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. :(
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. :(