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Feb 19, 2018 · Biographical drama Birth of the Dragon recounts Bruce Lee's legendary fight against kung fu master Wong Jack Man. Read the Empire review.
Wong Jack Man: I have seen what you can do; I have also seen what you cannot do. Wong Jack Man: I am not fighting for her, or for you, or for myself. Lee Jun-fan was correct: he is the future, he will bring kung-fu to the world. I can see that now. He has talent. Great talent and ambition.
- Bruce Lee barely gets the spotlight in the movie about his most important fight.
- Verdict
By Blair Marnell
Updated: Aug 25, 2017 5:37 pm
Posted: Aug 25, 2017 1:00 am
Warning: there are minor spoilers ahead for Birth of the Dragon.
Birth of the Dragon is not the Bruce Lee biopic you’ve been waiting for, as strong performances and martial arts action by Philip Ng and Xia Yu are wasted on a movie that had too little faith in the real story.
In 1965, martial arts icons Bruce Lee and Wong Jack Man had a private match away from the public that became legendary, even though neither man agreed upon the outcome. Director George Nolfi’s Birth of the Dragon is very loosely inspired by that chapter of their history. But the movie itself is being marketed in a way that misrepresents the finished film. If we were to judge by the posters of Philip Ng as Lee, it would be easy to believe that this is a Bruce Lee biopic. That’s not what this is, and the movie treats Lee as if he is only the third most important character in his own story.
Birth of the Dragon’s filmmakers lacked the faith in their movie to ever make it truly about Bruce Lee and Wong Jack Man. Allowing McKee to steal the focus of the story diminished the movie as a whole, which already had two perfectly cast leads in Ng and Yu. In terms of production, the film was more impressive than the ‘70s kung fu movies it emulat...
Sep 25, 2017 · In Birth of the Dragon director George Nolfi (“The Adjustment Bureau”) serves up his fictional account of a notable 1964 showdown pitting the immensely gifted Oakland-based martial arts instructor Bruce Lee (Philip Ng, “The Man from Macau”) against Wong Jack Man (Yu Xia, “Romance Out of the Blue”), a visiting (and disgraced) Shaolin ...
- George Nolfi
- PG-13
- Billy Magnussen
Birth of the Dragon really could've been something truly special with a much clearer focus and more fleshed-out characters, but for what it is, it's a serviceable martial arts drama with strong performances, entertaining fight sequences, and lush cinematography.
Aug 28, 2017 · “Birth of the Dragon” has a keen understanding of how history becomes legend and in placing its focus on the latter, delivers one of the most out and out fun movies on the life of Bruce Lee you could ask for.
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Aug 27, 2017 · The good news is that Xia Yu is very compelling as Wong Jack Man, the Shaolin Master who has traveled to San Francisco on a quest for personal redemption. Man comes off as a more heroic and...
