My take on "Birth of a Dragon"

I had read Linda Lee's and Bruce Lee's account of the Bruce Lee vs. Wong Jack Man fight and I believe it because basically I had similar experiences. So when Grace got all excited and said "Have you seen this new movie they made about Bruce Lee?" and I was like, "The Chinese one?" which is not that new, kin dof old. Tony Leung Ka Fei plays his father. And I thought it was weird that Grace was saying this because I saw the thing with her.

"No the American one."

I saw the trailer, and being a white-ish guy that does Kung Fu, maybe you would be surprised that my first reaction was, "Who the hell is this white guy?"

Then when Isaw what they turned the fight into at first I was like "What the hell?"

But then I thought... didn't I do exactly the same type of thing in my novels? Who cares? If that's what they want to do they can do that.

But the thing is... I feel like Kung Fu Panda 3 did it better, that's all.

What the fight ends up being is an artistic representation of the push and pull between modern martial arts, and the buddhist zen/cha'an philosophy of Shaolin Temple. Not necessarily traditional Shaolin Kung Fu, but you now Modern Shaolin Temple with the orange outfits and the music.

I mean it is basically and argument between two modern versions of Kung Fu, the one that looks to the past as a golden age, and the one that looks to the future.

It's Self Help vs. Buddhism

Individual learning versus the Sifu.

Again... Kung Fu Panda 3 did this better.

I guess it's cool. I guess I should still watch it. The guy playing Bruce Lee has some cool lines and gestures.

It's not as good as Bruce Lee's actual movies (although those are problematic too. Looking back, Way of the Dragon is pretty racist against black people in that scene where Jazz starts playing.)

I also feel like Bruce Lee certainly has become a modern God and people follow all of his advice, much of which is Buddhist stories.... but I feel like they forget that he died young. So when you talk about being inspiration to push as hard as you can... I mean you want to know that right? That the guy who is talking about no limitations died? I think it's important before starting your exercise regimen based on that.

I guess I am a total outlier in my view on Kung Fu in that I don't necessarily fit Bruce Lee's or the Modern Shaolin philosophy into my training.

I do take Bruce Lee's moves as entertainment for the children. Not to say that I think Bruce was a joke. I like his poses. They actually work as simple Chi Gung moves and blend nicely with some of teh White Crane forms (There is oral history that says he learned some White Crane in Singapore and that a lot of his invented Kung Fu is based on that.)

I like his philosophy of the superman that just knocks you the hell out in a zen like Bam! similar to the Japanese sword strike. I feel like a lot of what he was, was in line with Musashi's ideas actually, even though in the movies Bruce fights Japanese villains.

My Kung Fu ideas though... I feel are based a lot more in mythology. Like real mythology, not people who some tales were told about/ But I look to spirits and gods of other cultures outside of China that forced their way in. The Tai Ping and Boxer Rebellions. Teh story of the Nian and the Lions and Dragons and the beating of drums. Of rousing movements to get normal farmers to believe they can fight or die trying.

Because you can talk about real street fights al you want. But history shows that the Brits or rather the East India Company... a private company with ships that had more canons on them then were on the ground at Waterloo... because you can do that with boats, shelled the hell out of Guangzhou. The Chinese had guns too, that some guys made on their own without any help of the government (useless government) but those guns didn't go as far, and hell, maybe they just exploded actually, and so the ships were basically invincible.

Kung Fu that.


I'm not saying Kung Fu is useless, but at that point it doesn't really matter whether you punched kicked or eye gouged right?

The role of Kung Fu was more about spirit. Fill a young boy with so much testosterone through an exercise that strengthens him... horse stance... and make him take pain in a way that strengthens him instead of cripples him and make him believe in himself and his country.

Get a group of farmers to do a complicated sequence of movements that CAN be used in hand to hand combat together for team building dynamics.

Then.. get the shelled like crazy, but resist and show some force.

The ships sailed north. It was the Qing dynasty that surrendered to save their own corrupt skin but the Brits never did land in the south.

Just because the power of Kung Fu is mostly in your head does not make it fake.