Bruce Lee - His Greatest Hits!

In general terms I have always been a Bruce Lee fan. But my respect for his talents was limited to his role as Kato on The Green Hornet, his appearance in the movie Marlowe, and the blockbuster flick Enter the Dragon. I knew Lee had made himself a star with some films made in Hong Kong, but I've never seen them all until recently and then not in their original forms. That oversight has been rectified and I can say unequivocally I am a Bruce Lee fan thanks to the Criterion Collection set Bruce Lee - His Greatest Hits. Bruce Lee was a man of enormous talents and a man who knew what he wanted. He was poorly treated in Hollywood, his Chinese heritage becoming a barricade to his dreams of success in feature films. Even television was closed to him (despite his electrifying turn as Kato) when a role he largely created was stolen from him and given to David Carradine in the show Kung Fu. With that final slap in the face, he said farewell to Hollywood and went back to Hong Kong to make movies. 

Golden Harvest films was the new kid on the block, trying to find a niche in the marketplace alongside the behemoth Shaw Films. Raymond Chow made a deal with Bruce Lee for small money by Hollywood standards but impressive by Hong Kong standards for two films. The first was The Big Boss in which he was to co-star alongside James Tien. But Lee's presence on film was so instantly recognized that Tien was made the co-star and given an early exit from the film's story setting up the ferocious fighting finale starring Lee. It's a humble story about workers in an ice factory who are unaware their operation is being used for drug shipments by the titular "Big Boss". When workers begin to go missing things get more and more dangerous resulting ultimately in massive deaths. Filled with righteous fury we see our new hero Bruce Lee seek out the "Big Boss" and proceed to kick ass on an epic scale. The movie was a blockbuster by Hong Kong standards and Bruce Lee was on his way. 

The second of the movies in his deal with Golden Harvest was titled Fist of Fury. There has been confusion over this since when these films came at last to America the titles were switched, and The Big Boss was called Fist of Fury and this one was titled The Chinese Connection thought that title made no sense. In this we get a story which is partly true. When a real-life master of Kung Fu is murdered, many suspected the Japanese who at the time were dominant in Shanghai at the time. This movie takes that suspicion as fact and gives us Bruce Lee as the furious student of the murdered master who despite many warnings from his fellow students and the police seeks the murderers among the Japanese fighters. He is relentless and his Kung Fu is far too potent for any to deny him his revenge. Ultimately, not unlike the previous movie there is a great number of tragic deaths, but not before Bruce Lee as the hero has kicked butt on an epic scale.  The movie, which some regard as the greatest martial arts movie ever made, was even more successful than its predecessor. Bruce Lee could write his own ticket at last. 

So, his next movie The Way of the Dragon saw Lee not just as the star, but also as the writer and director as well. Bruce Lee was at the top of his game, in control of his destiny and he used that power to tell the story of a powerful Kung Fu fighter who is sent to Rome to assist some distant family members who are trying to run a restaurant and avoid the pressures brought against them by the local mob. Bruce is called upon to kick ass repeatedly in this one, facing not only simple hoods, but martials arts enforcers brought in to defeat him. Among these enforcers is Bob Wall, a student of Lee's and another more famous student of Lee's named Chuck Norris. (Whatever happened to that guy?) The story leads inevitably to an epic clash in the ruins of the Colosseum between Lee and Norris, regarded by some fans as the greatest duel in martial arts history. Way of the Dragon did even better at the box office than the previous two films and Lee prepared for his next movie, but then Hollywood called. 

Enter the Dragon was the only Bruce Lee feature I'd seen all the way through before I picked up the Criterion Collection. I even bought a copy of this wildly successful movie, but at the time I might have been more motivated by its similarity to a James Bond flick than anything having to do with Bruce Lee. But upon seeing Lee's incredible fights in this blockbuster, I was a convert to his cult. Hollywood wanted Lee but once again showed timidity when they cast alongside him John Saxon and Jim Kelly. The point seemed to be to make sure folks didn't quite realize Lee was the star, but additional scenes shot by Lee himself made that evident as if Saxon's mundane fighting skills and Kelly's memorable efforts could hold a candle to Lee's magnificence. In this one Lee is a secret agent sent to a martial arts contest arranged by a villain who hides on a remote island. The mission is to find out the villain's scheme and if possible, put a stop to it. That's handled in stunning style as Bruce Lee announced his presence to world at long last. 

Bruce Lee was poised to become a super-star. But then tragedy struck and the thirty-two-year old husband, father of two, and movie icon died suddenly. His death was ruled an accident but of course rumors have persisted to this day. His death blew a hole in the Hong Kong community and left both Hollywood and Golden Harvest without a star. Sadly, Lee died a month before Enter the Dragon was released to massive worldwide success, success he'd never get to savor. But he'd been working on his next film before his Hollywood adventure, a film not only over which he'd have complete control, but one in which he would showcase his philosophy of martial arts, and the footage he'd shot for Game of Death was left sitting on the shelves of Golden Harvest for several years. Meanwhile a multitude of imitators lit up the movie theaters in a wave of what was dubbed "Bruceploitation". Eventually Golden Harvest took the footage of what was to become Game of Death and shot new scenes with Lee lookalikes and shameful footage of Lee's actual funeral to fashion a shambolic flick which for its many, many flaws is regarded as Lee's final film. But that's not quite true. 

Released in the same year as Game of Death, the movie Circle of Iron is a movie which Bruce Lee wrote...sort of. When Lee had been Hollywood before his sojourn to Hong Kong, he'd partnered with his student James Coburn and others to fashion a story called The Silent Flute (the original and superior name of the movie before the studio insisted on something more aggressive if meaningless). This was a fantasy tale meant to showcase the very Eastern ideas of Zen. It wasn't made for a host of reasons, but when Lee became wildly successful, he was offered the chance to make the movie but turned it down, thinking it was part of his past and not his future. Years later it was made with David Carradine (ironically enough) in Lee's role about a man seeking wisdom. He encounters strange beings who give him challenges and information which ultimately lead him to understand the wisdom he sought was within him all along. The movie features Christopher Lee, Roddy McDowall, and Eli Wallach. The latter was exceedingly funny as a man who has immersed himself in oil for ten years to wither his lower body freeing him of his sexual urges which limit his ability to find happiness. That scene aside, the movie is kind of a mess with interesting elements which fall flat. But it was written in part by Bruce Lee and that carries some cache. I should point out that Circle of Iron is not part of the Criterion collection in which I found Lee's other movies. I picked it up from the Blue Underground.

Bruce Lee has become a true legend, word which is bandied about much too much. But in Lee's case it fits. His passing cemented our understanding of him to some television appearances and a handful of movies. His body of work is small in comparison to the impact it made on the fields of martial arts and movies. He has risen above the normal fame he sought all his life, to become an unchangeable icon, a symbol of what the human body can achieve if the drive and need are great enough. Whatever Bruce Lee fought to be in his life, he has become so much more. 

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Kung Fu The Television Show!

Kung Fu the television show was a cultural event of no small significance. It featured an Asian character as the focus of a story, albeit that character was played by a white actor David Carradine. It broke the mold, to some extent, of the worldviews which predominated the TV airwaves and allowed actual philosophy of nonviolence to seep into the broader culture, ableit that the lead character got into a fight every week. There are a number of contradictions which inform the show, a show which began with great glory in an exceedingly strong TV movie and shifted into a reasonably strong first season. Alas the show would continue to weaken throughout its three year run.

The first year of Kung Fu is truly amazing to watch. In the long tradition of TV, we have a peripatetic hero who finds folks in trouble and helps. He is motivated by his own need to find his brother as he roams the historical western landscape of the United States, a land rife with racism as it has always been. He encounters all manner of threats, some which follow him from China as his crime of murder creates trouble for him here. Kwai Chang Caine as played by Carradine in the first year is almost mute, talking rarely and in a whisper as he attempts to live his life, find his relatives, and help folks who come into his ken. He ends up in jail nearly every other episode, but as we learn is hardly ever confined by the people who constantly underestimate him. The characterization of the folks he meets in the first season is especially strong and memorable. Especially memorable (and key in my mind to the success of the show) are the characters of Master Kan (Phillip Ahn) and Master Po (Keye Luke). These old wise men make the show resonate with a quiet dignity which was and still is uncommon in television.

In the second year Caine loses of his reality, becoming more of a traditional hero and a wee bit more proactive in his choices. One affectation of the role was that Carradine allowed his hair to grow throughout his time as Caine and in the second season we see it hanging in his eyes with regularity as his costume is refined. Gone are the hat and shoes which grounded in reality to a greater degree and more prominent is the flute which proves often a bit annoying. His goals are left unmentioned and his flight as a fugitive gets little mention in the season, almost as if the creators want to move beyond the details of his origin.

The third year of Kung Fu is well and truly a rolling disaster. Carradine's control of the show's details grows and almost all of the choices he seems to make are ones which make the character more of a superhero and less of a real man. He adopts a costume which is remarkable in its lack of practicality and he travels across the western lands with only a single pouch, which like Batman's utility belt has just what is needed in any particular episode. His fugitive past comes into focus and he does find his brother at long last in a series of episodes which are peculiar and ultimately unsatisfying. Carradine also directs some episodes, some of which violate the long-standing structure of the show and are set in China before Caine's odyssey to the U.S. The amateurish nature of some of the production is stunning. The show seems to slowly but steadily running out of gas and in the final episode, contrary to all previous ones, Caine is not seen in the final scene. It's weird but so was this show, one which started with grand promise and ended with bizarre miscues.

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Dojo Classics - Yang #1

Warren Sattler

Charlton's other "superhero" debut in 1973 was Yang. Created in the same push by George Wildman which yielded E-Man, Yang was clearly a story inspired by the television show Kung Fu starring David Carradine, which itself was both spark and result of a wave of interest in martial arts at the time.

Neal Adams

Wildman got Charlton veteran writer Joe Gill to supply the scripts and he tapped artist Warren Sattler for the art chores. The latter was an odd move since Charlton had working for them at the time Sanho Kim, an artist ideally suited for this project. (But there's more to that story later.) Sattler's warm and comfortable sytle is a good fit nonetheless.

Yang Volume 1 Number 1 is dated November, 1973 and was published by Charlton Publications. The editor is George Wildman and the cover is by Warren Sattler. The writer is Joe Gill and the interior artwork is also by Sattler.

Part 1 "The Slave" begins in China in 1890 at the estate of the Mandarin Chung Yuan and his son Chung Hui. A warlord named Chao Ku orders the death of Chung Yuan and Chung Hui is too late to stop the murder. But he does use his considerable martial arts skills to waylay the murderers and following the mandates of his father's final word's puts aside his studies to become "Yang" for his people, a source of good in the lives of his people. He seeks out Chao Ku aboard his junk and comes under attack by Chao Ku's men and Captain Keegan, an American who is working with Chao Ku in his slave industry. Yang vows to meet his father's murderer again but as he leaves the junk he meets Yin Li, Chao Ku's daughter who feigns weakness and then kisses our hero, but she uses a drugged ring which cause Yang to fall to sleep at her feet. Yang is taken a prisoner by Keegan who takes him aboard his clipper ship headed for America. Yang meets the other prisoners and vows to help them. Close to San Francisco, Yang gets topside on the ship and makes a break for escape and dives headlong into the frigid waters.

Part 2 "Yang Meets Yin" begins with Yang swimming in the cold waters off Alcatraz Island, and Captain Keegan assumes weighted with chains the proud Chinese hero must be dead. Yang though comes out of the water at the docks in San Francisco and finds a sympathetic Chinese blacksmith to help remove his chains. He then seeks out Captain Keegan again and finds the evil sailor meeting with Chao Ku and Yin Li, the both of them having come to America too. Yang is captured though and taken before the trio where he then battles for freedom. He escapes with the seeming help of Yin Li, who professes to want to leave the influence of her evil father, but another kiss from the lovely girl and a sting of the ring, and Yang is once again flat out on the floor at her deceitful feet. This time Yang is transported into the interior of the America aboard a train, destined to work on the railroads as slave labor. After a few days of work, he is able to lead a revolt against his masters and after a furious battle that sees the destruction of a train, Yang escapes his captors once again and runs into the broad sprawling landscape that is the American West.

Last Page Original Art by Sattler

"The Wisdom of Wu" is a one-page text story which relates how villages in China are suffering from many woes. The people of those villages seek out a legendary wise man named "Wu" who they hope will give them an answer to their troubles. Many seek him out and they all descend on his remote location together. He has the people write down their troubles and then switch them and read those troubles to him. The people discover their troubles all sound the same and Wu tells them that they suffer only what man suffers all the time through the ages, and they must take prudent steps to protect themselves and those they love. That is the wisdom of Wu.

To read this issue in its original format, check out this link.

Note the flipped image gets Sattler's name right. 

The debut issue of Yang has been reprinted in 1985 when briefly the series was restarted with issue #15 (skipping issue #14 inexplicably) with reprints of old issues.

The first thing a reader has to understand is that despite many claims to the contrary, Yang is not really a superhero book. Admittedly it has a kinship to early "Action Hero" books like Thunderbolt and Judomaster, but the mileau of the American West gives this comic a fresh feel that sets apart from traditional superheroics. Yang is just a man who seeks to accomplish noble things, and there's no reason to think that this series is anything other than a Western, a genre Charlton was wonderful at creating.

Warren Sattler creates some very appealing artwork here, his storytelling is impeccable. I could pick a bit at his character designs, especially his rendition of Yin Li, which always seemed oddly modern to me, but overall his comics have an inviting feel to them. Joe Gill's script is an excellent example why this workhorse of a writer is so well regarded in the field today. He wrote a ton of material, and while obviously some of it was solid trash, he could in situations like Yang make the most of the task he was given.


One irony to my eye at least, is that the infamous wanted poster from the television show Kung Fu which inspired Yang, looks remarkably like Yang as rendered by Sattler.


The whole Taoist Yin-Yang philosophical angle which underpins the story is clever enough. Yang representing the good side of man and Yin Li representing the darker side, two people bonded by emotion but held apart by upbringing and motivation forms a neat tension to follow through the series. I don't pretend to understand how accurate these representations are, but they work for the story purposes here.

Yang will prove to be a reasonably successful series for Charlton eventually, even generating a spin-off later in its run. That series too will be dealt with in these reports.

More to come, though at the time quite a wait was required. Yang would return and he'd bring a bunch of friends with him.

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Getting The Yang Of It!

July is another opportunity for me to represent some vintage posts about some of my all-time favorite comics -- specifically Yang and House of Yang from Charlton Comics. There was a delightful explosion of martial arts movies and magazines and comics in the early 70's, and surprisingly in the comic book arena Charlton led the way with Yang drawn by Warren Sattler and written by Charlton's all-purpose man Joe Gill.

This month I want to revisit this classic series and the era in general with close looks at two other Kung Fu comics -- Master of Kung Fu and Iron Fist from Marvel.

And while all that is going on I'd love to revisit the classic TV show Kung Fu starring David Carradine, the show which in many ways was both a result of and a spark for the wave of Kung Fu wonderfulness which sprouted during the time. 

And the folks at Twomorrows must've learned what I was up to here at the Dojo and they have published a special volume of Back Issue that looks at many of the same characters and books. Amazing! (Actually a total fluke which I learned of after I'd set up this month's offerings.)

All that and whatever else I can think of will dominate the merry month of July with a special message coming on the fourth. Look for it. 

This month the Dojo really lives up to its name. 

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David Carradine RIP

Despite the fact he was 72 years old, I was still taken aback by the news of David Carradine's death. Needless to say the early reports indicate that this story will continue to develop as the months go along, but such a macabre passing is oddly appropriate somehow for a guy who has always come across as an inconoclast and an oddball.

I don't mean that in a disparaging way either. Kung-Fu the TV show blew me away as a teenager. That quiet pool of a weekly story was filled with the kind of sombre philosophical goo that appeals to a teenager. The dramatic life of Kwai Chang Kane as he searched the Wild West for his roots and for meaning, all the while ministering to those distraught souls he found along the way, was a wonderful device for an episodic TV show. The thread of backstory was just strong enough to give broader meaning to the little lessons presented each week. And the laconic hero was totally different from the more typical spastic heroes of TV. Kung Fu was a craze that spawned a lot of odd bits of social jetsam, but that TV show was something memorable. I need to dig out those shows and watch them again.

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