Christopher Bray

The amazing grace of Bruce Lee’s fight scenes

As Lee whirls round Chuck Norris or back-flips while kicking Bob Wall, you might fancy yourself watching Fred and Ginger at work

Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris in Fury of the Dragon, 1972. [Alamy] 
issue 06 August 2022

Early on in Enter the Dragon our hero, the acrobatic Kung Fu fighter Bruce Lee, tells a young pupil to kick him. Needless to say, the kid’s kick comes a cropper. ‘What was that?’, Lee sneers, clipping the lad’s ear. ‘An exhibition? We need emotional content, not anger.’

Even at 12, when I first read about this scene (in the poster magazine Kung Fu Monthly, whose first 26 issues are handsomely reproduced in Volume I of Carl Fox’s Archive Series), I thought it sounded like a load of chop suey hooey.

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