I was watching The History Channel the other evening and saw a trailer for their 2 hour documentary, How Bruce Lee Changed the World which premiered this weekend.
Profiling Lee’s influence on popular culture in fitness, cinema, music, sport, design, fashion, philosophy and other realms, the film showcases some rare family archival footage owned by the Bruce Lee Foundation, together with in-depth interviews with individuals who have cited inspiration from Lee, including Jackie Chan, comedian Eddie Griffin, rappers LL Cool J and RZA, Marvel Comics’ Stan Lee, and renowned film directors John Woo and Brett Ratner.
Growing up in the 80’s, I was my share of times if I knew kung fu or karate, and I am sure this is due to Bruce Lee’s fame. Watching Enter the Dragon, I wondered if what Lee was doing was real, and if the bad guys in the film were really being pummeled by Lee or everything was just choreographed very well.
It’s kind of shocking to think that Lee only lived to be 32 years old when he died in 1973, yet is still such an iconic figure today. Even one of the most popular Asian American blogs, Angry Asian Man, has a Bruce Lee action figure on its front page. It’ll be interesting to see how this documentary highlights Lee’s influence and I’m sure will make us ponder how much more Lee would have accomplished if he had not died so prematurely.
[Editors Note: John wrote this post last week, but due to technical difficulties we were not able to get this published until after the series priemere this weekend. 8Asians regrets the error.]
