How Bruce Lee Changed The World
On Sunday 19th July the Bio Channel will be airing a documentary entitled How Bruce Lee Changed The World. Made with full co-operation from Lee's family, it explores Bruce Lee's life dissecting his movies and revealling the legacy before his death at the age of 32. A sneak preview can be seen above including extracts from LL Cool J and former MAI writer Bey Logan.
Bruce Lee was the first Asian film superstar and though he completed only a handful of movies before his death it is his explosion onto the movie scene that was the catalyst for the western acceptance of all things Asian.
For the first time since Bruce's death Bio brings his wife (Linda) and daughter (Shannon) to China where they visit martial arts schools, the Golden Harvest Studios and meet Lee's associates to see for themselves how the Bruce Lee legend lives on including the development of the Bruce Lee Action Museum (BLAM).
The coroner's report said Lee died from an allergic reaction to a painkiller on 20th July 1973; his death left fans devastated and movie-makers with a void created by the biggest star of his generation. Following his death film-makers had to fill this gulf and created a unique phenomenon; the "Bruce-Ploitation" genre. Every Asian kung-fu action actor at the time became a Bruce Lee look-a-like spawning careers for a lucky few, namely, Sammo Hung, Jet Li and of course, Jackie Chan
The marketing possibilities of Bruce Lee hasn't stopped at films as his image continues to be used to sell products from Mars bars to Nokia phones, he has starred in several computer games and he is now a symbol of modern China as a thriving economy.
Bruce Lee has remained in mainstream consciousness throughout his life and death and as a result he really did change the world and this two hour film explores how.
Featuring contributions from; Linda Lee, Shannon Lee, Jackie Chan, Stan Lee, John Woo, Brett Ratner, "Sugar" Ray Leonard, Eddie Griffin, RZA, Margaret Cho, John Saxon, Donnie Yen, Lalo Schifrin and Damon Albarn plus more alongside rare archive footage, Bruce Lee interviews and film and TV clips this film delves deep into the Bruce Lee legend.
