Bruce Lee finally comes to mainland China. That’s the angle many news outlets are taking in describing THE LEGEND OF BRUCE LEE, a 50-part prime time TV series described as a “biography” of the famed martial artist and film star that begins airing on state-sponsored Chinese television on Sunday. Despite dozens of films and TV series from Hong Kong, the U.S. and elsewhere that have depicted Bruce Lee and his life ever since his premature death in 1973, no attempt has been made by mainland Chinese producers, at least on this scale, to cover this topic until now.
Starring KUNG FU HUSTLE’s Danny Chow, THE LEGEND OF BRUCE LEE is a highly ambitious series shot in China, Hong Kong, Macau, the U.S., Italy, and Thailand over nine months that attempts to dig deeper into the life of Bruce Lee than any previous biopic or “Bruceploitation” film has before. It runs from his formative teen years in Hong Kong, to his move to the U.S. where he taught kung fu and entered Hollywood, and then back to Hong Kong where he became a film star prior to his early death.
“We’ve only seen the glorious side of Bruce Lee - he comes out all guns blazing, his films are entertaining. But very few people know what injuries he suffered and what grievances he suffered,” said Danny Chan. He also notes the series reveals that Lee was afraid of cockroaches.
Because of Lee’s involvement with the West, the series also incorporates an unprecedented number of Caucasian stars, many of them martial arts and action film talents. This includes Mark Dacascos (BROTHERHOOD OF THE WOLF), Ray Park (STAR WARS: EPISODE ONE - THE PHANTOM MENACE), Gary Daniels (SUBMERGED), and Michael Jai White (THE DARK KNIGHT). Playing opposite Danny Chan as Lee’s wife Linda Lee Cadwell is American-born actress Michelle Lang whose biggest claims to fame so far has been nameless “babe” roles in mainstream parody flicks DATE MOVIE and DISASTER MOVIE.
Danny Chan shares a dance background with Bruce Lee and a passing likeness to the late star. The 33-year-old actor also picked up limited screen fight training from roles in SHAOLIN SOCCER and KUNG FU HUSTLE but he did not have anywhere near the robust martial arts training that Lee possessed when approached for the role That was remedied with extensive preparation under series’ action director Ma Zhong-xuan.
A mainlander, Ma Zhong-xuan is relatively new to the martial arts movie/TV scene. He has had minor action roles in CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON and FEARLESS. He also choreographed the action in Tsui Hark’s low-budget martial arts drama XANDA.
The biggest talent representing mainland China in the series is wushu master and veteran actor Yu Cheng-hui. Along with Jet Li, he is among the PRC’s first generation of martial arts film talent who has starred in a long string of mainland martial movies including Jet Li’s first film, SHAOLIN TEMPLE and YELLOW RIVER FIGHTER.
Another star in THE LEGEND OF BRUCE LEE to watch for is Li Yuan, a martial arts-trained actor with potential to become a future genre star himself. So far he has been a stuntman in FEARLESS and appeared in AN EMPRESS AND THE WARRIORS.
THE LEGEND OF BRUCE LEE begins airing on China’s main broadcast channel CCTV 1 on Sunday, October 12th with two episodes airing each night consecutively. Those who do not have direct access to CCTV but have a high-speed internet connection can watch the series as it streams live on TVU Networks.
As a side note, programming on CCTV is subtitled in Chinese but not in English. As for an English-subtitled version of the series, there has been no official announcement by any distributor but U.S. and Hong Kong-based Tai Seng has expressed interest in bringing the series to the U.S.
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