THE COMMERCIALIZATION OF BRUCE LEE AND THE DEATH OF BRANDON LEE

(Source: CCTV)

Everyone in Hong Kong seems to have a Bruce Lee story, many have their Bruce Lee books out or in the works, but no one has really written anything definitive and his death and that of son Brandon while filming The Crow.

(Source: Inside Pulse)

How a gun supposedly filled with blanks for a scene can, somehow, have a real bullet in it “by accident” with the shooting of Brandon fobbed off as being “accidental” and just left as that is even more weird than the many versions of how Bruce Lee died.

A few still alive know about the latter, but it’s all shrouded in some pact of silence by a mysterious Brotherhood of power as is the case with all conspiracies.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xO1K_xS6HNU

Now, forty years after his passing, there is a glut of stories and projects about this charismatic martial arts actor and legend who was a combination of cha-cha champion, bully, well-known scrapper against expat kids when in school, philosopher and a kind-hearted soul who seemed to have lived without ever exorcising whatever demons were troubling him.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGBmYQoYKKE

Shannon Lee, his daughter, once a member of the eccentric musical chameleon and father of Punk Malcolm McClaren’s many all-female Chinese bands, inherited the Rights to the Bruce Lee brand from her Mum Linda.

(Source: SXCCVCD4RE)

For years, she held out from giving anyone the Rights to use her father’s name and likeness- and which can never be stopped in a “free market” as there is today where copyright laws are only words.

(Source: Neworld EDU)

Perhaps age changes and mellows people and, perhaps, also makes them more savvy in following the commercial trail. Why fight it when you can’t win?

What do I think of Shannon Lee giving Johnnie Walker Whisky the Rights to the Bruce Lee name and likeness for a commercial, especially as the star was very strict about never touching any alcohol?

As I said, age and money change everyone and I don’t care either way as the commercial is a corny idea and will die a death despite Ms Lee’s very weak protestations that this piece of bollocks is a “tribute to my Dad’s philosophy.”

Come on, Shannon, who came up with that soundbite as part of damage control?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1xBQQnddwg

What concerns me is how much further this commercialization of Bruce Lee will go?

A cartoon series? Bruce Lee moon cakes from the people of g.o.d.? Another attempt at a Bruce Lee project by younger brother Robert who has always hit a brick wall named Shannon Lee when trying to release projects like a documentary on the “Lee Family Curse”?

(Source: SOHU)

More than anything else, what still nags at me is the shooting of Brandon Lee and why his death- or killing?- has been brushed under the carpet.

Bruce Lee will live on through various books, documentaries and YouTube clips.

The memory of Brandon Lee, however, should never be allowed to die.

(Source: Doobious)

#BrandonLee #BRUCELEE #TheCrow