Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Bruce Lee is My Homeboy!!!

One of the tidbits that I have left off the blog is that I am a BIG Bruce Lee fan. I have been ever since I saw my first Bruce Lee movie as a kid. If my memory serves me, it was "Fist of Fury" (also known as "The Chinese Connection") and was the first movie of a double feature. The funny thing is that the Bruce Lee movie wasn't the Chinese movie my parents had wanted to see; but since we got there early, we decided to go in and watch it.

This was during the mid-1970's and there were no consequential Asian characters on American TV. Imagine an impressionable young boy watching for the very first time a character that looked like him (by that, I mean, also Chinese) being portrayed as a heroic, fierce and brave figure with amazing fighting skills. To this day, whenever I watch a Bruce Lee movie (and trust me when I tell you that I have all his movies on DVD, fully remastered), I experience those exact same feelings. Granted, I'm critical of the acting & dialogue and realize that these movies will never make the "100 Best Movies of All Times List", but Bruce Lee will always be a part of me. Bruce Lee is my homeboy!

Here's a short clip of my favorite Bruce Lee fight scene from "Way of the Dragon". Enjoy!



PS - If you ever ask me, "Do you know kung fu?", my response will be, "Yes, I know Jeet Kune Do."

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