04-05-2015, 02:37 PM
This is often cited as Bruce Lee's first major role - he was 10. This just came up on Hulu+ and I had never seen it before, just clips and stills. It's an HK B&W film, very sparse, shot back before they understood soundtracks. Bruce's dad has a role in it too. All of the characters are ugly, like bad chinky stereotypes. Bruce is a poor orphan who falls in with some petty gangsters as his ward, a teacher, tries to redeem him. It's all about Bruce. At 10, he's so precocious, over-acting in that singular way of his, even thumbing his nose like he does during fights. And there's even a fight scene, a scuffle between kids, something totally disengaging except for the fact that it's Bruce. Seeing Bruce starring in less than half a dozen martial arts films and a smattering of TV roles, this is a must see, just to see him as a kid.
Shadow boxing the apocalypse