李小龍英年早逝，但他永遠改變了電影的面貌
張信哲撰寫的這部精彩絕倫的全新傳記，記錄了這位動作明星的一生和傳奇，他是一位突破性的亞裔美國名人，為後人開闢了道路。
Bruce Lee Died Young, but He Changed the Look of Movies Forever
An exuberant new biography by Jeff Chang charts the action star’s life and legacy as a breakout Asian American celebrity who paved the way for others.
Bruce Lee in “Fist of Fury,” 1972.Credit...Bruce Lee Family Archive於是，1970年，他回到香港拍電影。那時他已婚，育有兩個孩子。李小龍過於個人主義和自私，不適合成為一名活動家，但張信哲將李小龍的抱負與當時亞裔美國活動家所要求的認可聯繫起來。在一次推介一部由亞裔主導的系列片的演講中，李小龍最後說道：“這是一個革命性的想法，而且絕對非常商業化。”
最終，事實證明李小龍是對的，即使他沒能親眼見證這場革命在商業上取得多大的成功。 1973年7月20日，他因腦水腫（一種非處方止痛藥引起的致命反應）去世。一個月後，李小龍主演的《龍爭虎鬥》在洛杉磯首映。該片中，李小龍飾演武術教練，執行臥底任務，追捕毒梟。
圖片
張信哲作品《水鏡迴響》封面。
張先生反思了“李小龍經濟”如何幾乎立即填補了這一空白，其中包括層出不窮的“李小龍剝削電影”，這些電影中假冒的李小龍穿著李小龍的衣服，做著李小龍的事情。但張先生表示，李小龍的遺產遠不止於名人和演藝圈。即使將李小龍的銀幕形象與自由和正義等同起來有些牽強，但這或許是一個開端：“在美國，從未見過像他這樣的人。”
《水鏡迴聲：李小龍與亞裔美國人的形成》 | 張先生著 | Mariner出版社 | 540頁 | 36美元
So in 1970 he returned to Hong Kong to make movies. By then he was married, with two children. Lee was too individualistic and self-regarding to be an activist, but Chang links Lee’s ambitions to the recognition that Asian American activists were demanding at the time. In a presentation pitching an Asian-led series, Lee closed with, “This is a revolutionary idea and definitely very commercial.”
In the end, Lee would be proved right, even if he didn’t live to see just how commercially successful such a revolution would be. On July 20, 1973, he died from cerebral edema — a lethal reaction to an over-the-counter painkiller — a month before “Enter the Dragon,” starring Lee as a martial arts instructor on an undercover mission to nab a drug lord, premiered in Los Angeles.
Image
Chang reflects on how a “Bruce Lee economy” filled the vacuum almost immediately, including an endless stream of “Bruceploitation” movies that featured phony Bruces wearing Bruce-like clothes and doing Bruce-like things. But Lee’s legacy extends beyond the world of celebrity and entertainment, Chang says. Even if it would be a stretch to call Lee’s onscreen presence the same thing as freedom and justice, it was perhaps a start: “In the States, no one who looked like him had ever been seen.”
WATER MIRROR ECHO: Bruce Lee and the Making of Asian America | By Jeff Chang | Mariner | 540 pp. | $36
正如張哲夫在他那本充滿激情的新書《水鏡迴響》（Water Mirror Echo）中所說，這位不安分的演員在“隨波逐流的禪宗臣服”和“追逐日落的美國野心”之間搖擺不定。張哲夫的書名取自道家經典《列子》，李小龍對此印象深刻，並抄錄如下：
心無執著，
外物自然會顯露。
行若水，
靜若鏡，
應若迴聲。
As Jeff Chang puts it in “Water Mirror Echo,” his exuberant new book about Lee as both a celebrity and an Asian American, the restless actor oscillated between “follow-the-flow Zen surrender” and “sunset-chasing American ambition.” Chang gets his title from a portion of a Taoist classic, “The Liezi,” that Lee found striking enough to transcribe:
If nothing within you stays rigid,
Outward things will disclose themselves.
Moving, be like water.
Still, be like a mirror.
Respond like an echo.
沒有留言:
張貼留言