Review: 'Birth of A Dragon' stillborn

Philip Ng as Bruce Lee, left, and Yu Xia as Wong Birth of the Dragon.

IF YOU'RE looking for an historical account of martial artist icon Bruce Lee's famous fight with a kung fu master, Birth of the Dragon is not for you.

The movie released Friday (Aug. 25) is a highly fictionalized story inspired by the legendary 1964 match between Lee and Wong Jack Man as told through the perspective of a white martial artist student.

The actual outcome of that fight that occurred in Oakland, Calif. and witnessed by only a handful of people is mixed depending who describes it. Only a handful of people witnessed the fight and their interpretations varies widely contributing to the event's almost mythic proportions.

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After the unfinished draft of the Birth of the Dragon was first sneaked at the Toronto International Film Festival last year was universally panned for its emphasis on the white guy and his case of yellow fever (love those mysterious Asian women), the movie was heavily re-edited to put more of a focus on the two principals - Lee and Wong.

Although Philip Ng, a Hong Kong action star and a martial arts student, was able to capture the physicality and swagger of a not-yet-famous Lee, and Yu Xia brought a sense of quiet confidence to the tradition-bound Wong, Bruce Lee fans will ultimately be disappointed.

If you remove all the extraneous stuff surrounding Birth of the Dragon (not endorsed by Lee's family) and just tried to see it as just another martial arts film, you'd still be disappointed. As in many martial arts movies, the story is often secondary to the fight scenes. The plot  of Birth of the Dragon plods along and the character of the white witness, uninspiringly portrayed by Billy Magnussen, fails to generate any sympathy.

It might better to wait for the other Bruce Lee biopic, Little Dragon directed by Indian director and producer Shekhar Kapur with a script co-written by Lee's daughter, Shannon Lee. The story centers around the social and political forces in Hong Kong that shaped the martial artist's life.

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