Bruce Lee

The indomitable spirit of the dragon.

When his first movie The Big Boss hit the big screen, he was still an unknown but with much hype already in the process. Spurned by Shaw Brothers, we had to thank Golden Harvest for their foresight or we would all have missed the greatest martial artist cum superstar. I caught it at the Ruby Theatre in Balestier (opposite Whampoa) after a long queue for tickets. I was lucky to get a black and white photo with Bruce Lee's autograph distributed at the entrance.

The movie transformed audiences everywhere and the next to follow - The Fist of Fury ensured that you do not only have to queue but you have to queue for advance tickets for the next week! Even Circle seats were sold out in advance. (Circle seats which are upstairs "sikit atas" costs $3, double what you would have to pay for the normal ones).

If the Big Boss was a big success, The Fist of Fury catapulted Bruce to super stardom.

People young and old were talking about him, imitating him, trying to look like him with his trademark sunglasses and all. Little boys would be asking their parents to chop up some broomsticks and attached a short chain to build a nanchaku or nan chuck as popularised by Bruce who demonstrated them in the movies flailing them at opponents. 

Whether he was performing with these slick sticks or fighting bare with bare hands, Bruce's body and lightning quick movements was always an awesome sight to behold. By this time I have already collected lots of magazines both in English and Chinese which has Bruce in it that were finally packed in a box only to be thrown away by my mum without my knowledge when shifting home. This left me fuming for a while having lost the memorabilia which was highly treasured and could have been worth a fortune by now.

Then came The Way of The Dragon which exhibited the all time best martial arts fight sequence ever captured on film when Bruce fought with his off screen friend and fan Chuck Norris, a world karate champion in his own right. 


Finally, Enter The Dragon launched him onto the world stage and a breakthrough in the US market culminating in the incomplete filming of Game of Death. Imagine the global adoration by then and his sudden demise created such a sensation of disbelief. I remembererd vividly holding onto the papers - The New Nation which has the news of his death splashed across the front page - "Bruce Lee is dead." Flashback to 1973, Bruce Lee died at the age of 32. What a legend!

On the martial arts side of things, Bruce has many students including famous ones like Steve McQueen, James Coburn and Isanto plus many more. His form of art combined many techniques of boxing (dancing and prancing around like Mohamed Ali), judo, wrestling, Chinese kung fu, etc. but with a foundation from his early days in Wing Chun art calling it Jeet Kune Do which literally translated from Cantonese means Way of The Intercepting Fists. 

His famous one inch punch was never to be equalled. For a man with a slight built, his speed and power were awesome. His "ki" was second to none in the world of martial arts save for Japanese aikido grand master Tohei who holds a 9 or 10 dan. Those who are familiar with martial arts of Aikido may have seen giant pro wrestlers in Hawaii sparring with Tohei and he would just latch on to their hands and throw them all over the place. Bruce has that kind of "ki" or "chi" as some might call it. Throw in the deft handling of the nanchaku, cat screams and stylish continuous kicks in succession, there will never be another Bruce Lee. This is a part of stage in our life to be remembered and cherished.

It took me a long time to realise and find out what was Bruce's favourite drink.....Wateeerrrr!!!