Brandon Lee

Lee returned to Los Angeles in 1985 and worked as a script reader. During this period, he was approached by casting director Lynn Stalmaster and successfully auditioned for his first credited acting role in Kung Fu: The Movie.[8] It was a feature-length television movie that was a follow-up to the 1970s television series Kung Fu, with David Carradine returning as the lead.[9] On set Lee met his former instructor Jeff Imada who happened to work in the stunt department. Imada said that due to the martial arts nature of the film it had no appeal to Lee who wanted to be introduced as an actor and not Bruce Lee's son, however he was talked into doing it.[10] In the film, the show's hero, Kwai Chang Caine (Carradine), is forced to fight his hitherto unknown son, Chung Wang (Lee).[11]

Kung Fu: The Movie first aired on ABC on February 1, 1986, Lee's 21st birthday.[12] Lee said that he felt there was some justice in being cast for this role in his first feature, since the TV show's pilot had been conceived for his father.[4] By April, Lee was reported to be an expert of the martial art named Yee Chuan Tao.[13] That year saw the release of Ronny Yu's Hong Kong action crime thriller Legacy of Rage. It's Lee's first leading film role, starring alongside Michael Wong, and Regina Kent. Yu said that Lee was very arrogant and no one liked him due to the fact he couldn't speak Cantonese and only did the film for the money so he wasn't immersed in the project. Furthermore, Yu said he stopped production to sort things out with Lee.[14] In the film, Lee plays Brandon Ma, a young man working two jobs to support his life with his girlfriend May (Kent) and to save up to buy his dream motorcycle. His best friend, Michael Wan (Wong), is a drug dealer who eventually blames one of his crimes on him. Ma is sent to jail and vows vengeance on Wan.[15] It was the only film Lee made in Hong Kong, made in Cantonese and directed by Ronny Yu. Lee was nominated for a Hong Kong Film Award for Best New Performer in this role.[16] In July of the following year, it was reported that it was a critical success at the Cannes Film Festival, a commercial success in Japan, and released in the Philippines as Dragon Blood.[17][18]

By February 1987, Lee visited Montreal, Canada, and said it was to discuss a possible film project.[19] Lee starred in another sequel of Kung Fu, the unsold television pilot Kung Fu: The Next Generation.[20] On the 19th of June, it aired on CBS Summer Playhouse, a program that specialized in rejected pilots and allowed the audience to call in to vote for a show to be picked up as a series.[21] It was another follow-up to the Kung Fu TV series, moved to the present day, and centered on the story of the grandson of Kwai Chang Caine who uses his fighting abilities to assist people in need, and the great-grandson (Lee) chooses the opposite. After being caught doing a robbery, Lee's character is taken into custody by his father who tries to rehabilitate him. The pilot was poorly received and not picked up as a series.[22][23]

In 1988, Lee played a role in "What's In a Name", an episode of the American television series Ohara, starring Pat Morita,[24] the show is about the crime solving adventures of a Japanese-American detective who is able to uses mental acuity over force and skilled in martial arts when it be needed.[25] In the episode, Lee as the son of a Yakuza plays the main villain. Imada who worked as stunt coordinator, said that Lee was recommended not to do the role due to the nature of the character. However, seeing a chance to expand his acting range Lee took the role.[10] On the 16th of October, Ernest Borgnine said one of his upcoming projects was going to be Laser Mission.[26] Lee plays the lead in the shot in Namibia action film.[27] In January 1989, Borgnine joined the shoot.[28] The plot concerns a mercenary named Michael Gold (Lee) who is sent to convince Dr. Braun (Borgnine), a laser specialist, to defect to the United States before the KGB acquires him and uses his talents to create a nuclear weapon.[29] In the United States the film was released in 1990.[30] Distributed by Turner Home Entertainment, it was a commercial success on home video.[31] The film is generally panned by critics with a few finding it to be an amusing action B movie.[32][33][34]

In the 1980s, Lee started to train again with Dan Inosanto.[35] Inosanto said that Lee would a bring camera to the training facilities to see which technique looked good on screen.[5] Margaret Loesch, Marvel's CEO from 1984 to 1990,[36] had a meeting with Lee and his mother through comic book writer Stan Lee (no relation). Stan Lee felt that Brandon would be ideal in the role of super-hero Shang-Chi in a film or television adaptation.[37]

In April 1991, Lee was in Universal Pictures' list of contenders to play his father in the biopic Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story (1993).[38] He turned the role down, finding it awkward to play his father, and too strange to approach the romance between his parents.[39] The role went to Jason Scott Lee (no relation), who said at first he felt intimidated by his role portraying Bruce Lee but he overcame his fear after speaking to Brandon. According to Jason, Brandon told him the following in regards to playing the role of Bruce: "He said I wouldn't survive in this part if I treated his father like a god. He said his father was, after all, a man who had a profound destiny, but he was not a god. He was a man who had a temper, a lot of anger, who found mediocrity offensive. Sometimes he was rather merciless." Director Rob Cohen said he spent hours talking to Brandon during preparations.[40] On 23 August, Mark L. Lester's Showdown in Little Tokyo premiered, which Warner Brothers produced and distributed. Lee starred opposite Dolph Lundgren in the buddy cop action film. Lee secured his role on the 13th of October 1990, to make his American feature. It was meant to start shooting after his casting but was delayed until the following January.[41] In the film, Lee plays Johnny Murata, a Japanese American police officer partnered with a sergeant named Kenner (Lundgren), on patrol in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Little Tokyo. They are sent to infiltrate a new Japanese drug gang, the Iron Claw.[42] In the US, the domestic gross was $2,275,557.[43] The movie faced largely negative reviews;[44][45][46] retrospectively, however, some critics find it entertaining for its genre.[47][48][49]

While visiting Sweden, Lee was among the cameos in the locally made genre film Sex, Lögner och Videovåld (2002),[50] filmed between 1990 and 1993. The film was completed in 2000.[51]

On the 22 of August 1992, premiered 20th Century Fox' Rapid Fire, directed by Dwight H. Little, with Lee as the lead.[52] Lee plays a student named Jake Lo who witnesses a murder and is put in a witness protection programme.[53] The film came about when producer Robert Lawrence started working with Lee, who noticed his potential to be an action leading man in Hollywood after screening Lee's earlier project Legacy of Rage.[54] Lee was involved with the story development, and connected with the plot point where his character loses his father.[52] Jeff Imada who was the stunt coordinator witnessed Lee bringing of book of work by his father to emotionally prepare himself in the scene where the character loses his dad. Imada said that in preparation Lee bulked up.[55] Lee and Imada are credited for the fight choreography,[52] the fighting style contain elements of Lee father's Jeet Kune Do.[56] Lee said that while being typecast was allowed to add his own little touches of humor to script. On playing the character of Jake Lo, Lee said "I always saw that character as not being gung-ho to get himself involved in those situations. I wanted to keep that throughout the film, that sarcastic edge. So he's not just becoming Joe Action Hero."[4] In the US, the film is debuted at No.3 at the box office,[57] making $4,815,850. After its 19 weeks run in cinemas, it made a total of $14,356,479.[58] Most critics did not like the film, but many of them found Lee charismatic.[59][60][61] A minority of critics found Rapid Fire to be slick, well acted, and a serviceable action film.[62][63][64] Also that year, it was reported that Lee signed a three-picture deal with 20th Century Fox and a multi-picture deal with Carolco Pictures.[4] In the fall, while doing publicity for Rapid Fire, Lee landed the lead role in the Alex Proyas' The Crow an adaptation of a comic book by the same name.[65] It tells the story of Eric Draven (Lee), a rock musician raised from the dead by a supernatural crow to avenge his own death as well as the rape and murder of his fiancée by a dangerous gang in his city.[66] According to producer Jeff Most, Lee had good insight on the character, that he liked the lyrical lines within the script, but didn't want the dialogue to spread aimlessly. Hence Lee focus on the brevity and the rhythm to be the most threatening. In preparation for the fight sequence, Most described that director Proyas and Lee studied Martial arts movies. Also according to Most, Lee pushed on not adding more metaphysical characters in the film.[67] Costumer Roberta Bile said that Lee modeled Draven after singer Chris Robinson.[68] Lee convinced the team to hire Jeff Imada who became the stunt coordinator,[69] both took care of the fight choreography.[70] Imada and Lee agreed that the character of Eric Draven shouldn't do conventional martial arts moves and be something unique, since he his a character that didn't have any formal martial arts training, but supernatural abilities upon resurrection. Hence, they added aerobics to Draven's fighting style. Both Imada and Most said Lee was delighted to incorporate his martial arts to the design of the character, without it being part of the story.[71] Imada said that in order to look like a rocker and not an action hero that weeks before shooting Lee went on a strict diet to removed a lot of bulk, and that he would even weight the food he was eating. Imada observed Lee focusing on cardiovascular with a stairmaster, did repetitions on lighter weights to elongate and stretch his muscles, as well as aerobics lost lose body fat rapidly.[68] During pre-production Imada said that is order to get into his character resurrecting for the death Lee bought bags of ice in which he would submerged himself, because Lee thought that the feeling of resurrecting must be freezing cold.The resurrection scene was shot the first night of production, during the cold of winter, Imada was surprised that Lee requested the bags of ice due to the weather, also was already barefoot and bare-naked.[72] Key hairstylist Michelle Johnson,[73] said that in rain scenes Lee would soak himself prior to filming the scenes, where he would act without a shirt in cold weather. Lee left the film crew impressed with his performance.[74]

On March 31, 1993, while filming The Crow, Lee was accidentally wounded on set by defective blank ammunition and later died in hospital during surgery.[75]

After Lee's death in 1993, his fiancée Eliza Hutton and his mother supported director Proyas' decision to complete The Crow.[76] At the time of Lee's death, only eight days were left before completion of the movie.[75] A majority of the film had already been completed with Lee, and he was only required to shoot scenes for three more days. To complete the film, stunt double Chad Stahelski and Jeff Cadiente served as a stand-in; special effects were used to give him Lee's face.[77] Lee's on-set death paved the way for resurrecting actors to complete or have new performances, since pioneering CGI techniques were used to complete The Crow.[78] A month after, it was reported that Lee's previous films Laser Mission, Showdown in Little Tokyo, and Rapid Fire saw a surge in video sales.[79] On the 28th of April, Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story premiered at the Mann’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. The film is dedicated to Brandon with the quote: “The key to immortality is first living a life worth remembering.” The event was considered a celebration of both Brandon and his father Bruce.[38] Brandon's mother Linda and sister Shannon attended the premiere. Linda found the film to be excellent and a great tribute for her whole family.[80]

In 1994, The Crow opened at number one in the United States in 1,573 theaters grossing $11.7 million, averaging $7,485 per theater.[81] The film ultimately grossed $50.7 million, above its $23 million budget, 24th among all films released in the U.S. that year and 10th among R-rated films released that year. It was the most successful film of Lee's career, and is considered a cult classic.[82][83][84] The film is dedicated to him and his fiancée Eliza Hutton.[66] The Crow has an approval rating of 82 percent on Rotten Tomatoes based on 55 reviews; critical consensus there is: "Filled with style and dark, lurid energy, The Crow is an action-packed visual feast that also has a soul in the performance of the late Brandon Lee."[85] The Crow has a score of 71 out of 100 on Metacritic based on 14 critics, indicating "Generally favorable reviews".[86] Reviewers praised the action and visual style.[87][88] Rolling Stone called it a "dazzling fever dream of a movie"; Caryn James, writing for The New York Times, called it "a genre film of a high order, stylish and smooth"; Roger Ebert called it "a stunning work of visual style".[88][89][90] The Los Angeles Times also praised the film.[91][92] Lee's death was alleged to have a melancholic effect on viewers; Desson Howe of The Washington Post wrote that Lee "haunts every frame" and James Berardinelli called the film "a case of 'art imitating death', and that specter will always hang over The Crow".[87][88][93] Jessica Seigel of the Chicago Tribune found that Lee never quite left the shadow of his father and that The Crow did not live up to Lee's full unexploited potential.[94] Amber McKee of The Park Record thinks the film is a very good film and successful but an eerie conclusion to Lee's career, since he wanted to escape the action genre and move on to dramatic roles.[95] Berardinelli called it an appropriate epitaph to Lee, Howe called it an appropriate sendoff, and Ebert stated that not only was this Lee's best film, but it was better than any of his father's.[87][88][93]The Crow retained a loyal following many years after its release.[83] Due to the source material, and Lee's fate it is often described as a goth cult film.[96]

In 1998, Legacy of Rage was released directly to video in the U.S.[16] and started on playing on Australia television by the 21st of March the next year.[97] The film has been described as stylistic and fast-paced, with a good performance by Lee.[98] Some critics considered it to be his best film after The Crow.[99][100][97] It has been revealed that Brandon Lee was The Wachowskis first choice for the role of Neo in The Matrix but died before it entered production.