what Bruce Lee described as a slam-bang Western
adventure series.
“I’ve always known about this part of my family history,”
Shannon said about her father’s concept for the series.
“When my mother stepped down at the end of 2000 and
the legacy was passed on to me, I received many boxes. It
wasn’t until early 2001 when I started going over his writ-
ings and found the treatment. Then I put it back.
“He was intent on creating different entertainment
vehicles to showcase his martial arts, philosophies, beliefs,
and the beauty and culture around them. He wanted to tell
authentic Chinese stories. Big Boss was a seeing-if-this-
works kind of thing, Fist of Fury was his idea to talk about
the Chinese/Japanese tension, and Way of the Dragon —
which he wrote, starred in, directed and did fights in — was
about the overseas Chinese experience in Rome.”
In 2015 Shannon received an out-of-the-blue call from
director Justin Lin, asking if the rumors surrounding her
father’s treatment were true. The answers he received
ignited a creative flame. Most who envision and then
propose Bruce Lee–related projects to Shannon or want
to use his image seek her permission rather than her
involvement. Not Lin. “Justin said, ‘If we can’t make
the show right, we won’t make it. We should do this in a
way your dad would’ve wanted, to his vision, a way that
reflects his legacy,” Shannon recalled. Suddenly, the proj-
ect became a partnership.
Bruce Lee’s treatment included a critical point in his-
tory that most Americans know nothing about: the Chi-
nese Exclusion Act of 1882. I was reminded of this when I
spoke with Jonathan Tropper, Warrior’s writer/creator.Tongs Re-imagined
Born in 1970, Tropper saw his first martial arts film 13 years
later: Chuck Norris’ Lone Wolf McQuade. At the time, he
was practicing hu bei tai
chi. “It’s a combat version
of tai chi and wing chun,”
he told me. “My master’s
philosophy [was] you had
to learn to crawl before
you learn to walk. [For
example], we first learned
to move in a straight line
and in advanced stages in
a circle.”
Not long afterward,
Bruce Lee entered Trop-
per’s world. “I’d heard of
Bruce from posters and
T-shirts,” he said. “Then
one night, I [was] flipping
channels and recognized
him in Way of the Dragon.
It was the scene when he
exits the restaurant into
the back alley and beats
those guys up. That was it,
that was the moment.”
I mentioned to Tropper
that Ah Sahm’s first fightwould be against my father’s philosophy of self-actualiza-
tion and honest-built expression. People would see that
limitation, and [Koji] wouldn’t be a real human being on-
screen. Yet by tapping into that energy signature, we can
infuse Bruce Lee’s energy into this and other projects.”
On December 9, 1971, Bruce Lee philosophically
described that real-vs.-reel energy in a post-Big Boss
interview with Pierre Berton in Hong Kong. During the
exchange, it was clear that Lee had no delusions about
Warrior or Kung Fu: “Such things exist in this world. If
a foreigner came to Hong Kong to be a star, if I was the
money, man, I probably would worry whether or not the
acceptance would be there.”
The remarkable way he handled himself in the inter-
view reflected his true nature as a human being, a martial
artist and a philosopher. He didn’t put down anyone or
whine about his predicament. He merely vowed to be like
water and overcome the obstacle. It doesn’t excuse War-
ner Bros., yet perhaps the flow was redemptive for both
sides with Enter the Dragon.
Warrior Path
Originally titled Ah Sahm, Warrior began life as an
eight-page treatment set in 1870s America. It concerns a
Chinese immigrant who possesses extraordinary martial
arts skills. He arrives in California, where he works as
a hatchet man for a San Francisco tong. Although six-
shooters were abundant in the Wild West, the treatment
featured the way of the fist as a frequent solution to con-
flict, and the series does likewise.
Ah Sahm’s aim is to unite the tongs into a powerful
force so they can help the Chinese people restore the
Ming dynasty by overthrowing the Ching. Armed with
a bamboo pole and helped by a friend and guide named
Big Bill O’Hara, Ah Sahm travels across America in
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