Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story is a 1993 American biographical drama film written and directed by Rob Cohen, and starring Jason Scott Lee (no relation), Lauren Holly and Robert Wagner. The film was released in the United States on May 7, 1993.
The film tells the story of actor and martial artist Bruce Lee. Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story was dedicated to Bruce and his son Brandon Lee, who died two months earlier while performing in his last film The Crow.
Plot[]
The movie begins in Hong Kong, with a nightmare of Bruce Lee's father (Ric Young), who sees a terrifying phantom (Sven-Ole Thorsen) in black samurai armor that haunts the young Bruce Lee (Duncan Chow). Bruce is shown as a child receiving instruction in traditional Chinese martial arts in a montage that passes quickly through his teenage years in Hong Kong. As a young adult, Bruce (Jason Scott Lee) becomes involved in a fight with British sailors (who are harassing a young Chinese woman) and this results in him having to leave Hong Kong because of the incident. His father suggests that Bruce go to the US, since he was actually born in San Francisco when his father was on a tour there and has a US birth certificate. His father asks Bruce to become a success, so big a success that his name will be famous even back in Hong Kong.
In the US, Bruce starts off working as a dishwasher at a Chinese restaurant, where he becomes involved in a fight with some of the staff, and he fends them off until the restaurant owner (Nancy Kwan) arrives and fires Bruce. As well as severance she gives him an all-purpose loan and convinces him to use the money to invest in a future with education. At a university, he begins to teach martial arts classes, and during these classes he meets Linda Emery (Lauren Holly), and the two begin dating. They eventually marry in defiance of Linda's racist mother. Linda suggests that Bruce open up a martial arts training school, which he does, but some other Chinese martial arts schools feel that he should not train non-Chinese, and they challenge him to fight Johnny Sun (John Cheung) to resolve the issue. Bruce wins the fight but Sun attacks Bruce from behind after the fight is over, resulting in a serious back injury.
While immobilized and recovering Bruce and Linda quarrel of why he did not tell her about this duel, but she furiously rejects his despairing assumption that she will abandon him because of this injury. To give his recovery time purpose, Linda coaxes him to examine the weaknesses of his combat technique, which leads to him developing the fight philosophy of Jeet Kune Do while she helps him write "The Tao of Jeet Kune Do." During this period Linda gives birth to their first child, Brandon, and he is the key for the couple to reconcile with Linda's mother (Michael Learned). Later at Ed Parker's martial arts tournament, Bruce has been challenged by Johnny Sun, this time in a 60-second demonstration of his new fighting style. Johnny Sun appears to have the upper hand in the first half of the match but then Bruce recovers and ends up kicking Sun over the top rope.
After the match, Bruce meets Bill Krieger (Robert Wagner) and is hired for The Green Hornet television series. Bruce and Bill work together and create the idea for the Kung Fu television series. At a cast party, Linda says she is now pregnant with their second child, Shannon. Shortly afterwards, there is an announcement for the cancellation of The Green Hornet. Kung Fu makes it onto television, but starring David Carradine and not Bruce.
Bruce travels back home for his father's funeral and whilst in the country is approached by Philip Tan (Kay Tong Lim), a Hong Kong film producer. He says that Bruce is well known in Hong Kong and that The Green Hornet show is called The Kato Show there. Bruce begins work on the feature film The Big Boss. In the filming of the final scene, set in an ice factory, the brother of Johnny Sun attacks Bruce, wanting revenge. Bruce successfully defends himself against the attack. The Big Boss is a success and Bruce makes several more films – working as actor, director and editor. This causes a rift between Bruce and Linda, as she wishes to return to the States. Bill Krieger shows up, and although he knows that Bruce is still angry with him, he offers him a chance to work on a big-budget Hollywood movie, which Bruce decides to do, particularly as Linda wishes to return to the States.
On the 32nd day of filming Enter the Dragon, during the "room of mirrors" sequence, Bruce has a terrifying vision of the Demon that has haunted his and his father's dreams. This time, after being beaten and then shown his own grave, Bruce sees his son urging Bruce to save him. The Demon pursues Brandon, spurring Bruce to fight back, save Brandon and break the Demon's neck. As the movie ends with Bruce shooting another scene from Enter the Dragon, the film that would make him an international star, Linda closes the movie in a voice-over telling the audience that Bruce fell into a mysterious coma and died shortly before the film's release, and says while many people want to talk about how he died, she prefers to remember how he lived.
Cast[]
- Jason Scott Lee (Duncan Chow, young) as Bruce Lee
- Lauren Holly as Linda Lee
- Robert Wagner as Bill Krieger
- Michael Learned as Vivian Emery
- Nancy Kwan as Gussie Yang
- Ed Parker Jr. as Ed Parker
- Kay Tong Lim as Philip Tan
- Ric Young as Bruce's Father
- Wang Luoyong as Yip Man
- Sterling Macer as Jerome Sprout
- John Cheung as Johnny Sun
- Sven-Ole Thorsen as The Demon
- Eric Bruskotter as Joe Henderson
- Aki Aleong as Principal Elder
- Van Williams as TV director of The Green Hornet
- Lala Sloatman as Sherry Schnell
- Rob Cohen as Robert Clouse, Enter the Dragon director