Young Bruce Lee

A beautiful postcard to a Legend

Lover: Taken from IMDB
“I expected a lot from this film since the first time I saw the trailer,Bruce Lee is a legend, a hero to many people but this movie is different to other biopics about him...The story is based on the Robert's Lee book about his brother, for that reason here we see Bruce through the eyes of his brother instead through the eyes of a fan...Bruce lee here is Lee Jun Fan, on his teenage years, he is not a superhero, he is just an ordinary boy with the typical problems of youth...that is the great success of the movie, we know the real man instead of the legend.We also know his fiends and family, Bruce's dad is played by tony leung ka fai, probably the best of the film, his performance is powerful,honest and brilliant..I think many Bruce lee fans will feel disappoint with this human portrait of Bruce and others will love it... I am of the second one...as a Bruce lee fan i consider this one his best biopic.”

I agree about it being a good film, however in regards to the ‘human portrait’ of Bruce Lee I’m not so sure.

Hater: Taken from IMDB
“For those about to buy this film; Beware... If you expect to learn anything about Bruce Lee, the man as we know, forget it. One hour into this film, Lee is still a small child. We get back stories about every single person who even had a moments contact with him. After the first hour the viewer realises that the film is half over, and there is simply not enough time to spend on the adult Bruce. 129 minutes later, the film ends, with no ending... There is not one fight in the entire film, no scenes of Bruce learning kung fu, nothing at all. And the most frustrating thing of all; after spending 45 minutes on the life of...Bruce lee's aunt, who had cancer, we are shown the great Yip Man; well, we are shown THE BACK OF YIP MAN'S HEAD, for about 8 seconds!! Then a teenage Bruce and some school friends are walking in front of a school and the film ABRUPTLY ends. I still can't believe what i have watched. Is this the same film that people gave a rating of 7 here? Was my DVD defective? I don't think so, because the film did run 129 minutes. In short, action fans will absolutely DESPISE this inane film about Bruce Lee's aunt, as there is not one scene featuring Kung Fu technique. And fans of drama will hate it because there is no ending; the thing just stops with no resolution. I am assuming this was part of a very long mini series, and some dishonest distributor put the first episode on DVD to make a quick buck. And by the way; I was not aware that Bruce Lee had a brother. Of all the Bruce rip-off\cash-in films, "bruce Lee My Brother" is the absolute worst. I returned the DVD to the shop, and let them know it was defective. I mean it HAD to be defective, right? This could not possibly be the final product..”

At the other end of the spectrum we have someone who wanted a Bruce Lee film, not a film about Bruce Lee as a youngster. Shame really as there is some action in the film and though it does breeze over some of the more important issues these are things we know. This film reveals things you might not know.

What I thought:
I really enjoyed this film; I thought that it was a beautifully shot and well-acted story that shows that a lot of care and attention went into it. The story of the young Bruce Lee is the time of his life that a large majority of us know nothing about. It has buckets of silly humour and teenage angst, not to much a pinch of family drama and of course action. This however is not a Burce Lee film; it’s a film about Bruce Lee. From birth to how he leaves Hong Kong and onto our big screens; it traces through building a group of friends around him to tales of teenage delinquency and cha cha contests. Of course there is some action with a boxing rivalry and moments of peril with drug dealers but that’s only a small part.

My only real criticism is just how much dramatic licence has been given, I’m know Bruce Lee Historian but some of the moments seem a bit far-fetched especially the penultimate roof chasing scene. This is small criticism for a film that works well as a lovely tribute to a legend, it is such a well-crafted piece of cinema that even if you don’t appreciate any of the above you can at least appreciate how good looking the film is.