User Reviews

First of all, IMDb users and Bruce Lee fans must know that this is truly a very cheap production. The editing is amateurish, the cinematography is amateurish, the script is unbelievably amateurish and of course, most of the acting is amateurish. You can actually see one extra playing in almost all 50 episodes (a doctor, a pupil of Bruce Lee, a high school colleague of Bruce, then a university colleague of Bruce, dining at most of the restaurants Bruce dines etc.) it's annoyingly obvious they didn't bother to think it all out, after all, it's the life of Bruce Lee, cultural icon and hero to the Chinese people.

I can't help but comment on Danny Chan, he looks almost like he's a clone of Bruce Lee. I heard he prepared for a full year before filming and it's probably true, he, at least, does his best to give Bruce a run for his money. It's not just about the looks, the guy tries to mimic Bruce's every feature and strand. The animal sounds, Bruce's famous kicks and punches, his facial expressions... But the fight scenes... They did some pretty lame wire work in some of the last episodes and the fight scenes are not as good as the real Bruce would've done, but overall that's OK. There is just one Bruce Lee and he cannot be imitated. My personal favorite scenes where the ones with Danny Chan running, specially those filmed on the San Francisco Bay Bridge.

Love. Don't even think about cheesy scenes between Bruce and women, the first time he kisses a girl on screen is after his first date with Linda, around the 23rd episode or so, although he always has women chasing after him. There are no love, but after Brandon is born, you can see the couple wearing matching house outfits, cuddling, playing with the kids and everything else families do.

After the 40th episode they kinda dedicated one episode for each of his movies, including "The Green Hornet". Throughout the series, Bruce is constantly challenged by various people to fight, many of whom end up his friends and students. His miraculous recovery was a "wtf?" moment: Being unable to feel his legs (for the rest of his life according to the doctors) he watches Brandon Lee (his son) loosing his foothold and lightning-fast he runs caching him before the child can hit the ground, realizing what he did only after he hears Linda screaming in amazement.

The last episode was mind-blowing. He just died, out of nowhere, like it was in reality. On the verge of achieving his much deserved glory, Bruce Lee died, leaving his family and friends with the millions of fans shocked and curious. I am glad I watched this TV series, it opened my imagination and made me aware of how much Bruce Lee has changed the world. In the beginning I was curious about his death, now I think his life changed more than a million others. That is why he is still loved and looked up to today.

Maybe this series is not the best production in the world. But trust me, you won't regret watching it.

Why does Bruce Lee in the movie have two sisters and a brother, when in real life he only had two brothers...? What was the point of introducing those sister characters? And why does his sifu Ip Man all of a sudden become Master Ye.... ? Beats me.

I've seen a number of reviews of this series that complain about the stock location clips (e.g., a Ferry leaving the SF harbor) that are played repeatedly throughout the episodes, and the soundtrack, which seems to be comprised of only two songs (the airy opening title sequence song, which I'll call "Master Soul", and the more rock-infused anthem, which I'll call "Lee Shaolong") and their instrumental variations. Given the relatively small budget for these entire series (around $7-8 million for reportedly 50 episodes, which is the equivalent to Charlie Sheen's salary for 4 episodes of 2 1/2 Men at his peak), that didn't really concern me that much, as they really aren't the focus of this in depth look into Bruce Lee's life.

I've actually only seen the first 20 episodes, but the biggest complaint I have, thus far, is the somewhat sloppy adherence to established facts about Bruce Lee's life. The inaccuracies are too numerous to count, but, just to point some out..

• Bruce Lee was 13 years old when he started to take Wing Chun lessons, but the timeline in the series makes it seem like he was considerably older (and that he grasped Kung Fu tremendously quickly).

• Bruce was a well-known and well-established film star in Hong Kong during his teenage years, but there's not even a reference to this during the first several episodes that covers this part of his life.

• Bruce had a reputation for being a bit of a street fighter in Hong Kong, and his troubles with the Triad were probably less savory than the 'noble' vision this series (and the recent biopic, "Bruce Lee, My Brother") portray.

• Jesse Glover (portratyed as 'Jesse' in this series) was actually an accomplished Judo fighter who taught Bruce some Judo early on after they met.

• Bruce Lee fought and beat a Karate champion named 'Uechi' in 11 seconds, not Taky Kimura, who was simply a friend Bruce met. Taky was 18 years Bruce's senior, but appears to be almost the same age in this series.

• Bruce did have a girlfriend before Linda Emery, but she was of Japanese descent (named Amy Sanbo), not Filipino, as depicted in the series, and he was the one to propose marriage to her and dote on her incessantly, not the other way around. She was the one who declined.

• Wally Jay was a well known Jujitsu expert, but he was of Chinese descent from Hawaii, not the white guy depicted in this series.

• Dan Innosanto was a Filipino martial artist versed in Eskrima and other stick arts, but he was not a professor of any sort.

• Ed Parker may have sparred and practiced with Bruce Lee, but he certainly didn't injure Bruce in any way. Lee's prominence in the martial arts world really grew after he was invited to demonstrate some of his unique abilities at the Long Beach Karate Invitational in 1964.

• Bruce and Linda actually eloped, and her parents found out through a marriage announcement in the paper.

• Bruce was famously challenged by Wong Jack Man (someone he had never met before) after opening his school in Oakland. There are disputes over whether this was over the right to teach non-Chinese (Bruce Lee claimed this at the time; Wong Jack Man has provided a slightly different explanation). Bruce was not badly hurt in this fight. In fact, his back injury occurred nearly 5 years later due to a weight lifting accident. He was told by doctors that he would never be able to practice martial arts again, but he was not told he could never walk.

• Bruce was actually signed to be a part of 'The Green Hornet' around the time of Brandon's birth, but there is no mention (thus far) of his interest in pursuing film work.

It would seem, based on this laundry list (which, as noted, is not nearly comprehensive of factual errors seen in the series), that I would think this was a horrible reflection of Bruce Lee's life.

Despite all of this, though, the aspect of this series that makes it compelling to continue watching is the psychological thread of these episodes that examines the fomenting of Bruce Lee's martial arts philosophy. Although a lot of Bruce Lee's philosophical nature was captured in his books (from his first publication, The Tao of Chinese Gung Fu, released in 1964, through his "Bruce Lee's Fighting Method" and, later, "The Tao of Jeet Kune Do"), much of this has been lost over the years as Hollywood focused on his physical exploits. The one thing that this series does try and do as show how all his various experiences impacted his relationship with martial arts over the years.

If you can suspend a bit of factual accuracy for a look into the types of things that fed his evolving relationship with martial arts, the series has merit. Certainly, Danny Chan, who has become a devoted Jeet Kune Do practitioner, looks the part and does a decent job capturing the mannerisms and essence of Bruce, if not quite the physicality.

I plan to continue watching the rest of this series, as the interpretation of his life (however off from the established facts) still interests me. For the devoted Bruce Lee fans, this may be a little disappointing for the reasons I've listed above, but an interesting watch nonetheless. Despite it's flaws (including the ones related to budget), it might be one of the more comprehensive takes on his life to date.

I found this series on Hulu during an afternoon when I couldn't find anything else to watch, which should tell you something right there. My initial reaction was surprise - how could there have been a series about Bruce Lee's younger years that I'd never even heard of? But after watching only a few episodes I have the answer - this series is truly and utterly horrible.

I'm honestly a very forgiving person regarding flaws and mistakes in movies and television. And regarding Bruce Lee himself - I'm not much of an expert on his biography, in fact he actually died a year before I was even born. But I have spent nearly half of my life studying Chinese martial arts so Bruce has always been an idol of mine since I was very young. I've had the fortune to actually meet two people who trained with him and hear their thoughts of what he was like off the screen (one of whom took his classes in Seattle when he first started teaching, the other got to feel his one inch punch). Both of these gentlemen described him as the real deal and with a lot of respect.

It is a very sad thing that this respect was not given to Bruce in this poorly made series. To start with - the dialog is all in very hyper paced Mandarin (odd considering that Bruce spoke Cantonese, or at least that's what I've read), and this is pretty frustrating as he interacts with the American and British people in the series who are clearly speaking English. There are even times where you read the lips of the actor who plays Bruce and can tell that he is actually speaking English in some parts (especially when he comes to the US). Why they chose to just use Mandarin I'm unsure - and for a native English speaker this is very frustrating. Think of the depth that could have been added with the actors switching between the two languages! We do get some English subtitles, but they are very small, quite bright and I found them very hard to focus on and whomever did such shoddy work should be kicked in the head, repeatedly.

This series does have some okay parts - but it is mainly filled with insipid drama, and the opening theme song is so atrocious that I had to skip over it. The soundtrack is filled with a plethora of overly emotive inducing sounds and sappy mood music...and every martial art move is buffered into oblivion by completely ridiculous WHOOSH sounds. It's just too much...I mean in some parts people just move an inch and it sounds like someone is flapping a large beach towel (I'd hate to see what it would sound like if they actually broke wind). Speaking of which - the actor that plays Bruce simply looks too old for the part. And some of his foes...the maniacal guy with a broom who starts a brawl with a vertical flipping kick (right out of Street Fighter, the video game) seems so over the top...while the boxing champ looks like the kind of guy you'd see sitting on the beach with a boogie board and a hash pipe (and hey, that long hair in his eyes is very helpful when boxing). So much time is spent preparing for that fight...and its over in about 15 seconds...ridiculous.

Other things that come to mind - Bruce Lee's cute and bubbly girlfriend is ANNOYING and ruins every scene she is in. His family spends most of their time spouting unnecessary bleeding heart diatribe...while they don't even bother to tell you much about his siblings. Even with my limited knowledge of Bruce's life, it is quite obvious from the get-go that the term "loosely based on reality" is an understatement of truly epic proportions. It was mostly forgivable during the first 5 episodes, and I'll admit that the story captured my attention enough to keep watching. But once Bruce arrives in the US in episode 6, the errors become so glaring that I stopped watching midway through because I'd simply had enough. Let's go over a few of them:

1) Bruce hands the taxi driver a wad of cash, and you can clearly see a modern dollar bill in his hand. I can understand a show being low budget, but this is unforgivable.

2) When Bruce is collecting trash, you see a pizza box that says "Costco Pizza"...clearly from our modern era. No effort whatsoever here...I guess they just got some trash from the studio where they filmed this train wreck and called it good?

3) The Budget rental vehicles - complete with modern logos...and you know, I'm going to stop here, because I know there are many more...and as a viewer, you start to think that Bruce is really in 1999 or 2010 rather than the late 50s or early 60s. It's like they just completely gave up (or didn't care in the first place).

The bottom line here is - I do not recommend watching this series at all. With all of the afore mentioned problems (any many more that I'm too tired to list), it is just a big mangled pile of crap. If you are a true Bruce Lee fan, do the man the honor he deserves and watch his movies where we can see him doing what he does best. The only positive I can add is that watching this will help you brush up on your Mandarin - however be warned that the translation seems to be crappy as well. I don't speak much of the language myself - but I found many parts where what I heard being spoken vs what was in the subtitles to be missing a lot. I'm sure anyone with a better command of the language noticed even more.

Very bad indeed. :(

I didn't know this existed, just finished watching it this year 2024. I recently got into Bruce Lee after coming across a YouTube short that highlighted a past interview where he demonstrated his ungodly fast punches. Followed the rabbit hole to this gem on Netflix.

From episode 1 I was hooked. It is on a budget but it's homey and emotional and comforting like a favorite bowl of soup. Yellow Brat, even though he was an artistic liberty for the fiction bio, impacted me so much as a character. Turns out he specializes in martial arts and also acts in many movies (Li Bingyuan). I have a lot to say about him but for length I will save it. Feel free to ask me my thoughts....

Danny Chen was superb as Bruce. He was casted perfectly. I felt Bruce's presence watching him. The rest of the Asian cast was good and the non-Asian cast, mostly Blair and Ms. Ingrid. Linda I feel held back a lot and didn't match Bruce's chemistry as well as she could have.

Mostly their chemistry was cute and nice, like when he lies her head in her lap or when they playfight, and I just think Linda as a character could have done just a bit more to make their chemistry a degree more believable. Danny was perfect at it though. I replayed their date scene many times. It was very heartfelt.

Emotional parts for me: When Blair left. Sometimes friends can just up and go out of your life for reasons not understood or just unsolvable differences. The funeral scene of Ip Man was really a heavy moment for the series. The traditional funeral I know is meant to be realistic but the white garbs the brothers wear add an eerieness to the scene that was really well done. Like Bruce Lee walked into a dream to pay his respects to Ip Man. Visually striking and everything else in the scene hit all the right notes, down to the unexpected comment.

I am forgiving of the sometimes spotty dialogue, cheesy songs, pointless shots, lazy costume/extras/background work that sometimes ignores the time period completely. The reason that is because they only had 7 million, and they did very well for a comprehensive series about Bruce's life. It's 2024 and they haven't tried again so this is the best out there right now.

I feel like episodes 40-50 could have been better, like the rest of the series. But I don't know exactly how. I found myself skipping a lot because I knew what was going to be said, it would just take 10 minutes to say it. The final fight with Yellow Brat was tastefully done and smart.

Fight scenes are superb, they hold up until the end. Very realistic and honest portrayal of Bruce's life with a healthy dose of cultural taste and references. I wouldn't watch Li Xiaolong Long Chuan Qi all the way through again because it's so much and it pains my heart to know the opening characters' fates. But I will always remember it. Always.

Because the cover box listed Bruce Lee's strikingly beautiful daughter, Shannon, as "executive producer," I snatched up a copy of THE LEGEND OF BRUCE LEE (which had been mentioned in the documentary HOW BRUCE LEE CHANGED THE WORLD). Unfortunately, THE LEGEND OF BRUCE LEE is little more than a long (VERY long), drawn out remake of DRAGON: THE BRUCE LEE STORY; the producers even go so far as to have "Lee" taken out exactly as he was in DRAGON (attacked from behind, resulting in a spinal injury). Not to worry, though: our parapalegic hero is soon up and at 'em again. Wisely incorporating wirework and cgi into his partial arts routine(s), he proceeds to get the stuffing beat out of him by a succession of martial artists so he can learn (and then un-learn) all that they have to offer. Reality checks are few and far between in the 3 hour version of this 50-part series that I saw (most of what's here seems to have been taken directly from DRAGON without any regard whatsoever for the facts as we've been led to believe them over the past 40 years). Yet another in a long line of missed opportunities.