Originally posted on: http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/apr/09/bruce-lee-ea-sports-
Bruce Lee, UFC and why the martial arts star is a video game hero
EA has announced that Bruce Lee will be a playable character in its forthcoming UFC sim. But the movie icon has always influenced action game design
The image, of course, is instantly recognisable. There he is on screen, in that familiar jumping stance, his face beneath a bowl of black hair, his shorts in that classic combination of yellow and black. This is Bruce Lee, the martial arts legend, appearing in the forthcoming fighting sim, EA Sports UFC. The star of Enter the Dragon will be available immediately to those who pre-order the title, or he can be unlocked by completing the game at Pro difficulty. Playable across four weight classes, gamers will be able to test Lee's formative mixed martial arts approach against contemporary UFC stars.
EA's marketeers knew that gaming news sites would go nuts for this and they was right – the announcement was everywhere this week. Despite the fact that this complex icon of action cinema died over 40 years ago, his legacy lives on in games. Arguably, it started in 1984, with the launch of Datasoft's platform adventure, Bruce Lee, on 8bit machines like the Apple II, Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum. The plot, which had the eponymous hero fighting through a wizard's temple to secure the secret of immortality, had little to do with Lee or his movies, but it was released at a time in which home video was making the actor's films easily available to a new generation of fans. And already there was an obvious synergy between Lee's highly choreographed, hyper-kinetic approach to action sequences and the potential of video games to explore and simulate combat.
Big bosses, dirty fighting
In that game, the fighting was restricted to punches and flying kicks, but in Japan a new genre of fighting sims was emerging that would explore martial arts in much more depth. Irem's seminal 1984 beat-'em-up Kung Fu Master made no reference to Lee – indeed, its Japanese title is Spartan X, which is exactly what Jackie Chan's movie Wheels on Meals was known as in Japan. However, the structure of the game – which has the player fighting through several floors of an enemy stronghold – is clearly a reference to Lee's final movie Game of Death, in which his character must battle different boss characters on five levels of a pagoda. Indeed, the whole concept of Game of Death, that a series of seemingly indestructible martial arts proponents all have a weakness that must be discovered and exploited, pretty much set the 'end-of-level boss' structure of beat-'em-up video games for the following 40 years.
Lee is there too in Konami's 1985 fighting game, Yie Ar Kung Fu, which features a lone fighter, Oolong, facing down a range of differently armed enemies. The cabinet art for the coin-op machine features an unmistakably traced image of Lee performing a high kick, while the concept of various enemies coming at the protagonist with authentic weapons, from nunchaku to tonfa sticks, again parallels Lee's movies, in which he sought to bring variety, accuracy and legacy, into his action sequences. 1985 also saw the excellent home computer fighting sim, Way of the Exploding Fist, a monicker that conjures Lee's movie titles and his philosophy of directing inner energy into points of combustive power. The game even used a sample of Lee's high-pitched combat yelp in its loading sequence.
Street fighters
But it is the modern fighting game genre that has drawn most from Bruce Lee's fighting style and iconography. In the Street Fighter series, Fei-Long employs Lee's Jeet Kune Do fighting style and wears his familiar black kung fu trousers and slip-on canvas shoes. Capcom's series also draws on the mystique and almost magical power that Lee portrayed in his movies and martial arts demonstrations; the supernatural moves such as the hadoken are effectively exaggerations of Lee staples like the "one-inch punch". Meanwhile, in SNK's World Heroes series, Kim Dragon is a martial arts movie star, clearly based on Lee, who feels he needs to prove his skill in a real-life tournament. Maxi from Soul Calibur and Jann Lee from Dead or Alive also draw from the Lee mythos in their clothing, fighting styles and attitude.
However, it is Martial Law in the Tekken series that really exemplifies the profound influence Lee has had on fighting game designers. Throughout the series, Law always has at least one outfit drawn from a Lee movie, including the legendary yellow jumpsuit from Game of Death, which was similarly appropriated by Quentin Tarantino in Kill Bill. Law also uses a number of throws and finishing moves drawn from Lee's action sequences, and even has a son, Forest, who carries on his legacy – a clear reference to Lee's own son, Brandon.
In Tekken too, we see the same fetishisation of martial arts lore and mythology that Lee's appeal seemed to invoke among Western viewers. The characters are ridiculous international caricatures, defined mostly by fighting styles that border on fantasy; they are figures of weird comedy and incongruity as well as violence.
Indeed, this is something most fighting games pull from Lee's canon – the idea that a plot can just be a group of disparate people meeting up for a fighting tournament. Every martial arts game ever made owes something to Enter The Dragon, Lee's multicultural beat-'em-up, with its clandestine fight club, exotic locations, and the central conceit that everyone present has a past to escape and an ulterior motive to fight through. Lee's films, like the best fighting games, combine tension, threat and humour; blaxploitation star Jim Kelly, granite-faced military veteran Chuck Norris and basketball player Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, all provided interesting, almost comedic combatants hinting at the bizarre rosters to come in titles like Street Fighter, Tekken and Fatal Fury.
Legacy of Lee
There have, of course, been other semi-official tie-ins. The passable movie conversion, Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story; the terrible Xbox brawler, Bruce Lee: Quest for the Dragon; the decent Game Boy Advance side-scroller, Bruce Lee Return of the Legend. But none of these really explored the legacy, atmosphere and style of Lee's movies like the truly great fighting games. To 1970s audiences in the West, Bruce Lee symbolised the 'otherness' of Asia and this is something the likes of Street Fighter, Soul Calibur and Tekken exploit and explore with their own characters, their own themes.
Bruce Lee's addition to UFC is interesting because it paints the actor not as some cult chopsocky star, but as a serious proponent and originator of mixed martial arts. Lee's style took in everything from austere classical systems to street fighting – so of course he should be here, going up against athletes he no doubt inspired.
Really, this shows how adaptable this pop culture legend is and how, like all true icons, Lee can be molded and re-interpreted to fit the tastes and concerns of each new generation.
Showing posts with label bruce lee. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bruce lee. Show all posts
Tuesday, 13 May 2014
Tuesday, 23 July 2013
Hong Kong marks 40 years since death of martial arts icon Bruce Lee
Story taken from: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-07-20/exhibition-marks-40th-anniversary-of-bruce-lee-death/4832970
Lee helped put Hong Kong on the movie world map, and his films acted as a bridge between the cultures of East and West.
The Heritage Museum is displaying more than 600 of the actor and filmmaker's personal items, including the tracksuit Lee wore in his final film Game of Death.
Lee's daughter, Shannon Lee, says it is her father's philosophy of life and the message in his films that people still respond to.
"It's the depth behind the films that keep him relevant today," she said.
"And we can take his words, his actions and apply them to our own lives. And people do, all time."
Ms Lee was four years old when her father died from swelling of the brain aged just 32.
"The way I know my father is not through media. The way I know my father is in number of different ways," she said.
"It's through the people who knew him well, his friends, my family. It's also through his own words, because he wrote voluminously.
"I have all of his library books, thousands of books and he would underline in them and write notes in the margins, so I know him from him."
Some of those notebooks, poetry, and family photos are among 600 items which will showcased in the exhibition at the museum until 2018.
A 20th century cultural icon who founded Jeet Kune Do, Lee's untimely death in Hong Kong in 1973 left fans around the world reeling.
"I remember the funeral in Hong Kong primarily, because it was just so chaotic. There were so many people," his daughter said.
"It was hot, humid, and it was just sort of like this whirlwind. And there was so much going on and so much sadness and as a little kid, I just sort of remember being dragged through that whole process and the feeling of the chaos all around me."
Lee's legacy lived on, inspiring a new generation of actors such as Jackie Chan and breaking down barriers for Asian actors in Hollywood.
"He won his fame from Kung Fu, which does not need language to deliver," Lee's biographer Roger Lo said.
"Just like dance and music. You can watch it whoever you are. It is like Charlie Chaplin whose silent movies were borderless.
"Lee was also a bridge between the cultures of East and West. He was educated both in Hong Kong and the United States.
"He appeared on American televisions and also Chinese movie theatres."
Chaplin Chang, the author of a new biography The Bruce Lee They Knew published this month, says that Lee's real personality, not just his screen persona, is part of his enduring appeal.
"People may give him god-like status. But he is just a human," he said.
Mr Chang, in the Chinese-language version of his biography, attempts to portray the action hero from an unconventional perspective, showing that the screen icon could be difficult at times but was generally friendly towards subordinates.
"He was not only [about] movies, nor was he only [about] martial arts," he said.
"With his philosophy, his legacy lives on for generations. Therefore, he is admired by many even now."
Updated
An exhibition in Hong Kong is celebrating the life of Bruce Lee, 40 years after the death of cinema's first martial arts hero.
Lee helped put Hong Kong on the movie world map, and his films acted as a bridge between the cultures of East and West.
The Heritage Museum is displaying more than 600 of the actor and filmmaker's personal items, including the tracksuit Lee wore in his final film Game of Death.
Lee's daughter, Shannon Lee, says it is her father's philosophy of life and the message in his films that people still respond to.
"It's the depth behind the films that keep him relevant today," she said.
"And we can take his words, his actions and apply them to our own lives. And people do, all time."
Ms Lee was four years old when her father died from swelling of the brain aged just 32.
"The way I know my father is not through media. The way I know my father is in number of different ways," she said.
"It's through the people who knew him well, his friends, my family. It's also through his own words, because he wrote voluminously.
"I have all of his library books, thousands of books and he would underline in them and write notes in the margins, so I know him from him."
Some of those notebooks, poetry, and family photos are among 600 items which will showcased in the exhibition at the museum until 2018.
A 20th century cultural icon who founded Jeet Kune Do, Lee's untimely death in Hong Kong in 1973 left fans around the world reeling.
"I remember the funeral in Hong Kong primarily, because it was just so chaotic. There were so many people," his daughter said.
"It was hot, humid, and it was just sort of like this whirlwind. And there was so much going on and so much sadness and as a little kid, I just sort of remember being dragged through that whole process and the feeling of the chaos all around me."
Lee's legacy lived on, inspiring a new generation of actors such as Jackie Chan and breaking down barriers for Asian actors in Hollywood.
"He won his fame from Kung Fu, which does not need language to deliver," Lee's biographer Roger Lo said.
"Just like dance and music. You can watch it whoever you are. It is like Charlie Chaplin whose silent movies were borderless.
"Lee was also a bridge between the cultures of East and West. He was educated both in Hong Kong and the United States.
"He appeared on American televisions and also Chinese movie theatres."
Chaplin Chang, the author of a new biography The Bruce Lee They Knew published this month, says that Lee's real personality, not just his screen persona, is part of his enduring appeal.
"People may give him god-like status. But he is just a human," he said.
Mr Chang, in the Chinese-language version of his biography, attempts to portray the action hero from an unconventional perspective, showing that the screen icon could be difficult at times but was generally friendly towards subordinates.
"He was not only [about] movies, nor was he only [about] martial arts," he said.
"With his philosophy, his legacy lives on for generations. Therefore, he is admired by many even now."
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