Birth of the Dragon is a 2016 American martial arts action film directed by George Nolfi and written by Christopher Wilkinson and Stephen J. Rivele.
The film stars Philip Wan-lung Ng, Xia Yu, Jin Xing, Qu Jingjing, Ron Yuan, and Billy Magnussen.
Based on Michael Dorgan's article "Bruce Lee's Toughest Fight", the film is a fictional account on the supposedly true story revolving around Bruce Lee who, as a young martial artist, challenged kung fu master Wong Jack-man in 1964 in San Francisco.
In 1964, a young Bruce Lee owns and operates a San Francisco Kung Fu Academy, specializing in the Chinese martial art Wing Chun.
While carrying out a delivery to the China Gate restaurant, McKee falls for an employee, Xiulan, who is forbidden to communicate with outsiders.
Lee worries about Wong's presence, thinking he would be punished for teaching whites kung fu and asks McKee to set up a meeting.
McKee learns that Wong is in America to perform penance working as a dishwasher because of a near-fatal kick, the Mon Shan.
Lee reluctantly agrees to fight under Wong's conditions: only 12 witnesses at an empty warehouse, and the winner is revealed in the newspaper the next day.
On February 19, 2013, it was announced that a biopic titled Birth of the Dragon about young martial artist Bruce Lee was in development, writing Christopher Wilkinson and Stephen J. Rivele.
QED International and Groundswell Productions would finance and produce the film along with their Bill Block and Michael London, respectively.
[10] On November 16, 2015, the film's cast was announced and it included Billy Magnussen as a martial arts student, Steve McKee, fashioned on Steve McQueen; Philip Ng as Bruce Lee; Xia Yu as Wong Jack-man; Jingjing Qu as McKee's love interest, Xiulan; and Jin Xing as the brutal crime boss, Auntie Blossom.
[11] Corey Yuen came on board to design the film's action sequences, which is set in 1965 in and around Oakland and San Francisco, about the actual fight between Shaolin Master Jack-man and the young Lee.
[14] In North America, Birth of the Dragon was released on August 25, 2017, alongside All Saints and Leap!, and was projected to gross around $3 million from 1,618 theaters in its opening weekend.
The film's low opening was attributed to Hurricane Harvey hitting Texas and surrounding areas causing theaters to close, the boxing match between Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor on Saturday, and a negative response from critics and fans.
[16] Scout Tafoya, reviewer for Roger Ebert, gave the movie zero stars, writing, "How, this far into the 21st century, does a film like this get made?
There are entire books and countless articles about the Wong Jack-man & Bruce Lee fight, and this film invents things wholesale to pad its running time?