SWORDDUELING.COM

Yuen Woo-Ping must get up every morning and cry because he’s 64 and can’t brawl daily. The man clearly loves fighting. Just look at this scene he choreographed for Fist of Legend, where Jet Li reprises Bruce Lee’s role from Fist of Fury:

It starts out in a pretty standard Chinese mode, both opponents loitering well inside striking range, checking each other’s arms and doing block-punch one-two (in between all the showy aerial techniques). But once Jet Li gets serious, he switches to a Western-influenced style — dancing in and out of reach, sniping at Chin Siu Ho with long punches, and throwing boxing combinations. Look at the double right jab to left cross! This is Bruce Lee’s fighting method: lead with the strong side, and “use the longest weapon to strike the closest target.” There’s more textbook Jeet Kune Do technique here than there was in Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story.

The last fight in the movie is even richer:

I could practically call out page numbers from the Tao of Jeet Kune Do for every few seconds of this scene. The combat’s not realistic, but it’s full of real things: Boxers do get cut and bleed into their eyes. Chinese martial artists do use light attacks to open you up for heavier ones. Bruce Lee did like double and triple leads (page 198!) and disrupting opponents with that finger-flick to the eyes (Page 74!)

The scene is even better if you watch it after reading up on Jeet Kune Do principles. A lot of the stuff behind that link applies to the sword, as well — which is fitting, since Lee studied western fencing for principles to apply to his unarmed fighting. It’s about timing and psychology, rather than specific techniques.