Return of the Dragon: CCTV’s Bruce Lee TV Series

Last night CCTV 1 broadcast the first two episodes of a new 50-episode TV drama called The Legend of Bruce Lee (李小龙传奇 Li Xiaolong Chuanqi). Hong Kong actor Danny Chan (Chan Kwok Kwun) attempts to fill the big pair of martial arts shoes and he’s joined by actors from more than 30 countries including a couple of Hollywood actors; Ray Park and Tim Storms. While waiting for another enthralling episode of Yang Rui’s Dialogue to start on CCTV 9, I managed to catch a glimpse of the first episode last night. Bruce was standing up to the school bully but not getting much support from his teachers or parents. It was pretty slow going， but I was happy to learn the slightly formal Chinese expression for “kicking someone in the balls” – (踢他的睾丸 Ti tade Gaowan) which got quite a lot of use after Bruce went and did just that.

The series appears 35 years after the actor's death in 1973 and according to a report in AP, was originally planned to be aired pre-Olympics in an apparent effort to “boost racial pride” but it was delayed due to the period of mourning that followed the tragic Sichuan earthquake.

Many of the scenes in the early episodes, which are set in Hong Kong were filmed in English but have since been dubbed into Mandarin. There are no subtitles but if you feel up to the challenge you can catch episode 3 and 4 tonight from about 8pm on CCTV 1. CCTV 8 will also air the show starting from Nov 4.

Links and Sources
Sina: The Legend of Bruce Lee (Li Xiaolong Chuanqi)
The Independent: The Bruce Lee legend
AP: China state TV to air 50-part Bruce Lee biography
TVMao.com: CCTV 1
The Beijnger: Return of the Dragon

Yahoo: Danny Chan image