《龍之誕生》李小龍初出茅廬時

The milieu from which Bruce Lee emerged to become the world’s first martial-arts superstar — both as a film performer and a proponent-teacher — was probably as fascinating as the man himself. The screenwriters Stephen J. Rivele and Christopher Wilkinson and the director George Nolfi only intermittently manage to breathe credible cinematic life into that milieu in “Birth of the Dragon,” which is set in late ’60s San Francisco, where, the movie tells us, Lee taught kung fu. (It was actually Oakland.)

不管是作爲電影演員，還是武術倡導者和宗師，李小龍都是一名巨星，不過，他成爲世界上第一位超級武打巨星時的社會背景，可能和他本人一樣引人注目。在《龍之誕生》(Birth of the Dragon)中，編劇斯蒂芬·J·裏維爾(Stephen J. Rivele)和克里斯托弗·威爾金森(Christopher Wilkinson)以及導演喬治·諾爾菲(George Nolfi)只是斷斷續續地將有據可查的銀幕生活融入這一背景。故事設定在60年代末的舊金山，影片稱李小龍就是在那裏傳授功夫的（實際上是在奧克蘭）。

The movie’s linchpin is a real-life battle between Lee (Philip Ng) and a Shaolin monk, Wong Jack Man (Yu Xia), which an opening title says was reputed to have been spurred by Wong’s objection to Lee’s “kung fu for all” ethos. In the movie’s view, Lee’s real problem is his bluff arrogance. Wong’s approach is more spiritual, less egocentric. This attracts one of Lee’s white students, the overly aggressive Steve (Billy Magnussen), who happens to be in love with a young Asian immigrant who’s being groomed for a concubine’s life by a female boss. Steve can’t fight for her, but the boss is interested in staging an event that can generate some gambling profits. You see where this is going. For the sake of their pal, Wong and Lee agree to test each other in battle. It’s clear that Wong is right about Lee’s egotism being a limitation, but the question is whether Lee will get it.

該片的主線是李小龍（伍允龍[Philip Ng]飾）和少林和尚黃澤民（夏雨飾）在現實生活中的真實決鬥，在片頭的敘述稱，決鬥的起因是黃質疑李小龍“全民功夫”理念。按照該片的觀點，李小龍真正的問題在於他虛張聲勢的傲慢。黃澤民更注重精神，不那麼以自我爲中心。這吸引了李小龍的白人學生、過於好鬥的史蒂夫（比利·馬格努森[Billy Magnussen]飾），此人碰巧愛上了一名年輕亞裔移民女子，而一名女老闆正在引誘這名女子走上做姨太太的道路。史蒂夫不能爲她抗爭，但那個老闆想策劃一個活動，從中謀取賭博利潤。你能猜到故事的走向。爲了他們的朋友，黃澤民和李小龍同意比試一場。黃澤民認爲李小龍以自我爲中心是他的一個侷限這個看法，顯然是正確的，問題是李小龍能否明白這一點。

The “West Side Story” romance angle is the least interesting part of the movie, so it’s frustrating that so much time is spent on it. “Birth of the Dragon” is ambitious: It wants to be a character study, an explication of martial arts philosophy and an action picture. (The battle scenes are presented in a mix of slow motion with super-clear fast-shutter shots and they’re not always enhanced by this approach.) But the film never really gets fully juiced until the climax, when rivalries are put aside and the two very charismatic leads get on the same side to kick some righteous butt.

《西區故事》(West Side Story)式的浪漫橋段是該片最無趣的部分，所以影片在這上面花費那麼多時間令人沮喪。《龍之誕生》是有野心的：它想集人物研究、武術哲學闡釋和武打於一身（武打場面通過慢動作和超清晰的高速快門拍攝呈現，但這種方式並不總能提升效果）。不過，該片在高潮之前一直都不是很有趣，在高潮部分，這兩位極具魅力的領袖不再對抗，而是同仇敵愾，伸張正義。