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''Bruce Lee's Secret'' is a Hong Kong martial arts action film directed by Chan Wa and William Cheung Ki. which is also a pseudo
biopic A biographical film or biopic () is a film that dramatizes the life of a non-fictional or historically-based person or people. Such films show the life of a historical person and the central character's real name is used. They differ from docudr ...
of
Bruce Lee Bruce Lee (; born Lee Jun-fan, ; November 27, 1940 – July 20, 1973) was a Hong Kong and American martial artist and actor. He was the founder of Jeet Kune Do, a hybrid martial arts philosophy drawing from different combat disciplines th ...
. It stars Bruce Li as "Bob" Lee, whose life is essentially the same as Lee's and is on two occasions actually referred to as 'Bruce'. The film has been released under the alternate two film titles: they were: ''The Story of the Dragon'' and ''Bruce Lee: Master of Jeet Kune Do''. This film is not to be confused with another Bruce Lee biopic, '' Bruce Lee: A Dragon Story''.


Synopsis

In San Francisco, Bruce "Bob" Lee (Bruce Li) works in a Chinese food restaurant with his wacky friend Chang Ming. When a gang of hoodlums is making trouble, Bob puts a lot of pepper on their chicken, making them sneeze a lot (and inspiring the immortal line, "This is pepper chicken. Good for gut's ache!"). Unfortunately, Bob and Chang are blacklisted from the bustling San Francisco Chinese restaurant community by the gang. They accidentally land a job at a shipyard after narrowly averting being run over by the owner's daughter's car. She tells them to get back to work, assuming they already work there unloading speaker cabinet boxes. The shipyard is attacked by members of the boxing gang that Bob beat up in the beginning of the film. At first, Bob and Chang refuse to fight to prevent losing their jobs again. However, they are called chickens by the shipyard owners, and after finally beating up some bad guys, people realize what an amazing martial artist Bob is, and encourage him to start his own
kung fu Chinese martial arts, often called by the umbrella terms kung fu (; ), kuoshu () or wushu (), are multiple fighting styles that have developed over the centuries in Greater China. These fighting styles are often classified according to commo ...
school. Bob's school opens to boffo business, but there is controversy among the powerful rival kung fu schools because Bob is teaching to non-Asians. He also creates
Jeet Kune Do Jeet Kune Do is a primarily wing chun kung fu inspired eclectic martial arts philosophy heavily influenced and adapted by the Taoist personal life philosophy and experiences of martial artist Bruce Lee. Overview and philosophy Jeet Kune D ...
, and uses his newly improves martial arts ability to whup the baddies once and for all.


Production

Filming started in late 1975 and finished early 1976. The film was made in
Taipei Taipei (), officially Taipei City, is the capital and a special municipality of the Republic of China (Taiwan). Located in Northern Taiwan, Taipei City is an enclave of the municipality of New Taipei City that sits about southwest of the ...
and nearby areas. The restaurant scene at the start is in Bo-Ai street, Taipei. The bungalows are in a former US military housing complex near Taipei. The docks scenes are at
Keelung Keelung () or Jilong () (; Hokkien POJ: '), officially known as Keelung City, is a major port city situated in the northeastern part of Taiwan. The city is a part of the Taipei–Keelung metropolitan area, along with its neighbors, New T ...
. Some scenes were shot in the suburb of
Beitou Beitou District is the northernmost of the twelve districts of Taipei City, Taiwan. The historical spelling of the district is Peitou. The name originates from the Ketagalan word ''Kipatauw'', meaning witch. Beitou is the most mountainous a ...
.


Reaction

The film was poorly received by critics. Despite the negative reaction to this film, actor Hwang Jang Lee would later achieve stardom after appearing as the bad guy in
Jackie Chan Fang Shilong (born 7 April 1954), known professionally in English as Jackie Chan and in Chinese as Cheng Long ( zh, c=成龍, j=Sing4 Lung4; "becoming the dragon"), is a Hong Kong actor, filmmaker, martial artist, and stuntman known for ...
's breakout films, '' Snake in the Eagle's Shadow'' and ''
Drunken Master ''Drunken Master'' () is a 1978 Hong Kong martial arts comedy film directed by Yuen Woo-ping, and starring Jackie Chan, Yuen Siu-tien, and Hwang Jang-lee. It was a success at the Hong Kong box office, earning two and a half times the amount ...
''.


See also

*
List of Hong Kong films This is a list of films produced in Hong Kong ordered by decade and year of release in separate pages. For film set in Hong Kong and produced elsewhere see '' List of films set in Hong Kong''. 1909–1949 * List of Hong Kong films before 1950 ...


External links

*{{IMDb title, 0071253 1976 films 1976 martial arts films 1970s action films Hong Kong action films Bruceploitation films Kung fu films Hong Kong martial arts films 1980s Hong Kong films 1970s Hong Kong films