‘Dragon’: More Than Just Kicks

In “Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story,” the martial-arts expert leaves Hong Kong for San Francisco, trades dishwashing for schooling, marries an Anglo, fights prejudice, stars in movies and is said to have died a mysterious death. (Rated PG-13)

Look out for crumbling stereotypes. Girls liked the violence. Boys liked the romance. Teen-agers on the verge of hormonal overload liked the philosophical meaning of it all.

“I couldn’t get enough of the inner conflict,” said Gil, a 14-year-old who had just seen the movie a fifth time.

“It wasn’t at all what people said it was. People said it would be a martial-arts flick, but it wasn’t. It was a love story and a drama about his inner demons.”

Gil, a martial-arts student, said he has read everything he could about Bruce Lee, Lee’s son, Brandon, and Jason Scott Lee (no relation), who played the lead.

The only thing he didn’t like were the times the movie strayed from the facts as he knew them. “The fight with the chefs was made up,” he said. “He didn’t even work in that kind of kitchen. He wasn’t the one who cleaned up. He was the cook, actually.”

Other moviegoing 14-year-olds said they knew little about Bruce Lee until they saw the film. Afterward, a group of friends was still confused. Some mistakenly thought Jason Lee was Bruce Lee’s son.

Said Christina: “They showed the beauty of the culture, of the, uh, what was he?” The friends argued for a while about whether he was Korean, Chinese or American.

“It wasn’t a lot of punching,” Christina said. “It showed what it meant to them.”

The friends, who know one another from church, see a movie every weekend, mostly light comedies chosen by the girls. This time, however, the boys picked the movie.

Said Jimmy: “It was a guy movie because of the martial arts and stuff. But it was a girl movie because of the . . . .”

“That is so sexist!” a girl interrupted.

“Hey, how do you know I didn’t like the martial-arts stuff?” another girl asked. “I liked the action, where they’re kicking each other in the head and stuff,” Debbie said.

“Sometimes that makes the movie not too good,” Eric said. “I liked the romance.”

But some boys just liked the old-fashioned blood-soaked fistfights.

Sammy, 14, a karate student, said he picked up some tips for his next tournament. His favorite scene came when Bruce Lee was attacked by a man seeking revenge: “Bruce Lee killed his brother. So at the end, this guy comes out to the scene where Bruce Lee was making this movie and Bruce hit through two ice blocks and it was all dope and . . . .”

“He was on dope?” I ask. No, no, no.

“It was dope. D-O-P-E, good,” he explained. Ah. A new word. Cool.

Sammy continued: “Bruce Lee punches him in the stomach a couple of times and decks him in the face, and the guy’s on the ground, and Bruce Lee does this flip and lands on his waist and cracks all 12 ribs and you can hear this kkkkcccchhhhhh. Like that!”

Sammy hopes for a sequel, not only for the fights, but also for a better explanation of how Bruce Lee died. “All they say is he goes into a mysterious coma at the age of 32.”

He wants answers. And if he doesn’t get some, look out.