'Weâ€™re Thrilled to Be Telling One of the Great Untold Stories': About Bruce Lee Fight Shoots in SF

"Birth of the Dragon," a film about a pivotal fight between Bruce Lee and Shaolin Master Wong Jack Man that took place in Northern California in 1965, is currently shooting in various San Francisco locations.

San Francisco's Film Commission confirmed to Hoodline that the production will be working in the city through Monday. The publication reported that the last shooting location is scheduled to take place on Spofford Street in Chinatown.

According to Variety, the film began shooting in Vancouver, Canada in November under the tutelage of Corey Yuen, a martial arts choreographer who created action sequences for films such as 'X-Men,' 'The Expendables' and 'Romeo Must Die.'

Wong Jack Man, now 75 and said to be living in the Bay Area, has not spoken often of his match with Lee, who was only 25 when they fought.

â€œWeâ€™re thrilled to be telling one of the great untold stories in martial arts history, especially at this unique moment when China and Western audiences are opening up to each other as never before,â€ producer Michael London told the publication.

Spofford St in Chinatown. That's about the most crowded area in San Francisco. An alley between Grant and Stockton, with thousands of people shopping for food, groceries and good eating on the adjacent streets. My Chinese-American wife was born there a couple blocks away, grew up there for a while in the early 1950s. We would often shop for Chinese food and groceries up through the 1980s. Extremely crowded and busy, cars and trucks double-parked everywhere and difficult to navigate. Very Chinese district. We shifted shopping to the Richmond District where a new Chinatown was growing (Clement St).

I can imagine Bruce Lee hanging around that area then, and now if he were alive, not much changed from 50 years ago.

Here's the inside scoop - BL lied and lost the fight, in the process of cheating at the out set was struck by Northern Shaolin Grand Master WJM's palm in a kind of blow which can cause death sooner or later and may be the reason BL died "mysteriously" of an embolism.

See here for this fascinating story - it is a paste job and repeats before going on so scroll to next part: BRUCE LEEâ€™S TOUGHEST FIGHTâ€, by Michael Dorgan (from Official Karate, July 1980) - BL's wife Linda wrote a book which may largely be BS or at least greatly embellished with certain parts omitted. BL wanted the fight to be to the death, however WJM thought it was to be a friendly exhibition. When WJM realized what BL was trying to do, he held back out of fear of consequences, ie he could have killed BL like swatting a fly had he responded in kind. WJM could have at any moment in the fight which would have left BL dead or dying but knew how dangerous his kicks were and so withheld them, enduring BL's silly Wing Chun style using fists with various blocks and holds. After the fight WJM said he thought that BL's later invented style of Jeet Kune Do was a chop suey of many and varied ingredients and may have been the actual cause due to improper breathing techniques.

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