Bruce Lee’s legacy ‘flushed down the toilet’ by Quentin Tarantino says daughter

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Bruce Lee’s daughter has hit out at Quentin Tarantino’s portrayal of her father in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, saying he comes across as an “arrogant a******”.

Tarantino’s latest film (be warned, spoilers lie ahead) sees Brad Pitt’s rugged stuntman character Cliff Booth get the better of Lee, played by Mike Moh, in a best-of-three-rounds fight on the set of television show The Green Hornet.

Lee knocks Booth down in the first “round”, but Booth slams him into a car door in the second round. The fight is interrupted before the third round, but it is heavily implied Booth has got the better of a stunned Lee.

“I understand they want to make the Brad Pitt character this super bad a** who could beat up Bruce Lee. But they didn’t need to treat him in the way that white Hollywood did when he was alive,” Shannon Lee, who was
not consulted by Tarantino for the film.

Shannon Lee heads the Bruce Lee foundation and estate, and is executive producer on HBO series Warrior, which is based on her father’s writings.


Lee is said to have pitched the idea of a television show based on an Asian martial artist in the Old West in 1971. Skittish Hollywood executives passed and instead made Kung Fu, which featured white actor David Carradine playing a Shaolin monk and martial arts expert who flees China after his master is killed to defend the helpless in the Old West.

Opinion: Bruce Lee’s depiction in ‘Once Upon a Time in Hollywood’ is problematic

“I can understand all the reasoning behind what is portrayed in the movie,” Shannon Lee said. “I understand that the two characters are anti-heroes and this is sort of like a rage fantasy of what would happen … and they’re portraying a period of time that clearly had a lot of racism and exclusion.”

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Shannon Lee poses in front of a promotional poster for Lee’s memorial exhibition at the Hong Kong Heritage Museum in 2013. Photo: AP
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Lee and Booth also trade cocky insults in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood before agreeing to the informal fight. Shannon Lee said her father was often challenged to fights but always tried to avoid them.

“He [Lee] comes across as an arrogant a****** who was full of hot air,” she said. “And not someone who had to fight triple as hard as any of those people did to accomplish what was naturally given to so many others.”

“Here, he’s the one with all the puffery and he’s the one challenging Brad Pitt. Which is not how he was,” she said.

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Mike Moh plays Bruce Lee in ‘Once Upon a Time in Hollywood’. Photo: Handout
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Shannon Lee said she had no problem with Moh’s portrayal of her father in the film, and thinks he got down some of his mannerisms and his voice, but she also felt he was directed to be a caricature.

“It was really uncomfortable to sit in the theatre and listen to people laugh at my father,” she said.

“What I’m interested in is raising the consciousness of who Bruce Lee was as a human being and how he lived his life,” she said. “All of that was flushed down the toilet in this portrayal, and made my father into this arrogant punching bag.”

https://www.scmp.com/sport/martial-...-legacy-flushed-down-toilet-quentin-tarantino
 
It is a little surprising. Usually it's a racially insensitive/offensive black trope.
It's true.
He does like using "******" in any/every movie he makes. :hmm:

But; this ain't the 1st time he's "used" Bruce Lee to sell his films.
In two of his most popular films, he relied HEAVILY on the Asian martial arts troupe to sell the films.
kill-bill-lucy-liu-wallpaper-izledim-com.jpg
hqdefault.jpg
200.gif

And on the Bruce Lee legend specifically to market them:
hqdefault.jpg
Game-of-Death-bruce-lee-26745088-681-889.jpg

:dunno::dunno::dunno:
 
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It's true.
He does like using "******" in any/every movie he makes. :hmm:

But; this ain't the 1st time he's "used" Bruce Lee to sell his films.
In two of his most popular films, he relied HEAVILY on the Asian martial arts troupe to sell the films.
kill-bill-lucy-liu-wallpaper-izledim-com.jpg
hqdefault.jpg
200.gif

And on the Bruce Lee legend specifically to market them:
hqdefault.jpg
Game-of-Death-bruce-lee-26745088-681-889.jpg

:dunno::dunno::dunno:

imo, this was a proper homage to bruce lee and asian martial arts cinema.
 
i didn't see anything derogatory or stereotypical in those two movies.

and he in fact used some of the people that pioneered asian martial arts cinema in those movies.

edit: i am not caping for tarantino. but a broken clock is right twice a day.
And perhaps, not everyone shares your appraisal of Taratino's use of Lee's legend in his films.
(Like Lee's daughter...) o_O
 
Yeah because 80lb Bruce would be able to beat someone twice his size.

Dude stop it.
bruce weighed 135lbs and got up to 160lbs when he was lifting weights. Even at his lightest his strength was on par with guys who were 200+.
Light yes, weak NO.

He was a trained fighter who was more than willing to test his skill up against ANYONE at the time.
 
It's true.
He does like using "******" in any/every movie he makes. :hmm:

But; this ain't the 1st time he's "used" Bruce Lee to sell his films.
In two of his most popular films, he relied HEAVILY on the Asian martial arts troupe to sell the films.
kill-bill-lucy-liu-wallpaper-izledim-com.jpg
hqdefault.jpg
200.gif

And on the Bruce Lee legend specifically to market them:
hqdefault.jpg
Game-of-Death-bruce-lee-26745088-681-889.jpg

:dunno::dunno::dunno:
Kill Bill seemed more like a homage to Lee vs being a parody.
 
You base this on what? If you believe a martial art tournament winner can't win a real fight what makes you think an actor who's a non-combative martial artist can?

i am not saying that this is absolute. but it does apply.

against a laymen yeah they will win.
 
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