But he did, because he knew if there were any future, even to walk normally...
...he would need to give this time to heal.
So he spent a great deal of time resting, flat on his back, for quite a long time...
...and then also, you know, just sitting in a chair.
But he was not one to just waste time.
So he spent this amount of time...
...doing a lot of researching of all of his vast library of books...
...which were books on the martial arts, all combative arts, all hand-to-hand arts...
...whether they be Western, Eastern, modern, or ancient...
...all types of philosophy, psychology, especially in the motivational field...
...now that he was injured and his future was in jeopardy.
He felt that he needed to self-motivate himself all the time.
Unable to put his energy to use physically, Lee now channels it mentally.
The writings of the Buddha, Alan Watts, Carl Rogers, Lao-tse...
...Frederick Perls, Daisetz Suzuki, and Jiddu Krishnamurti...
...become his constant companions.
Of these authors, Lee is particularly taken by the thoughts of Krishnamurti...
...who states that, "truth cannot be organized without invalidating it."
You have to be a light to yourself...
...not the light of a professor, or an analyst...
...or a psychologist, or the light of Jesus, or the light of the good heart.
You have to be a light to yourself...
...in a world that is utterly becoming dark.
I believe that part of the concept that he enjoyed so much about...
...Krishnamurti's philosophy was one of self-reliance.
If you're looking for truth, you must look inward, rather than outward.
Lee begins to write about his new insight and its application...
...to martial art.
His writings will fill seven large volumes.
Slowly, Lee begins to battle back.
Although the back injury will prove to be a permanent problem, within six months...
...he has proven both the naysayers and the medical community wrong.
Not only is he able to kick again, he becomes a better martial artist...
...than he ever was before.
Lee's harrowing experience, coupled with his new insight...
...served to underscore for him the validity of his belief that there...
...is no help but self-help, including help in the form of instruction...
...in the art of unarmed combat.
Even his own beloved creation, jeet kune do, by far the most scientific...
...of all martial arts, is not exempt from his solvent analysis.
Lee sees his error in the fact that he had been striving to create...
...the ultimate way or style of martial art to teach to his students.
First he thought he had it with the Chinese way of martial art.
Then, more recently, in his newly-created way of the intercepting fist.
But Lee has now come to see that the ultimate truth does not reside in ways...
...or styles, but within the soul of each individual.
I do not believe in styles anymore.
I mean, I do not believe that there is such a thing as a Chinese...
...way of fighting or Japanese way of fighting or whatever way of fighting...
...because, unless human beings have three arms and four legs...
...we will have a different form of fighting.
But basically, we only have two hands and two feet.
So styles tend to not only...
...separate men because they have their own doctrines, and then their...
...doctrines became the gospel truth, that you cannot change, you know...
But, if you do not have styles...
...if you just say, "here I am, as a human being, how can I express myself...
"...totally and completely?"
Then it's just two people who are being aware of their own movements...
...who are observing the other person's movements...
...and being able to fit in with that person's movements, so that there's no...
...set pattern of movements.
No "well, when he does this, then I do this."
It's just a total freedom to react to what the other person does.
In fact, Bruce inscribes it perfectly on the back of this medallion...
...where he wrote his motto, it says, "Using no way as way...
"...having no limitation as limitation."
Over the years this phrase has been somewhat misinterpreted.
People think of using "no way as way" to mean...
..."anything I do is okay...
"...and anything I do is my way."
I don't think Bruce really intended it to mean that way.
He just meant not to be boxed in...
...by a certain way, so that you...
...never get into a situation where there's only one response.
You adapt to what the situation calls for.
I think Bruce had that down pretty well.
When there is a way, then there lies the limitation.
To me, okay, to me...
...ultimately, martial art means honestly expressing yourself.
Now it is very difficult to do.
I mean, it is easy for me to put on a show and be cocky and be flooded...
...with a cocky feeling and then feel like pretty cool and all that.
Or I can make all kinds of phony things, you see what I mean...
...blinded by it, or I can show you some really fancy movement.
But to express one's self honestly, not lying to one's self.
And to express myself honestly, now that, my friend, is very hard to do.
That's the whole key right there:
Do you know yourself? Do you know your skills?
Do you know your weaknesses? Are you able to adjust your life...
...to compensate for whatever's happening and take advantage...
...of whatever's happening in terms of plusses and minuses?
That was his approach.
And he was an incredible example of that...
...a walking model of that.
In his critically acclaimed performance on the television series, Longstreet...
...Lee attempts to teach his student, played by James Franciscus...
...this higher purpose of his martial art.
Lee, I want you to teach me what you did the other night.
I already told Miss Sparrow I can't.
I'm willing to empty my cup in order to taste your tea.
Your open-mindedness is cool, but it doesn't change anything.
I don't believe in system, Mr. Longstreet, nor in method.
Without system, without method, what's to teach?
You had to learn.
You weren't born knowing how to take apart three men in a matter of seconds.
True, but I found the cause of my ignorance.
Now help me find mine.
Having discovered the truth of, "using no way as way...
"...having no limitation as limitation"...
...Bruce Lee's mission now becomes to communicate this truth to the world.
The most effective approach, he decides, is not in private one-on-one instruction...
...but in bringing this truth to the big screen.
His quest: To create a new genre of film that will reveal the higher...
...purpose of martial art.
His challenge: To overcome the prejudices of Hollywood.
Bruce, at that point in his life, had decided that he was going to make...
...the film business his career rather than teaching martial arts on a mass basis.
So he tried to pursue the idea of getting roles in film and TV.
Okay.
He had a great deal of trouble securing really leading roles.
He had a number of roles in small pictures.
But as far as really promoting his career as a leading man...
...he had a lot of difficulty in America at that time.
In the United States, I think something about the Oriental...
...I mean the true Oriental should be shown.
Hollywood sure as heck hasn't.
You better believe it.
I mean, its always the pigtail and bouncing around...
...you know, with the eye slanted and all that.
A screenplay written by Lee, entitled The Silent Flute, which detailed...
...the personal quest of self-discovery of a young martial artist...
...is torpedoed by Hollywood.
He was in a kind of a poverty status then.
He was having a tough time, and in a letter...
...told me he was working on a vehicle, and something like...
...The Silent Flute or equivalent to that, and the letter I got the next month...
...he would tell me that that fell through, because in one instance...
...he told me that they just felt that a young Asian couldn't carry...
...the lead in something like that.
Undeterred, the young man forges on.
He conceives an idea for a television series...
...that will feature martial art philosophy.
Originally to be called The Warrior, but later renamed Kung Fu.
Even when he conceived the idea of the Kung Fu series...
...had many, many planning discussions with...
...the eventual producers of the Kung Fu series.
When it got right down to it, they did not hire Bruce...
...to play the part of the leading part in Kung Fu...
...instead, going for a Caucasian man. And the word was that Bruce...
...because he was Chinese, was not considered a bankable commodity.
Let me ask you, however, about the problems...
...that you face as a Chinese hero in an American series.
Have people come up in the industry and said:
"Well, we don't know how the audiences are going to take a non-American"?
Well, such a question has been raised.
In fact, it is being discussed.
And that is why The Warrior is probably not going to be on.
- I see. - You see, because unfortunately such...
...things do exist in this world, you see, like I don't know...
...certain parts of the country where...
...they think that, business-wise, it's a risk. I don't blame them.
In the same way, it's like in Hong Kong...
...if a foreigner came and became a star.
If I were the man with the money...
...I probably would have my own worry...
...of whether or not the acceptance would be there.
But that's all right, because...
...if you honestly express yourself, it doesn't matter.
Lee now realizes that Hollywood only wants Asians to play grossly...
...inaccurate stereotypes.
Despite his dire economic circumstances, he refuses to accept roles...
...that would portray the Chinese race as anything less than equal...
...to other cultures. With a wife and now two small children to support...
...Lee's dignity and philosophical principles come at a huge price.
With money rapidly running out, he now realizes that he is...
...wasting his time with Hollywood.
With that rejection in mind, I guess you could say that was an overt...
...expression of racism in the film industry in the early '70s.
And at that time, we went to Hong Kong.
Bruce decided that if he couldn't make it in the American film industry through...
...the front door, he would go to Hong Kong and come back in the side door.
Which is precisely what he was doing.
At the time, Chinese action films were largely sword-play films...
...or as Bruce Lee so aptly described them, "simply one long, armed hassle."
He would say he didn't invent the gore in Mandarin films...
...but that the violence in his films were always with just cause.
I hope that the picture I am in would...
...either explain why the violence was done...
...whether right or wrong, or what not, but unfortunately, pictures...
...most of them, are done mainly...
...for the sake of violence, you know what I mean?
Like fighting for 30 minutes, or getting stabbed 50 times.
I'm fascinated... Let me give you your microphone back.
- I'm fascinated that you came back. - I am a martial artist.
He's offered very little money to star in his first film.
But then, money has never been his sole objective.
The film is entitled, The Big Boss, and it will become the highest-grossing...
...film in Southeast Asian history.
Lee follows up the unprecedented success of his first film with...
...a second, Fist of Fury.
It proceeds to smash the record set by The Big Boss.
Bruce didn't want to be segmented, in that he could only do Chinese movies...
...or only do Chinese martial arts. He didn't view himself as only...
...a Chinese man. He viewed himself as a citizen of the world who had a mission...
...that really had nothing to do with what his nationality was.
He wanted to bring...
...his views of martial arts and of life and of the culture that he had experienced...
...in his short lifetime to the audiences all over the world.
Lee does just this with his next film, The Way of the Dragon...
...which he also directs.
In the film's climactic battle, Lee takes on one-time student...
...Chuck Norris, in a fight set in the Roman Coliseum.
Lee's character, using classical gung fu techniques, is losing the fight...
...until he begins to employ the formless and adaptive approach of jeet kune do.
The Way of the Dragon also affords Lee the opportunity to include...
...deeper elements of his personal philosophy of life.
After reluctantly taking the life of his adversary in the film...
...Lee's character pauses to make a symbolic gesture of respect...
...to a fellow human being.
It was yet another example of Bruce Lee communicating to his audience a piece...
...of his own personal philosophy regarding the brotherhood of all races.
After the first two movies, then Bruce progressed into making...
...The Way of the Dragon, which was his own creation.
Then The Game of Death, of course...
...and then Enter the Dragon came along. And I think as you can see...
...there's a progression in those films where the fighting has even more...
...justification and that there's more material built around the fighting...
...to explain, first of all, the reason for it...
...and to also find expression for the philosophy underlying the martial arts.
Do I bother you?
Don't waste yourself.
What's your style?
My style?
You can call it the art of fighting without fighting.
The art of fighting without fighting?
Show me some of it.
Later.
All right.
Don't you think we need more room?
Where else?
That island, on a beach.
We can take this boat.
Okay.
What the hell are you doing?
Hey, are you crazy?
After filming Enter the Dragon...
...Lee is now ready to complete the film that will embody his greatest message...
...a film Lee calls The Game of Death.
I believe that this background of research...
...and the building of a philosophy of jeet kune do is what Bruce...
...intended to relate through The Game of Death.
He had an idea of how he wanted to show the martial arts...
...to the viewing public, these various steps in finding your own way...
...in martial arts, the different styles and what styles mean...
...and more importantly, what they don't mean.
That was Bruce's big message.
The style of no style, and The Game of Death was going to be the platform...
...for these expressions.
While we may never know how the film would've turned out, had Bruce Lee lived...
...we do know with unimpeachable certainty, the vision that he had...
...for the movie during the time he was filming its finale.
According to Lee's 12-page storyline, he would play a retired undefeated...
...martial arts champion by the name of Hie Tien, who had been approached...
...by members of the Korean underworld to take part in a daring raid...
...on a five-story pagoda, said to contain a valuable treasure...
...on its uppermost level.
When he refuses to participate, his sister and younger brother...
...are kidnapped, leaving him no option but to take part in the raid.
At a briefing at the boss's home, Hie Tien is introduced...
...to his accomplices in the raid, all of them highly-trained martial artists.
The boss screens a reconnaissance film of the temple area explaining...
...to the accomplices that since guns are prohibited in the village...
...the pagoda is guarded by martial arts mercenaries.
One on each level of the pagoda.
Their instructions are to fight their way to the top of the pagoda and retrieve...
...the treasure. Lee selected the Buddhist temple of Pope Jusaw...
...as the setting for the film.
The temple's most striking object, the 33-meter-high Buddha statue...
...is clearly indicated in Lee's storyline sketches.
Cast in one mold with 150 tons of bronze, it's said to be the largest such...
...standing figure in all of Asia.
In front of the Buddha is the five-story...
...wooden pagoda that Bruce Lee had chosen as the backdrop...
...for the climactic battles in the film.
Thus, the idea started from there.
He took some of the ideas he had been gathering...
...about the levels of martial arts combat in the pagoda...
...and Kareem came out and I believe that the first scenes that they shot...
...were the fight scenes between Bruce and Kareem.
The first day's rushes after we saw those, we had to slow everything down because...
...we were moving too fast. It looked too jerky on film, and we had to...
...slow it down so the film could follow, so the camera could follow us...
...and people could see things.
We were doing things like we practiced it.
And in practice with Bruce, we'd do several things in a split second.
The audience would miss the subtleties of what he was trying to do...
...if we didn't slow it down.
Of what were to be his accomplices in the film...
...Lee wanted one to be slightly devious and antagonistic toward his character.
This would create an interesting dynamic in the relationship between the two men...
...not letting the audience know whether or not Lee's partner was actually...
...with him or against him.
For the role of the antagonistic accomplice...
...Lee chose James Tien, an actor who had appeared with Lee in two...
...of his previous three films in Hong Kong.
The second accomplice was to be a strong but simple-minded martial artist.
These would be character attributes that would allow for a different type...
...of dynamic to occur between the accomplices as they fought their...
...way up each level of the pagoda.
Lee ultimately settled on Hong Kong stuntman, Chieh Yuan...
...to play the role of this accomplice.
It would be the first time these two had worked together.
At the time of filming, the rest of Lee's accomplices had not been decided.
Within the pagoda, Lee and his accomplices...
...would have to battle upwards past five levels, each guarded by a martial artist...
...of a particular style.
The first level was to be...
...guarded by Whong In Sik, who was to be portrayed as a...
...master of a kicking style.
Whong had worked with Lee before...
...appearing as one of his opponents in The Way of the Dragon.
Lee had chosen his real-life senior-most student, Taky Kimura...
...to play the guardian of the second floor.
According to Kimura, Lee wanted him to utilize praying mantis gung fu...
...as well as some elements of wing chun, both arts that emphasize infighting...
...use of hands predominately, with kicks limited to below the waist.
I think it was in October of '71-'72, in that era. He called me and said he...
...wanted me to be in that movie.
I said, "Look, Bruce, I've got two left front feet.
"You know it and I know it.
"There's probably 1,000 people in Hong Kong that can do it better.
"Just let me sit here and enjoy the fruits of your success.
"You know me, I don't need to be in that."
He said, "No, I want you in it.
"I'm the technical director and the co-producer.
"Don't worry about it."
So, I reluctantly, for fear that he'd...
...kick my butt if I said no, at that point, I said okay. He'd already sent me...
...an airline ticket. And really, I think at this point in his life...
...I think he had transcended the gimmicks that are usually in these movies.
And I think that he had gotten to that plateau where you could just simply do...
...the simple, you know, normal things and yet...
...create that excitement within that simplicity.
Lee selected another of his real-life students, Dan Inosanto...
...to be guardian of the third floor.
As he was not only adept in Lee's art of jeet kune do...
...but in addition, was also an advance practitioner in the arts...
...of kempo karate and Filipino escrima.
Lee opted to have Inosanto employ methods from both arts...
...which he believed would add an exciting visual element to the film...
...and serve to break up the unarmed combat sequences.
Inosanto was also a brilliant exponent of the nunchaku, allowing Lee to film...
...the first-ever nunchaku battle between two opponents.
Grappling or joint-locking would also serve to add a fresh, visual element to...
...the fight sequences. For this reason, Lee settled on Korean hapkido grand master...
...Ji Han Jae, who at the time of filming was a seventh-degree black belt in the art.
Ji would be the guardian of the fourth level of the pagoda.
Andrews Air Force Base.
I did teaching time there.
The tae-kwan-do master, Jhoon Rhee, held...
...an international karate championship.
I was there to do a demonstration.
At that time Jhoon Rhee introduced me to Bruce Lee.
I showed him, he looked at my technique and he liked my technique.
That's why he came to the Andrews Air Force Base.
He learned several techniques.
Then, he went back to Hong Kong.
He invited me.
Lee decided to have yet another of his students...
...Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, play the role of the guardian of the highest floor of the pagoda.
He fights with an unknown style, which symbolized the highest level of martial art.
This unknown style was the essence of jeet kune do.
I was at the top of the pagoda because, you know, I was the most effective fighter.
And I didn't have any style.
And I was also in a place where my...
...strengths were...
...enhanced by the environment. So it was dark in there.
I was supposed to be light-sensitive.
My eyes were light-sensitive, and that was a problem for me.
But other than that, I was an incredible human specimen, etcetera.
That was the whole idea about it.
And he started knocking out the panes in the walls, so more light came in.
I couldn't see. And that's when he got his advantage in the fight.
The fact that Lee's character in The Game of Death would be taking...
...on advocates of different styles on each level of the temple...
...was significant in a larger context than might be initially evident.
For Lee wasn't just taking on the various...
...exponents of particular styles, but the very notion of styles itself.
I think it's evident in The Game of Death how he planned to fight a person...
...of a different style, a very precise style, on each floor of the pagoda.
And show how he could fit in with anybody else's style...
...thus having no style of his own.
In the battle of the third floor, Lee's character makes use of a...
...green bamboo whip.
The whip represents flexibility, an attribute which Lee felt...
...a martial artist must possess if he was to be successful in combat.
Since combat, like life, is not predictable, Lee held that one must possess...
...a pliable adaptability in order to change with change.
Lee has his character...
...dressed in a one-piece yellow track suit to symbolize no affiliation...
...with any known martial arts style.
I think the wearing of the yellow track suit...
...was an expression of how he felt about the martial arts...
...that you didn't need a traditional uniform in order to be an effective fighter.
That yellow track suit is something that's comfortable...
...it's flexible, you can move without restriction.
So I think that was why he chose that.
With his cast now firmly in place...
...Lee spends the next three months of his life from August to October of 1972...
...putting his martial vision on celluloid.
Bruce was a perfectionist on a film set.
He always choreographed all of his own fights in detail...
...writing them down, every movement, every single movement, rehearsing them...
...endlessly with the stuntmen.
And having many takes so that it was always just perfect.
Bruce was very aware of how camera angles worked in fight scenes.
I visited him on The Game of Death set on more than one occasion.
The children, Brandon and Shannon, and I were always welcome on the film sets.
We enjoyed going there because he was having a lot of fun with it.
First of all, Kareem was his good friend, as was Dan Inosanto...
...and some of the other...
...martial artists as well, were his good friends.
He had worked with them many times in the past.
As you know, Kareem was his student...
...Dan was his student and assistant instructor...
...and so he had a real fun time working...
...with these fellows and constructing the fight scenes.
The results are three carefully crafted and meaningful sequences...
...that resonate on many different levels...
...as well as the most graceful and dynamic presentation...
...of the human form in hand-to-hand combat ever captured on film.
What you're about to see has never been seen before in its entirety.
It's the footage that Bruce Lee shot for The Game of Death...
...the takes he had indicated as the ones to be selected...
...for inclusion in the film and the dialogue he had written.
The footage, like the film, is incomplete.
Approximately two minutes of footage that represented the beginning...
...of the film's finale have been lost to the ravages of time.
In that missing footage, Lee's two allies...
...James Tien and Chieh Yuan, come up the stairs ahead of Lee and enter into...
...the third level of the pagoda, the Hall of the Tiger.
There they meet the escrima master, whose habit is to beat out a teasing...
...rhythm on his sticks prior to killing his adversary.
Chieh Yuan sets out to attack the escrima master with a large heavy club...
...but is quickly disarmed.
The escrima master then casts his sticks aside...
...and battles Chieh Yuan, whom he proceeds to render unconscious...
...with a series of strikes and kicks...
...known in kempo karate circles as the Dance of Death.
Now, it is James Tien's turn to battle with the escrima master.
It is at this point that Bruce Lee's final, never-before-seen footage...
...for The Game of Death begins.
Do you speak any English?
Of course I speak English.
I hope you don't mind, if we move our man...
...so that the two of us will have more room to groove.
But...
...have your men stay as far away from the stairway as possible.
You know, baby...
...this bamboo is longer...
...more flexible, and very much alive.
And when your flashy routine cannot keep up with the speed and elusiveness...
...of this thing here...
...all I can say is that you will be in deep trouble.
That, we will have to find out.
I'm telling you, it's difficult to have a rehearsed routine...
...to fit in with...
...broken rhythm.