BIRTH OF THE DRAGON (George Nolfi). 95 minutes. Some subtitles. Opens Friday (August 25). See listing. Rating: NN
When George Nolfi brought Birth Of The Dragon to TIFF in 2016, it was hobbled by a huge conceptual problem.
The movie revolves around the legendary match between emerging martial artist Bruce Lee and Shaolin monk Wong Jack Man in San Francisco, 1964. That fight really happened, and it helped popularize kung fu in the West, setting Lee on the path to creating his own fighting style, jeet kune do.
Nolfis movie, written by Stephen J. Rivele and Christopher Wilkinson, reimagines Lee and Wongs throwdown within an old-school chop-socky movie packed with gangsters, thugs and wisecracking sidekicks the sort of films Lee was trying to make at the time, a simplistic adventure with exotic cultural elements and kick-ass fight scenes.
It was a pretty nifty idea, but then there was the white guy. By telling this story through the eyes of an American bystander Steve McKee, a fictionalized version of Lees student and friend Steve McQueen the early cut of Birth Of The Dragon kept pulling away from its central characters and wasting time with a dud of a hero.
Its not that Billy Magnussen, who plays McKee, isnt a good actor its just that McKee isnt nearly as interesting as either Philip Wan-lung Ngs cocksure Lee or Xia Yus enigmatic Wong. And audiences knew it right away.
The new cut of Birth Of The Dragon loses about eight minutes of material, mostly pruned from the early scenes where McKee proves himself worthy of Lees mentorship. Thats good. McKees love for the captive restaurant girl Xiulan (Qu Jinging) still drives the plot, forcing Wong to accept Lees challenge, but now we get to the good stuff the impressive fight scenes choreographed by Hong Kong legend Corey Yuen that much sooner.
One problem has been fixed, but Birth Of The Dragon still comes up short. The fight scenes are great, but theres still far too much padding around them long, didactic scenes where Lee and Wong sit down and unload their biographies to McKee for our benefit.
Except for a key flashback to a fateful demonstration of Shaolin fighting styles, Nolfis made a movie that tells rather than shows and much of whats being told is stiff and cliched, and not in a self-aware way that might have been fun.
A key component of the real Bruce Lees persona was his ability to glory in his feats of dexterity and strength: he could make us see how awesome it was to be him. Birth Of The Dragon opens with a Lee who hasnt figured that part out yet, and it ends well before he does, telling us with a little bit of closing text that eventually hed get there.
Thats the kind of thing you want to show people.
