Birth Of The Dragon; Don’t Believe the Reviews, Even Mine

Eric Brown
Aug 25, 2017 · 4 min read

Eric Brown | August 25, 2017

Somewhere. Some place outside the existence of humanity. A place that’s, no where specific. There’s someone learning a craft. Perfecting that craft. Mastering it. They’re obsessed with every detail — from the old and new knowledge, to the nuances of its style. For some, they will come to redefine how the world views their craft. They will, in essence, create something cool. Something that draws attention. Something unimaginable. And of course, they will make a shit ton of money because of it.


Birth Of The Dragon (in theaters now) takes place before the world knew his name — when Bruce Lee was just teaching martial arts to white people in San Francisco. Not only that… he married one. This didn’t bode well with some of the members of the Kung fu elders. Specifically a Shaolin master named Wong Jack Man. This disagreement ultimately led to a real fight between the two. A fight witnessed by only a few spectators.

The film recreates this legendary duel and... Overall I give the movie a .80 — the acting was decent and the cinematography was satisfying — but we don’t watch martial arts films for that stuff. We want to see great choreographed fight scenes. Birth Of The Dragon did not disappoint. Well maybe just a little. They took full advantage of the 1964 setting. There’s little Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon influence. Just pure Kung fu movements between two masters. Yet everyone else was pretty crappy, which makes sense being that it’s 1964 and karate wasn’t a big deal yet.

George Nolfi (director) does well at balancing the plot built by the clash of 3 different stories. Wong Jack Man— who is seeking to “balance his soul”— travels to America, only to find a young Bruce Lee trying to make a name for himself, while working as a martial arts instructor. And while all of this is brewing, Steve McKee (Billy Magnussen), one of Lee’s students, is trying to save the hot Asian girl from the Chinese mafia.

The writers did not do well at fully developing Lee, and revealing his motives. There’s no time shown loving his wife; only him loving his dojo and craft. There’s no flash to the past of him as a child being shipped off to America by his dad. The assumption, I guess, is that, if you’ve come to see this movie, then you know damn well about the life of Lee. You’ve come to see a fight.

The classic screenplay depiction of “when east meets west.” I would say there was a real effort in explaining the honor of Kung fu. You learn many ancient Chinese secrets behind the art. For example, the philosophy that sometimes when you win, you lose; and when you lose, you win. Or that Kung fu isn’t about the fist, but rather the soul. Many of the Chinese cultural elements such as praying with incense, and eating grilled sea worms, are also found in the film.

Phillip Ng had a tough task. Fighting and moving like Lee is easy. Capturing his charisma and magnetism is variably accomplished to nearly impossible. Although I think he could’ve committed to losing a lot more body fat, I give him credit for a respectable performance.

This wasn’t a “once upon a time” or biopic — it’s more of a “Yo! Guess what happened last night?” type of story. A major point of the story that I think many critics failed to see, is that Bruce Lee was willing to die for his belief that sharing Kung fu with westerners was necessary. Wong Jack Man felt it was necessary to teach him what Taoist would call The Way. He showed him the limits of his style. The movie portrays this artistically well.

The movie is very well made, very entertaining, very respectful of both Bruce Lee & Wong Jack Man, and is a loving tribute to both them and martial arts culture. See it with an open mind. It presents a balanced view of a hotly contested event — which no one seems able to provide an unbiased account — and it honours the legacy of both participants and presents a heartfelt story of what might have been. Basically, don’t believe the reviews, not even mine. Go see it for yourself.

)
Welcome to a place where words matter. On Medium, smart voices and original ideas take center stage - with no ads in sight. Watch
Follow all the topics you care about, and we’ll deliver the best stories for you to your homepage and inbox. Explore
Get unlimited access to the best stories on Medium — and support writers while you’re at it. Just $5/month. Upgrade