Bruce Lee’s daughter Shannon has responded to Quentin Tarantino’s defense of the controversial Lee scene in Once Upon a Time In Hollywood. The 2019 film marked a turning point in Tarantino’s career, utilizing far less gratuitous violence than his past works have offered and imparted a much more sentimental tone. But while Once Upon a Time may have been a delight to fans and taken home two Oscars, controversy has closely pursued it.
For anyone who’s followed Tarantino’s extensive and highly acclaimed career, the idea that one of his films could attract controversy is par for the course. From the moment Tarantino was whisked into the global filmmaking spotlight after the 1992 release of Reservoir Dogs, critics seemingly delighted in taking him to task over his use of violence, among numerous other issues. This isn’t to say that Tarantino has always been innocent of the things he’s been accused of, and his casual yet extensive use of the N-word by white characters, particularly in his earlier work, is something that certainly merits criticism. Overall, however, Tarantino’s faults haven’t prevented his films from engaging with audiences and critics in a big way.
Yet ever since the release of Once Upon a Time In Hollywood, a persistent objection regarding the film’s depiction of Bruce Lee has existed. Seen through Tarantino’s lens, the martial arts legend is an arrogant bully – the likes of which has consistently put Tarantino on the back foot. Most recently, the filmmaker defended his take on Lee to Joe Rogan by adding that he understood how Lee’s daughter Shannon could have a problem with the depiction of her father. As a result, things have become substantially more heated, with Shannon writing an op-ed on the subject for THR. In it, Shannon laments the ongoing disrespect her father’s legacy has endured by men like Tarantino:
As you already know, the portrayal of Bruce Lee in Once Upon a Time In Hollywood by Mr. Tarantino, in my opinion, was inaccurate and unnecessary to say the least. (Please let’s not blame actor Mike Moh. He did what he could with what he was given.) And while I am grateful that Mr. Tarantino has so generously acknowledged to Joe Rogan that I may have my feelings about his portrayal of my father, I am also grateful for the opportunity to express this: I’m really f***ing tired of white men in Hollywood trying to tell me who Bruce Lee was.
The op-ed goes on to point out just some of the numerous times that her father’s memory has been altered for the benefit of Hollywood, as well as the difficulties he faced as an Asian man in a very white industry. Tarantino’s reverence for Lee had previously been an uncontested fact, with numerous references to the star littered throughout several of his films. But with the arrival of Once Upon a Time as well as Tarantino’s refusal to apologize for what many see as an unnecessary jab at the legend, some fans have been left wondering if Tarantino’s respect for Lee actually runs that deep.
In terms of Lee’s depiction in Once Upon a Time In Hollywood, there’s no escaping the fact that what’s done is done. That doesn’t mean that Lee’s daughter or fans of the late martial arts phenomenon should forget about it, only that there’s no changing it. It’s unfortunate that Tarantino made the decisions he did with regard to the character, but hopefully Shannon’s op-ed will make it clear once and for all that, although he remains a global superstar, her father was so much more to those who knew and loved him.
Source: THR