for enter the dragon which he made for warner bros.) and he shines in them all,(game of death the movie he was making when he died is very weak and only comes alive when they use the footage of him that was shot) and if you love lee or good kung-fu movies this is one to own



5. This is a fine collection of Bruce Lee classics!
   
   It's not the best thing since sliced bread...but it's close.

5 comments about Chinese Connection 2.

1. Chinese Connection 2 (released as Fist of Fury 2 in many parts of the world) is a sequel to Bruce Lee's memorable film The Chinese Connection (Fist of Fury), taking up the story immediately following the death of Chen Chen, who was killed in a most memorable ending after avenging the murder of his Teacher. The Ching Wu school is, to put it mildly, in disarray, and this condition quickly begins to spread to the other Chinese martial arts schools in Shanghai. The Japanese, for their part, are more cruel and contemptible than ever, continuing to take out Ching Wu students and eventually, under the leadership of a new martial arts master named Miyamoto, taking over the Ching Wu school itself. It's actually rather hard to watch at times, as the defeated and demoralized Chinese fighters turn into weak cowards, and those who do stand up and fight back prove vastly unequal to the task. The Ching Wu teacher, believing he has failed his Teacher and his students, has become an alcoholic and a thoroughly broken man. At this point, Chen Chen's brother Chen Shan (Bruce Li) arrives in Shanghai determined to avenge his brother's killing. He alone shows no fear of the Japanese, delivering a number of up close and personal instruction sessions with those who try to get in his way. The Chinese actually berate the man and urge him to leave town so that the Japanese won't come after them, but Chen Shan refuses to stand down.

   I must say that Bruce Li really impressed me in this film with both his acting and his martial arts skills. The other Bruce Li films I have seen left me rather noncommittal as far he was concerned, but he really gives the Japanese what for in this surprisingly good sequel to the original film of Bruce Lee's. I keep wishing Li would break out the numchuks at some point, but he definitely lets his hands and feet do the talking here.

   Even on DVD, the film quality of Chinese Connection 2 leaves a little something to be desired; I believe that, among other things, the full screen presentation of the film causes viewers to miss a good bit of the visual information afforded by the original presentation aspect ratio. Unquestionably, this Hong Kong production is of an obviously inferior film type than that of the original Chinese Connection starring Bruce Lee. Still, this is one of the best Bruceploitation films I've seen, and fans of Bruce Lee should not be afraid to test the waters of this Chinese Connection sequel; it is much better than I expected it to be.




2. Undoubtedly, Bruce Li is the best known Bruce Lee imitator. While the body of his work includes some stinkers, this film is a true classic. The film picks up right where Bruce Lee's original left off. Li plays Lee's brother who comes to avenge his death...and boy, does he kick some a##! Show stopping martial arts, and an ending that is much more satisfying than that of the original. The production values and acting are also way above typical Bruce-ploitation fare. You must see this! Incredible! ONE MAJOR COMPLAINT: This film was taken from a U.K. version of the film. This means that the nunchaku fight sequences, which Bruce Lee immortalized, and which Bruce Li interprets in this film are simply cut from the film. This ridiculous edit is common for films edited or produced in the UK. During Bruce Lee's hey day, his use of the nunchaku was deemed "too violent" for the British public to view, so all of his films were shown in the UK minus any nunchaku fight scenes. The thought was the use of the weapon on film would bring to the fore legions of nunchaku armed hooligans to beat up the rest of the populace. What it actually does is diminish some of the most important tension in this film. Watch carefully near the end of the film when his young friend runs and gets Li's nunchaku to fight the Japanese. Soon the nunchaku, are gone, and its obvious something happened, because as he's dying he has them in HIS HANDS! Bruce Li takes them from him, but SURPRISE! In an instant, Bruce is fighting the Japanese bare handed! Wah hooopened????? This is pretty screwed up, and for someone who wrote his master's thesis on these films and saw this in its original cinematic release, its pretty revolting. In addition, there is a scene where the Japanese leader watches a Cougar finish devouring a pigeon. What the BRITISH CENSOR cut out was the scene where the Japanese leader (Lo Leih of "five Fingers of Death" fame), takes the pigeon from the cage and tosses it to the cat for dinner. Well, now don't you feel all comfy now that you know you wont be influenced to use nunchaku or kill pigeons! PUHLEASE!!!! Anyway, if your not a nit picky kung fu fanatic like me, it wont bother you...but these are some major sequences to remove from this masterful work. If you can find one, try getting an early VHS copy which will hopefully have the uncut version of the film.



3. I've been looking at anything related to bruce lee there is on the market. The this is the first (bruce lee clone) movie I see that trully reflects some of Bruce Lee real ideals. Even though it is impossible to say that the skills of Bruce Li, on martial arts, match those of Bruce Lee, he is very good. The quality of the dvd is good for movie made on the 1970's.



4. Words can't describe how impressed I was with the OFFICIAL sequel to Bruce Lee's Chinese Connection...the film picks up where Chinese Connection left off, awesome fight choreography, awesome acting, colorful characters(many of the same characters from the 1st movie) and my man Lee Roy Lung(bka Bruce Li) did an excellent job portraying the borhter of Lee's murdered character in that he was being himself as opposed to mimicking Bruce Lee with fake Bruce Lee yells and pseudo-boxing techniques. I consider this film a classic and a REAL tribute to Bruce Lee's life, legacy and contributions. Bruce Li's GREATEST ALL-TIME WORK, hands down...period. A perfect companion to Bruce Lee's Chinese Connection, no doubt. If you buy at least one Bruce Li flick in your entire life, BUY CHINESE CONNECTION 2!



5. I went into this expecting just another Bruce clone movie but man was I surprised. Not only do they have the same actor that was Bruce's master, but they have many other actors who were in Bruce's movies! On top of this Bruce Li puts on a SUPERB acting performance. Phillip Ko has a cameo, James Nam is pretty good, and Lo Lieh is great as the Japanese master.
   
   Don't expect the greatest action movies ever though the final fight is awesome, but get this flick to get one of the best acting performances ever by Bruce Li, seriously.
   
   Also in this movie is the little monkey guy from Lost Sowrdship and he was Slasher Pete's(Wilson Tong's) friend in Shaolin Kingboxer. Looking at his Hitler mustache helped me realize right away that this is where the movie Legend of a Fighter came from. Legend of a Fighter(Secret Master) is my favorite movie ever and it was interesting to notice how they did the music pretty much the same and that Leung Ka-yan plays his charcter JUST like Bruce Li did in this movie. It is also the same in MANY other ways but the biggest is Beardy fighting the Japanese master at the end. Legend of a Fighter = Chinese Connection 2. It's hard for me to say it but this movie is actually better in a few minor ways. Co-director Lee Tso-Nan gives possibly his best directing job ever in this.
   
   I have the bargain Platinum Disc DVD which is full screened. If anyone knows of a widescreen version of this movie please tell me.

No comments about Bruce Lee: Dragon Immortal.

5 comments about Young Bruce Lee: The Little Dragon.

1. This is for hardcore Bruce Lee fans only.
   It has over an hour of childhood footage that is charming,but no action(the fights are supplied later by Bruce Li).
   The English dubbing is excellent though.

   Bonus materials are another story.
   Audio commentary by Jesse Glover,Bruce Lee's first student is excellent.Audio qualty is not good though.
   Mini docus on Lee's Seattle years and his ancestral home in China are different and absorbing.
   Bruce Lee as Kato on the Milton Berle show is the stand out of this DVD.Amazing footage,but short.
   I would recommend Death by Misadventure over this one.




2. This DVD offers long segments of footage from Bruce Lee's movies from his youth. Interesting to see for the first time, but not very entertaining to watch more than once. One of the reasons for this is because the audio is just horrendous. Bad English dub and it's hard to understand. The original Cantonese version (with optional English subtitles) should of been used instead of the dub. Picture quality is bad too, it has a yellow tint, probably needs to be remastered. Also, lot's of Bruce Li (most popular Bruce Lee immitator) footage scattered in between early Lee movie segments. Seems like the production team use the Bruce Li footage to maybe try and fool people into believing that they are actually seeing the real Bruce Lee in action. The extras are pretty good and probably the best part of the DVD. One extra has Lee's students talk about Lee's home and daily life, while filming Lee's hang outs with a camcorder. A good presentation of the Bruce Lee museum in China at Lee's ancestral home. Rare footage of Bruce Lee as Kato with the Green Hornet, and Batman (Adam West) at a Hollywood type tv show. Entertaining to see but, the picture quality and sound is horrible. Last extra, is a demonstration of Lee's power demonstrated by a possible JKD student. I wasn't too excited about this one. Overall, the DVD is good to see, but it may not be worthwhile for everyone. Needs work in quality and presentation.



3. The Young Bruce Lee is nothing more than a ridiculous movies made by Bruce Li, the phony Bruce Lee 'wannabee.' The only real Bruce Lee footage in this film are some still shots of Bruce Lee in his coffin at the end of this terrible movie. How the hell can you all post your comments about this film?? There is no footage of Bruce Lee childhood movies, etc... Is there another version of The Young Bruce Lee which actually contains the footage mentioned in the reviews posted on this page? This is nothing but false advertising. I purchased this DVD based on the several reviews posted on Amazon.com by individuals who supposedly own this product. If Amazon.com cannot check the validity of reviews that it posts, I guess it's safe to say that Amazon.com has lost me as a customer.



4. I unfortunately own this movie on VHS. It is the most HORRIBLE movie I have ever seen. It is a complete waste of life to watch a second of this movie. The information in the movie is conpletely wrong and the movie doesn't even make sense half the time. The movie is absolutely rediculous and is sure to induce a migraine to all who view it. So, I suppose if you enjoy popping pain relief tablets, this is the film for you.



5. Considering how notorious my man Bruce Li is for starring in B-F grade BRUCEploitation flicks, the Young Bruce Lee impressed me for a good 85-90% of the film. It was unique in that it dramatized Bruce Lee's relationship with 2 other central characters from childhood to adulthood, and contrary to some other posts, I found the action/fight sequences to be impressive on Bruce Li's part, considering that there are so many other BAD movies he's starred in, in which he'd take beatings of 'Passion of the Christ' proportions before mounting a defense. While I felt that he did a much better job at portraying Bruce Lee's character this time around, and while there was mention of his early film career, wife and kids,etc...the movie falls off at the end in that one moment Bruce Lee is streetfighting in the mountains somewhere with a group of martial artists avenging the beatdown of one of there comrades, Bruce wins, and then after a long hiatus, the film jumps to his childhood friend holding a paper announcing Lee's untimely death. And what REALLY made me want to sidekick a hole in my TV screen was the fact that they alleged that Lee's wife collapsed and DIED at the funeral and that both bodies were flown to Seattle for burial. WRONG,WRONG,WRONG...Linda Lee is alive and well! TERRIBLE! But while I would recommend this movie a million times over Bruce Lee: A Dragon Story(BOO!), I strongly recommend Chinese Connection II over the Young Bruce Lee, because in my opinion it's Bruce Li's greatest performance hands down(it's a REAL sequel to Bruce Lee's Chines Connection in which he plays the brother of Lee's character and is pretty much being Lee Roy Lung...being himself as opposed to attempting to be another Bruce Lee).

1 comments about The Real Bruce Lee [Slim Case].

1. This movie is a compilation of some of Bruce Lee's stuff. The first part is a narrative with excerpts from four of Bruce Lee's early movies from his youth. Then there is a quick biography of Bruce, followed by a lot of clips of his immitaters. Then there is the better part of a movie from hies newest immitater, Dragon Lee.

No comments about The Furious.

5 comments about City Hunter.

1. I've been reading the reviews... and noticing how everyone who gave it 'top marks' saying it was 'hylarious', 'the bets movie ever', and so on and so forth, have never seen the original anime, or even better, read the manga.
   If they had I'm sure none of those people would give it more than it's due - 1 star (for J.C. fans, maybe 2).
   This movie is a poor excuse for an adaptation. And a disgrace for the original City Hunter. Jackie Chan as Saeba Ryo?! Puh-lease!
   The attempts at manga/anime humor fall on barren ground and turn the movie into an even more of a farce as it already is.
   I wouldn't recomend this movie not even to my worst enemy and I agree with the reviewer who said 'when you die and go to Hell, Satan makes you watch this movie'. I can't imagine a torture greater than that. I'd take boiling oil any time!



2. This movie was an ok movie to watch but I think this movie could be alot more better made. But I like Jackie chan's movie so i'm not going to complain that much about this movie.



3. this flick is kinda cool... although i prefer the fighting sequences. i think that they tried to do this flic an family action flick. but anyways, what impresses me the most in this film is that use see how good people from the west is comparing to people from the east. take th fight scene jackie chan v gary daniels. u see that this is withoutv a doubt gary daniels best performance... jackie is funny as usual... if like jackie chan, or gary daniels thisis a must see movie



4. This really isn't that bad of a movie for what it is. City Hunter is based off of the Japanese cartoon City Hunter, and although this is not an animated film, it is presented as such with loads of cheesy dialouge, goofy characters, cheesy music, and cartoony sound effects. If that wasn't enough, the English dubbing version makes it just about as silly as it can get. Chan's voice unfortunately is not dubbed by himself in the English version, although his English voice-over is present in many of his H.K. films. The biggest reason anyone may want to own this film is that is also features charcaters played by Richard Norton (Road House 2, Mr. Nice Guy, Rage and Honor) and Gary Daniels (White Tiger, Rage, Riot) - the two bad guys.
   
   At some point you may end up turning this movie off before the end arrives, if you are not into such a goofy film. However, the ending is rewarding with a strong 5 minute fight with Jackie Chan against Richard Norton. Easily the best entertaining fight in the film, the Richard Norton character beats up Chan repeatedly with 2 short poles that can change into numchucks. Jackie does some cool small stunts using chairs and tables in the scene. There is also 2 fights with Jackie against the Gary Daniels charcater. The first fight is pretty short in a cabin on the cruise ship. The 2nd fight is just the silliest darned thing I have ever seen. Street Fighter video game fans might enjoy it. Jackie is thrown into an arcade machine, electricuted, and begins to take the form of various Street Fighter 2 characters, while Gary Daniels is Ken. The scene is no more than for laughs. The fight is set to look like someone is button mashing the controls to the game. When Chan becomes Chun Li, that was actually pretty funny.
   
   As for the story itself, its pretty simple. A bunch of bad guys led by the Richard Norton character board a cruise ship and eventually expose their demands - robbing the crew. Jackie Chan gets involved and tries to stop them. The film is filled with action, but its mostly gun fire and chases, aside from the 2 forementioned fights.
   
   Although most Jackie Chan films are never very serious, this one is beyond silly. Its set to be that way, so if you are ready to see a cartoony film created with real people, then you may want to check it out. It tries to be funny throughout, but it pretty much failed for me.



5. This is a live action anime. Very very funny. Live action anime means that they are going to be very over the top and very fun. There are a few scenes that I know will make anyone from 20 to 35 laugh histerically. The bad guys are great. Skilled and very good at physical comedy. Great timing. I would love to see more like this since Jackie loves comedy. This might not be his best movie... but I would definatly call it his most hilarious. That is saying something.

1 comments about WING CHUN KUNG FU 6 - BIL JEE & APPLICATIONS.

1. I was taking Wing Chun kung fu from a local instructor for a while but had to move. Where I moved they had no instructors, so I figured the best thing I could do was order some DVD's to keep my training accurate in as much as possible with a video. I was suprised how informative these dvd's could be.
   
   Pro's:
   Each form is covered in great detail from different angles and both slow and fast so you know what to work for, while explaining each move along the way.
   After covering the forms in detail, the dvd continues on showing the importance of each move and it's applications with sticky hands freestyle fighting.
   You'll break a sweat after following the forms practice. Great exercise.
   
   Con:
   Nothing beats real world practice from a qualified instructor.
   The video obviously isn't a Dreamworks production. Still you dont miss a thing.
   
   summary:
   If you're looking for something to have for study or home practice, this dvd is perfect. If you're new to Wing Chun, you really should have some real world training and use these as training aids. It's the only way to learn sticky hands fighting anyway.
   
   I ordered
   WING CHUN KUNG FU 4 - SIL LUM TAU & APPLICATIONS
   WING CHUN KUNG FU 5 - CHUM KIU & APPLICATIONS
   WING CHUN KUNG FU 6 - BIL JEE & APPLICATIONS
   WING CHUN KUNG FU 2 - WING CHUN STICKY HAND PRACTICE

5 comments about Fist of Fear, Touch of Death.

1. Unlike me, you have the help of these hilarious reviews to spell it out for you: this is a very uproarious rip-off of Bruce Lee. It's kinda like Shaft and Tiger Lily sitting down to dinner at the Cleaver's. It's so shockingly bad, it's good. I paid a buck for a copy. It was a good price.



2. This has to be one of those intentionally bad films. They mislead you by saying it's about Bruce Lee's career. Pretty much everything is fake, but they didn't really try to hide this fact. The setting is the 1979 World Karate Championships at Madison Square Garden where the successor to Bruce Lee is supposed to be determined as a result of media attention. Bruce Lee actually died several years before. Before you know it, they go to the halftime show that depicts Bruce's early days and his great grandfather, who was one of the best samurai swordfighters of the 19th century. The flashback of Bruce's great grandfather in color is most likely re-dubbed scenes from a fictional film set in ancient China,not the 19th century, where the martial artists have unrealistic abilities. The scenes depicting Bruce's early days in black and white have nothing to do with the karate lessons that the poorly dubbed dialogue is talking about, since the characters just sit around and do nothing the whole time. Anyway, everyone knows samurai are not from China or the 19th century. Adolf Caesar mentions Bruce Lee as the king of kung fu in the beginning, but in the flashbacks and other parts, they say that Bruce does karate, which is also from Japan and not China. A karate tournament that happens every year hardly seems to be appropriate in determining the succesor to Bruce's title, especially since the championship fight that lasts only two rounds features two fighters who are probably no better than the couch potatoes in your local martial arts class. Perhaps even more insulting than a karate match resembling a boxing match determining the king of kung fu title is that the suggestion that the winner might inherit Bruce Lee's supposed curse, the touch of death. At least the main characters had the decency to conclude that the event could not live up to Bruce Lee's legacy.
   The convesations with Bruce Lee are two or more scenes of a person alternated between each other, with the words edited and entirely different backgrounds. When Bruce is supposed to be showing Aaron Banks his new move, they simply cut to Aaron Bank's face and play some fake karate noise in the background. The two of them don't even wear the same clothes throughout the whole conversation. The fight scenes where Ron Van Clief and Bill Louie beat up sex crazy street gangs teaming up on women joggers in parks are entertaining, but not very impressive. The main events are skinny guys in pajamas sparring with each other, rather than the promised highlights from Bruce Lee's career. The demonstrators need protective gear for kicks, but if Bill Louie tosses someone's eyes to the crowd, it's just part of the show. Aaron Banks demonstration of the touch of death or vibrating palm turns out to be nothing more than breaking a board with his fist. Fred Williamson is supposed to be starring with Bruce Lee, which of course is no longer possible, but he doesn't even do any fighting in this film. And his "girlfriend", who looks like she got a face transplant and had all the color bleached from her skin, begs him to satisfy her. Why would Fred be sleeping with someone he doesn't want to have sex with? He gets mistaken for Harry Belafonte, just like how every Chinese film ever made happens to be about Bruce Lee in this movie. In some versions, there is a Casper the Ghost cartoon in the special features, which is apparently just for the sake of having special features. Even though it's a cheap film, there's no excuse for the Chinese samurai and other blatant inaccuracies. After the tournament is over, Adolph Caesar says it's good that Bruce can no longer be beaten and asks "why should we try to topple his legacy", which is exactly what this film is doing.



3. First off the movie is an obvious comedy that knows it is being funny. It IS a funny movie that is a piss take on all the fake Bruce Lee movies being done at the time. The violence is comic to start with. Scenes like the eyeballs are played for laughs. Making Lee's voice fem was an obvious joke too, as was his "Samurai" background. The black and white footage IS Bruce as a child actor. Redubbed to be satirically biographical it cuts between the old film and the 70s B Samurai movie in a direct parody of "The Real Bruce Lee". The skits are meant to be funny as are the would be attackers. There are some real martial arts in the film by excellent practitioners and the point of the whole movie is that you should be yourself. The message is use Bruce to inspire you but be your own self in martial arts and in acting. I liked this very much its fun cheese that doesn't take itself seriously.



4. This is not a real Bruce Lee film. Some people said it was funny, but it is really just horrible. I couldn't even watch the whole thing. The extra cartoon "Casper" is probably the best part. If you want real Bruce Lee fighting action, you may have to spend more than $4.99.



5. I thanked him and said nothing. I had already viewed this "Messterpiece" long before on one of those "Mega" collections of Martial Arts movies. Yes, Masterpiece is miss spelled on purpose, so no coments please. As for this junk, skip it and watch "Game Of Death", As bad as it is, its better than this crap!!!!!!!!!!

5 comments about Bruce Lee: True Story.

1. This film is the best of all Bruce Lee bio-films by far. The title is truthful since it has the man and his myth included( although the original title is Bruce Lee-True Story,which is highly misleading).

   Production value is top flight,with many locations from around the world,including Rome and the U.S.A..

   Plenty of action,and the script is far better than Dragon the Bruce Lee Story.In fact,it looks like the producers of that film used whole scenes from this film to fill up their official bio-film.

   The extras are what makes this a superb DVD.

   There is a great audio commentary with many people talking about Bruce Lee. Great dialogue and information.There was supposed to be a second commentary,but I could not find it.

   Two Jeet Kune Do features are included.The first is by Karate Master Joe Lewis,a student of Bruce Lee.Here he clearly and simply explains what the art of Jeet Kune Do is about. He demonstrates and explains what Lee taught him. Excellent work.
   The second piece has Tommy Crothers showing off what the correct use of Jeet Kune Do can do.It is narrated by Jesse R. Glover,Lee's first student.Audio is hard to make out though. But this man is lethal,and confirms Bruce Lee was a martial arts genius.

   There are also interviews with Bruce Li himself and the author of Dragon the Bruce Lee Story.

   A feature on the history of the Bruce Lee Exploitation films is presented.It's quite funny in how errors and outright falsehoods have been presented over the years in these exploitation films.Bruce Li goes on record to state that he personally hated these films ,but did his best to honor Bruce Lee by giving the best performance he was allowed.

   Other extras like trailers and original television spots round off this jam packed DVD.

   There was a lot of care put into this DVD.More than the film is worth actually.But I for one am glad the effort.

   A great addition to a martial arts collection.

   For real Bruce Lee,check out Death by Misadventure,The Young Bruce Lee,Fist Of Unicorn and of course the original Bruce Lee classics




2. This is generally considered to be the best bio-pic made of Bruce Lee's life, even though it does leave some gaps in the story. Often billed as a documentary, it is in fact a movie based on the biography of the man, and it takes the high road by trying to present Bruce Lee as he really was. The film opens with the ambulance transporting Bruce to the hospital, followed by a respectful look at his gravesite, and only then do we go back in time to trace the extraordinary life of this martial arts legend. Bruce Li plays the part of the Dragon, and I was definitely most impressed by his performance. The first few Bruce Li films I watched, I couldn't understand why this man is generally considered to be the best of the Bruce Lee imitators. He impressed me in Chinese Connection 2, but Li is on top of his game in Bruce Lee: The Man, The Myth; his resemblance in both look and form to Bruce Lee is much more polished here than in Li's other films.

   We follow Bruce Lee from Hong Kong to Seattle, Washington, where he teaches the martial arts to those wanting to learn, having by now gone a long way toward establishing his own special Jeet Kune Do style. From here it is on to San Francisco and then Los Angeles, by which time he has landed the role of Kato in The Green Hornet. Eventually, the reluctance of Hollywood to build a movie around a relatively unknown Asian fighter leads him to return to Hong Kong to make a name for himself there. This film features a very nice reproduction of one scene from Bruce's first big movie, The Big Boss (aka Fists of Fury in the US). After a couple of Hong Kong successes, he makes his successful return to America to begin the film career he had dreamed about. He found early work behind the scenes of several movies, including one filmed in Rome which is reproduced faithfully on location in this bio-pic. The rest of his movie career is zipped through rather quickly, setting the stage for the inevitable and tragic death of this man whose legend will never fade away. The one major issue I have with the film concerns Bruce's wife and children. There are no references to his getting married or becoming a father; the wife and kids just turn up out of the blue one night to tell him goodnight.

   There are a number of good fight scenes in this film, largely due to the fact that Bruce Lee was constantly accosted and challenged by tough guys, martial arts "experts," and practitioners of any number of fighting disciplines wherever he went: on the street, at the airport, even on the sets of his movies. Bruce also had to endure a great deal of prejudice against his Chinese ethnicity. Heaven help anyone who put down kung fu, such as a fair number of karate experts and a number of proud Thai boxers. You would think only the most foolhardy of folks would dare challenge Lee to a fight, but there are a lot of really dumb men in the world who were taught a hard lesson by Bruce Lee.

   This film does a good job of showing just how hard Bruce Lee worked and trained, featuring shots of Bruce working with his own special proto-computer type training station and zapping himself with electricity in order to become ever stronger. Watching Bruce Li endure the pain of such unorthodox training leaves an indelible memory on the viewer's mind. The ending is quite interesting. We first see Bruce assaulted by a tremendous headache during one of his workouts (and he amazingly blocks out the pain and continues working), and in the end we see another headache hit while he is discussing his new movie with Betty Ting Pei at her apartment, after which he takes the medicine Betty gives him and lies down, never to awake. There are no innuendoes at all cast on this presentation of events. Then, almost after the fact, a narrator mentions the rumors and mystery of Bruce's death, and we are shown two scenarios popular at the time, especially in Hong Kong- in one, we see him beaten up by some well-armed thugs, and in the next we are presented with the idea that he, in order to avoid the death a wise man had predicted would strike at age 33 (actually, the movie gets Bruce's age at the time of his death wrong, saying he was 35), faked his death and would remain in isolation for ten years. I really had not heard this rumor before; at the time this film was made, though, apparently some people waited hopefully for Bruce to return in 1983.

   Bruce Lee: The Man, The Myth really is the best of the Bruce Lee bio-pics available, despite the fact it was released back in 1976. Bruce Li gives the finest performance of his career, and the movie strikes a respectful tone that fittingly acknowledges both the mythic qualities of Bruce Lee as well as the human side of the man. Bruce Lee was, after all, just a man (albeit an extraordinary one), and it is important to remember and celebrate his life rather than get completely caught up in the mythology surrounding his achievements and mysterious death.




3. I am a true fan of Bruce Lee.

   Let me sum up why you shouldn NOT buy this DVD :

   - In the audio documentaries, at the very begining, the guy says : 'I think we all agree this is not a very good movie'
   Not only they all agree but I also agree.

   The audio documentaries are VERY poor quality, those are intervieze conducted over the phone, you can barely hear what they re saying, and in fact they can hardly hear what they re saying. One of them says : "are you guys still there"

   The movie is pure fiction! You expect a good bio but the only thing you are sure that really happened is the death of Lee in Betty Ting Pei s appartment. In the movie you can see Lee (not the real one) training with a strange machine (fiction), you can see him fight during the filming of big boss (fiction again)

   The audio commentaries, appart from being poor sound qualities, really show that the guys are bored to death when they speak, and one of them is actually explaining how Lee is not that great !! He is speaking to what I believe are the videos Lee made of him and Coburn in his backyard, according to this guy, the kicks are not that good...

   I am not going to waste more time about this DVD.

   If you want to waste money and if burning your notes or sending money to charity is not an option for you, then buy this DVD.

   Don t be fooled by the other comments, that s why I bought it and here is the result.




4. "Bruce Lee: True Story" (commonly known in the west as "Bruce Lee: The Man, The Myth") was arguably the best and probably the most successful of the Bruce Lee exploitation films of the 70s. It's still pretty cheesy, though. Bruce Li stars as Lee in this heavily fictionalized biopic that covers his early days in Seattle, his big break in the film industry, the many people who supposedly challenged him to a fight, and his death (amusingly, several alternate deaths are provided at the end). Most of this is made up and the movie itself is kinda shameless, but it's more respectful than some of the other Bruce biopics and it was actually filmed all around the world (Hong Kong, Rome, USA).
   Being a VideAsia disc, the picture quality is horrible. The use of the title "Bruce Lee True Story" indicates that a subtitled Chinese print would be used, but it's merely a USA "The Man, The Myth" print seemingly mastered from a videotape (the dubbing does admittedly give the film a goofy charm). It's heavily faded with many scratchy sections. The image is pan and scan, heavily cropped from its original 2.35:1 aspect ratio, making the already sub-par fight scenes worse.
   The area that this disc truly excells in is extras. First, their are two audio commentaries. The film focuses more on Bruce Lee (with Joe Lewis, Joe Hyams, Davis Miller and George Tan) and the second on the film (George Tan and Davis Miller, again). I only listened to a portion of the first commentary, which has poor sound quality and isn't very interesting. The second commentary (which can only be accessed using the DVD Audio button), which also hard to hear, is actually very good, and well worth a listen to.
   "The Bruce Lee Stories" includes clips from various Bruceploitation films with commentary to disect the various factual errors in them. Though short, it's very funny. Bruceploitation fans will also enjoy an interview with Bruce Li. While hardly touching on "Bruce Lee: True Story" and obviously filmed for something else, Li does talk about his career and other roles, which is interesting. Another interview, with director Ng See Yuen, doesn't mention "Bruce Lee: True Story" at all.
   For Bruce Lee fans, there are two documentaries about his martial arts by two of his students (one of them being Joe Lewis). Extras are rounded out by and American trailer, TV Spots, and a strange feature called "InstaAction" that jumps right to the action scenes, skipping all that pesky plot that keeps getting in the way during the movie.



5. Quote from george tan, the producer of Death by Misadventure, a documentary included in this 4 dvd set brought to us by the infamous video asia.
   
   So the movie is horrible but it was laying around in video asia's library of crappy kung fu movies, so they used it. One interesting note is how they talk about how this movie actually reached Enter the Dragon type of box office #'s worldwide. But I guaranteee you the movie is just godawful.
   
   There are 2 commentaries on this film and one is very important. The important one has the original writer of Dragon: the Bruce Lee Story- Rob Cohen's outrageously stupid and funny American Bruce Lee Bio movie. There is A LOT of important info discussed and this dvd is HIGHLY recommended by me for any bruce lee fan. Joe Lewis comes on and talks about how he met bruce and this commentary alone easily gets a 5/5.
   
   The second commentary discusses the movie, Bruce Lee the True Story.
   
   The extras are pretty good, though the ng see-tuen interview is way out of place. Still all the extras are pretty good.
   
   NOTE-the dvd set gets only a 3 becuase the audio on the important commentary is lousily done and you will need to turn your TV up pretty loud. The commentary that talks about the movie is a little better audio quality.