Martial arts, exciting scenes, and exciting movies – these words associate with the famous actor Bruce Lee, who was admired by millions of people. The hard work of Bruce Lee improved the way Asians were accepted in Hollywood. Bruce Lee was a Chinese and American actor who contributed significantly to the cinema industry and the development of martial arts. Bruce Lee is famous for his actor talent and also as a martial art master, and the last characteristic helped him to become popular in the cinema industry. Bruce Lee popularized martial arts movies and changed the way Asians were accepted in Hollywood by showing tremendous talent and hard work, which made him a significant person and an idol among Asian Americans.
Bruce Lee’s childhood and family played a crucial role in developing his acting career. First, eighteen years of Lees life were spent in Hong Kong, and his first attempts in the cinema industry and martial arts started. When Bruce Lee was a child, he had already filmed in more than 20 movies; however, this experience did not start his acting career (Wong, 2021). When Bruce Lee was thirteen, he started to take Kung fu classes and became proficient in them. This experience helped him to adapt to Americas lifestyle after moving, where he opened a Kung Fu school and even invented his martial art Jeet Kune Do. William Dozier noticed the start of his acting career a few years after marriage due to his proficiency in martial arts (Wong, 2021). Therefore, during childhood, Bruce Lee started to gain acting experience; however, this activity was replaced by martial arts, which helped the actor to be noticed by famous producers.
Bruce Lee is significant for his passion for martial arts and acting career, which made people admire him and bring recognition to Asian actors. According to Moh, a martial arts expert, who faced Bruce Lee (Bruce Lee, n. d.), the actor was confident and had charisma, and that is why people admired him. Furthermore, Bruce Lee was passionate about his job and worked hard on each role to provide the most qualified performance. Lee was unique during that time; no one was similar to him, making people admire this Asian-American actor. Before Bruce Lee, each American film had a racial hierarchy, but Lee changed it. The actor showed the value of Asian actors and changed their acceptance of them by the audience. For instance, Asian characters were accepted as “yellow peril,” who just killed white people, but Lee had a leading role in proving the feature and value of Asians (Bruce Lee, n. d.). Hence, Bruce Lee changed the way Asian was accepted in Hollywood and proved that Asian are not “yellow peril”, but strong and significant people with many talents.
Bruce Lee significantly contributed to popularizing movies with martial arts and putting them on the highest level. Bruce Lee’s Hong Kong films: Fist of Fury, The Big Boss, and Return of the Dragon, were record-breaking hits in Asia. The 1973 Hollywood-produced Enter the Dragon propelled Bruce Lee to iconic status in America and improved his place in American popular culture (Asian Journal, 2022). These movies popularized martial arts due to the excellent performance of Bruce Lee. Moreover, the film Enter the Dragon brought more than 200 million dollars and promoted the desire to learn martial art (Asian Journal, 2022). Lastly, some films remain popular, and Bruce Lee’s work is regarded as a masterpiece. Thus, Bruce Lee promoted martial art films at the highest level, making them famous then and even now.
To conclude, Bruce Lee made martial arts films popular and showed the difference between real Asian and “yellow peril”. Lee was a Chinese actor who developed the American cinema industry. Bruce Lee showed that hard work and passion for what you are doing is a great way to success. In addition, Bruce Lee made an outstanding contribution to the development of martial arts and even created his fighting style. That is why Bruce Lee is a significant person in the cinema industry.
References
Asian Journal. (2022). Why Bruce Lee is considered a hero. AsianJournalUSA.
Bruce Lee. (n. d.). Web.
Wong B. (2021). The radical way Bruce Lee redefined Asian American masculinity. Huffpost. Web.