Confused: Bruce Lee in Enter The Dragon

1) Yes, Bruce Lee did not have "implied sex" with a woman in Enter the Dragon, unlike Roper and Williams.

2) However, I believe we can make the argument that Lee was not, in fact, emasculated or de-sexualized. As Vijou points out, Enter the Dragon clearly objectifies Bruce Lee's body, showing off his physique time and time again during those famous and unnecessarily-shirtless fight scenes. His body is an object of desire for both men and women.

3a) In the famous final showdown with Han, Lee enters a room of mirrors. Although the effect is largely disorienting, the set also carries with it the same sexual implications that can be found in the Flower Drum Song musical number "I Enjoy Being a Girl." The viewer can see every angle of Lee in the mirrors, objectify him, and view him sexually.

3b) I just compared Bruce Lee to Nancy Kwan. Does this a) sexualize him, b) emasculate him, or c) both? Can you be both?

4a) Regarding all the shirtlessness, we could argue that the filmmakers were trying to portray Lee as a freak, a side-show. In which case, he wouldn't be so desirable sexually.

4b) Or would he? Serious question.

In the end, I'm confused. All I know is that I don't believe the film has a clearly defined perspective regarding the issue of Asian male masculinity/sexuality.

Bringing sexy back... to Bruce Lee

Well, a lot of people pointed out that the character Lee has been pretty much castrated in Enter the Dragon, so I'd like to start with a moment of zen from comedian Steve Byrne (NOT work safe):



So this was the first time I had ever seen a Bruce Lee movie, but I saw that act by Steve Byrne a few weeks ago and was doubling over laughing even though I hadn't the shadiest clue what a Bruce Lee movie really looked like. And as I read through the posts here, I find out I'm not the only non-initiated viewer. It's amazing that our whole view of The Legendary Bruce Lee has been formed from pretty much a single movie. To think of all the places he could've led cinema if he had lived... I don't think Bruce Lee would've let the crazy kungfu chicken calls reverberate through the halls of history.

Seeing as how it was pretty much Bruce's first cautious step into American cinema, of course there's so much wrong with this film (though at the same time, I seriously enjoyed it). The role of women was pretty laughable (and by laughable, I mean I'm ready to torch its effigy) and the way it presents race was woefully confusing and incomplete. From that chapter in Prashad's book, it's clear Bruce Lee was going to go somewhere with the representation of race in his movies, but the idea was never allowed to develop in later movies he might have made so we're left dangling and confused. Step one was getting Warner Brothers to actually release the film, and step two... well, he never quite got there.

It's funny that Bruce Lee never did become the Asian hero he wanted to portray, and yet we've taken what he has done and turned THAT into an Asian hero. Every scrawny Asian boy suddenly had a role model: if they weren't strong, they could at least by FAST like Bruce Lee. And yeah, this is all wrapped up in a nicely desexualized package... that's why we get a kick out of imagining the on-screen Lee having sex.

But still, I like what Bruce Lee did in Enter the Dragon. It was the beginning of an alternate portrayal of manhood that was obviously needed (given Bruce Lee's continuing popularity). Unfortunately, I don't really see Jackie Chan and Jet Li re-sexing the role Bruce Lee created (though if you watch some of Jackie Chan's HK movies... man, that's a different story). We still haven't given Bruce Lee back his manhood yet.

Bruce Lee: the model minority?

In spite of bad acting and cheesy one-liners I generally appreciated the entertainment value of Enter the Dragon. As it was my first Bruce Lee film, I finally understood the origins of the martial arts films, and it was in a sense a mini popular culture history lesson for me. While observing the emasculation and de-sexualization of Bruce Lee, I also realized how far more recent kung fu movies starring Asian men such as Jet Li or Jackie Chan have come in terms of a more masculine portrayal (although they are not much better).

The major issue I had with the Asian American men in the movie was that, like Fu Manchu and Charlie Chan, they are inserted into a plot with very extreme roles. Whether it be as one of the villains or the emasculated comedian, these men almost have to compensate for the fact that they are Asian or "different" by being molded into a stereotype. In doing so, they often create or perpetuate different stereotypes of Asian American men that is neither fair nor accurate. Like so, Bruce Lee in Enter the Dragon represents the American audience's captivation with martial arts at the time and can be viewed more as a symbol than an actual human being. His uncanny ability to fight and kill dozens of men with mere scratch here and there is not new to an American action flick hero, but unlike 007 or Superman, he does not have a leading lady by his side either. Perhaps Bruce Lee's role as an "asexual" marital arts extraordinaire demonstrates the idea of Asian Americans as a model minority. Without his ability to be a sexual character, the Asian male is not a threat to the sexuality of the White male- an interesting departure from the predatory image of the Asian male that preceded it.

Throughout the film, Bruce Lee is not given much of a voice. After the first half of the movie being a meager attempt at creating a plot, the last half is pure action, perhaps after the realization that an actual plot may never materialize. After a few lines in the first half of the film, the only sounds that come from Lee are the high-pitched noises that have made him so famous. Without all the fighting, one could easily assume that Roper is the leading male, as he was the only person whose character development reached an acceptable level.