I finished Bruce Thomas’ biography of Bruce Lee a week ago, so the story that Lee was passed over for Carradine for the part of Caine was fresh in my mind as I watched the pilot for Kung Fu.

It’s pure speculation as to whether the series would have been more successful with Lee in the lead role. I like to think that his martial prowess would overcome the racism the networks believed would work against his acceptance by the mainstream audience of the early 70s, but we’ll never know for sure.

Aside from that, I think Lee’s involvement would have ensured that Kung Fu would have been a much bigger cult hit over the years, particularly now as a DVD box set. Every frame of publicly available footage that exists of Bruce Lee has already been studied to the point of exhaustion. An entire television series starring Bruce Lee, even if the network executives were right and it only lasted a season or two, would be devoured by his legion of admirers and the fans yet to come. While it’s possible that Kung Fu starring Bruce Lee had been a bust in the short term, in the long term it would have been a juggernaut.

“Real living is living for others.” – Bruce Lee.

As you can tell from my previous post, I watched Way of the Dragon earlier in the week in honour of the 35th anniversary of Bruce Lee’s passing. No matter how dated the movie surrounding him, there’s something so powerful about Bruce Lee’s physical prowess that just watching him move seems removed from time. My brain just isn’t equipped to handle it.

My Macho Movie Review co-host Nagy first brought the story of the fate of Bruce Lee’s family home to my attention. Hong Kong philanthropist Yu Pang-lin was determined to sell the property to help victims of the the earthquake in Sichuan until a worldwide outcry from martial arts fans changed his mind. Now he’s seeking approval to develop the home into a museum honouring Lee.

I have read dozens of news articles, blogs and forums concerning this story, and I’ve found only one that even takes into consideration the ramifications of this decision. To be fair, for all I know Yu Pang-lin will find alternate ways to contribute to the relief effort, or use the museum as a way to provide continual aid to people in need. And it’s probable that a museum dedicated to a globally loved icon like Lee would help create jobs and give a boost to the local economy. The long-term possibilities could very well outstrip whatever benefits turning the property into a parking lot would have entailed.

It’s not Yu Pang-lin’s decision that bothers me. He’s free to do whatever he wants with the property, and you can count me as one of the many who would love to see a permanent monument to Bruce Lee. It’s the knee-jerk reaction from Bruce Lee’s fans that has me confounded, with commentators initially vilifying Yu Pang-lin when he was going to let the property go on the market, then lauding him for reversing his decision to the point that some people were calling him a hero.

I have no idea how charitable Bruce Lee was, or, since he died before achieving the height of his fame whether he really had the chance to be. But I just can’t help feeling that a more fitting tribute to Lee’s cinematatic legacy would be to help those most in need.