The Legend of Bruce Lee (2008)

Touches You

Fresh and Exciting

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Thoroughly enjoyed this series. There are definitely some historical inaccuracies, particularly to how he got his injuries that lead to paralysis. However it really gives the viewer the essence of Bruce Lee's character, his affinity to learn & develop, his philosophy of life and his amazing work ethic. It's low budget at $6.4 million so forgive occasional mishaps-However the actor who plays Bruce Lee is absolutely amazing-a big mistake not to have used him in the latest Hollywood blockbuster but glad he did not-as that is full of too many historical mistakes. You will have to read subtitles though but that will mean you will have to respect Bruce Lee Li Xiao Long is of Hong Kong origin. For an intimate understanding of what drove Bruce Lee's genius this series is a must. I watched all 50 episodes on Netflix and loved it !!!!

It seems they did not really consult with people about Bruce's life. Esp since many of them are still alive today. Guru Inosanto was never a professor or has asthma. I have trained with him. Wally Jay was a professor and also not an American or white. He was Asian.I also find it hard to believe they did not seem to try at all to make it look like 1960's. When I see a Chipotle in the background during a long scene it really kills the story.Being a martial artist and follower of Jeet Kune DO I was a little disappointed. It makes me wonder what else is not correct in this series.

Oh my God!, This soap opera is an insult to the memory of Bruce Lee in more ways than one. The music is annoying, the production is worse than "The Karate Kid" flick!, a Justin Timberlake t-shirt in 1959, Costco Pizza boxes in a San Francisco trash bin BACK IN 1960!!!, a VCR and a color TV in Hong Kong back in the 50's!!!, and those are just a few of the hundreds of mistakes in this cheap production. It's almost as if Linda Lee had told lies to her daughter Shannon about who her dad was and how things and events really happened, or maybe Shannon just lend her name as the executive producer, but didn't have time to supervise and review it AT ALL before it was released. Thing is, don't waste your time unless you don't mind watching a soap opera about some "different" version of who the real Bruce Lee was. Instead, you should watch: "Dragon, The Bruce Lee Story", it's much better and it's not 50 episodes long.

I found this series on Hulu during an afternoon when I couldn't find anything else to watch, which should tell you something right there. My initial reaction was surprise - how could there have been a series about Bruce Lee's younger years that I'd never even heard of? But after watching only a few episodes I have the answer - this series is truly and utterly horrible.I'm honestly a very forgiving person regarding flaws and mistakes in movies and television. And regarding Bruce Lee himself - I'm not much of an expert on his biography, in fact he actually died a year before I was even born. But I have spent nearly half of my life studying Chinese martial arts so Bruce has always been an idol of mine since I was very young. I've had the fortune to actually meet two people who trained with him and hear their thoughts of what he was like off the screen (one of whom took his classes in Seattle when he first started teaching, the other got to feel his one inch punch). Both of these gentlemen described him as the real deal and with a lot of respect.It is a very sad thing that this respect was not given to Bruce in this poorly made series. To start with - the dialog is all in very hyper paced Mandarin (odd considering that Bruce spoke Cantonese, or at least that's what I've read), and this is pretty frustrating as he interacts with the American and British people in the series who are clearly speaking English. There are even times where you read the lips of the actor who plays Bruce and can tell that he is actually speaking English in some parts (especially when he comes to the US). Why they chose to just use Mandarin I'm unsure - and for a native English speaker this is very frustrating. Think of the depth that could have been added with the actors switching between the two languages! We do get some English subtitles, but they are very small, quite bright and I found them very hard to focus on and whomever did such shoddy work should be kicked in the head, repeatedly.This series does have some okay parts - but it is mainly filled with insipid drama, and the opening theme song is so atrocious that I had to skip over it. The soundtrack is filled with a plethora of overly emotive inducing sounds and sappy mood music...and every martial art move is buffered into oblivion by completely ridiculous WHOOSH sounds. It's just too much...I mean in some parts people just move an inch and it sounds like someone is flapping a large beach towel (I'd hate to see what it would sound like if they actually broke wind). Speaking of which - the actor that plays Bruce simply looks too old for the part. And some of his foes...the maniacal guy with a broom who starts a brawl with a vertical flipping kick (right out of Street Fighter, the video game) seems so over the top...while the boxing champ looks like the kind of guy you'd see sitting on the beach with a boogie board and a hash pipe (and hey, that long hair in his eyes is very helpful when boxing). So much time is spent preparing for that fight...and its over in about 15 seconds...ridiculous.Other things that come to mind - Bruce Lee's cute and bubbly girlfriend is ANNOYING and ruins every scene she is in. His family spends most of their time spouting unnecessary bleeding heart diatribe...while they don't even bother to tell you much about his siblings. Even with my limited knowledge of Bruce's life, it is quite obvious from the get-go that the term "loosely based on reality" is an understatement of truly epic proportions. It was mostly forgivable during the first 5 episodes, and I'll admit that the story captured my attention enough to keep watching. But once Bruce arrives in the US in episode 6, the errors become so glaring that I stopped watching midway through because I'd simply had enough. Let's go over a few of them: 1) Bruce hands the taxi driver a wad of cash, and you can clearly see a modern dollar bill in his hand. I can understand a show being low budget, but this is unforgivable.2) When Bruce is collecting trash, you see a pizza box that says "Costco Pizza"...clearly from our modern era. No effort whatsoever here...I guess they just got some trash from the studio where they filmed this train wreck and called it good? 3) The Budget rental vehicles - complete with modern logos...and you know, I'm going to stop here, because I know there are many more...and as a viewer, you start to think that Bruce is really in 1999 or 2010 rather than the late 50s or early 60s. It's like they just completely gave up (or didn't care in the first place).The bottom line here is - I do not recommend watching this series at all. With all of the afore mentioned problems (any many more that I'm too tired to list), it is just a big mangled pile of crap. If you are a true Bruce Lee fan, do the man the honor he deserves and watch his movies where we can see him doing what he does best. The only positive I can add is that watching this will help you brush up on your Mandarin - however be warned that the translation seems to be crappy as well. I don't speak much of the language myself - but I found many parts where what I heard being spoken vs what was in the subtitles to be missing a lot. I'm sure anyone with a better command of the language noticed even more.Very bad indeed. :(