美国国家公共电台 NPR Enter The Legend: 'Dragon' Turns 45

 

NOEL KING, HOST:

The groundbreaking martial¹ arts movie "Enter The Dragon" opened in the U.S. 45 years ago this week. That movie was supposed to make Bruce Lee a star. But a month before it came out, Bruce Lee died, and instead of becoming a star, he became a legend. NPR's Justin Richmond has the story.

(SOUNDBITE OF LALO SCHIFRIN'S "THEME FROM 'ENTER THE DRAGON' (MAIN TITLE)")

JUSTIN RICHMOND, BYLINE²: When "Enter The Dragon" premiered in August 1973, it was exactly what martial artist Bruce Lee had been waiting for - a starring role in a Hollywood production. Kung fu meets blaxploitation and all action, "Enter The Dragon" was a hit at the box office and sparked an explosion of martial arts movies. After a recent sold-out evening at the Los Angeles Central Library honoring Bruce Lee, his daughter Shannon said "Enter The Dragon" was everything her father had been working towards.

SHANNON LEE: "Enter The Dragon" was really, like, a very precious project for him and the one that he had been waiting for.

RICHMOND: Before martial arts films, Bruce Lee was a child actor in Hong Kong - mostly dramatic roles. One film, "The Orphan," made the teenaged Bruce Lee a bit of a celebrity³ there.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE ORPHAN")

BRUCE LEE: (As Ah Sam, speaking Chinese).

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character, speaking Chinese).

B. LEE: (As Ah Sam, speaking Chinese).

RICHMOND: But any fame he had quickly disappeared when he left Hong Kong to return to San Francisco, the city where he was born. His family felt he was getting into trouble in Hong Kong, so he headed back to the U.S. to become a martial arts instructor⁴. He didn't plan on acting⁵ but was eventually discovered by TV producer William Dozier⁶.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

B. LEE: I am Bruce Lee inviting⁷ you to join me every Friday night on most of these ABC stations, where I'll be seeing you in "The Green Hornet."

RICHMOND: Dozier, who produced the popular "Batman" TV series, cast Bruce Lee as sidekick Kato in "The Green Hornet."

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "THE GREEN HORNET")

B. LEE: (As Kato) Is it bad?

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As character) Yeah.

B. LEE: (As Kato) Can you get those clothes off? There's a hospital close by. You need a doctor.

RICHMOND: The show debuted⁹ on ABC on September 9, 1966, coincidentally, the day after the original "Star Trek¹⁰" series featuring George Takei as Sulu premiered. Both shows cast Asian-American males as prominent characters on TV. Jeff Yang, writer and co-host of the podcast They Call Us Bruce, says this is significant.

JEFF YANG: Up until "The Green Hornet," it really was pretty much a wasteland as far as Asian-American continuous representation on television.

RICHMOND: But "The Green Hornet" didn't catch on and lasted just the season. After a few more small roles, Lee was ready to play a new character. Matthew Polly wrote the new biography "Bruce Lee: A Life."

MATTHEW POLLY: What Bruce Lee wanted to do was to create a heroic, Asian male character, but it simply didn't exist. There were only two types of roles, Fu Manchu, the villain¹¹, and Charlie Chan, the model minority, and both of these characters were played by white actors in multiple films during the '50s and '60s.

RICHMOND: After not finding much success in Hollywood, Lee went back to Hong Kong for a family visit. He was greeted at the airport by producers eager to cast him. "The Green Hornet" had been playing in Hong Kong, only it was known as "The Kato Show." Lee was a star there and resumed his movie career, this time making three martial arts films - "The Big Boss," "Fist Of Fury" and "The Way Of The Dragon." All were hits in Hong Kong, so Lee reached out to a producer he knew at Warner Brothers.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

RICHMOND: ...Which is where "Enter The Dragon" comes in. A co-production between Lee's Hong Kong studio Golden Harvest and Warner Brothers, it's the first martial arts film co-produced by an American studio. Bruce Lee was finally the heroic star of a Hollywood movie, and he kicked butt¹². But a month before the film's U.S. release, Bruce Lee died. He didn't get to see the lasting¹³ influence it would have. Again, Jeff Yang.

YANG: Without "Enter The Dragon," most of the video games, most of the television shows and films that have come afterwards would not be the same.

RICHMOND: Phil Yu is the cohost of They Call Us Bruce.

YANG: You know, we take for granted now that Hollywood action movies, they have martial arts; they have fight choreography; they do all this amazing stuff. But before then, we hadn't really seen martial arts in that context in a Hollywood film.

RICHMOND: Bruce Lee and "Enter The Dragon" also had a significant impact on music. His name is littered throughout dozens of rap songs, but his influence on rap music is most strong with the influential¹⁴ rap group the Wu-Tang Clan¹⁵.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BRING DA RUCKUS")

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #3: Do you think your Wu-Tang sword can defeat me?

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #4: En garde. I'll let you try my Wu-Tang style.

YANG: Their landmark¹⁶ debut⁸ album is called "Enter The Wu-Tang" in honor of Lee's last film. Here's Ghostface Killah and RZA of Wu-Tang Clan. They say "Enter The Dragon" ignited their interest in the martial arts.

GHOSTFACE KILLAH: It was, like, watch it. They'd come outside (imitating fighting sound effects).

RZA: Man, I used to bang my hands on the wall trying to get iron palms, scrape my hand with beans. I got stretch marks on my shoulders because of kung fu things I was trying to do.

RICHMOND: Forty-five years after his death, and Bruce Lee still turns up all over popular culture. Just this week, Quentin Tarantino announced a new actor in his upcoming 1969 period piece "Once Upon A Time In Hollywood." The role? Bruce Lee. Justin Richmond, NPR News.

(SOUNDBITE OF EL MICHELS AFFAIR'S "C.R.E.A.M.")

1 martial   

adj.战争的，军事的，尚武的，威武的

参考例句：

• The sound of martial music is always inspiring.军乐声总是鼓舞人心的。
• The officer was convicted of desertion at a court martial.这名军官在军事法庭上被判犯了擅离职守罪。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 celebrity   

n.名人，名流；著名，名声，名望

参考例句：

• Tom found himself something of a celebrity. 汤姆意识到自己已小有名气了。
• He haunted famous men, hoping to get celebrity for himself. 他常和名人在一起, 希望借此使自己获得名气。

4 instructor   

n.指导者，教员，教练

参考例句：

• The college jumped him from instructor to full professor.大学突然把他从讲师提升为正教授。
• The skiing instructor was a tall,sunburnt man.滑雪教练是一个高高个子晒得黑黑的男子。

5 acting   

n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的

参考例句：

• Ignore her,she's just acting.别理她，她只是假装的。
• During the seventies,her acting career was in eclipse.在七十年代，她的表演生涯黯然失色。

6 dozier   

adj.想睡的( dozy的比较级 )；令人困倦的；愚笨的；迟钝的

参考例句：

• Dozier has been a CBS News correspondent reporting from Iraq for the past three years. Dozier过去三年一直担任CBS驻伊拉克的特派记者。 来自互联网
• A study of the influence of environment on the crack profile was reported by Dozier. 道滋尔报导了环境对裂纹轮廓影响的研究。 来自辞典例句

7 inviting   

adj.诱人的，引人注目的

参考例句：

• An inviting smell of coffee wafted into the room.一股诱人的咖啡香味飘进了房间。
• The kitchen smelled warm and inviting and blessedly familiar.这间厨房的味道温暖诱人，使人感到亲切温馨。

8 debut   

n.首次演出，初次露面

参考例句：

• That same year he made his Broadway debut, playing a suave radio journalist.在那同一年里，他初次在百老汇登台，扮演一个温文而雅的电台记者。
• The actress made her debut in the new comedy.这位演员在那出新喜剧中首次登台演出。

9 debuted   

初次表演，初次登台（debut的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• In late 2003 a full-size SUV, the Pathfinder Armada, debuted. 2003年末，全尺寸SUV的探路者无敌舰队，推出。
• The album debuted at number two and quickly went platinum. 专辑一亮相就荣登排行榜第二名，很快就取得了白金销量。

10 trek   

vi.作长途艰辛的旅行；n.长途艰苦的旅行

参考例句：

• We often go pony-trek in the summer.夏季我们经常骑马旅行。
• It took us the whole day to trek across the rocky terrain.我们花了一整天的时间艰难地穿过那片遍布岩石的地带。

11 villain   

n.反派演员，反面人物；恶棍；问题的起因

参考例句：

• He was cast as the villain in the play.他在戏里扮演反面角色。
• The man who played the villain acted very well.扮演恶棍的那个男演员演得很好。

12 butt   

n.笑柄；烟蒂；枪托；臀部；v.用头撞或顶

参考例句：

• The water butt catches the overflow from this pipe.大水桶盛接管子里流出的东西。
• He was the butt of their jokes.他是他们的笑柄。

13 lasting   

adj.永久的，永恒的；vbl.持续，维持

参考例句：

• The lasting war debased the value of the dollar.持久的战争使美元贬值。
• We hope for a lasting settlement of all these troubles.我们希望这些纠纷能获得永久的解决。

14 influential   

adj.有影响的，有权势的

参考例句：

• He always tries to get in with the most influential people.他总是试图巴结最有影响的人物。
• He is a very influential man in the government.他在政府中是个很有影响的人物。

15 clan   

n.氏族，部落，宗族，家族，宗派

参考例句：

• She ranks as my junior in the clan.她的辈分比我小。
• The Chinese Christians,therefore,practically excommunicate themselves from their own clan.所以，中国的基督徒简直是被逐出了自己的家族了。

16 landmark   

n.陆标，划时代的事，地界标

参考例句：

• The Russian Revolution represents a landmark in world history.俄国革命是世界历史上的一个里程碑。
• The tower was once a landmark for ships.这座塔曾是船只的陆标。