Creative License in Dragon:

When Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story was released, I thought it wasn’t going to be any good because the star, Jason Scott Lee, was not a martial artist.

Why would they choose someone who was not trained in the arts to portray one of the most influential martial artists of our times? However, the decision was to have a quality actor over a great martial artist. Many quality martial artists are often mediocre or even poor actors. Besides Jason Scott Lee was a former gymnast, had muscles, and was flexible. Did it work? What do you think?

Rob Cohen, who had recently directed The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (2008) with Jet Li, directed the film.

In the film, many creative liberties were taken:

• Lessons in Wing Chun. Bruce Lee started at the age 13. In the film, it looks like he is about 7 or 8 years old.
• Ed Parker Tournament. Bruce Lee did not fight in those tournaments. However, he did perform fantastic demonstrations.
• Near Fatal Injury. Bruce Lee was not injured in a fight. Instead, he was lifting some weights in an incorrect manner and pulled his back so bad that he almost ended his martial arts career.
• Publication of Tao of Jeet Kune Do. Tao of Jeet Kune Do was mostly written when he was suffering from a bad back injury, but it was not published when he was alive. Instead, it was published after he died and reads much like the rough notes it was. Bruce never revised it for publication though he wanted to write a book on Jeet Kune Do. It is a bit rough and not polished.
• Many of the fights in the film are not based on real fights in Lee’s life.They were just added for entertainment. So it feels like a Bruceploitation film at times. However, most of the fights pay homage to Lee.

Homage to Bruce Lee Fights in Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story (1993)

One of the effective creative elements of Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story becomes the well choreographed fight scenes that pay homage to Lee’s fights from his films. John Cheung was the fight choreographer. Many of the Bruceploitation films do the same thing though not as well.

Restaurant Brawl

• When the knife is kicked into the air, and we see the blade flipping in slow motions, this is a homage to Fist of Fury when the sword of the Japanese teacher in glasses is kicked into the air. Also a similar move occurs in the Big Boss.
• When Bruce is cut and tastes his blood and the roars in slow motion, this is a homage to Enter the Dragon when Bruce Lee is cut by Han (Shih Kien).
• The death stomp in slow motion is a homage to Enter the Dragon when Bruce kills O’hara (Bob Wall).

First Johnny Sun Fight

• The warm up sequence is a homage to the warm up sequence in Way of the Dragon with Chuck Norris.
• Bruce gets cut up and wounded by Johnny Sun like the scene with Han in Enter the Dragon.