The 50th anniversary of Bruce Lee's death, once a nunchuck, split a legendary life

How popular is Bruce Lee in the United States? Because of him, the new word "Kung fu" appears in the English dictionary; Many of the hippop dance moves that are popular all over the world today come from his martial arts moves; The United States also specially issued a commemorative stamp for the luggage dragon, which was preceded by Marilyn Monroe and 007 actor Roger Moore.

Nowadays, when it comes to China, the first impression of foreigners is still Chinese kung fu, or Bruce Lee. And why can such a legendary figure be popular abroad, and how did he reach the peak in Hollywood?

Bruce Lee was born in 1940 in San Francisco's Chinatown, when his parents came to the United States to escape the war to make a living, but he did not live here for long, and returned to Hong Kong with his parents five months later.

He was competitive and fond of martial arts, learning Tai Chi and Hong as a teenager, and later learning Wing Chun with Ip Man.

But at that time, Hong Kong was too chaotic, street fights often occurred, Bruce Lee was a brave and ruthless personality, often fought with people, and his mother was afraid that he would cause trouble, so she sent him to the United States.

In 1959, 19-year-old Bruce Lee came to the United States, integrated into the Chinese martial arts circle in Seattle, and later created a martial arts hall to accept apprentices, relying on super high emotional intelligence and excellent martial arts skills, attracting Takeyuki Kimura, James Demeier and others.

At this time, Bruce Lee was not satisfied with his achievements in martial arts, and he had another dream, that is, acting.

In Hollywood at the time, Asian actors could play very few roles, either as the owner of a brothel, a big smoke hall, or Fu Manchu.

Bruce Lee really acted in Hollywood, in fact, when he was 25 years old, he came to Fox Film Company to audition for "Charlie Chen's Eldest Son".

He in the camera is personable and talkative, completely different from the Chinese stereotype of Americans. Showing martial arts moves, he is ruthless, but humble and polite. Such a charismatic actor naturally got favor and starred in the TV series "The Green Hornet".

The Green Hornet was as famous as Batman at the time, and Bruce Lee played the Green Hornet's assistant Kato. Although this TV series is generally evaluated in the United States, Bruce Lee is in the limelight.

Because of the role setting, most of the action scenes in the play to punish rape and eliminate evil are completed by Bruce Lee, and his flexible movements and powerful aura have conquered countless audiences.

You must know that in Hollywood at that time, there was no concept of action movies, and the mainstream physical violence at that time was divided into two types, one was a punch down, the other was turn-based, and there were few complete sets of martial arts actions.

Bruce Lee's dazzling fist and foot kung fu like a rainstorm refreshed the cognition of the American audience, and for the first time knew what "kung fu" was.

Although Bruce Lee was angry, Hollywood still did not accept him. The reason is also simple, he has a Chinese face, this face cannot be the protagonist.

Compared with the Waterloo of the film industry, Bruce Lee's martial arts hall is famous, and many martial arts stars are vying to worship him as a teacher, karate champion Luo Liji and famous movie star soothsayer Hengbin are Bruce Lee's apprentices.

And Bruce Lee also adhered to the concept of "teaching without class" and "meeting friends with martial arts", and promoted the Jeet Kune Do he founded to the world.

What really established Bruce Lee's kung fu superstar status was actually the movies "Brother Tangshan", "Jingwumen" and "Raptors Crossing the River" that he cooperated with Hong Kong Jiahe.

At this time, Hong Kong films were full of shoddy martial arts films, with no novelty and no routine. Bruce Lee is different, and the martial arts moves in these three movies are all his own thoughts.

The fight scene in "Brother Tangshan" fists to the flesh, the first time "Li Sanjie" appeared.

In "Jingwu Gate", Bruce Lee used a nunchuck, kicked eight times in a row when kicking the gym, and kicked the villain boss in the last kick are all famous scenes.

"The Raptors Cross the River" Bruce Lee showed stick techniques and darts, and the nunchucks also became two, and the showdown between him and Chuck Norris in the ancient Roman arena at the end was a rare use of medium and long mirrors to shoot the whole process, which was cheerful.

These three movies made Bruce Lee popular all over Asia and caused a huge sensation in Hollywood in the United States. Warner threw an olive branch to Bruce Lee and decided to make a kung fu film "Dragon Fight Tiger Fight" with him as the protagonist, and gave a budget of $800,000.

Once released, "Dragon Fight Tiger Fight" reached $90 million at the global box office that year, and after several rescreenings, the cumulative box office reached $230 million.

Bruce Lee became the object of imitation by countless people, and the streets of New York were full of nunchucks, so much so that New York ordered a ban on the use of nunchucks on the streets.

Unfortunately, Bruce Lee himself could not see such a pomp and circumstance. Just a few months before the release of "Dragon Fight Tiger Fight", Bruce Lee died of "cerebral edema" at the age of 33.

Bruce Lee was an idol for countless people abroad, and he inspired many Asians and minorities, and made a splash in Hollywood at that time.

In Hollywood, Bruce Lee is synonymous with Chinese kung fu and a legend that never ends.