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Speaker 1: Too Much Information is a production of I Heart Radio.

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Speaker 1: Hello everyone, and welcome to Too Much Information, the show

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Speaker 1: that brings you the secret histories and little known, fascinating

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Speaker 1: facts and figures behind your favorite movies, music, TV shows

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Speaker 1: and more. We are your two senses of Sintilla scintilla whatever.

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Speaker 1: I'm Alex Sago and I'm Jordan frun talk. That's a

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Speaker 1: good one. You're really you're really pulling these out. I

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Speaker 1: was worried. Yeah, I got a second win. I'm just

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Speaker 1: I'm a second win. I'm just I'm pounding the damn

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Speaker 1: boards up here uncovered in flop sweat, Jordan. Today we're

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Speaker 1: going to be talking about the one and only Bigger

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Speaker 1: than life legend, Bruce. You're gonna have to do so

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Speaker 1: many beeps in this because I just get so excited

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Speaker 1: talking about Bruce Lee. As I think you have mentioned

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Speaker 1: more than I have on the course of this show.

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Speaker 1: I was a martial arts store as a kid. I

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Speaker 1: was bitten by the bug with my first episode of

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Speaker 1: Power Rangers and was quickly enrolled in the local taekwondo

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Speaker 1: studio and from there spent probably three to five years

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Speaker 1: just spending my weekly family movie night slot on martial

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Speaker 1: arts movies made. My family just watched Jean Claude, Van Damn,

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Speaker 1: Jackie Chan especially. I love Jackie so much and Bruce Lee.

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Speaker 1: Jackie Chan, I think is on a shortlist of the

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Speaker 1: greatest living entertainers in the world. I have a real

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Speaker 1: love for some of the j c v D stuff

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Speaker 1: that's just clownish and ridiculous but still sweet. And you know,

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Speaker 1: Bruce Man like a warrior poet, just the closest thing

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Speaker 1: we had to like a He's like if Michelangelo could

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Speaker 1: kill you with your bare hands, just like a tremendously

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Speaker 1: intelligent Polly math who happened to be one of the

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Speaker 1: greatest living martial artists. We won't be talking about Steven Seagal,

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Speaker 1: though all of you should do a quick Google of

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Speaker 1: his blues guitar because it's very funny. Uh Jordan, we

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Speaker 1: learned in the League of their Own episode that you

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Speaker 1: are a baseball guy in your youth. But tell me,

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Speaker 1: did you have a martial arts moment as a we

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Speaker 1: un Not really. I probably the most heteronormative thing that

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Speaker 1: I've ever done was get into Power Rangers for a

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Speaker 1: few months. And this was a very brief period, but

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Speaker 1: it was during Halloween, so somewhere out there there are

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Speaker 1: photos of me dressed as the Red Ranger. But then,

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Speaker 1: just as quickly as this fixation came, I kind of

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Speaker 1: got over it. And that's kind of all, My god,

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Speaker 1: I can't really bluff this one. I don't really have

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Speaker 1: any background in the martial arts or know anything about

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Speaker 1: the movies associated with it, but I am really interested

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Speaker 1: in Bruce Lee just as a historical figure. I mean,

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Speaker 1: for me, he's like Muhammad Ali, just so endlessly fascinating,

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Speaker 1: even if I know very little about the finer points

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Speaker 1: of their sport. I mean, just you said warrior poet.

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Speaker 1: His quotes alone are just so intriguing. You know, I

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Speaker 1: I fear not the man who was practiced ten thousand

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Speaker 1: kicks once, but I fear the man who's practiced one

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Speaker 1: kick ten thousand times. And you know, of course there's

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Speaker 1: the great iconoclastic credo. I'm not in this world to

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Speaker 1: live up to your expectations, and you're not in this

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Speaker 1: world to live up of mine. I mean, the man

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Speaker 1: it was a quote machine, and just he's so much

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Speaker 1: more than a fighter. You're absolutely right, and we'll touch

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Speaker 1: on this in the episode. But there was this time

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Speaker 1: in his life when he was recovering from a back injury,

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Speaker 1: and he wrote a philosophy book basically it was published

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Speaker 1: after his death, and he just to hear his thoughts

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Speaker 1: on things. It's so fascinating. There's this amazing ESPN thirty

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Speaker 1: for thirty documentary that came out in called b Water,

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Speaker 1: which takes its title from his famous um you know,

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Speaker 1: philosophy about how to fight basically basically, I mean not

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Speaker 1: even just fighting, how to just live really world. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I gotta go with the flow. Uh. And there's also

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Speaker 1: Twelves I Am Bruce Lee, which features Ed O'Neill of

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Speaker 1: Married with Children fame. I was shocked to discover that

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Speaker 1: Ed Bundy actually has a black belt in Brazilian jiu jitsu.

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Speaker 1: I have a question for you, just one have a

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Speaker 1: black belt or ease one a black belt? I never understood.

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Speaker 1: Much like Schrodinger's cat, it's both at the same time,

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Speaker 1: live in a constant date of super imposition between having

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Speaker 1: and being go on, Yes, um as befits my sort

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Speaker 1: of ghoulish tendencies, which I really haven't displayed very much

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Speaker 1: on this show, but I'm sure they'll come out. You're

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Speaker 1: coming out dribs and drabs. Aside from Bruce Lee is

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Speaker 1: incredibly graceful athleticism. I'm also drawn to him due to

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Speaker 1: the murky circumstances of his death, with all the rumors

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Speaker 1: of him being killed by you know, the Triad Gang

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Speaker 1: and all all sorts of other theories. So that's interesting

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Speaker 1: to me too. I know, we'll probably get into that

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Speaker 1: in this episode two oh we will. Ever. Lee's second film,

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Speaker 1: Fist of Fury, fifty years old this year, and I mean,

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Speaker 1: obviously End of the Dragon is the bigger one in

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Speaker 1: the popular consciousness, but this film is really interesting as

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Speaker 1: a way point in his career for reasons we'll get

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Speaker 1: into later. And you know, I couldn't wait until talk

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Speaker 1: about Bruce, so from his apparent insistence on fighting any one, anywhere,

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Speaker 1: at any time, at the drop of a hat, to

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Speaker 1: the fact that this movie made Chairman Mao cry, to

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Speaker 1: the fact that it was dubbed into an Australian indigenous

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Speaker 1: dialect just this last year. Here's everything that you didn't

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Speaker 1: know about Fist of Fury. Firstly, he was born the

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Speaker 1: son of Grace ho and leehoy Chewin, a Kenedy's opera

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Speaker 1: star based in Hong Kong, although Bruce was born in

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Speaker 1: San Francisco while his parents were visiting the city for

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Speaker 1: a concert tour by his dad. Fun fact, the family's

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Speaker 1: youngest son, Robert Lee, would follow in his dad's footsteps,

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Speaker 1: making a living with his voice, not his fists. He

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Speaker 1: got famous in Hong konger in the nineteen sixties as

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Speaker 1: the lead singer and founder of a band, the Thunderbirds.

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Speaker 1: Um So. Between his dad's celebrity and the fact that

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Speaker 1: Grace's family were one of the wealthiest and most powerful

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Speaker 1: clans in Hong Kong at the time, Bruce had a

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Speaker 1: relatively calm rible childhood growing up, notwithstanding the Japanese occupation

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Speaker 1: of Hong Kong, which we will also get to later.

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Speaker 1: He was born in ninety, which according to the Chinese

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Speaker 1: zodiac is the year of the Dragon, and he was

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Speaker 1: also born in the hour of the Dragon, which is

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Speaker 1: according to my research, between seven and nine in the morning,

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Speaker 1: which I know is two hours. And this is scene

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Speaker 1: is extremely good luck to be born in both the

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Speaker 1: year and the hour of the dragon, and people who

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Speaker 1: are so blessed are supposed to be able to overcome

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Speaker 1: any obstacle, which uh prous demonstrated again and again on film.

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Speaker 1: He was nicknamed the Little Dragon as a boy. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: there's a pretty good biopic of him from called Dragon.

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Speaker 1: The Bruce Lee Story, which was written and directed by

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Speaker 1: Rob Cohen, who is the auteur behind Fast and the

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Speaker 1: Furious and Triple X, is a really fascinating aspect of

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Speaker 1: his early life. For the first two years of Bruce's life,

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Speaker 1: his parents had dressed him and passed him off as

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Speaker 1: a girl to protect him from this Chinese superstition that

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Speaker 1: demon's target the firstborn son in any family. But that

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Speaker 1: is interesting because her first child was a boy who

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Speaker 1: was still born, which I guess she attributed to these spirits,

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Speaker 1: so hence why she wanted to protect Bruce. So I mean,

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Speaker 1: in a way, that horrible prophecy came true. So in

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Speaker 1: the movie, Cohen literalizes this with a recurring dream sequence

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Speaker 1: in uh which Bruce fights a giant samurai demon that

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Speaker 1: he eventually chokes to death with a pair of nunchucks.

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Speaker 1: It rules, and I cannot stress that enough. So anyway,

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Speaker 1: when Cohen met Bruce's widow, Linda Lee Cadwell after he

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Speaker 1: had given her the screenplay, she asks him how did

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Speaker 1: you know about Bruce's demon. It's a weird thing to ask. Um.

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Speaker 1: Those two had such a pure relationship. They were married

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Speaker 1: in secret in August of nineteen sixty four because this

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Speaker 1: horrifying hell hole of a country still had anti missgenation

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Speaker 1: laws on the books. And her dad was a very

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Speaker 1: strict Southern Baptist, I believe, and uh, I guess it

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Speaker 1: was very against their union. But he eventually came around

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Speaker 1: because he's Bruce Lee. Your son in law is Bruce Leech. Uh. So,

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Speaker 1: Cohen explains to this is just a thing I did

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Speaker 1: for the movie. This is a dramatic device, and she

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Speaker 1: tells him this is the demon. Yeah, the giant Samurai

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Speaker 1: demon played by Spennell Thorson. And so she's like, oh, well,

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Speaker 1: Bruce told me the first time he collapsed, ten weeks

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Speaker 1: before his actual death, he felt like he was being

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Speaker 1: stalked by a demon that was trying to pull him away. Ah,

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Speaker 1: so that is spooky. Yes, we should probably touch a

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Speaker 1: little more on his actual death because it's shrouded in

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Speaker 1: so much mystery. I mean, it's just so strange to

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Speaker 1: me that this incredibly physically fit person died at age

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Speaker 1: what thirty two cerebral edema. Yes, and I mean there's

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Speaker 1: a whole bunch of theories as to why this happened.

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Speaker 1: I mean, there's one that says that he just had

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Speaker 1: an allergic reaction to basically like an asp something some

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Speaker 1: medication run of the mill, over the counter medication. Another

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Speaker 1: said that it might have been something to do with

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Speaker 1: heat exhaustion, because I guess the first time he collapsed,

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Speaker 1: he was in a small room on a really hot

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Speaker 1: day doing voiceovers and he turned the A C off

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Speaker 1: so that it wouldn't affect the sound quality from his recording,

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Speaker 1: which coincidentally is exactly what I'm doing right now. I'm terrified.

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Speaker 1: And so there's theories that heat stroke had something to

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Speaker 1: do with his death, but there are also all these

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Speaker 1: theories that his death was something a little more sinister.

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Speaker 1: We mentioned the theories about gang killings at the top

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Speaker 1: of the episode. Uh Bruce supposedly made a lot of

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Speaker 1: enemies during his life by teaching kung fu to Westerners,

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Speaker 1: and traditionally it was supposed to be only taught to

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Speaker 1: the Chinese. And so there's this theory that he was

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Speaker 1: killed sort of revenge for betraying the secrets of this

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Speaker 1: martial art. Yeah, there's a there's this other bit of

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Speaker 1: oral legend lore, if you want to call it that,

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Speaker 1: about this technique called the dim mock or the death touch,

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Speaker 1: which is also in Blood Sport and Kill Bill part two.

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Speaker 1: You know, when she kills David Carry at the end,

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Speaker 1: the five point palm heart exploding technique. The dip mock

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Speaker 1: is this legend martial arts legend where if you hit

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Speaker 1: people in a certain order at these pressure points on

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Speaker 1: their body, they will walk away fine, but within a

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Speaker 1: certain amount of time they will die spontaneously and then

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Speaker 1: kill Bill. It's five steps. And the theory, supposed theory

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Speaker 1: behind the Bruce Lee thing is that at one point

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Speaker 1: somebody did this to him unbeknownst to him. In real life,

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Speaker 1: they can sometimes be days and weeks later, right it

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Speaker 1: really I don't know if this is actual thing? Is

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Speaker 1: the legend? I it's cool. Um. So, Bruce's early martial

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Speaker 1: arts training feeds into what he would call jee kundo,

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Speaker 1: which translates roughly to the way of intercepting fist, which rules. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it's a um it's less of a system than an approach.

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Speaker 1: Is basically like, hey, you know, if you're a fighter,

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Speaker 1: or your martial artist, or really if you're any kind

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Speaker 1: of artist, you should not feel constrained by borders. You

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Speaker 1: should take whatever elements of any other system that you

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Speaker 1: like and incorporated into your own thing. And this has

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Speaker 1: been thought of as basically a precursor of modern mm A,

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Speaker 1: just combining striking and grappling and all of these disparate

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Speaker 1: forums into one system. And it's interesting that he basically

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Speaker 1: got that because as a kid, as this child actor,

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Speaker 1: he was trained in all kinds of stuff. He was

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Speaker 1: trained in wing chung under the founder of the modern

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Speaker 1: system of that style, guy named Eman uh Tai Chi boxing.

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Speaker 1: You know, he was a dancer, and he also was

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Speaker 1: just constantly getting in street fights in Hong Kong, fighting

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Speaker 1: with other martial artists, other students, American sailors, and he

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Speaker 1: whipped so much ass that he was not doing well

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Speaker 1: in school, and his family was basically like I think

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Speaker 1: that The two stories that I've heard is that he

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Speaker 1: really injured a kid, and the other one was that

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Speaker 1: he may have beat up somebody who was tied to

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Speaker 1: the triads, which are the organized crime in Hong Kong,

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Speaker 1: and he was not doing well in school and he

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Speaker 1: had a dual citizenship because he was born in San

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Speaker 1: Francisco and his family were like, we are getting you

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Speaker 1: out of the country. He apparently had this fighter's instinct

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Speaker 1: in him from a young age. I read that he

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Speaker 1: pulled a knife on a gym teacher in school, who

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Speaker 1: among us yes, um. But the secondary aim of his

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Speaker 1: relocation to the United States in nineteen fifty nine was

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Speaker 1: to claim his US citizenship that he was entitled to

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Speaker 1: because he was born in San Francisco. And I guess

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Speaker 1: you have to get that all wrapped up and get

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Speaker 1: all the PaperWorks admitted before you're eighteen in order to

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Speaker 1: do that. It's interesting that the name that he went

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Speaker 1: by as a boy was le jiuon Fan, which translates

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Speaker 1: roughly to to return and prosper, and some say that

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Speaker 1: his mother hoped for him to return to the U

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Speaker 1: s and become successful. Uh. One of my favorite facts

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Speaker 1: about Bruce Lee is that his early job in the

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Speaker 1: United States was as a ballroom dance instructor. Hell yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 1: I guess. He traded martial arts lessons for dance lessons

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Speaker 1: when he was living in Hong Kong, and even one

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Speaker 1: the Crown Colony Chacha championship, and I guess there's like

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Speaker 1: pictures of him in like a button down shirt and

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Speaker 1: a boat tile like a pompadour holding this like you know, trophy.

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Speaker 1: It's so great. And if you visit the Hong Kong

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Speaker 1: Heritage Museum, you'll find among these feature possessions a notebook

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Speaker 1: containing over a hundred cha steps. So great. Um, but

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Speaker 1: Bruce's relationship to the United States is so fascinating to me.

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Speaker 1: Did you know he was apparently circumcised at age twenty

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Speaker 1: two to seem more American? I sure didn't. This is

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Speaker 1: her of the book Bruce Lee Alife by Matthew Polly.

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Speaker 1: I guess when his brother, Robert, the aforementioned singer, asked Bruce, Hey,

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Speaker 1: why what did you do that? Bruce applied, It's what

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Speaker 1: they do in America. I'm American. I want to look

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Speaker 1: the part. Good Lord really went for it. Yeah. So

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Speaker 1: we mentioned Bruce was a hoofer, a real Broadway Danny

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Speaker 1: Rose kind of guy. And this was largely because of

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Speaker 1: his dad. And he was a child. He was like

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Speaker 1: Jackie Coogan. He was a child start in Hong Kong.

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Speaker 1: His first role as a literal baby carried on stage

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Speaker 1: in the film Golden Gate Girl, his first leading role

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Speaker 1: alongside his dad nine years later in the movie called

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Speaker 1: The Kid. That's how He's eighteen. He'd been twenty films.

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Speaker 1: This media training, I guess you'd call it, really gave

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Speaker 1: him that sense of poise and presence that he is

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Speaker 1: just so central to his iconography. You know, just I

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Speaker 1: remember seeing an interview where he was talking about Steve

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Speaker 1: McQueen and he talks about, you know, Steve McQueen had

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Speaker 1: that thing where you just walk into room and turn

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Speaker 1: it on and it was just like light would bend

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Speaker 1: around him. And you know, Bruce has that in the movies, man,

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Speaker 1: like he just they just do all those snap zooms

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Speaker 1: to him on, like when he walks in the door

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Speaker 1: of the dojo or whatever, and it's just like, Yep,

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Speaker 1: this man is about to destroy the entire room with

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Speaker 1: his presence alone. Um. Yeah, great. Another fact about Bruce

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Speaker 1: Lee that just absolutely blows my mind. I mean, he

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Speaker 1: was one of the most athletic, physically perfect human beings

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Speaker 1: of all time, right, um, not good enough for the

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Speaker 1: United States Military. Failed his draft physical. The Army classified

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Speaker 1: him four F due to some combination. I've seen a

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Speaker 1: bunch of reasons sided of an undecended testicle, poor eyesight,

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Speaker 1: a sinus disorder, and one leg being longer than the other,

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Speaker 1: presumably his kicking leg. That's my strong leg. I mean,

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Speaker 1: I mean to which I say, the Army's loss. He yeah, right.

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Speaker 1: In six months, I learned way more about Bruce Lee's

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Speaker 1: junk in this episode than I thought I was going

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Speaker 1: to be. Oh, yeah, there you go. I'm glad I

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Speaker 1: could teach you something. You were the Bruce Lee expert.

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Speaker 1: I'm really glad I was able to teach you this.

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Speaker 1: As you meditate on that, We'll be right back with

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Speaker 1: more too much information after these messages. So in ninety

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Speaker 1: sixty four, Lead lived in Washington State before settling in Oakland.

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Speaker 1: Is a tremendous tide to Oakland and San Francisco. At

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Speaker 1: a long running martial arts school in Oakland, one of

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Speaker 1: the big defining moments of his life occurs Ed Parker,

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Speaker 1: who is the founder of the American Kento Karate system

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Speaker 1: and yes must be said. Elvis Presley's karate teacher invites

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Speaker 1: him to something called the Long Beach Karate Championships International

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Speaker 1: Karate Championships, and it is at this event that some

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Speaker 1: of the modern building blocks of his myth are seen

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Speaker 1: in the public two finger push ups and the famous

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Speaker 1: one inch punch. The former is self explanatory, but the

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Speaker 1: latter is crazy. You know you have seen this on

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Speaker 1: screen in Kill Bill Park two. This is the move

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Speaker 1: that Beatrice uma Thurman's character learns from Pie that she

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Speaker 1: uses to pound her way out of the coffin that

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Speaker 1: she's buried into. That awesome Nio Morricone score. You basically

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Speaker 1: extend your fingertips and put your middle finger longest finger

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Speaker 1: at whatever you're trying to hit, and then, with out

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Speaker 1: retracting your arm for the punch, you push forward to

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Speaker 1: throw a punch. It looks like the doctor Strange thing

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Speaker 1: where he ast really punches the guy's soul out of

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Speaker 1: his body. When does this, I don't think the one

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Speaker 1: is filmed, but nineteen sixty seven it is, and he

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Speaker 1: does this, and it just the guy is supernatural. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: he's just like said, sprawling backwards. I read he flew

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Speaker 1: back sixteen ft is the figure that I read, and

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Speaker 1: it's just I mean, the thing that's amazing about this

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Speaker 1: is that his arm is not drawn back forward an

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Speaker 1: inch an inch and a half maybe two at most,

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Speaker 1: there's no there's no wind up, it's just pure muscular force.

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Speaker 1: That seven footage is incredible. It's some of the only

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Speaker 1: footage that you can see of him sparring in a

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Speaker 1: non choreographed setting. First of all, he does a thing

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Speaker 1: where he's blindfolded and fighting a guy which is just

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Speaker 1: doing the win chung. How what does one do that?

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Speaker 1: I don't understand? Win chung is actually really interesting. It

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Speaker 1: was invented they think it was invented for women as

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Speaker 1: a form of self defense, and so consequently, a lot

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Speaker 1: of it is not really based on like these big

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Speaker 1: demonstrative kicks or froze. It's all very close quarters and

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Speaker 1: they do this. There's a system or practice in there

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Speaker 1: called sticky hands, where you're keeping your wrists and hands

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Speaker 1: in contact with the person that you're sparring with, and

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Speaker 1: you're supposed to be able to counter and attack and

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Speaker 1: anticipate all of their moves with just that physical contact.

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Speaker 1: But there's a point which he's doing this with this

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Speaker 1: guy where all of a sudden he just sweeps this

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Speaker 1: dude's leg. It's just like, how did you have the

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Speaker 1: kind aesthetic awareness to do that? Then then when he's

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Speaker 1: sparring this other guy. It literally looks like the other

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Speaker 1: man is running at half speed, like he is just

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Speaker 1: so ungodly fast. There's another part where he's standing like

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Speaker 1: three ft away from a guy and throws up front

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Speaker 1: hand like back fist, and the dude goes to parry

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Speaker 1: it like a full half second too late, and just

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Speaker 1: bursts out laughing like, well, that dude's in another universe

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Speaker 1: for me anyway. So in the audience at this nineteen

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Speaker 1: sixty four or event is a guy by the name

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Speaker 1: of J. C. Bring, who at the time was a

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Speaker 1: very famous celebrity hairstylist, probably most famous for his relationship

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Speaker 1: with Sharon Tate, whom he was dating at the time.

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Speaker 1: They remained friends even after they broke up, and he

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Speaker 1: would be murdered while trying to defend Sharon by the

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Speaker 1: Manson family in nineteen sixty nine. But Jay was something

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Speaker 1: of a martial arts officionado, and very early martial arts officionado,

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Speaker 1: i should think, and he was incredibly taken with Bruce

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Speaker 1: Lee and actually started to work with him, and he

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Speaker 1: obtained a demonstration tape that Bruce had made, and he

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Speaker 1: was so impressed with this that he gave it to

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Speaker 1: his friend, a TV producer named William Dozer, and so Dozer,

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Speaker 1: I think, gets lead to audition for a pilot that

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Speaker 1: is filmed but not picked up. But he also happens

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Speaker 1: to narrate the Green Hornet TV series, and so Lee

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Speaker 1: has cast his Cato for all twenty six episodes of

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Speaker 1: that shows paltry in season run, and that breaks him

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Speaker 1: to US audiences. But it doesn't only break him to

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Speaker 1: US audiences. It essentially breaks authentic Chinese martial arts to

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Speaker 1: Western audiences. This is in sixty four, so you think

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Speaker 1: about the whole history of westerns and it's just this

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Speaker 1: ungodly clumsy lumbering around like toddlers, throwing these big haymakers

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Speaker 1: and wrestling around in the mud. And producers wanted to

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Speaker 1: lead to fight like that in the show, and he

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Speaker 1: wisely was like, no, I will not. So this is

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Speaker 1: the first exposure American audiences it really had to this

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Speaker 1: style of fighting. And my favorite thing about this is

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Speaker 1: that he was moving too fast for the cameras when

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Speaker 1: he first started doing this, and they were like, they

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Speaker 1: were like you, you gotta slow it down, man, and

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Speaker 1: so he did. He had to run all of his

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Speaker 1: stuff slower than than he actually could, so that it

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Speaker 1: wouldn't just be filmed as an unrecognizable blur is just

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Speaker 1: amazing to me. They also appear on episodes of Batman,

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Speaker 1: which is great. Um, there's a Batman across over yep.

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Speaker 1: And so based on this kind of stuff, a couple

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Speaker 1: of bit parts, he's an iron sides that a detective

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Speaker 1: in a wheelchair show. He's got different stuff popping up

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Speaker 1: here and there. And he's also teaching. Two of his

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Speaker 1: students are just writer Sterling Silliphant and the actors James

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Speaker 1: Coburn and Steve McQueen. And so he's getting his big

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Speaker 1: part and crucially to this next part we're gonna talk about.

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Speaker 1: In nineteen he's credited as the Karate advisor in The

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Speaker 1: Wrecking Group, which is the fourth installment of a comedy

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Speaker 1: sci fi film starring Dean Martin, which also went on

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Speaker 1: to influence the Austin Power series. But yeah, Bruce Lee

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Speaker 1: was tight with a lot of a listers. Um. Speaking

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Speaker 1: of Dino on the rat Pack, Bruce supposedly once kicked

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Speaker 1: the door off its hinges to impress Frank Sinatra. Hell, yes,

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Speaker 1: I love it. This is the rumor that went around Hollywood.

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Speaker 1: It's I'm not totally sure if it's true, but the

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Speaker 1: story went around and made him extremely popular. He turned

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Speaker 1: McQueen onto various martial arts. McQueen turned him onto marijuana,

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Speaker 1: which morphed into a chewable Nepalese hash which he'd be

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Speaker 1: surely fond of. I guess traces of that were found

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Speaker 1: in his stomach at his autopsy, and for a while

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Speaker 1: the authorities were like, maybe that killed him. Yeah, that's

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Speaker 1: not how that works. Um. After Bruce's death, Paul bearers

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Speaker 1: at his funeral included McQueen, who wore a denim jacket

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Speaker 1: over his planet looking Maybe he looks like he's doing

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Speaker 1: a Levi's ad with Bruce Lee's coffin on his shoulder.

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Speaker 1: The pictures from it are insane. Other very famous Paul

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Speaker 1: bears at Bruce Lee's funeral include James Cockburn and the

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Speaker 1: one time James Bond George Lazenby, who was in nine

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Speaker 1: nine on Her Majesty's Secret Service. That's so cute that

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Speaker 1: they had a relationship. Um, this is now getting into

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Speaker 1: once upon a time in Hollywood territory, which I'm gonna

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Speaker 1: try not to get too furious at but it's a

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Speaker 1: big digression and I think it's just crazy. So it's

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Speaker 1: just fun to talk about. Roman Plansky and Sharon Tate

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Speaker 1: both studied with Lee. I think Lee was making something

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Speaker 1: like a thousand dollars an hour to teach Roman Plansky

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Speaker 1: martial arts, and Roman would fly him to Switzerland to train,

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Speaker 1: and Tate studies with him in preparation for her role

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Speaker 1: in The Wrecking Crew, which is the movie she goes

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Speaker 1: to see herself in in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. So,

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Speaker 1: after she gets murdered by the Manson family, Plansky initially

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Speaker 1: suspected that Lee did it a because he was the

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Speaker 1: most dangerous person that plans can do at the time,

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Speaker 1: and be because they found a pair of glasses at

428
00:23:29,000 --> 00:23:31,800
Speaker 1: the scene of the murder, and during a lesson with

429
00:23:31,880 --> 00:23:36,480
Speaker 1: him months later, Bruce offhandedly mentions that he lost his glasses.

430
00:23:37,160 --> 00:23:41,399
Speaker 1: So Roman Plansky conducts his ham handed p iesque scheme.

431
00:23:41,520 --> 00:23:44,240
Speaker 1: He goes, oh, Bruce, um, why don't I get to

432
00:23:44,280 --> 00:23:47,000
Speaker 1: my optician and we'll get you fitted for some new ones.

433
00:23:48,080 --> 00:23:53,960
Speaker 1: He thinks, craftily and stroking his and so he goes

434
00:23:54,000 --> 00:23:56,000
Speaker 1: to the They go to the optician and Bruce reads

435
00:23:56,000 --> 00:24:02,080
Speaker 1: off his prescription to um the guy and plans foiled again.

436
00:24:02,760 --> 00:24:05,800
Speaker 1: I don't know, because it didn't match they did. It

437
00:24:05,840 --> 00:24:09,120
Speaker 1: didn't match the prescription found at the crimes. And unsurprisingly,

438
00:24:09,440 --> 00:24:14,320
Speaker 1: you have quite a bit to say about these classes. Yeah,

439
00:24:14,359 --> 00:24:17,320
Speaker 1: I one of my obsessions. You know. There's the Titanic,

440
00:24:17,359 --> 00:24:20,440
Speaker 1: there's the Beatles. Uh, there's James Bond, and there's also

441
00:24:20,480 --> 00:24:24,280
Speaker 1: the Manson murder. Uh. And so please shut me up.

442
00:24:24,480 --> 00:24:26,919
Speaker 1: I start ramming a little too much, but yeah, Roman

443
00:24:27,040 --> 00:24:30,000
Speaker 1: kind of understandably drove himself insane in the wake of

444
00:24:30,040 --> 00:24:32,359
Speaker 1: Sharon's death, and he did a great deal of this

445
00:24:32,400 --> 00:24:36,359
Speaker 1: amateur sleuthing. He'd had an affair with Michelle Phillips of

446
00:24:36,400 --> 00:24:38,560
Speaker 1: the Mamas and the Papas, who at that time was

447
00:24:38,600 --> 00:24:41,000
Speaker 1: still married to John Phillips, also of the Mamas and

448
00:24:41,040 --> 00:24:44,320
Speaker 1: the Papas, and so Roman thought for a long time

449
00:24:44,359 --> 00:24:47,879
Speaker 1: that John Phillips was behind Sharon's murder, sort as revenge

450
00:24:47,960 --> 00:24:50,520
Speaker 1: for this affair because it had been found out. So

451
00:24:50,800 --> 00:24:54,600
Speaker 1: one day he sneaks into John Phillips's garage and dusts

452
00:24:54,600 --> 00:24:57,040
Speaker 1: his Rolls Royce with some solution that he'd obtained from

453
00:24:57,040 --> 00:24:59,440
Speaker 1: the cops that react the traces of blood. So he's

454
00:24:59,440 --> 00:25:01,760
Speaker 1: trying to see if there are any you know, any

455
00:25:01,920 --> 00:25:04,880
Speaker 1: evidence that could be found on John Phillips's car. Obviously

456
00:25:04,960 --> 00:25:08,159
Speaker 1: he found nothing. He also studied the handwriting of his

457
00:25:08,280 --> 00:25:11,600
Speaker 1: friends to see if any of their writing match the

458
00:25:11,720 --> 00:25:14,400
Speaker 1: word pig that have been scrolled on his front door.

459
00:25:14,920 --> 00:25:18,800
Speaker 1: Uh in Sharon's blood. Um. And an interesting note about

460
00:25:18,800 --> 00:25:21,360
Speaker 1: these glasses that were found at the crime scene, No

461
00:25:21,400 --> 00:25:24,439
Speaker 1: one to this day really knows why they're there, Like

462
00:25:24,480 --> 00:25:26,600
Speaker 1: it was really this kind of outlier, and all the

463
00:25:26,640 --> 00:25:29,879
Speaker 1: evidence that was gathered at at the plans Key house,

464
00:25:30,440 --> 00:25:34,280
Speaker 1: just these big horn rimmed glasses didn't belong to any

465
00:25:34,320 --> 00:25:36,880
Speaker 1: of the known killers who were there. And there's a

466
00:25:36,960 --> 00:25:41,240
Speaker 1: theory that's been taking hold in recent years that because

467
00:25:42,240 --> 00:25:45,200
Speaker 1: Charles Manson didn't actually officially go to the crime scene,

468
00:25:45,200 --> 00:25:47,560
Speaker 1: he ordered his followers to go up there and sort

469
00:25:47,560 --> 00:25:50,600
Speaker 1: of do his his beatings for him. But there's this

470
00:25:50,680 --> 00:25:55,240
Speaker 1: theory that he, hours after the murders, went up there

471
00:25:55,280 --> 00:25:59,040
Speaker 1: with another member of the family to basically survey the

472
00:25:59,080 --> 00:26:02,600
Speaker 1: crime scene and stage it to his liking, to just

473
00:26:02,640 --> 00:26:05,440
Speaker 1: sort of arrange the scene with the bodies. Because I guess,

474
00:26:05,760 --> 00:26:09,399
Speaker 1: hours and hours and hours after the killers left people

475
00:26:09,560 --> 00:26:13,479
Speaker 1: in the area. Neighbors heard two men arguing, and they

476
00:26:13,480 --> 00:26:15,679
Speaker 1: look at the blood trace map at the property. It

477
00:26:15,720 --> 00:26:18,320
Speaker 1: looks like the bodies have been dragged around and moved.

478
00:26:18,520 --> 00:26:20,919
Speaker 1: So there's this theory that Manson went up there and

479
00:26:21,160 --> 00:26:25,480
Speaker 1: possibly deposited these glasses just to throw off the authorities,

480
00:26:25,480 --> 00:26:27,920
Speaker 1: to just leave this random clue that didn't actually fit,

481
00:26:28,280 --> 00:26:30,760
Speaker 1: to try to just throw people off. Yeah, to this day,

482
00:26:30,800 --> 00:26:33,479
Speaker 1: no one actually knows why they're there. There's which is

483
00:26:33,760 --> 00:26:36,919
Speaker 1: very interesting to me. Going back to Bruce Lee, he

484
00:26:37,000 --> 00:26:40,080
Speaker 1: apparently made a point of wearing these old, taped up

485
00:26:40,359 --> 00:26:43,399
Speaker 1: coke bottle glasses as a way of reminding himself with

486
00:26:43,440 --> 00:26:46,399
Speaker 1: where he came from and to stay grounded. I love that.

487
00:26:46,760 --> 00:26:50,920
Speaker 1: So by he's choreographing the fights in an Ingrid Bergman movie,

488
00:26:51,040 --> 00:26:53,639
Speaker 1: which I love because there's no degree of separation between

489
00:26:53,800 --> 00:26:56,879
Speaker 1: Ingrid Bergman and Bruce Lee. Um. But that year he

490
00:26:56,960 --> 00:27:00,439
Speaker 1: damages a sacral nerve in his lower back way lifting.

491
00:27:00,520 --> 00:27:02,200
Speaker 1: He's laid up for a few months in bed, which

492
00:27:02,280 --> 00:27:05,160
Speaker 1: is when you mentioned he wrote his book and money

493
00:27:05,200 --> 00:27:07,199
Speaker 1: was so tight at this point because he couldn't work that.

494
00:27:07,720 --> 00:27:11,440
Speaker 1: Linda actually starts moonlighting and an answering service, pulling double

495
00:27:11,480 --> 00:27:14,639
Speaker 1: duties to make ends meet for their family. I love

496
00:27:14,960 --> 00:27:18,600
Speaker 1: their relationships so much. Their love just sustains me. The

497
00:27:18,640 --> 00:27:21,480
Speaker 1: pictures of Bruce and his wife Linda together are just

498
00:27:21,560 --> 00:27:23,320
Speaker 1: some of the most pure images of couple of them

499
00:27:23,400 --> 00:27:26,280
Speaker 1: that I've ever seen. I know it sounds like he's

500
00:27:26,280 --> 00:27:30,080
Speaker 1: had a number of affairs. I will choose to ignore them.

501
00:27:30,160 --> 00:27:31,840
Speaker 1: There's this famous quote of his. I don't know if

502
00:27:31,880 --> 00:27:34,640
Speaker 1: it's from a movie or from his notebooks of poetry

503
00:27:34,680 --> 00:27:36,680
Speaker 1: that he wrote, but I always thought it was really beautiful.

504
00:27:37,040 --> 00:27:39,840
Speaker 1: Love is like a friendship caught on fire in the

505
00:27:39,880 --> 00:27:43,600
Speaker 1: beginning of flame, very pretty, often hot and fierce, but

506
00:27:43,760 --> 00:27:47,360
Speaker 1: still only light and flickering. As love grows older, our

507
00:27:47,400 --> 00:27:51,240
Speaker 1: hearts mature, and our love becomes as coals, deep, burning

508
00:27:51,480 --> 00:27:56,720
Speaker 1: and unquenchable. This guy can do it all. That's beautiful.

509
00:27:56,720 --> 00:28:01,159
Speaker 1: It's such a beautiful blend of spiritual and physical grace.

510
00:28:01,320 --> 00:28:04,560
Speaker 1: It's amazing. And so this is the error when he

511
00:28:04,640 --> 00:28:08,120
Speaker 1: decides to hit well, decides is influence to move back

512
00:28:08,160 --> 00:28:10,000
Speaker 1: to Hong Kong, and this is also gets into the

513
00:28:10,080 --> 00:28:14,960
Speaker 1: drama around the television show Kung Fu starts in nineteen

514
00:28:14,960 --> 00:28:18,240
Speaker 1: seventy two stars David Carradine as this sort of Clinton

515
00:28:18,240 --> 00:28:23,200
Speaker 1: Eastwood esque wondering martial artist. And the drama is that

516
00:28:23,920 --> 00:28:26,879
Speaker 1: in one Bruce pitched a TV show with the title

517
00:28:26,920 --> 00:28:29,520
Speaker 1: of The Warrior that has been confirmed by Warner Brothers

518
00:28:29,560 --> 00:28:32,359
Speaker 1: that they took this meeting. Uh. And then in his

519
00:28:32,480 --> 00:28:36,479
Speaker 1: lone English speaking TV interview, which is in Canada on

520
00:28:36,520 --> 00:28:39,360
Speaker 1: the Pierre Burton Show, he talks about pitching this show

521
00:28:39,400 --> 00:28:42,440
Speaker 1: and he says that their vision for him was to

522
00:28:42,480 --> 00:28:45,200
Speaker 1: be in a modernized type of thing because they think

523
00:28:45,240 --> 00:28:48,040
Speaker 1: the Western is out. But then he says, whereas I

524
00:28:48,120 --> 00:28:51,280
Speaker 1: wanted to do a Western now, according to Linda, this

525
00:28:51,360 --> 00:28:53,400
Speaker 1: is the idea that does become kung Fu, and he

526
00:28:53,440 --> 00:28:56,440
Speaker 1: got screwed out of a credit. Morener Brothers excuses that

527
00:28:56,480 --> 00:28:59,520
Speaker 1: they had for some time been developing the same idea

528
00:28:59,520 --> 00:29:02,120
Speaker 1: and they were just like, oh, you know, synchronicity. Oh.

529
00:29:02,160 --> 00:29:04,440
Speaker 1: And they also said that he was not cast in

530
00:29:04,560 --> 00:29:08,360
Speaker 1: Kung Fu regardless of who developed the idea because his

531
00:29:08,400 --> 00:29:10,960
Speaker 1: accent was too thick, or just because of good old

532
00:29:10,960 --> 00:29:14,920
Speaker 1: fashioned American racism. But he was admirably pragmatic about the

533
00:29:14,920 --> 00:29:18,680
Speaker 1: circumstances of this, telling Pierre Burton that they think that

534
00:29:18,760 --> 00:29:21,000
Speaker 1: business wise is as a risk. He says, I I

535
00:29:21,000 --> 00:29:23,560
Speaker 1: don't blame them. If the situation were reversed and an

536
00:29:23,560 --> 00:29:25,680
Speaker 1: American star would have come to Hong Kong and I

537
00:29:25,800 --> 00:29:28,160
Speaker 1: was the man with the money, I would have my

538
00:29:28,200 --> 00:29:30,840
Speaker 1: own concerns as to whether or not the acceptance would

539
00:29:30,880 --> 00:29:33,760
Speaker 1: be there. So that's enlightened of him. I'd be piste

540
00:29:33,800 --> 00:29:38,080
Speaker 1: a sell, especially after I see David carried in sleepwalking

541
00:29:38,120 --> 00:29:40,560
Speaker 1: his way through all of those fight scenes. So then

542
00:29:40,600 --> 00:29:43,080
Speaker 1: a guy named Fred Weintraub, who is the original owner

543
00:29:43,080 --> 00:29:45,720
Speaker 1: and host at The Bitter End in Greenwich Village, New York,

544
00:29:46,360 --> 00:29:50,239
Speaker 1: and who helped fund the Woodstock documentary UM he is

545
00:29:50,760 --> 00:29:54,240
Speaker 1: involved in developing Kung Fu, and he gives Bruce the

546
00:29:54,280 --> 00:29:56,360
Speaker 1: advice that, hey, you should go over to Hong Kong,

547
00:29:56,960 --> 00:29:59,720
Speaker 1: make some movies and then come back with those on

548
00:29:59,800 --> 00:30:03,320
Speaker 1: your resume on your c V into Hollywood. That sounds

549
00:30:03,320 --> 00:30:06,800
Speaker 1: suspicious to be like, hey, we we we stow your idea.

550
00:30:06,840 --> 00:30:09,400
Speaker 1: Why don't you go to leave the country and come

551
00:30:09,400 --> 00:30:12,480
Speaker 1: back while we make it. But the cool thing is

552
00:30:12,480 --> 00:30:14,719
Speaker 1: that unbeknown silly. At this point, the green Hornet has

553
00:30:14,760 --> 00:30:17,480
Speaker 1: become a huge hit in Hong Kong. It is renamed

554
00:30:17,520 --> 00:30:21,240
Speaker 1: The Cato Show and made him an enormous celebrity. Wine

555
00:30:21,240 --> 00:30:23,920
Speaker 1: troop set in that you just couldn't walk the streets

556
00:30:23,920 --> 00:30:27,160
Speaker 1: of Hong Kong without having five hundred with Bruce, without

557
00:30:27,160 --> 00:30:31,440
Speaker 1: having five hundred people follow you. So next, without getting

558
00:30:31,480 --> 00:30:34,600
Speaker 1: too granuler about the history of Hong Kong martial arts cinema,

559
00:30:34,720 --> 00:30:38,000
Speaker 1: he said, proceeding to do just that. The two big

560
00:30:38,040 --> 00:30:40,640
Speaker 1: players from this era are the Shaw Brothers and Raymond

561
00:30:40,680 --> 00:30:44,680
Speaker 1: Chow's Golden Harvest. The Shop Brothers are hugely influential in

562
00:30:44,840 --> 00:30:48,680
Speaker 1: having kung fu cinema cross over into the United States

563
00:30:48,760 --> 00:30:51,920
Speaker 1: and international. They made a thousand films and you will

564
00:30:51,960 --> 00:30:54,840
Speaker 1: recognize some of these titles, stuff like The Five Deadly

565
00:30:54,920 --> 00:30:58,000
Speaker 1: Venoms and The Five Fingers of Death from just infiltrating

566
00:30:58,000 --> 00:31:00,960
Speaker 1: pop culture because they were huge hits the midnight movies,

567
00:31:01,440 --> 00:31:07,240
Speaker 1: grindhouse exploitation circuit, and that's where people like Quentinantino and

568
00:31:07,320 --> 00:31:10,280
Speaker 1: the Rizza saw them. Rizza has talked about coming into

569
00:31:10,360 --> 00:31:12,680
Speaker 1: Staten Island to see all of these kung fu movies

570
00:31:12,680 --> 00:31:16,160
Speaker 1: in Times Square and the Woutang Record Enter. The thirty

571
00:31:16,200 --> 00:31:19,000
Speaker 1: six Chambers takes its title from a Show Brothers film,

572
00:31:19,040 --> 00:31:22,040
Speaker 1: they obviously have all those little bits of dialogue sampling

573
00:31:22,400 --> 00:31:25,800
Speaker 1: the film that are interspersed into their songs. Just a

574
00:31:25,880 --> 00:31:29,960
Speaker 1: hugely influential thing for him. And in kill Bill not

575
00:31:30,120 --> 00:31:32,760
Speaker 1: the first or last time I'll be bringing this up.

576
00:31:32,800 --> 00:31:35,320
Speaker 1: In kill Bill pie by the guy with the tremendous

577
00:31:35,320 --> 00:31:38,880
Speaker 1: eyebrows and white Beard who trains Uma. That is Gordon

578
00:31:38,960 --> 00:31:41,560
Speaker 1: lu who is a big Show Brothers star, who is

579
00:31:41,600 --> 00:31:44,560
Speaker 1: actually in the thirty six Chamber movie pivoting over to

580
00:31:44,640 --> 00:31:47,880
Speaker 1: Golden Harvest. Raymond Chow, who was a martial artist, launched

581
00:31:48,120 --> 00:31:51,240
Speaker 1: basically every big star in the last fifty years of

582
00:31:51,800 --> 00:31:54,920
Speaker 1: Kung fu cinema, Jackie Chan Jet Lead on a Yen,

583
00:31:55,520 --> 00:31:59,040
Speaker 1: And the rivalry between those two studios is like Disney

584
00:31:59,080 --> 00:32:03,360
Speaker 1: grade um because Golden Harvest was founded by Raymond Chow

585
00:32:03,600 --> 00:32:05,719
Speaker 1: and a guy named Leonard Ho who had both been

586
00:32:05,760 --> 00:32:09,880
Speaker 1: executives with the Shaw Brothers and they defected and they

587
00:32:09,920 --> 00:32:11,880
Speaker 1: wanted to have a studio that was going to be

588
00:32:11,880 --> 00:32:14,920
Speaker 1: the opposite of the Shaw Brothers, which was this assembly line,

589
00:32:14,960 --> 00:32:18,480
Speaker 1: really quality controlled, bang them out system, and so they

590
00:32:18,520 --> 00:32:20,440
Speaker 1: basically said, we're gonna pay people more and give him

591
00:32:20,480 --> 00:32:22,760
Speaker 1: more creative freedom. And that was how they were going

592
00:32:22,800 --> 00:32:26,480
Speaker 1: to run their studio. So Bruce asks a childhood friend

593
00:32:26,480 --> 00:32:28,960
Speaker 1: of his who he had co started into these films

594
00:32:28,960 --> 00:32:33,000
Speaker 1: alongside with with the absolutely remarkable name of Unicorn Chan

595
00:32:36,160 --> 00:32:39,000
Speaker 1: to pass the CV to the Shaws, and they are interested,

596
00:32:39,160 --> 00:32:41,600
Speaker 1: but they lowball him. They offer him a long term

597
00:32:41,720 --> 00:32:45,640
Speaker 1: contract about something like two grand a film, and considering

598
00:32:45,680 --> 00:32:49,240
Speaker 1: he's been making a thousand dollars an hour to teach Karate,

599
00:32:49,520 --> 00:32:54,080
Speaker 1: too grand a film is pennies and he declines. Chow

600
00:32:54,280 --> 00:32:56,280
Speaker 1: hears of this meeting and decides to take a meeting

601
00:32:56,320 --> 00:32:58,920
Speaker 1: with Bruce and offers him a two picture deal, the

602
00:32:58,960 --> 00:33:02,800
Speaker 1: first of which is The Big Boss. Uh Lee did

603
00:33:02,800 --> 00:33:05,400
Speaker 1: not enjoy making The Big Boss. He was filmed in Thailand,

604
00:33:05,440 --> 00:33:08,120
Speaker 1: and he wrote to Linda complaining the food was terrible,

605
00:33:08,160 --> 00:33:10,959
Speaker 1: he was losing weight, He lost his voice trying to

606
00:33:10,960 --> 00:33:13,560
Speaker 1: shout above the noise that was on the set, the

607
00:33:13,720 --> 00:33:16,719
Speaker 1: mosquitoes and cockroaches everywhere, the tap water in the hotel

608
00:33:16,800 --> 00:33:20,920
Speaker 1: was yellow. He injured himself badly making this. He cuts

609
00:33:20,960 --> 00:33:23,360
Speaker 1: his hand, you can see like a plaster bandage on it.

610
00:33:23,720 --> 00:33:26,720
Speaker 1: He springs his ankle. That's why he's like limping half dead.

611
00:33:26,760 --> 00:33:31,000
Speaker 1: By the last scene, um and he loses his contact

612
00:33:31,080 --> 00:33:34,160
Speaker 1: lens at one point holds up the scene for hours.

613
00:33:35,000 --> 00:33:40,080
Speaker 1: The sight of Bruce Lee screaming, like on the pulse

614
00:33:40,120 --> 00:33:43,120
Speaker 1: of his feet, like feeling around. Didn He also got

615
00:33:43,160 --> 00:33:45,280
Speaker 1: bitten by a cobra while filming a scene. For that,

616
00:33:45,640 --> 00:33:49,680
Speaker 1: I believe it. I love that. How by all accounts,

617
00:33:49,720 --> 00:33:51,680
Speaker 1: whenever he got injured, you know, in the middle of

618
00:33:51,680 --> 00:33:54,680
Speaker 1: a take, he insisted that the crew not stopped filming

619
00:33:54,720 --> 00:33:57,200
Speaker 1: until the scene was completed, and it was only after

620
00:33:57,280 --> 00:34:01,280
Speaker 1: that that hend seek medical attention. Guys A pro, Yeah, exactly.

621
00:34:01,560 --> 00:34:03,880
Speaker 1: So there's a lot of behind the scenes drama this movie.

622
00:34:03,960 --> 00:34:07,400
Speaker 1: They started shooting it with a three page script, which

623
00:34:07,400 --> 00:34:09,320
Speaker 1: gave him a lot of leeway to kind of bully

624
00:34:09,400 --> 00:34:12,000
Speaker 1: his way through the film. He clashed with the first

625
00:34:12,040 --> 00:34:17,000
Speaker 1: director over the choreography. To understand about what was happening

626
00:34:17,000 --> 00:34:18,680
Speaker 1: at this time, you have to know a little bit

627
00:34:18,719 --> 00:34:22,120
Speaker 1: about a subgenre of martial arts movies called this was

628
00:34:22,160 --> 00:34:23,919
Speaker 1: really popular at the time. This was a big Shop

629
00:34:23,960 --> 00:34:28,080
Speaker 1: Brothers stuff. There are movies that take place in Chinese antiquity,

630
00:34:28,160 --> 00:34:33,520
Speaker 1: often starring lightly fictionalized versions of real life historical military

631
00:34:33,520 --> 00:34:37,440
Speaker 1: folk heroes and all the choreography in them is very fanciful,

632
00:34:37,760 --> 00:34:39,920
Speaker 1: and it's where you get the wire works, where you

633
00:34:39,960 --> 00:34:42,640
Speaker 1: get people doing like crazy backflips and flying through air

634
00:34:43,080 --> 00:34:45,920
Speaker 1: um very flowing and artsy fight scenes. The biggest example

635
00:34:45,960 --> 00:34:48,440
Speaker 1: of this for Western non siss Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

636
00:34:48,480 --> 00:34:51,880
Speaker 1: I mean, that looked so alien to us, having people

637
00:34:52,040 --> 00:34:55,120
Speaker 1: like do these balletic fight scenes fifty ft up in

638
00:34:55,120 --> 00:34:57,439
Speaker 1: the air, but that would have been very standard for

639
00:34:57,640 --> 00:34:59,640
Speaker 1: Chinese movie going audiences because of the history of this

640
00:34:59,680 --> 00:35:03,200
Speaker 1: gen Now, those are the fight scenes that this director,

641
00:35:03,400 --> 00:35:08,000
Speaker 1: who Chia Sang wanted. Bruce who, as you remember, beat

642
00:35:08,040 --> 00:35:10,640
Speaker 1: half of Hong Kong to death with his bare hands,

643
00:35:11,120 --> 00:35:15,040
Speaker 1: wanted these street fight style scenes that would be more realistic, brutal,

644
00:35:15,200 --> 00:35:19,560
Speaker 1: direct realistic. Uh. They fought, each one of them wanted

645
00:35:19,600 --> 00:35:22,240
Speaker 1: the other one fired, and Golden Harvest crunched the numbers,

646
00:35:22,239 --> 00:35:25,680
Speaker 1: decided they had just paid Lee more more recently, and

647
00:35:26,000 --> 00:35:29,000
Speaker 1: fired the director. He also clashes with the film's build

648
00:35:29,080 --> 00:35:31,960
Speaker 1: star James Tien, who was a bigger deal than Lee

649
00:35:32,000 --> 00:35:34,560
Speaker 1: at the time, but Lee kind of edges him out

650
00:35:34,640 --> 00:35:37,680
Speaker 1: during the production and writing process, probably because people just

651
00:35:37,680 --> 00:35:40,520
Speaker 1: looked at the dailies and we're like, oh, this is

652
00:35:40,560 --> 00:35:43,960
Speaker 1: what we this is what we have on a film that. Yeah,

653
00:35:44,239 --> 00:35:47,520
Speaker 1: point the camera at that. Yeah. And lastly, the Shop

654
00:35:47,560 --> 00:35:50,160
Speaker 1: Brothers were also making a movie in Thailand and apparently

655
00:35:50,239 --> 00:35:53,359
Speaker 1: still going around behind Golden Harvest's back trying to sign

656
00:35:53,440 --> 00:35:56,880
Speaker 1: lead to a new contract. But whatever the drama if,

657
00:35:56,920 --> 00:35:59,080
Speaker 1: it was a huge hit. When it comes out, it

658
00:35:59,160 --> 00:36:02,920
Speaker 1: grosses and A just three hundred million worldwide on a

659
00:36:03,040 --> 00:36:07,520
Speaker 1: budget of a hundred grand. Talk about an r o I.

660
00:36:07,880 --> 00:36:10,839
Speaker 1: It is the highest grossing Hong Kong film up until

661
00:36:10,920 --> 00:36:14,400
Speaker 1: Lee's next film, This The Fury, and this might have

662
00:36:14,440 --> 00:36:17,160
Speaker 1: been why he decided to form his own production company. Um,

663
00:36:17,200 --> 00:36:19,680
Speaker 1: there's a book written by a guy who worked with

664
00:36:19,760 --> 00:36:22,400
Speaker 1: him on Into the Dragon and Way of the Dragon

665
00:36:22,440 --> 00:36:24,480
Speaker 1: that he said Bruce told him the chow on they

666
00:36:24,480 --> 00:36:27,520
Speaker 1: gave him five percent of the profits from those two

667
00:36:27,520 --> 00:36:32,600
Speaker 1: films rich It made almost like half a billion dollars

668
00:36:32,600 --> 00:36:35,000
Speaker 1: and he got five percent of them. So we get

669
00:36:35,000 --> 00:36:37,920
Speaker 1: to Fist of Fury. The plot of this movie is

670
00:36:38,360 --> 00:36:42,040
Speaker 1: fairly straightforward and one that is familiar to any martial

671
00:36:42,160 --> 00:36:45,120
Speaker 1: arts movie fan. Lee is playing guy named chen Jen

672
00:36:45,680 --> 00:36:48,719
Speaker 1: and his teacher has died under mysterious circumstances and he

673
00:36:48,760 --> 00:36:52,400
Speaker 1: goes to Japan to investigate. Pretty simple set up with

674
00:36:52,520 --> 00:36:57,160
Speaker 1: a lot of subtext. Chen's teacher in the film shoes

675
00:36:57,160 --> 00:37:00,480
Speaker 1: a name with a real life figure name Who yan Uh,

676
00:37:00,520 --> 00:37:03,360
Speaker 1: who dates back to the Qing dynasty in China, and

677
00:37:03,360 --> 00:37:05,760
Speaker 1: it's something of a real life folk hero in China.

678
00:37:06,040 --> 00:37:09,279
Speaker 1: He was seen as defending the Chinese national identity and

679
00:37:09,360 --> 00:37:11,560
Speaker 1: being very proud of this identity at a time when

680
00:37:11,600 --> 00:37:14,760
Speaker 1: it was under threat from influences from Europe and Japan.

681
00:37:15,680 --> 00:37:20,200
Speaker 1: So consequently, in this movie, the Japanese are portrayed as

682
00:37:20,280 --> 00:37:24,839
Speaker 1: extremely villainous. The Japanese villains used this term sick man

683
00:37:24,960 --> 00:37:28,480
Speaker 1: of Asia to refer to the Chinese. I wicked this.

684
00:37:28,719 --> 00:37:32,799
Speaker 1: It has a long, deep history of use as an

685
00:37:32,800 --> 00:37:36,399
Speaker 1: insult in Asia. I'm not getting into it. I'm sure

686
00:37:36,400 --> 00:37:39,279
Speaker 1: I will say something wrong, but it is very insulting.

687
00:37:39,480 --> 00:37:41,799
Speaker 1: So that was written in on purpose. And there's also

688
00:37:41,800 --> 00:37:44,120
Speaker 1: a point where Bruce kicks apart a sign that says

689
00:37:44,160 --> 00:37:46,960
Speaker 1: no Chinese or dogs allowed. So the plot of this

690
00:37:47,040 --> 00:37:52,840
Speaker 1: movie about this honorable pacifistic man being forced into violence

691
00:37:53,120 --> 00:37:56,360
Speaker 1: and conducting a one man war against a foreign enemy

692
00:37:56,440 --> 00:38:00,120
Speaker 1: that he did not want to fight. Very pointed for

693
00:38:00,160 --> 00:38:05,000
Speaker 1: the Chinese and especially for Lee. Very quick history lesson

694
00:38:05,360 --> 00:38:08,920
Speaker 1: the Japanese invasion of a bunch of territories, including Hong Kong,

695
00:38:09,719 --> 00:38:13,440
Speaker 1: starts in December of one, concurrently with Pearl Harbor. Right,

696
00:38:14,000 --> 00:38:16,520
Speaker 1: Lee's dad was nearly killed when he was out of

697
00:38:16,560 --> 00:38:19,359
Speaker 1: Buddy's house and it was bombed as part of the occupation.

698
00:38:19,440 --> 00:38:22,520
Speaker 1: So Lee's dad nearly died, and Lida tells the story

699
00:38:22,560 --> 00:38:25,359
Speaker 1: of Lee as a little kid like sitting out and

700
00:38:25,400 --> 00:38:28,800
Speaker 1: watching the Japanese planes flying overhead and shaking his fist

701
00:38:28,920 --> 00:38:34,040
Speaker 1: at them, which is tragic and adorable. Um So this

702
00:38:34,120 --> 00:38:38,320
Speaker 1: is all all this anti colonialism, pro Chinese nationalism sentiment

703
00:38:38,440 --> 00:38:42,919
Speaker 1: defending against the Japanese. This is really kind of transcends

704
00:38:42,960 --> 00:38:46,960
Speaker 1: the genre, deeply personal stuff for him, and this particular

705
00:38:46,960 --> 00:38:51,000
Speaker 1: strain of nationalism found a fan in another big figure

706
00:38:51,080 --> 00:38:56,759
Speaker 1: in Chinese history, Chairman Mao. Chairman Mao Everyone making his

707
00:38:56,800 --> 00:38:59,600
Speaker 1: first appearance on the podcast from front of the Pod

708
00:39:00,040 --> 00:39:04,279
Speaker 1: Defend the Chairman Mao. So by nineteen four, Mal has

709
00:39:04,320 --> 00:39:06,319
Speaker 1: been diagnosed with a cataract and Lee is dead at

710
00:39:06,320 --> 00:39:08,439
Speaker 1: this point. Had nothing to do with that, by the way,

711
00:39:08,480 --> 00:39:11,200
Speaker 1: And yeah, despite the many people he killed, not this one.

712
00:39:11,640 --> 00:39:16,360
Speaker 1: Let's just to cover our bases there. He's diagnosed with

713
00:39:16,360 --> 00:39:18,600
Speaker 1: a cataract and his doctors say, you gotta quit reading

714
00:39:18,680 --> 00:39:21,319
Speaker 1: so much, so he turns to movies. He goes through

715
00:39:21,360 --> 00:39:23,960
Speaker 1: a couple of foreign biopics of figures like b Lincoln

716
00:39:24,000 --> 00:39:29,080
Speaker 1: and Napoleon, and then his deputy Minister of the Ministry

717
00:39:29,160 --> 00:39:33,640
Speaker 1: of Culture, Luke ching Tang, gets him a bunch of

718
00:39:33,800 --> 00:39:36,680
Speaker 1: Hong Kong kung fu flicks. And Lee was a really

719
00:39:36,760 --> 00:39:39,520
Speaker 1: unknown quantity in China because of the country's self impost

720
00:39:39,560 --> 00:39:43,560
Speaker 1: cultural isolation. So this is the first time that Chairman

721
00:39:43,600 --> 00:39:46,760
Speaker 1: Mau was seeing any of these and he burst into

722
00:39:46,800 --> 00:39:50,120
Speaker 1: tears watching Fist of Fury for the first time and

723
00:39:50,320 --> 00:39:53,239
Speaker 1: cried Bruce Lee as a hero, and then watched it

724
00:39:53,280 --> 00:39:56,960
Speaker 1: two more times, a personal record for his film viewing

725
00:39:57,440 --> 00:40:01,320
Speaker 1: that lu said stood for the rest of his life.

726
00:40:03,080 --> 00:40:05,040
Speaker 1: We're going to take a quick break, but we'll be

727
00:40:05,160 --> 00:40:08,000
Speaker 1: right back with more too much information in just a moment.

728
00:40:18,480 --> 00:40:20,919
Speaker 1: Random bits about the film. This is the first one

729
00:40:21,000 --> 00:40:24,640
Speaker 1: in which his iconic nunchuck routine makes an appearance. He

730
00:40:24,640 --> 00:40:26,239
Speaker 1: had to use them on the Green Hornet before, but

731
00:40:26,320 --> 00:40:29,080
Speaker 1: this is the first time when the film just grinds

732
00:40:29,120 --> 00:40:32,399
Speaker 1: to a halt to watch priestly whip around nunchucks faster

733
00:40:32,480 --> 00:40:35,520
Speaker 1: than the speed of sound. Also supposedly, I guess, production

734
00:40:35,960 --> 00:40:39,120
Speaker 1: had to contend with local street gangs demanding payment for

735
00:40:39,280 --> 00:40:43,560
Speaker 1: using their their territory um and as the path of

736
00:40:43,640 --> 00:40:46,920
Speaker 1: least resistance. The producers paid up, although Lee was predictably

737
00:40:47,239 --> 00:40:51,239
Speaker 1: very upset about this and wanted to fight all of them,

738
00:40:51,239 --> 00:40:55,799
Speaker 1: presumably at once, and could he have taken them? Probably? Yeah.

739
00:40:56,160 --> 00:40:58,680
Speaker 1: Did you know that, for his total lack of fear

740
00:40:58,719 --> 00:41:01,759
Speaker 1: of human beings, as ever by this anecdote, Bruce Lee

741
00:41:01,880 --> 00:41:05,680
Speaker 1: was terrified of swimming pools. I sure didn't. He did not,

742
00:41:06,080 --> 00:41:08,040
Speaker 1: I guess when he was a little boy, he pushed

743
00:41:08,040 --> 00:41:11,359
Speaker 1: his younger sister into the pool and she retaliated by

744
00:41:11,360 --> 00:41:14,919
Speaker 1: holding his head underwater, and it traumatized him so much

745
00:41:15,000 --> 00:41:18,000
Speaker 1: that he never set foot in the pool again. That's wild.

746
00:41:19,440 --> 00:41:23,120
Speaker 1: And now we are so thrilled to speak about one

747
00:41:23,160 --> 00:41:25,240
Speaker 1: of your heroes you mentioned at the top of the episode,

748
00:41:25,640 --> 00:41:28,759
Speaker 1: Jackie chan who I mean, I know through conversations we've

749
00:41:28,800 --> 00:41:33,720
Speaker 1: had you've likened to Charlie Chaplin and he's he's them

750
00:41:33,920 --> 00:41:37,480
Speaker 1: plus Bruce Lee. I mean it's it's funny because they

751
00:41:37,680 --> 00:41:39,680
Speaker 1: I'll talk about this in a few minutes, but he

752
00:41:39,760 --> 00:41:44,560
Speaker 1: was basically explicitly positioned as Bruce Lee's air um. But

753
00:41:44,719 --> 00:41:48,440
Speaker 1: the crucial difference between them is that Jackie was schooled

754
00:41:48,760 --> 00:41:51,320
Speaker 1: at a like a performing arts school that really pushed

755
00:41:51,360 --> 00:41:54,560
Speaker 1: for comedy and like and singing. Right, yeah, he's a

756
00:41:54,640 --> 00:41:58,080
Speaker 1: singer and stage comedy. And so even though all of

757
00:41:58,160 --> 00:42:00,880
Speaker 1: his early films he's playing this very drait laced, like

758
00:42:01,000 --> 00:42:04,440
Speaker 1: just sort of Bruce Lee esque badass, he quickly figures

759
00:42:04,440 --> 00:42:07,120
Speaker 1: out that, like, oh, I am also a tremendously gifted

760
00:42:07,400 --> 00:42:10,160
Speaker 1: physical comedian. And that's when you just get that tremendous

761
00:42:10,200 --> 00:42:13,520
Speaker 1: run of eighties stuff like Armor of God and super

762
00:42:13,560 --> 00:42:16,319
Speaker 1: Cop all this stuff where it's just yeah, man, I

763
00:42:16,320 --> 00:42:18,799
Speaker 1: mean he would beat the out of someone with a

764
00:42:18,880 --> 00:42:22,840
Speaker 1: ladder and then like hurl himself down a pole covered

765
00:42:22,880 --> 00:42:25,279
Speaker 1: with lightbulbs, popping them on the way. It's just like,

766
00:42:25,640 --> 00:42:28,839
Speaker 1: what come on, man, talk about flop sweat. That man

767
00:42:29,000 --> 00:42:33,239
Speaker 1: broke his body to give us joy. Anyway, but he's

768
00:42:33,239 --> 00:42:35,120
Speaker 1: in He's also in End of the Dragon and he

769
00:42:35,160 --> 00:42:37,680
Speaker 1: tells this really funny anecdote about he like took a

770
00:42:37,680 --> 00:42:41,279
Speaker 1: punch from Bruce Lee and and he would overplay how

771
00:42:41,360 --> 00:42:43,879
Speaker 1: much it hurt him, because then Bruce would go over

772
00:42:43,920 --> 00:42:46,040
Speaker 1: and comfort him and talk to him. And Jackie says

773
00:42:46,080 --> 00:42:50,719
Speaker 1: he just like being held by him. You mentioned that

774
00:42:50,760 --> 00:42:53,920
Speaker 1: in Jackie chance autobiography he saw an actual fight on

775
00:42:53,960 --> 00:42:57,279
Speaker 1: the set one almost set. I guess yeah. So in

776
00:42:57,360 --> 00:43:00,200
Speaker 1: his autobiography, Jackie Chance onto Biography, he talks of out

777
00:43:00,200 --> 00:43:03,600
Speaker 1: the tension between Bruce and Logot so bad that they

778
00:43:03,760 --> 00:43:07,000
Speaker 1: almost blossomed into a fight, and he mentions the incredibly

779
00:43:07,000 --> 00:43:12,160
Speaker 1: emasculating detail that the director hid behind his wife, using

780
00:43:12,200 --> 00:43:16,160
Speaker 1: her as a human shield between himself and the deadliest

781
00:43:16,239 --> 00:43:20,719
Speaker 1: man of all time. And this woman calmed ly down

782
00:43:20,760 --> 00:43:23,960
Speaker 1: and broke up the fight. Oh, that guy sounds like

783
00:43:23,960 --> 00:43:27,640
Speaker 1: a piece of I'm being chased by a man who

784
00:43:27,640 --> 00:43:30,560
Speaker 1: could punch faster than speed of sound? Where is my

785
00:43:30,680 --> 00:43:36,400
Speaker 1: wife to throw? Like? Was his child not on hand?

786
00:43:36,480 --> 00:43:38,680
Speaker 1: Could he not just hold his baby up in front

787
00:43:38,680 --> 00:43:42,680
Speaker 1: of him? Good lord? This thing was filmed in six weeks.

788
00:43:43,520 --> 00:43:45,239
Speaker 1: That's how he was able to make like four of

789
00:43:45,280 --> 00:43:47,840
Speaker 1: these in the two years. He was an international celebrity

790
00:43:47,840 --> 00:43:51,600
Speaker 1: before he died, because they just cranked these things out spoilers.

791
00:43:51,960 --> 00:43:55,040
Speaker 1: The philm ends with a very butch and Sun dance harder.

792
00:43:55,120 --> 00:43:58,640
Speaker 1: They come vanishing point ending where there's a freeze frame

793
00:43:59,040 --> 00:44:01,759
Speaker 1: where he launches that this flying kick at a row

794
00:44:01,840 --> 00:44:05,440
Speaker 1: of armed policeman in military and there's a sound of gunfire.

795
00:44:05,520 --> 00:44:08,879
Speaker 1: The implication of course that he has died. And this

796
00:44:08,960 --> 00:44:11,080
Speaker 1: was a point that low Way and Bruce wanted to

797
00:44:11,120 --> 00:44:15,920
Speaker 1: make about him sort of honorably paying for sinking to

798
00:44:15,960 --> 00:44:18,640
Speaker 1: the Japanese level in this I mean someone I was

799
00:44:18,640 --> 00:44:21,120
Speaker 1: reading about this someone was like, he's basically a serial

800
00:44:21,200 --> 00:44:25,160
Speaker 1: killer in this movie. He just like goes around just

801
00:44:25,520 --> 00:44:28,400
Speaker 1: murdering people. So they had to end this with this

802
00:44:28,480 --> 00:44:32,120
Speaker 1: kind of morality play where he uh and low says

803
00:44:32,160 --> 00:44:34,040
Speaker 1: this to him. The low is playing the police inspector

804
00:44:34,040 --> 00:44:37,200
Speaker 1: in this film, and he says, to uphold your master's honor,

805
00:44:37,440 --> 00:44:40,960
Speaker 1: which you have tainted with this international killing spree you

806
00:44:41,000 --> 00:44:43,680
Speaker 1: have gone on too. You have to surrender, you have

807
00:44:43,719 --> 00:44:45,600
Speaker 1: to give yourself up and to have their cake and

808
00:44:45,600 --> 00:44:48,400
Speaker 1: eat it too. They had him sort of give himself

809
00:44:48,480 --> 00:44:52,720
Speaker 1: up via a flying kick. Anyway, that's all just very funny,

810
00:44:53,040 --> 00:44:56,200
Speaker 1: niche Chinese cultural stuff. To me. That's interesting. Um, this

811
00:44:56,360 --> 00:44:59,120
Speaker 1: the Fury opens in March of nine, goes on to

812
00:44:59,360 --> 00:45:02,680
Speaker 1: smash the record set by Big Boss. It grossed and

813
00:45:02,920 --> 00:45:06,759
Speaker 1: estimated hundred million worldwide, which is the equivalent to over

814
00:45:07,040 --> 00:45:10,240
Speaker 1: six hundred million adjusted for inflation. And this is against

815
00:45:10,239 --> 00:45:14,439
Speaker 1: the budget of a hundred thousand dollars. That's just it's

816
00:45:14,440 --> 00:45:17,279
Speaker 1: like that. I think the most famous ones of this

817
00:45:17,320 --> 00:45:20,360
Speaker 1: sort of stuff like this and Halloween. Halloween was made

818
00:45:20,400 --> 00:45:23,759
Speaker 1: for pennies and when it was the most profitable independent

819
00:45:23,800 --> 00:45:29,080
Speaker 1: film of all time, I think until Blair w Um

820
00:45:29,120 --> 00:45:34,080
Speaker 1: in the Philippines, which Ringo familisly hated. Um one of

821
00:45:34,080 --> 00:45:37,840
Speaker 1: our bits. So the Philippines were also occupied by the Japanese,

822
00:45:37,880 --> 00:45:41,799
Speaker 1: so they readily identified with this film's themes. It ran

823
00:45:41,920 --> 00:45:46,920
Speaker 1: for six months of sellout theaters until the Philippine government

824
00:45:47,360 --> 00:45:51,239
Speaker 1: yanked it from theaters so that domestic productions could have

825
00:45:51,320 --> 00:45:55,799
Speaker 1: a fighting chance. On opening night, the rush to get

826
00:45:55,920 --> 00:45:59,320
Speaker 1: to this movie caused a traffic jam that shut down

827
00:45:59,400 --> 00:46:03,440
Speaker 1: the city. Incredible, such is the power of Bruce. And

828
00:46:03,520 --> 00:46:06,799
Speaker 1: this is also so cool to me again because of

829
00:46:06,800 --> 00:46:10,720
Speaker 1: the same themes. This film became hugely popular in Australia

830
00:46:10,800 --> 00:46:14,440
Speaker 1: among the indigenous peoples of that country. Because of course

831
00:46:14,840 --> 00:46:18,360
Speaker 1: they can emphasize with a foreign occupying force coming in

832
00:46:18,440 --> 00:46:22,160
Speaker 1: and marginalizing the ship out of them. So just last year,

833
00:46:22,320 --> 00:46:25,200
Speaker 1: Fista Fury became the first ever movie to be dubbed

834
00:46:25,239 --> 00:46:28,840
Speaker 1: into nongar Da, which is the indigenous language of people's

835
00:46:28,840 --> 00:46:33,360
Speaker 1: from the southwest corner of Western Australian rapidly disappearing dialect.

836
00:46:33,400 --> 00:46:37,600
Speaker 1: And because of this movie's importance and historical resonance for

837
00:46:37,640 --> 00:46:39,680
Speaker 1: these people, they decided to make it the first one

838
00:46:39,719 --> 00:46:43,480
Speaker 1: that would be dubbed into that dialect that whips. This

839
00:46:43,560 --> 00:46:46,680
Speaker 1: movie casts a very long chadow in martial arts cinema,

840
00:46:46,800 --> 00:46:49,200
Speaker 1: I mentioned Jackie Chang got his start as what they

841
00:46:49,239 --> 00:46:52,560
Speaker 1: called the Bruce exploitation genre, where after his sudden death,

842
00:46:52,800 --> 00:46:55,520
Speaker 1: they just flooded the zone with a bunch of copycats

843
00:46:56,000 --> 00:46:58,480
Speaker 1: just to try and full foreign audiences. And this is

844
00:46:58,520 --> 00:47:01,920
Speaker 1: so funny because the star guys starring guys names like

845
00:47:02,000 --> 00:47:05,719
Speaker 1: Bruce Lee l I and Bruce Lee l E just

846
00:47:05,800 --> 00:47:08,160
Speaker 1: to try and trick people. And Jackie Chance first starring

847
00:47:08,239 --> 00:47:12,080
Speaker 1: role is a movie called New Fist of Fury, very

848
00:47:12,239 --> 00:47:15,240
Speaker 1: similar and this is where it's interesting about this character

849
00:47:15,360 --> 00:47:17,920
Speaker 1: chans End that Bruce plays in fist of fury. This

850
00:47:18,040 --> 00:47:22,440
Speaker 1: character becomes such a residant folk hero in Chinese cinema

851
00:47:22,640 --> 00:47:25,240
Speaker 1: that they just decided to take this character and start

852
00:47:25,560 --> 00:47:29,560
Speaker 1: remaking these movies or dropping him into new situations. This

853
00:47:29,640 --> 00:47:32,799
Speaker 1: is not without precedent. There is a famous historical martial

854
00:47:32,880 --> 00:47:35,880
Speaker 1: arts named Wang Fei Hung who has been the subject

855
00:47:35,880 --> 00:47:39,200
Speaker 1: of a hundred and twenty separate martial arts films in

856
00:47:39,239 --> 00:47:41,759
Speaker 1: which he has portrayed as different actors and just kind

857
00:47:41,800 --> 00:47:45,040
Speaker 1: of placed into these new scenarios and settings. There's one

858
00:47:45,040 --> 00:47:48,719
Speaker 1: guy named Kwontak King who started as Wong in over

859
00:47:48,840 --> 00:47:52,479
Speaker 1: seventies separate movies. Which is that a record for someone

860
00:47:52,560 --> 00:47:55,560
Speaker 1: playing the same character the most amount of times? It

861
00:47:55,600 --> 00:48:00,560
Speaker 1: has to well non animated, Yeah, definitely, guy would have

862
00:48:00,600 --> 00:48:03,480
Speaker 1: to think so. That character has been in many TV shows.

863
00:48:03,719 --> 00:48:05,680
Speaker 1: This is such a fascinating aspect of the culture to

864
00:48:05,680 --> 00:48:07,640
Speaker 1: may because they're almost like cover songs in the way

865
00:48:07,640 --> 00:48:11,280
Speaker 1: that they take certain elements of this character and remix

866
00:48:11,360 --> 00:48:14,000
Speaker 1: them and rearrange them, like Gently and Donnie Yen and

867
00:48:14,040 --> 00:48:16,800
Speaker 1: both of their versions. They're wearing sort of tributes similar

868
00:48:16,960 --> 00:48:19,320
Speaker 1: shirts to what they call the mouse suit that Bruce

869
00:48:19,400 --> 00:48:22,240
Speaker 1: is wearing in the film I don't think that's interesting

870
00:48:22,320 --> 00:48:25,640
Speaker 1: and too American audiences to the biggest video game franchises.

871
00:48:25,680 --> 00:48:29,279
Speaker 1: Fighting game franchises of all time have distinct Bruce Lee

872
00:48:29,400 --> 00:48:32,880
Speaker 1: ripoffs in them. Lu Kang in Mortal Kombat, the noises

873
00:48:32,920 --> 00:48:36,520
Speaker 1: he makes everything directly related to Bruce And in tech

874
00:48:36,600 --> 00:48:39,759
Speaker 1: In there's a character named Martial Law to a great

875
00:48:39,800 --> 00:48:43,399
Speaker 1: pun who's just Bruce Lee. His move set is all

876
00:48:43,520 --> 00:48:46,239
Speaker 1: motion cap of Bruce Lee moves, all of his like

877
00:48:46,320 --> 00:48:48,319
Speaker 1: skins that costumes of the character has in the game

878
00:48:48,360 --> 00:48:52,440
Speaker 1: are all different stuff that Bruce Lee Warren movies. He

879
00:48:52,520 --> 00:48:55,799
Speaker 1: makes all the same noises is just incredible. And of

880
00:48:55,840 --> 00:49:00,920
Speaker 1: course now he must come to Quentin Tarantino did his

881
00:49:01,000 --> 00:49:05,279
Speaker 1: hero dirty? Yeah, well, you know before Once upon a

882
00:49:05,320 --> 00:49:07,360
Speaker 1: time in Hollywood. The Ku Bill series is just this

883
00:49:07,520 --> 00:49:10,960
Speaker 1: love letter to the Shop Brothers Golden Harvest era of cinema.

884
00:49:11,000 --> 00:49:13,480
Speaker 1: And there are so many specific nods to Bruce and

885
00:49:13,480 --> 00:49:16,040
Speaker 1: that we mentioned the one in Punch which it becomes

886
00:49:16,040 --> 00:49:19,560
Speaker 1: a crucial plot point. The yellow jumpsuit that Uma Thurman

887
00:49:19,680 --> 00:49:21,560
Speaker 1: is wearing at the end of the first film is

888
00:49:21,600 --> 00:49:23,600
Speaker 1: a rip off the one that Bruce is wearing a

889
00:49:23,640 --> 00:49:27,200
Speaker 1: Game of Death, which is his famously Unfinished movie which

890
00:49:27,239 --> 00:49:29,720
Speaker 1: you may have seen where he's fighting Creem Abdul Jabbar

891
00:49:30,080 --> 00:49:32,839
Speaker 1: in the one clip, and that's the one where they

892
00:49:32,880 --> 00:49:36,120
Speaker 1: have Bruce Lee's character fake his own death, so they

893
00:49:36,160 --> 00:49:39,720
Speaker 1: could include actual footage of the real Bruce Lee's open

894
00:49:39,800 --> 00:49:44,560
Speaker 1: casket funeral. Bruce ploytation is real. It got to that

895
00:49:44,640 --> 00:49:49,080
Speaker 1: level and ain't great. And I just thought of something else,

896
00:49:49,160 --> 00:49:52,960
Speaker 1: just off the fly, when she's approaching the Crazy headquarters

897
00:49:53,000 --> 00:49:57,160
Speaker 1: on the motorcycle, they are playing Al Hirsch's The Hornet

898
00:49:57,320 --> 00:50:00,720
Speaker 1: Fly to the Bumbabee, the theme song to the Green Hornet.

899
00:50:01,440 --> 00:50:04,719
Speaker 1: Then the final fight in that movie where she fights

900
00:50:04,800 --> 00:50:08,400
Speaker 1: Lucy Lou on the rooftop of that bar, beautiful, beautiful scene.

901
00:50:08,719 --> 00:50:12,399
Speaker 1: It's snowing, and I was just rewatching scenes from Fist

902
00:50:12,440 --> 00:50:15,480
Speaker 1: of Fury last night and I had this Pristian sense

903
00:50:15,560 --> 00:50:19,440
Speaker 1: memory because they're in this beautiful zen garden set and

904
00:50:19,520 --> 00:50:23,960
Speaker 1: you hear this sound effect in the background, which is

905
00:50:24,000 --> 00:50:26,800
Speaker 1: this it's like a common thing, or maybe it's not common,

906
00:50:26,840 --> 00:50:29,680
Speaker 1: I don't know. It's in Japanese like zen gardens. It's

907
00:50:29,719 --> 00:50:32,880
Speaker 1: this mechanism you put in a waterfall and it slowly

908
00:50:33,239 --> 00:50:35,279
Speaker 1: fills up with water and then releases all of it

909
00:50:35,320 --> 00:50:36,879
Speaker 1: when it gets to a certain point. I guess it's

910
00:50:36,920 --> 00:50:39,200
Speaker 1: to control the flow or the levels of the water whatever.

911
00:50:39,800 --> 00:50:43,240
Speaker 1: The Lucy lou Uma fight is in that same set

912
00:50:43,360 --> 00:50:46,960
Speaker 1: from Fist of Fury, with that same water fountain thing

913
00:50:47,160 --> 00:50:52,040
Speaker 1: making the same noises into crucial pauses during the fight scene.

914
00:50:52,960 --> 00:50:56,360
Speaker 1: The only difference is that it's snowing. It's just it

915
00:50:56,560 --> 00:50:59,839
Speaker 1: baffles me, man, And just a very quick sidebar about

916
00:51:00,000 --> 00:51:02,800
Speaker 1: once upon a time in Hollywood. You know, Lee was

917
00:51:02,880 --> 00:51:06,600
Speaker 1: not a saint. His son Brandon and Linda have both

918
00:51:06,600 --> 00:51:10,719
Speaker 1: talked about him being very quick to temper and obviously

919
00:51:11,040 --> 00:51:14,240
Speaker 1: just wanted to fight the entire world at various points

920
00:51:14,280 --> 00:51:18,720
Speaker 1: in his life. And so it's understandable why he would

921
00:51:18,760 --> 00:51:22,480
Speaker 1: be a convenient plot point for that movie because he

922
00:51:22,520 --> 00:51:24,279
Speaker 1: was in the intersection of all of those scenes. But

923
00:51:24,360 --> 00:51:28,640
Speaker 1: to reduce him to this like arrogant buffoon who loses

924
00:51:28,680 --> 00:51:30,680
Speaker 1: a fight, now, talk more about what the scene is

925
00:51:30,719 --> 00:51:33,520
Speaker 1: in the right. So the scene was famously a flashback

926
00:51:34,120 --> 00:51:37,719
Speaker 1: that um Cliff Booth, Brad Pitt's character is having too

927
00:51:37,960 --> 00:51:40,440
Speaker 1: when he lost his job as a stuntman on a film.

928
00:51:40,480 --> 00:51:44,800
Speaker 1: He's backstage shooting and Bruce Lee shows up because Bruce

929
00:51:44,840 --> 00:51:48,320
Speaker 1: Lee has been in this Hollywood circle this time, and

930
00:51:48,440 --> 00:51:51,160
Speaker 1: they have like a little impromptu fight, which it must

931
00:51:51,200 --> 00:51:53,319
Speaker 1: be said, is one of the funnier parts of the

932
00:51:53,320 --> 00:51:56,279
Speaker 1: movie because when they square off and Lee's doing that

933
00:51:57,920 --> 00:52:02,880
Speaker 1: and Fred Fitch just goes ah, So that is funny.

934
00:52:02,920 --> 00:52:06,520
Speaker 1: But you know, it's just they make him lose. He

935
00:52:06,560 --> 00:52:09,000
Speaker 1: gets thrown into a car and dented the car and

936
00:52:09,080 --> 00:52:11,719
Speaker 1: dense the car and I think it's the stunt coordinator's

937
00:52:11,719 --> 00:52:14,120
Speaker 1: car and that's why Cliffe gets fired. But you know,

938
00:52:14,160 --> 00:52:17,239
Speaker 1: it's just he's played as a bad yeah, and it

939
00:52:17,360 --> 00:52:21,320
Speaker 1: pissed everyone off, at least Bruce Lee fans, I'll just

940
00:52:21,360 --> 00:52:24,239
Speaker 1: say it, including koreb ab Dolt Jabbar, who was so

941
00:52:24,360 --> 00:52:27,040
Speaker 1: moved to anger by it that he wrote an open

942
00:52:27,120 --> 00:52:30,360
Speaker 1: letter to Quentin Tarantino. And I think Hollywood or Reporter

943
00:52:30,600 --> 00:52:35,120
Speaker 1: or Variety decrying that depiction. So you know, I think

944
00:52:35,120 --> 00:52:37,480
Speaker 1: it's so greating to me because I don't give you

945
00:52:37,719 --> 00:52:41,239
Speaker 1: that he wants to do these this later period thing

946
00:52:41,280 --> 00:52:43,799
Speaker 1: of his where he just goes into historical eras and

947
00:52:43,840 --> 00:52:50,399
Speaker 1: rewrites history. You want to get Hitler machine gunned, fine rules, yeah,

948
00:52:50,480 --> 00:52:54,560
Speaker 1: you want them flamethrowered. And mauled by a giant dog. Also,

949
00:52:54,680 --> 00:52:57,600
Speaker 1: my other favorite line from that movie when he's like, uh,

950
00:52:57,640 --> 00:53:00,480
Speaker 1: did you say your name was again? It mixed Rex

951
00:53:00,760 --> 00:53:02,480
Speaker 1: and he's like, I'm the Devil and I'm here to

952
00:53:02,520 --> 00:53:07,799
Speaker 1: do the Devi's work. He says, no, stupid or that. Yeah,

953
00:53:07,840 --> 00:53:09,840
Speaker 1: you want to get them mauled to death by Pitbull's

954
00:53:09,960 --> 00:53:13,919
Speaker 1: fine rules, but don't go into someone's actual life who

955
00:53:13,960 --> 00:53:18,680
Speaker 1: you have already pillaged and looted for your own art

956
00:53:19,120 --> 00:53:23,279
Speaker 1: and make him into a cartoon. Don't do that, man anyway.

957
00:53:23,360 --> 00:53:25,319
Speaker 1: The reason that FISTI Fury is interesting to me is

958
00:53:25,360 --> 00:53:27,719
Speaker 1: this is the kind of last stop of Bruce as

959
00:53:27,840 --> 00:53:33,719
Speaker 1: a regional genre icon and into an international star, you know,

960
00:53:34,280 --> 00:53:37,160
Speaker 1: Enter the Dragon. It's based on the tremendous success of

961
00:53:37,160 --> 00:53:41,200
Speaker 1: these two movies that Warner Brothers approaches him after he's

962
00:53:41,200 --> 00:53:45,160
Speaker 1: formed his own production company to make Enter the Dragon,

963
00:53:45,239 --> 00:53:48,640
Speaker 1: which is a joint production between Lee's production company, I

964
00:53:48,680 --> 00:53:53,360
Speaker 1: think Golden Harvest and Warner Brothers, and that is the

965
00:53:53,360 --> 00:53:56,440
Speaker 1: movie that it's ground zero for the Kung fu craze

966
00:53:56,440 --> 00:53:59,880
Speaker 1: and the States in the seventies, like kung Fu fighting,

967
00:54:00,719 --> 00:54:03,399
Speaker 1: all of the black explotation stuff that tips into kung

968
00:54:03,440 --> 00:54:06,520
Speaker 1: Fu crazes. Fun fact, did you know that nun chucks

969
00:54:06,520 --> 00:54:09,240
Speaker 1: were outlawed in New York City around this time because

970
00:54:09,239 --> 00:54:11,319
Speaker 1: gang members were carrying them and beating the out of

971
00:54:11,320 --> 00:54:13,680
Speaker 1: people with nunchucks. So you can't have nun chucks in

972
00:54:13,719 --> 00:54:16,759
Speaker 1: New York because of the directly related to Bruce Lee

973
00:54:16,760 --> 00:54:19,799
Speaker 1: in the kung Fu movie craze I did not know that. Yeah,

974
00:54:19,880 --> 00:54:22,719
Speaker 1: and so by some estimation, I mean End of the

975
00:54:22,760 --> 00:54:25,400
Speaker 1: Dragon is barn On the most famous martial arts movie

976
00:54:25,440 --> 00:54:28,719
Speaker 1: of all time. And it's truly cool because it is

977
00:54:28,719 --> 00:54:32,120
Speaker 1: a truly international production. Has John Saxon, who had gone

978
00:54:32,160 --> 00:54:34,520
Speaker 1: to be in I think Nightmare Nolal Street, a bunch

979
00:54:34,560 --> 00:54:37,120
Speaker 1: of other genre stuff. John Saxon is in there. Um,

980
00:54:37,239 --> 00:54:41,000
Speaker 1: Jim Kelly, who becomes a blaxplotation star is in that movie.

981
00:54:41,280 --> 00:54:44,120
Speaker 1: It's got that tremendous laylok shiffer and soundtrack. It is

982
00:54:44,160 --> 00:54:47,799
Speaker 1: so cool. And that movie has grossed what they think

983
00:54:47,880 --> 00:54:52,480
Speaker 1: is an adjusted two billion dollars off a budget of

984
00:54:52,560 --> 00:54:55,560
Speaker 1: eight hundred and fifty thousands. So if nothing else, Lee

985
00:54:55,640 --> 00:55:00,040
Speaker 1: has financial r o I records for movie making that

986
00:55:00,080 --> 00:55:03,160
Speaker 1: are just bananas. Yeah, man, And that's when he becomes

987
00:55:03,160 --> 00:55:07,200
Speaker 1: an icon and uh, this larger than life figure and uh,

988
00:55:08,680 --> 00:55:11,600
Speaker 1: you know, one of the greatest. He's a goat, you know,

989
00:55:11,640 --> 00:55:13,440
Speaker 1: the greatest of all time? Man? What else do you

990
00:55:13,480 --> 00:55:16,680
Speaker 1: say about Bruce Um? All right? I talked about that

991
00:55:16,719 --> 00:55:21,000
Speaker 1: for ten minutes straight uninterrupted monologue. Did you want to

992
00:55:21,000 --> 00:55:24,399
Speaker 1: weigh in on anything about the seventies the kung fu exploitation?

993
00:55:24,600 --> 00:55:28,640
Speaker 1: Does that edge into your sensible awareness? Not really the

994
00:55:28,680 --> 00:55:32,160
Speaker 1: closest that I get to the seventies martial arts craze

995
00:55:32,280 --> 00:55:34,520
Speaker 1: aside from Elvis, which I want to say for our

996
00:55:35,360 --> 00:55:39,600
Speaker 1: Graceland Yes, our bos Lurman centric piece on Elvis and

997
00:55:39,719 --> 00:55:42,520
Speaker 1: his grace Land home. But other than that, it really

998
00:55:42,520 --> 00:55:47,319
Speaker 1: only extends to like everybody was kung fu fighting. Yeah,

999
00:55:47,440 --> 00:55:49,360
Speaker 1: but you are far more of an expert on this

1000
00:55:49,400 --> 00:55:51,800
Speaker 1: than I am. I mean, you know, what else do

1001
00:55:51,880 --> 00:55:54,640
Speaker 1: you say about someone here? He is like Clin Eastwood,

1002
00:55:54,719 --> 00:55:58,200
Speaker 1: you know, in just being this genre influence. I don't

1003
00:55:58,200 --> 00:56:01,080
Speaker 1: even know who. The corollary would be horror, something like

1004
00:56:01,120 --> 00:56:06,080
Speaker 1: Christopher Lee just bringing the genre films across borders and

1005
00:56:06,160 --> 00:56:10,000
Speaker 1: making them these enormous, enormous successes. With all of these

1006
00:56:10,600 --> 00:56:15,319
Speaker 1: resonances and culture, every aspect of culture. Yeah, man, I mean,

1007
00:56:15,360 --> 00:56:17,880
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna talk anymore. I feel like I've I'm

1008
00:56:17,960 --> 00:56:21,239
Speaker 1: literally going horse with my love of Bruce Lee. So

1009
00:56:22,000 --> 00:56:24,400
Speaker 1: I would just say, even if you don't feel like

1010
00:56:24,400 --> 00:56:26,400
Speaker 1: you want to do the full length thing, just go

1011
00:56:26,560 --> 00:56:29,080
Speaker 1: to YouTube and poke around look at some Bruce Lee stuff.

1012
00:56:29,120 --> 00:56:31,680
Speaker 1: And I hope we've been able to make the case

1013
00:56:31,760 --> 00:56:35,000
Speaker 1: for his enduring legacy. And yeah, man, have fun looking

1014
00:56:35,080 --> 00:56:38,799
Speaker 1: him up. It's cool stuff. He's a tremendous guy. Yeah.

1015
00:56:39,040 --> 00:56:42,719
Speaker 1: I have zero background and martial arts whatsoever, but even

1016
00:56:42,760 --> 00:56:47,720
Speaker 1: someone like me is able to appreciate the incredible grace

1017
00:56:47,880 --> 00:56:52,240
Speaker 1: and power and artistry of this man, and also his wisdom.

1018
00:56:52,719 --> 00:56:55,080
Speaker 1: I mean we mentioned this earlier. His writings are so

1019
00:56:55,239 --> 00:56:59,000
Speaker 1: fascinating and beautiful and poetic and insightful. There was a

1020
00:56:59,000 --> 00:57:04,120
Speaker 1: book published pause sumously in that was nominally his philosophy

1021
00:57:04,160 --> 00:57:06,480
Speaker 1: on his fighting technique, but really it touches on all

1022
00:57:06,520 --> 00:57:11,280
Speaker 1: aspects of life. I mean, wow, such a fascinating polly

1023
00:57:11,320 --> 00:57:18,360
Speaker 1: math with really pretty stunning insights on just how to live. Well.

1024
00:57:18,400 --> 00:57:21,680
Speaker 1: He did a lot in those things. Yeah, that's sorry.

1025
00:57:21,720 --> 00:57:28,200
Speaker 1: Bruce Lee was younger than we are. I feel like

1026
00:57:28,240 --> 00:57:33,240
Speaker 1: I just got one inch punched. Well, folks, thank you

1027
00:57:33,280 --> 00:57:35,800
Speaker 1: for listening. This has been too much information. I'm Alex

1028
00:57:35,840 --> 00:57:38,520
Speaker 1: Heigel and I'm Jordan run Tug. We'll catch you next time.

1029
00:57:44,640 --> 00:57:47,200
Speaker 1: Too Much Information was a production of I Heart Radio.

1030
00:57:47,400 --> 00:57:50,640
Speaker 1: The show's executive producers are Noel Brown and Jordan run Talk.

1031
00:57:50,800 --> 00:57:54,000
Speaker 1: The supervising producer is Mike John's. The show was researched,

1032
00:57:54,160 --> 00:57:56,840
Speaker 1: written and hosted by Jordan run Talk and Alex Heigel,

1033
00:57:57,160 --> 00:58:00,280
Speaker 1: with original music by Seth Applebaum on the Ghost Funk Borstra.

1034
00:58:00,760 --> 00:58:02,800
Speaker 1: If you like what you heard, please subscribe and leave

1035
00:58:02,880 --> 00:58:05,400
Speaker 1: us a review. For more podcasts and I heart Radio,

1036
00:58:05,520 --> 00:58:08,520
Speaker 1: visit the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever

1037
00:58:08,600 --> 00:58:09,880
Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows