Birth of the Dragon *** (2016, Philip Ng, Yu Xia, Billy Magnussen) – 2018 Movie Review

Director George Nolfi’s action biopic is based on the late Sixties San Francisco showdown between a then up-and-coming Bruce Lee (Philip Wan-Lung Ng) and legendary kung fu master Wong Jack Man (Xia Yu).

Philip Ng is no lookalike for Bruce Lee but he is very nifty in the action and even acting departments, hot-blooded, ambitious and impetuous, Xia Yu is ideal as Wong Jack Man, calm, grave and deadly, and Billy Magnussen has plenty of goofy all-American appeal as would-be fighter Steve McKee, who barges into Wong Jack Man’s life on an American visit, and sets the match up.

Birth of the Dragon is loads better than you’d imagine, with a strong script by Stephen J Rivele and Christopher Wilkinson, an impressive production, a good period sense and kung fu detail, and lots of great fighting. It may not be a great work of art, perhaps, but it grips and involves throughout, and the climactic clash really delivers.

The screenplay is based on the article Bruce Lee’s Toughest Fight by Michael Dorgan.

Nolfi is the writer-director of The Adjustment Bureau, and screenplay writer of Timeline (2003), Ocean’s Twelve, The Sentinel and The Bourne Ultimatum.

Birth of the Dragon was re-edited to focus less on Billy Magnussen as Steve McKee and more on Philip Ng as Bruce Lee, but it is still largely centered on McKee, a character based on Steve McQueen who studied with Bruce Lee in the late Sixties.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Movie Review

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