Very disappointing...

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

I had certain expectations of this movie, but I'm glad it was nothing like I thought it would be. First, it was NOT an action packed display of consecutive fight scenes. There is some fighting, but this movie really focused on the relationships that Bruce Lee had with family and friends. It's based on the book which was written by Bruce's younger brother, Robert. That is pleasing by itself, considering that every film ever made about Bruce was just a fictional tale of his character. I can't say for sure because I did not know the man, but I would be willing to bet that this is the most accurate representation of Lee Jun Fan as a young man in Hong Kong. Now, I say that with full knowledge that this IS a movie, and there are obviously some fabrications and exaggerations mixed into it. But what I mean is, this movie does not portray Bruce as some magical fighting machine going around fighting everyone he comes into contact with. A large portion of the movie is focused on his relationships with friends and family, and that is something we have never seen, unless you count "Dragon", the movie with Jason Scott Lee (which I enjoyed, but it was not like this one). I enjoyed it much more because of that. I feel like I know a little more about where Bruce came from, and how things may have been for him as a young man. Definitely worth watching, especially if you are a fan of Bruce Lee the man, rather than Bruce Lee the movie star.

I expected a lot from this film since the first time I saw the trailer,Bruce Lee is a legend, a hero to many people but this movie is different to other biopics about him...The story is based on the Robert's Lee book about his brother, for that reason here we see Bruce through the eyes of his brother instead through the eyes of a fan...Bruce lee here is Lee Jun Fan, on his teenage years, he is not a superhero, he is just an ordinary boy with the typical problems of youth...that is the great success of the movie, we know the real man instead of the legend.We also know his fiends and family, Bruce's dad is played by tony leung ka fai, probably the best of the film, his performance is powerful,honest and brilliant..I think many Bruce lee fans will feel disappoint with this human portrait of Bruce and others will love it... I am of the second one...as a Bruce lee fan i consider this one his best biopic.

Loads of period detail, as the end credit side-by-side comparison between reference photos and their recreations attests. It feels somewhat similar in nostalgic tone to Echoes of the Rainbow, but with punch-ups. Unfortunately, these dominate much of the second act. And despite Chin Kar-Lok's excellent choreography, they seem edited down to make the most of what the young performers can do. In the case of the Western style boxing match it at least makes sense in context, and the endless flurries of wing chun forearm chain-punching will give Ip Man 2 fans a thrill. A later confined space fight references a less recent but more famous film - emulating the Lee/Norris bout, feline spectator included.Afterward, the film gets back to the subplot involving Opium War aftermath and heavy foreshadowing of Lee's patriotic hero status. Early on, this is charmingly played out through the opium addiction of Tony Leung Ka Fai as Lee Senior, and its exploitation by the Westernized villains. Then the period film references turn more studio-specific, with choreographer Chin Kar-Lok playing Shek Kin vs. Eddie Cheung as Cho Tat-wah - providing Bruce with the good/evil archetypes that would shape much of his cinematic philosophy.We also get to see Alex Man as Ng Chor-fan recruiting Bruce for "The Orphan" and drilling into him the importance of dramatic acting. There are enjoyable if sparse scenes regarding Lee Hoi-chuen's involvement in the seminal Wong Fei-Hung mega-franchise. And MC Jin turns in another promising performance after Gallants - this time as Unicorn Chan, foreshadowing his continued importance in Lee's life after the tragedy that impelled the Dragon across the water to 'Frisco.After a promising start packed with period detail and many exciting references, both to classic HK cinema and foreshadowing Lee's career, this turns into a fairly disappointing affair. One with a typically slapdash approach to history that eagerly chooses the least interesting avenues to explore. But one worth seeing for the many fun, semi-inside references and its general willingness to fail via overambitious pretense as well as genre cliché.

This film was captured very artistically for a biography. I was very surprised to have seen this movie turn out the way it did, the artistic quality was done very well, as well as the storyline. It's definitely worth watching, and if you're a Bruce Lee fan, then you really should watch this. A lot of people don't know the life before he moved to America, and here you learn a lot about his life that you never see. This movie is not really an action film. There's not a lot of fight scenes, but the ones that are there play significant roles to the film. So I'd suggest you watch this with the mindset of watching a great story as opposed to waiting for action to happen.