My Review of 'Birth of the Dragon'

I've heard of Birth of the Dragon back when it was to be released back in 2016. I never got the chance to see it. It was partially because there were a lot of unfavorable reviews of the movie and I just didn't have access to watch the movie. Recently it's been added to Netflix, and I thought I'd finally check it out.

This movie is supposed to be based on events up and until the infamous fight between Bruce Lee, played by Philip Ng, and Wong Jack Man, played by Yu Xia. In this movie, Bruce Lee is a hotheaded egotistical martial artist that's out for fame. The total contrast can be said about Wong Jack Man. Wong Jack Man has to pay penance for disgracing himself in China by coming to America and humbly working as a dish washer. Bruce Lee believes that Wong Jack Man's true intentions are to stop him from teaching Kung Fu to foreigners. Both men have ulterior motives behind their infamous fight.

I'm not entirely sure how accurate this movie is. It seems like they took a ton of liberties to the story. To be fair, no one actually knows what truly happened back in the day when this fight actually happened. It's also a movie, artists are supposed to be allowed to have free reign and use their imagination to dream up of wild stories to tell us. That's not to say that they shouldn't have some things a little more accurate.

Some of the weird inaccuracies that kind of bothered me was the language being used. It's pretty common for movies, especially nowadays, to use Mandarin. Bruce Lee spoke Cantonese and the subtitles for the movie kept saying the actors were speaking in Cantonese when it was really Mandarin. The only person that I could actually recognize speaking Cantonese was one of the supporting character's moms. It was a really short scene.

That's a small gripe and I know a lot of people won't even know or care. The biggest gripe I have with the movie is that the filmmakers kind of bamboozle the audience. I say this because they advertise and try to make us think that this is a Bruce Lee movie, but really this movie is about Steve McKee, played by Billy Magnussen. Steve is Bruce Lee's foreigner student. He basically falls in love with one of the girls that the triad own through human trafficking.

It seems that he was originally written into the story to keep the plot going. He's the character that pretty much never thinks and just does whatever comes to his head and continues to get into trouble. Through his various hi-jinxes, he builds Bruce Lee and Wong Jack Man's relationship. The writers focused on him so much that he eventually became the main character of the story.

It's really weird too because the opening really makes it seem like it's a Bruce Lee/Wong Jack Man movie and suddenly it becomes Steve McKee's movie. Bruce Lee and Wong Jack Man gradually disappear from the story, and it's all about Steve McKee. I wouldn't be against this if they didn't advertise the movie as a Bruce Lee movie. I found it totally deceptive and not cool.

Needless to say each of the actors did a pretty good job at what they did especially Philip Ng as Bruce Lee. His mannerisms really made me think that he was Bruce Lee. he doesn't look anything like Bruce Lee but his mannerisms really did the trick.

There's a lot of interesting camera work in this movie as well. It's really beautifully shot. I really have to commend their work in the visuals. They also did a lot of interesting fight sequences. The action was pretty well done. It wasn't too over the top but you can tell that there was a lot of wire work done for some of the action sequences. It added to the story and made the action scenes pretty fun.

Overall, I would say that this movie is a passing movie. I didn't think that the movie deserved as much hate as it did from all the reviewers. It's a perfectly viewable film. Just don't watch the film expecting it to be perfectly realistic or accurate. It's a film it shouldn't have to be totally accurate or realistic. I'll have to give this movie a 7 out of 10. I had fun watching it and I think a lot of people will enjoy it as well. I know a lot of die hard Bruce Lee fans might argue with my score. All I have to say is watch the movie and you'll know what I mean.