User reviews

I enjoyed watching the 50 episodes and although the acting is pretty poor it's worth watching. Another thing that annoyed me was reading the subtitles the whole series, it would of been more authentic if it had subtitles at the beginning in China but once he was in America switched it to English. I still enjoyed it, the guy that plays Bruce Lee looks and acts exactly like him and the action scenes are quite good. I highly recommend this series, especially if your a huge Bruce Lee fan like myself. The legend of Bruce Lee lives on through this series. Loved it.

Just watched all 50 episodes on Netflix and I fast forwarded through a lot of the cheesy soap opera drama. I wasn't interested so much that the series was or wasn't perfectly factual and it matched Bruce Lees life exactly. I liked some of the twists and different story lines. The fight scenes were excellent, very entertaining. But I thought with Shannon Lee as Executive producer, most of the cheesy hand and finger gestures scene in kung Fu movies from 40 years ago would have been smoothed out including the facial expressions and dialogue. But the cinematography, sets, etc. were very nice and enjoyable to watch. Some of the actors obviously needed some lessons, but I really like the Uncle Shao character, and some of the Karate masters. The actor who played Bruce lee did a very good job, he didn't over do Bruce's mannerisms. Thank you for a very nice series.

After watching the entire series and having rewatched selective episodes more than once, I reflect on what great acting, choreographs, and the profound impact it has on my life. First, Danny Chan and Lang without a question has done a superb job as well as well as many of its supporting actors/actress. It feels that everyone has something to contribute to the Bruce Lee story, beyond just getting paid. The fights are detailed and entertaining. There are areas of the story that may never be verifiable but nonetheless based on a true story for the most part. At times, certain continuity may get annoying but overall, positives far outweights the negative. If the budget is ten times higher with better editing and footage -- I would give it a 10. For example, police scenes shows "NYPD", I mean it's Seattle. There are modern post-2000 cars parked all over the place on the curbs, etc. But that's okay because we know it's only $6.4million and they instead focus on acting, story, and choreographing. This has inspired me to read more about Bruce, study his philosophies like I never did, and the profound change in my own life that anything is possible. After almost 2 years, I cannot believe no one sub in English yet so I have begun the translation project myself with a partner because I want the world to know Bruce.

Definitely, the "Legend of Bruce Lee" needs the Cantonese and English versions. At least the subtitles be in English to make it complete.

This is the first time I have ever seen a martial art production that depicts the details on how and why in addition to demonstrations. For martial art lovers, this is the ultimate treasure. The quality of production equates the "Saving Private Ryan" and Jet Li's "Huo Yuan Jia".

In a lot of ways, Bruce Lee resembled the Chinese national hero, Huo Yuan Jia. They are determined, fearless, crazy about martial art and creative (they both created their own styles), but most important of all, they love their own country and hated their countrymen being called the "Sickmen of East Asia".

I have bought the DVD and recommend it to my friends. I will watch it over and over to enjoy it more.

Just finished watching the last episode (50) and wanted to add my twopenn'orth. Danny Chan portrays Bruce Lee to perfection - it's difficult to believe that this is not Bruce! Other characters are represented well, too. Ed Parker and Chuck Norris are particularly noteworthy, likeness and mannerisms are accurately portrayed. There appear to be parts that stray a little from other reports and biographies, but generally, the series seems to be pretty factual. The only reason I have only given a rating of 9 is that, for me, the story annoyingly jumps some (small) aspects of Bruce's life and what I consider as important details leading up to his death! As soon as I find time, I WILL watch this again and I am certain that it will be even better. It has rekindled my childhood interest in Bruce and I am currently reading everything that I can find about his life and work. I should add that I watched this in Chinese and understood most, but my wife was interpreter/translator for those parts that used more complex Chinese language. I hope that the Chinese speech is subtitled, and what 'should' be in English is dubbed, for release on foreign markets, since much of the character of the series would be lost if it were entirely in English!

Despite this series having Bruce Lee's daughter, Shannon Lee, at the helm as executive producer it suffers from the same embellished melodrama and historical inaccuracies that other Bruce Lee bio-pics have been plagued with.

This is understandable since Chinese productions are notorious with playing loose with the actual facts. The Donnie Yen "Ip Man" series of movies is a prime example of artistic license.

Chinese films have always been jingoistic and xenophobic, often villainizing other cultures as being evil invaders, as a means of elevating the Chinese hero in the movie who inevitably and selflessly fights the "foreign devils" for the right of the oppressed Chinese - - which is a bit ironic considering in the last 100 years, the Chinese are possibly the most pervasive cultures to globally migrate to other countries using the affluence of commerce and business as the means rather than military force. Just sayin'.

Hollywood is not any better with their highly embellished, Dragon: A Bruce Lee Story. A more apt title would have been A Bruce Lee Fable!

It's understandable because real life is much more boring than real life. From everything I have read on Bruce Lee, his life was not as fantastic as that portrayed in this and other films. He did not get into even half the fights and confrontations portrayed in this movie, he faced more institutionalized racism (lack of opportunities) than outward racism, he injured himself lifting weights (as another poster has mentioned), had a bad temper, but otherwise was a hard working, ambitious guy...not exactly enough for a Hollywood or Asiawood movie I suppose.

The danger to these over dramatized events of his life is that subsequent generations learning about Bruce Lee take them as fact and it really distorts the real life of Bruce Lee and his accomplishments.

I hate to say this but the most accurate portrayal of Bruce Lee might still be the 1976 exploitation movie, Bruce Lee The Man The Myth...and that's not saying much.

To call yourself a real Bruce Lee fan, and then credit Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story as being better than the Legend of Bruce Lee T.V. series is totally absurd!

The Legend of Bruce Lee T.V. series is clearly the most in-depth attempt any studio has ever made, in the telling of the life of martial arts master Bruce Lee. I have watched all 50 episodes, and as an avid Bruce Lee fan, I was very much pleased with what I viewed. There is enough information about the series on the web, so there is no need for me to go into an in-depth review, or spoil anything for those who may not have seen it.

I will say, that this series was very well done, despite it's budget. The acting was great, and the fight choreography was very good. Danny Chan was excellent as Bruce Lee. The best that I have ever seen. Did he mimic Bruce? Of course he did. He was playing the part of Bruce Lee after all! Were there continuity issues, and inconsistencies? Of course. Name one biopic that has gotten every single thing correct. Plus, not one of us knows every single detail of Bruce's life.

I was born in 1963. I have been a fan of Bruce Lee since I laid eyes on The Big Boss & Fist of Fury. These were two of the first martial arts movies my late father took me and my older bother to see in the early 70's This began for me and my brother a lifelong interest in martial arts, and anything Bruce Lee related. If you're a true fan of the martial arts master you will view this series just like I did.

The Legend of Bruce Lee is a treasure for every true fan of the master Bruce Lee!

This is such a mixture of a film. The Good Bits - Danny Kwok-Kwan Chan was born to play Bruce Lee, superb imitation you can really believe it is him;Michelle Lang as his wife can act but gets too much screen time. The period is well thought out and the fights are often superb with the real martial arts exponents really seeming to get into their parts. Bad Bits - cheap, cheap, cheap. Direction and camera work sloppy and some of the acting from the support cast unbelievably bad. Script is weak at times and parts of his real story seem changed for no good reason. But if you can sit through the 40+ episodes it grows on you and the its the only film that really details his traing methods and philosophy in such depth. Wprth watching .

The series is very well scripted and directed. With top performance from actors too it stands out completely. I would rate this series even higher than some series like Breaking Bad. It has a very emotional touch related to it in addition to excellent action scenes. I would rate this higher as I saw this with English subtitles and still it has same impact on me as few top rated series. Well done crew.

It seems they did not really consult with people about Bruce's life. Esp since many of them are still alive today. Guru Inosanto was never a professor or has asthma. I have trained with him. Wally Jay was a professor and also not an American or white. He was Asian.

I also find it hard to believe they did not seem to try at all to make it look like 1960's. When I see a Chipotle in the background during a long scene it really kills the story.

Being a martial artist and follower of Jeet Kune DO I was a little disappointed. It makes me wonder what else is not correct in this series.

Republic of China was in late about bruceploitation, because they knew Bruce Just in the beginning of the 80's, when the communist censorship authorized the coming of Hong Kong movies. Very slowly they understood they can make Money exploiting Bruce as Hong Kong and Taiwan did in the 70's. The result Is this terrible series, most expensive if compared to Bruce li or Bruce le movies, but amateurish and unfaithful as well. Nonetheless It fits perfectly to a young audience that was unfamiliar with the king of Kung fu.

I have to say after watching this, it puts every movie ever done on him to shame in so many ways. I watched this as to see it as a mini movie not a tv series and I have to say Chan than plays Bruce is uncanny to say the least. His wife in the series is also uncanny I saw a pic of her as of 2018 and she looks just like her older. However I noticed that the director and producer of this series did not take notice that people were on their cell phones in the backround and that should have been noticed because when Bruce was alive in the 70s there were no cell phones. A point to pay attention to when you are making a series about someones life based on the correct year it is made.

I'm a huge Bruce Lee fan and I'm glad a local TV network dubbed this show in my local language. Granted this TV series is not too polished in terms of acting, story telling, and fight choreography, but it makes up for it with its deep insight into Lee's life not seen in other biographies before.

The script is apparently approved by the Lee family and Shannon Lee is credited as Executive Producer so I trust the source of the story. Sure there may have been a few deviations but overall I'm fine with it.

This may not be the epic that I have been expecting and hoping for but I'll give it an average 7 out of 10.

Just binge watched this series over a week. It has its moments. The version I watched was in Cantonese with some frankly bizarre and often hilarious subtitles which sometimes barely made sense and there was definitely some anti west propaganda in there which was a shame. It was clear that this was low budget, but it was watchable. The booming "Bruce Lee, Bruce Lee, Bruce Lee" monotonous singing was just plain irritating with constant visits to the mute button needed throughout. Probably not accurate in most areas for a biography with much fanciful filler involved to enhance Lee's character but hey this was a Chinese production and he was their modern day hero so I can understand why they did it for their own home audience. I enjoyed the varied fight scenes, and the main actor who played Lee was a very good imitation, possibly the best i've ever seen to be honest. The rest of the cast were tolerable but somewhere near the quality of say a sub par afternoon soap opera in the west. This being said I did get involved with this series and it kept me interested so on one level it worked but it was a hard slog in places. I'm not going to quibble over the clear historical inaccuracies and the awful soundtrack though because there was enough there to keep me entertained. Once again if you get chance to see the subtitled version its hilarious in parts, for some reason Muhammad Ali becomes Mr Harrison King of all boxers and Chuck Norris becomes Mr Hoffman! What's that all about lol. Would I watch it all again, probably not, would I dip into some episodes to watch the fight scenes, yes they were the best thing about the series for me.

Loved this show See it on Netflix I am watching it again for the second time. I recommend seeing it.

I saw this show on Hulu before you had to pay for Hulu and somehow it was a 30 episode format instead of 50 and the episodes in the middle got so boring, I wished it was around 20 episodes and can't imagine what 50 would be like. I can appreciate what they did with the small budget, but it would have been better and cheaper with less episodes.

I like how they actually used people from his life and encounters, but it's highly fictionalized and I can't believe they "demoted" Dan Inosanto into some kind of arm chair scholar documenting JKD and that's it. C'mon, he's Bruce Lee's most well known student and still practicing to this day! And even though I just mentioned that they took real people from his life...the famous fight in this show wasn't with Wong Jack Man?

This show portrays Bruce Lee not only as a Kung Fu master but also a thinker,a lover of physical power and a seeker for truth; and he really was,of course he was acknowledged around the world as the founder of Jeet Kune Do(JKD). Here I don't want to talk a lot about his fighting techniques, but one thing is important in his martial system---yin and yang, main principle in nature in traditional Chinese philosophy.

OK,let's make it simple... take water as an example(as Bruce Lee did on the pierre berton show,and i put it another way),you can neither grab it in your hand nor tell its shape,and that's the yin; on the other hand,we all know that a hard rock can be made a hole by drips year after year,here comes the yang. Water is flexible and so powerful. That's why he believed "No style is the style".

His martial attributes based on philosophy led to his worldwide greatness and still do --- A real warrior

I was absolutely blown away with the first two series where Bruce is growing up in Hong Kong, however, when he arrives in America its terrible. It would take hours to detail all the things wrong about his life in America, but I am bitterly disappointed in it. I watched Series 3 and part of Series 4 and just couldnt be bothered to keep going. Its almost like a propaganda film that could have been made by the Chinese Government, the producers appear to have been forced to toe the party line and deviate so drastically from Bruce's incredible life.

I finally get to sit down and watch the english dubbed 30 episodes after a decade, this wasn't just about martial arts, it was about Bruce Lee's struggle trying to climb his way to the top while facing discrimination and the teachings of Chinese philosophy, their are also many likeable characters that helped Bruce's success such as Kimura, Uncle Shao and Dan Inasanto. Unlike the 1993 film, Dragon: Bruce Lee story, this version explains more in depth why Bruce came to America and what was the purpose of his style Jeet Kune Do and to my surprise the series doesn't exaggerate his style too much and kept it practical and less flashy, the actor not only looks strikingly like Bruce but does a great performance to act like him in characteristics-wise, the fights in most episodes are great for the budget they have for a tv series (best fight scene would have to be Bruce vs Rolex). This is a must see for every Bruce Lee fan if you want to see a deeper look into how Bruce Lee came to rise, although the english dub at first was funny to watch, but later episode they improve on it.