The film begins with Bruce Lee’s father, Lee Hoi-cheun (Tony Leung Ka Fai) as a Cantonese actor, complete with make-up and regal robes, performing in San Francisco. He has just been informed that his wife, Grace Ho (Christy Chung) is having a baby. No time to react, Lee is rushed to hospital, where his wife has just given birth. Overwhelmed by the joy of the moment, Lee is asked by the nurse what to call the new-born baby. Confused, Lee asks his wife for advice – a name – and his wife replies “Push…push,” still in baby-delivery mode. Lee is equally as confused and relays this information back to the nurse, who interprets the words “Push…push,” as ‘Bruce’ and writes that on the baby’s birth certificate. A rather humourous, unplanned birth to one of the most influential people on the planet, in my eyes. If this was any other film, I would have laughed – it would have been a joke. But this film was retold through the eyes of Robert Lee, Bruce Lee’s youngest brother, and so the events are 100% accurate, and in some cases, the scenes don’t do the real Bruce justice! This introduction is nevertheless a very captivating and clever piece of film, and really reels me in for the events later on.

The camera angles, flares and overall visual quality are spectacular throughout the film – a swooping punch or a flying kick are always spot on, showing exactly what you want to see. The visual effects are subtle – almost non-existent. I, for one, couldn’t really see any use of Adobe After Effects or anything flashy in the film at all. The choreography really stood out, and each punch or kick was carefully executed – even the dance routine was picture perfect!

  An example of this in action has got to be (cue Hong Kong again) the boxing scene, where an older Bruce Lee (Aarif Rahman), or Phoenix, as he was known in China, fights against Charlie Owen (Alex Yen). The two have their distinct personalities. Bruce Lee is fluid and quick, like a tiger, and Charlie is a hard puncher – think ‘The Karate Kid’ (1984) and Daniel LaRusso vs Johnny Lawrence and you get the idea.

At first, Bruce gets beaten badly by Charlie, thanks to some over-zealous cheering leading to a bit of water spilt onto the boxing ring, which means a slip, which means falling down and getting beaten up. Uppercuts to the head and being pummeled in his kidneys and chest were just some examples.

But later through the match, and through the support of his friends, remembers his training and unleashes a hail of classic combos as he unleashes his inner Phoenix and smashes his opponent to pulp, and several flashbacks from his training came into action, from hitting the tree repeatedly to regrow and strengthen his bones so his hands become, quite literally, lumps of steel as he destroys hid opponent in a flurry of his Intercepting Fist.

At the midnight rematch in an abandoned shack, a white cat watches Charlie and Phoenix (Bruce Lee’s Cantonese name) at it again. Not under any type of rules, Bruce really shows his feral side, and it quickly becomes clear that Charlie is no match for the likes of him.

As a nice touch, runs away when Phoenix releases his power for the first time and does his signature kick, propelling his opponent into the air and setting him on fire. Apparently, he was cockier in real life.

The real tear-jerker was when Bruce’s childhood friend, whom he grew up with, ended up sacrificing his life for him. Roll back the clock and Lau Lin-Kong (Zhang Yishang) is one of Bruce’s best mates, and Kong promises to make the most out of his life, and fulfil his dream of becoming a pilot, inspired by Bruce’s winning attitude over a meal at the Noodle Bar.

Later on, envious of his once best-friend’s success at life, he becomes a drug junkie and goes missing, leaves his girlfriend and runs leads a life of misery in one of Hong Kong’s opium dens. He rejects Bruce, and tells him to get lost – he will never be as famous as Bruce. When the drug dealers come in and the boss tries to kill him, a chase ensues and Kong’s life flashes in front of his eyes. Kong leaps at the boss and throws him down onto the ground just before he is about to kill Bruce with an iron mallet. The story is so well interlinked that this moment isn’t tear-jerking unless you watch the whole film, but the statement that Kong is saved and survives the drop, but dies in the late ‘60s with ‘drug-related problems’ really pulls at your heartstrings and is enough to make a grown man cry.

The whole film really addresses the issues of youth life, and a whole host of darker problems, from childhood lovers to rescuing a childhood friend from a life of drugs, Bruce Lee, My Brother is, and will be, one of the most inspiring films ever. This may seem like a very biased review, but I can tell you, hand-on-heart, that there were no black spots in this film, no omissions. Everything interlinked perfectly and the plot was imaginative yet managed to stay true to Robert Lee’s original words and real story. You can watch it yourself, but grab some subtitles – the film is only available in Cantonese for now, and in English subbed versions, and is reportedly coming to the US and the UK.


~Chris