Hong Kong: Rise of the Kings

"Dad, I want ice cream!"

Nathan, a five or six-year-old mixed-race boy said to his father.

Bruce Lee came to his senses when he heard his son shouting, "Ah, what?"

"Ahao said he wanted to eat ice cream." His wife Linda said to her husband.

Bruce Lee smiled, picked up Li Guohao, held him high and said, "If you eat too much ice cream, you will lose your teeth. How about dad treat you to fried chestnuts? I loved it the most when I was a kid!"

"No, I want to eat ice cream! Besides, I don't like eating here. I hate steamed buns, steamed buns, shrimp dumplings, and those fish balls that explode when pinched! I want to eat pizza, eat cheese, eat Steak!" Li Guohao shouted.

Bruce Lee put him down, bent down and looked down at his son, pointed at his nose with his finger, and said with a serious expression: "Now, I don't care what you like to eat! But one thing you have to remember is that you are Chinese, no matter where you are. , we must remember this at all times! Never do anything that would harm us Chinese people!"

Li Guohao was only five or six years old, so how could he understand this? He was so frightened that tears began to well up in his eyes.

Linda held the child in her arms: "Look, the child is still young, what should you do if you scare him?"

Bruce Lee wiped his nose: "Just because you are young, you need a good education! If you grow up, it will be difficult!"

"I think you're in a bad mood, and you're taking it out on your child!" Linda glanced at her husband, "You've been keeping a straight face since yesterday, and you haven't told me what happened."

When Bruce Lee saw his wife getting angry, he sighed, crossed his arms and walked forward.

Linda picked up the child from behind, casually holding the Kun bag in her hand, and followed closely: "You should tell me what happened! Since I married you, I have to share your worries."

Bruce Lee looked at the bustling street scene of Nathan Road and said: "It's okay. As you know, Hollywood discriminates against Chinese people seriously. No matter how good my martial arts or my acting skills are, I can't stand the eyes of those big guys. Even to this day, I The most exciting role in Hollywood was actually playing a Japanese in "Aomine Gorge"!"

When Bruce Lee said this, his expression was depressed, as if he was depressed and frustrated.

In fact, this is indeed the case.

When Bruce Lee was a teenager, his academic performance was poor due to frequent fights with others. His family sent him to the United States, where he was born. On December 2, 1960, he entered Edison Technical School in Seattle for tutoring.

Bruce Lee's life in Seattle was quite difficult. After entering college, in addition to studying, he focused all his energy on studying martial arts. He organized a "Chinese Kung Fu Team" in the school, which often trained and performed on campus, winning praise from teachers and students.

Bruce Lee practiced hard and developed the "Li Sanjiao", "Inch Fist" and "Gou Luo Shou". In order to promote Chinese martial arts, Bruce Lee rented a corner of the parking lot on campus as a martial arts gym during his sophomore year of college and hung up the sign "Zhenfan Guoshu Gym". He taught and practiced at the same time. He practiced hard and his skills improved greatly, especially his leg skills. In the Zhenfan Martial Arts Hall, he met Linda, a female medical student who came to learn martial arts, who is now his wife.

In 1966, Bruce Lee planned to make movies in order to revitalize traditional Chinese Kung Fu, so he began to enter Hollywood and shoot the big-budget "The Green Hornet".

And this play has become his most famous play. No role in the movies he participated in later in Hollywood surpassed this play.

The reason is simple. It's not that he's not good enough, but because he's so good that even a supporting role steals the limelight from the protagonist.

This is not a good sign for white-controlled Hollywood.

So in the following period, Bruce Lee could not find a good role. The roles that Hollywood gave him were unimportant and marginal waste, leaving him no room to develop at all.

In desperation, Bruce Lee planned to take advantage of the opportunity of returning to Hong Kong to meet his family members and return to Hong Kong with his wife and children, preparing to find opportunities in Hong Kong to express his ambitions.

First of all, he targeted Hong Kong film giant Shaw Brothers.

Shaw Brothers has been developing very fast in recent years, and Bruce Lee has also heard about it in Hollywood, so when he came back, he immediately contacted Shaw Brothers boss Yifu Shao to discuss the details of cooperation with him.

Here, Bruce Lee completely regarded himself as a partner, rather than a big star who relied on a "selling contract" to make movies to support his family.

In Bruce Lee's view, he was from Hollywood and had rich experience in filming. He could help Shaw Brothers break into the Hollywood market while filming, so that both parties could win-win.

Therefore, during the discussion with Shao Daheng, Bruce Lee put forward a lot of content that was extremely arrogant and harsh in Shao Daheng's view.

For example, Bruce Lee required full control of the filming process, with one person acting as the protagonist, director, and even producer and producer.

If it didn't cost him anything, Shao Daheng would certainly be willing to use such a labor force for free and learn things from Hollywood.

Unfortunately, Bruce Lee came from the United States and had a characteristic of Americans, that is, everything he did was paid, such as helping others mow lawns or even walking dogs, all of which were charged. So he himself acts as director, producer and producer, all of which are charged.

It would be better if these charges were lower, and Shao Daheng, who was aloof and stingy by nature, could accept it.

But the conditions offered by Bruce Lee were the same as those in Hollywood. Everything was calculated in US dollars. In this way, his salary was several times higher than the same type in Hong Kong. This made even a steamed bun worry about how Shao Daheng could accept it. ?

The end result was that the two broke up on bad terms.

Now Bruce Lee has been unemployed in Hong Kong for more than a month, but he has no income at all. He has a family to support, and the martial arts gym in the United States also needs to invest more, leaving him at a loss.

If it were the trajectory of his previous life, last summer he would have accepted the invitation from Hong Kong Golden Harvest Film Company and signed two films with a salary of US$15,000.

The first one is "Tangshan Brother" with the theme of Chinese martial arts. The budget of the film was only 100,000 US dollars, and the script was written while filming. In this case, it set the highest box office record for a film since the opening of Hong Kong. HK$3 million.

The second movie was even more remarkable. It was "Fist of Fury" which created a box office legend in Hong Kong. Bruce Lee played "Chen Zhen" in it. This was also the most classic role in his life, surpassing all others.

Unfortunately, due to the emergence of Du Yongxiao, butterflies flapped their wings and changed some historical trajectories.

First of all, Zou Wenhuai, He Guanchang and others were collectively recruited by Du Yongxiao, and Du Yongxiao established "Jiahe" to compete with "Shaw Brothers".

Secondly, Jiahe has stars such as Wang Yu, Sammo Hung, and Jackie Chan. Although many of them are not famous yet, the actor reserve is very rich and there is no shortage of people. Therefore, Jiahe is not interested in Bruce Lee from Hollywood and has not personally invited him. Jiahe interview.

This put Bruce Lee in a very embarrassing situation.

It feels like a product with a "price but no market". It thinks highly of itself but no one pays attention to it.

His wife Linda did not understand her husband's mood and comforted her: "There is a saying in China that there is a bright future in another village. Don't think too much about everything. Maybe the opportunity will come soon! Yes, I told you last night God pray, He will bless us with good luck.”

Seeing his wife say this, Bruce Lee folded his arms and could only laugh at himself: "Maybe I should lower myself, just like Mr. Shao said, don't talk to him in the Hollywood way, this is Hong Kong."

Thinking of the unhappy breakup with Shao Daheng, Bruce Lee shook his head again.

He has such a character, he is unruly and full of confidence. Shao Daheng happens to dislike this kind of person the most. What he needs is a good actor who is obedient, not a partner.

Just when Bruce Lee shook his head, a man wearing a checkered shirt suddenly sprang out from behind Linda, snatched the Kun bag she was holding, and ran away.

Linda was caught off guard while holding her child. She waited until the man ran away before she realized: "My handbag!"

Bruce Lee was still feeling sorry for himself. He woke up when he heard this and immediately chased after him.

The colorful man ran extremely fast and was agile. He was able to dodge pedestrians and vehicles on the street like a duck to water. At first glance, he was an expert.

Bruce Lee was running wildly behind him, equally agile.

A car honked and hit.

Bruce Lee took a leap, put one arm on the front of the car, and flew into the air. The driver was so surprised that he opened his mouth wide: "Flying Man?"

The colorful man looked back and didn't expect Bruce Lee to chase him so closely. He took a breath and ran again.

Bruce Lee took a deep breath and this time took a shortcut from the fruit stall to the newsstand to catch up.

There was chaos on the streets.

The distance between the two is getting closer and closer.

At a teahouse, the colorful man stopped running and bent down, panting, looking up at Bruce Lee who was chasing him.

Seeing that the opponent couldn't run away, Bruce Lee looked at him with contempt, then pointed at the opponent with his finger, then clenched his fist, and finally wiped his nose, looking aloof.

The meaning is very simple, put your things down and leave, or I will beat you to death.

The colorful man smiled and pointed at his nose: "As you know, my name is Dawei, and I am a student of Hong Quan!"

As he spoke, Dawei threw his bag to the ground, then moved his wrists and neck.

Bruce Lee smiled, pointed at him, raised his index finger and swept it, meaning you are not qualified.

Dawei also smiled, "I didn't mention anyone, I know you are great, so -"

Footsteps sounded.

Bruce Lee looked back and saw another man coming from behind and said with a smile: "You know, my name is Xiwei, I am his younger brother, and I also learn Hongquan!" After saying that, he assumed the Hongquan posture.

Bruce Lee narrowed his eyes.

From running just now, he had already seen that this Dawei was not an ordinary person, and he must be very skilled.

But he is not yet reassured, he is confident of defeating the opponent.

But now that someone else came out from the other side, he had to take it seriously.

Teahouse, second floor.

A man in white was holding a cigarette in his mouth, looking down at the fight that was about to begin below, and asked the people around him: "Axian, who do you want to win?"

"Of course it's brothers Dawei and Xiwei!" Zhuang Dingxian said, "As the saying goes, two fists are hard to beat with four hands!"

The man in white nodded, "Okay, I'll bet with you! I'll win if Bruce Lee wins, and I'll bet a hundred dollars!"