Get Your Kicks

Peace out, baby....

The Little Dragon was probably the closest thing to a real-life superhero the world ever had. Sure, guys like Schwarzenegger and Van Damme amped up the action and violence as they took on deadly foes - with the aid of cinematic tricks. But the former was slow and hulking and often relied on cybernetics and/or weapons, while the latter simply took his cue from the legendary Bruce Lee - with varied results. And to this day, nobody has come very close to Lee's example. 

I think it was when I was about twelve or thirteen years old that I first saw a Bruce Lee movie on TV. I was hooked immediately, drawn to his direct and powerful fighting style. Let's be clear here.... I was never a fighter, other than defending myself a couple of times back in primary school. A little blood was shed but everyone walked away in one piece. And I ended up befriending those assailants. I marveled, however, at Lee's poetry in motion, his quiet philosophy coupled with focused training, and of course, I wanted that physique (never happened).

I felt I was more than just a martial arts fan... I really wanted to learn Kung Fu or something like it. I bought a couple of books packed with photos demonstrating techniques and persuaded my brother and friends to stand-in as bad guys so I could try this stuff out. I never really learned a lot that way, but it was fun and gave me something positive to occupy my time. Hey, I could have been sticking firecrackers in frogs instead!

Around that time, when my family went on a summer vacation.... I can't remember if it was out on the Canadian Prairies (yawn) or over to Niagara Falls, I discovered in a little souvenir shop a very cool and colourful Bruce Lee T-shirt, picturing Bruce flying through the air, kicking and punching. I bought the shirt with my paper route money and wore it until it was nearly rags. 

A youth-oriented magazine that I subscribed to featured Lee in one issue, including a pull-out mini-poster showing Lee in one of his iconic poses from Enter the Dragon. Still got it!

I'm sure Bruce appeared on tons of magazine

covers over the decades, but this was one I 

picked up back in the early 80's, I believe

The comic book The Hands of Shang-Chi: Master of Kung Fu came along during the height of the North American kung fu craze. Sadly, Bruce Lee passed away that same year, 1973, but as his legacy spread across the world, his fan base grew exponentially, and of course, a lot of people wanted a piece of that action. So books and comics and all sorts of merchandise were dropped on the unsuspecting public. Anyway, Shang-Chi was a fun comic, endowing a gifted martial artist with superhero status - minus the super powers. Watch out, bad guys!

When actor David Carradine stole the lead role from Lee for a new TV series, I was all over that. I didn't know about Lee being considered for the role at the time, so there were no hard feelings. But Carradine on TV's Kung Fu gave the viewers a highly realistic performance of the martial art. Rather different from Lee's screaming devastation, Kwai Chang Caine (Carradine's character) was a humble traveller, helping those in need as he passed through dusty towns of the American Old West. 

Even though my parents knew I loved this stuff, they failed to see how martial arts classes were a good investment. So nothing of the kind happened. After a while, I stopped "pretending" with the How-To books and simply enjoyed the Lee movies.

As an adult, with some time and money to spare, I did take Kung Fu (plus Tai Chi) classes for a while, and though I thoroughly enjoyed it all, the cost became difficult to manage. I dropped the classes, but remain hopeful that I can return to it someday. My interest through films is still there, and I absolutely love the Donnie Yen Ip Man pictures. Ip Man was Bruce Lee's teacher, passing on his knowledge of Wing Chun. Lee, after mastering that art and many others, developed his own system, Jeet Kune Do, the origination of mixed martial arts. So all those MMA fans out there can thank Bruce for that!

Lee was a pop culture icon of the 20th century, a man made larger than life through his immense success in many pursuits.... as martial artist, martial arts instructor, filmmaker, and actor.

Two Lee books from my youth on the right, and a more

modern text at the left