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Birth of the Dragon

Birth of the Dragon

Action · Drama · 2017

Set against the backdrop of San Francisco’s Chinatown, this cross-cultural biopic chronicles Bruce Lee’s emergence as a martial-arts superstar after his legendary secret showdown with fellow martial artist Wong Jack Man.

Movie details

Birth of the Dragon

“The Fight That Created The Legend”

2017 Action · Drama 1h 43m

Critical arithmetic

The consensus, allegedly.

IMDb

5.7 / 10

9.2K votes

Rotten Tomatoes

25 %

Tomatometer

Metacritic

35 / 100

Metascore

TMDB

5.8 / 10

Community rating

External scores via OMDb · CC BY-NC 4.0. Values normalized for display; availability varies by title.

Set against the backdrop of San Francisco’s Chinatown, this cross-cultural biopic chronicles Bruce Lee’s emergence as a martial-arts superstar after his legendary secret showdown with fellow martial artist Wong Jack Man.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over Birth of the Dragon?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

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Where it lives

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Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

George Nolfi

Written by

Christopher Wilkinson · Stephen J. Rivele

Philip Ng Wan-Lung

Philip Ng Wan-Lung

Bruce Lee

Billy Magnussen

Billy Magnussen

Steve McKee

Xia Yu

Xia Yu

Wong Jack Man

Ron Yuan

Ron Yuan

Tony Yu

Darren E. Scott

Darren E. Scott

Vince Miller

King Lau

King Lau

King Lau

Yee Jee Tso

Yee Jee Tso

Winston Peng

Court is in session

Put Birth of the Dragon on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Adrenaline Seeker

“Momentum is a formal choice.”

The velocity sharpens instinct and tension, making every beat land before self-importance can settle in.

The prosecution The Cool Ironist

“Speed as an alibi.”

The film races past its weak spots and hopes acceleration will keep the audience from inspecting the evidence.