Bruce Lee: Move and shake
Kung-fu legend Bruce Lee’s influence transcends martial arts, film and race. He gave birth to the martial-art film genre and has been the source of inspiration for many action-movie stars
by DENNIS LEE
As a pioneer of kung-fu movies, Bruce Lee’s philosophy and fighting style have inspired many now-famous action-movie stars, who went on to carve out successful film careers making popular action flicks in the world. Lee is also credited with bringing the kung-fu genre to the mainstream of Hong Kong filmmaking.
Chuck Norris
American actor Chuck Norris owes much of his showbiz career to Bruce Lee, who recommended him to film producers for a cameo appearance in 1968’s Wrecking Crew. Afterwards, Lee enlisted him to appear in The Way of the Dragon, in which the climatic face-off between the two actors in the Colosseum, in Rome, went down in film history as one of the most classic fighting sequences. That film also propelled Norris to action stardom and he would soon star in various action pictures, including 1984’s Missing in Action and 1986’s The Delta Force. Born in the same year as Lee, Norris is a six-time world karate champion, holds an 8th Dan black belt in taekwondo, a black belt in tang soo do and a brown belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, and is the founder of the Chun Kuk Do school, which combines elements from karate and tang soo do.
Jackie Chan
Known worldwide, Chinese martial-arts star Jackie Chan states that he believes he could not have grown to kung-fu stardom without Lee. He was 19 when the martial-arts legend died in 1973, and soon afterwards, film producers promoted Chan as the successor to Lee and featured him in kung-fu films such as New Fist of Fury (1976). Alongside his breathtaking kung-fu skills, Chan later added a comedic element to his performances and also developed a distinctive style by shunning stunt doubles and CGI-enhanced stunts. Early in his career, Chan was accidentally hit in fighting scenes with Bruce Lee during cameo appearances in Fist of Fury (1972) and Enter the Dragon (1973). Some of Chan’s best loved Chinese-language films include Drunken Master (1978), Police Story (1985) and Rumble in the Bronx (1995), but of course the ’90s saw Chan finally getting his big break in Hollywood and he made several English-language blockbusters including 1998’s Rush Hour and Shanghai Noon (2000).
Sammo Hung
Actor, director and producer Sammo Hung came from the same martial-arts school as Jackie Chan and notably acted in fighting scenes against Bruce Lee’s 1973 action classic, Enter the Dragon. In Lee’s Game of Death (filmed in 1973 but not released until 1978), he had a cameo role and doubled as the martial-arts co-ordinator for the film’s reshoot. In Hung’s eyes, Lee was a kung-fu fighter with a knack for making incredibly quick and dexterous moves. Once Lee visited him on a film set and challenged him to a duel, and he was beaten right away. Hung’s acting CV is fairly diverse, starring in action films such as Hong Kong action-comedy Winners and Sinners (1983) and Ip Man 2 (2010); classic comedies such as Carry on Pickpocket (1982) and My Lucky Stars (1985); and the American TV series Martial Law, which ran for two seasons from 1998 to 2000.
Jet Li
A martial-arts star who rose to superstardom later than Jackie Chan, Jet Li began learning wushu at the age of eight. By adolescence, Li had mastered several styles of Northern Shaolin wushu and won numerous national wushu championships in China. He entered show business in the early 1980s at a time when Bruce Lee’s loyal fans were still reeling from the shock of his demise. Li’s debut film, Shaolin Temple (1982), counts among his most popular films, which also include the Once Upon a Time in China series, and 1994’s Fist of Legend – a remake of Bruce Lee’s celebrated Fist of Fury in which he reprises the role of Chen Zhen, the lead character played by Lee. Li has also starred in Hollywood productions including Lethal Weapon 4 (1998), Romeo Must Die (2000) and The Forbidden Kingdom (2008), which includes a roughly 10-minute fighting sequence in which he went head-to-head with Jackie Chan.
Donnie Yen
Arguably the most bankable Chinese kung-fu star today, Donnie Yen has expressed that he’s a massive fan of Bruce Lee and is profoundly influenced by Lee’s martial-arts philosophy. His fighting style is similar to that of Lee, given that he practised Chinese kung fu and Western martial arts at a young age. He played Chen Zhen in both the 1995 Hong Kong TV series Fist of Fury and the 2010-film Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen, in which his masked superhero was inspired by the character Kato portrayed by Bruce Lee in the 1960s American TV series, The Green Hornet. Yen’s most memorable performance, however, is probably in Ip Man (2008), in which he played the eponymous hero, who was a grandmaster of the Wing Chun school of martial arts and notably Bruce Lee’s martial-arts teacher.
Stephen Chow
Though he’s no action star, Hong Kong actor, comedian and director Stephen Chow likes to instil Bruce Lee-inspired kung-fu elements in many of his films – Fist of Fury 1991, All’s Well, Ends Well (1992) and Shaolin Soccer (2001) being some of the best examples. But when it comes to paying tribute to his idol on the big screen, nothing compares to Chow’s 2004 action-comedy film Kung Fu Hustle, of which he was the director, co-writer and leading actor playing a kung-fu master. Actor Bruce Leung, who plays the film’s lead villain, is often grouped among the Bruce Lee clones that emerged after Lee’s untimely death. Leung enjoyed considerable fame around the ’70s as a kung-fu actor and is best known for playing the leading role in The Fist (Chen Zhen), a Hong Kong TV series inspired by Bruce Lee’s Fist of Fury.
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