Brandon Lee Kwok-Ho

Michael Chan Wai-Man made it pretty clear that Bruce Lee’s son was murdered. In 2022, someone uploaded a video on YouTube where Michael referred to himself as Charlie when he told a story of a business deal gone bad in 1986. Despite Chan Wai-Man playing a gangster named Charlie Chan in Carry On Yakuza (1989), this anglicized name didn’t take off the way that Michael did. Perhaps it hadn’t caught on because of how embarrassing that it was for him to be associated with the American character, Charlie Chan. It may be his name on his passports but not on screen. Chan Wai-Man belonged to the same Triad, 14K, as Fan Mei-Sheng. This other actor played a Triad in an American film called Year of the Dragon (1985). One of the interior locations used for this film was the same studio where Brandon Lee was fatally shot in March 1993 i.e. 1223 N 23rd Street in Wilmington, North Carolina.

This studio used to be owned by Dino De Laurentiis before Andrew Vajna became the owner. Both men wanted to work with Brandon Lee’s father. Most of the Bruce Lee historians know about the Vajna connection but what they don’t know is that the October 1980 issue of Kick Illustrated had an interview with Stirling Silliphant where he claimed that Bruce was offered a million dollars to do a movie produced by Dino, whose daughter (Raffaella De Laurentiis) would eventually produce Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story in 1992. Had Brandon lived to see this film’s release, he would have been publicly questioned about it. When Jason Scott Lee approached him for advice on how to play Bruce, Brandon said: “Do not to be taken by this legend stuff. Try and perceive him as a man who had failures, passions, sorrows and all the conflicts of being a human being.”

In late 1984, Jean-Claude Van Damme appeared in a U.S. film about Bruce Lee’s ghost i.e. No Retreat, No Surrender. Records of California legislation show that in 1985, Bruce’s widow and two children made claims as successor-in-interest to the rights of a deceased personality under California code Section 3344.1. The code offers protection of the rights to a person “whose name, voice, signature, photograph, or likeness has commercial value at the time of his or her death” for the immediate family i.e. a surviving spouse, children, grandchildren, or surviving parent or grandparent. Public records show that Linda claimed 50 per cent of “all types of rights” as Lee’s surviving spouse under the name Linda Lee. Brandon and Shannon each claimed 25 per cent as Lee’s surviving children. Brandon would not have liked Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story, as Jason Scott Lee said: “The vision of the director was to portray more of the legend than the shadow side of this man. It was actually films like Raging Bull that got me excited in this project, but that wasn’t the direction they wanted to go in.”

When Jean-Claude Van Damme arrived in Hong Kong to make Bloodsport in 1986, Brandon Lee had already left following the completion of Ronny Yu’s Legacy of Rage. Although Van Damme had always been eager in bringing over Hong Kong directors to Hollywood, he never invited Ronny Yu despite Legacy of Rage making him a prime candidate in comparison to the H.K. films that Tsui Hark and Ringo Lam had directed. Perhaps JCVD was sensitive about people comparing him to Bruce Lee’s son despite the fact that Bloodsport was a blatant attempt to cash in on Bruce’s Enter the Dragon (1973). In the August 24, 1986 issue of a Singaporean newspaper called The Straits Times, it was reported: “Speculation is rife that the late star’s son, Brandon Lee, is making plans to re-open investigations into his father’s death.”

JCVD and Brandon were rivals regardless of whether they were aware of it or not. Brandon was poised to play Johnny Cage in a film adaptation of a video game titled Mortal Kombat. The character was modelled after JCVD, who would star in the 1994 adaptation of another game: Street Fighter. If not for Brandon’s death, Mortal Kombat would have been made and released earlier (i.e. not released in 1995). Street Fighter began filming in May 1994. By that month, it had been 14 months since Brandon had been killed during the making of The Crow. In the May 1994 issue of a U.S. magazine called Black Belt, Brandon’s mother (Linda) had her letter featured. The letter referenced Joe Lewis: “Over the 20 years since Bruce’s death, Joe has remained a family friend. When my son Brandon’s fatal accident occurred last year in Wilmington, North Carolina, where Joe lives, he came to my assistance and put me in touch with police officers, detectives, and studio personnel. His help was invaluable to my family at a time of great emotional stress.”

Early 1993 was when Van Damme had to attend court in North Carolina because of an injured man wanting to sue him due to a fight scene that went wrong during the making of Cyborg in Wilmington circa 1988. There was an action movie actress who wanted to work with Brandon. Her name is Kathy Long. The specifics of the collaboration remain unclear but I think that it would have been cool if Kathy and Brandon were to have revived the film project that was initially intended for Sylvester Stallone and Cynthia Rothrock i.e. The Executioner. In the October 1994 issue of Black Belt, professional kickboxer and martial artist Kathy Long said: “I was going to meet with Brandon Lee before he died, and it was really sad that I never got that chance. I went and saw The Crow, but I had a real battle going on inside of me: Do I want to see it, or don’t I? I finally went to see it, and I cried just knowing that he’s dead and is not going to be able to perform anymore. He’s someone I would have loved to work with, but that chance is gone.”

The March 1997 issue of Black Belt had a quote from director John Woo: “I had met Brandon only once, but liked him very much, and I had great respect for his father. I was so sad about his loss. For reasons like this, I’m fanatical about safety on the set. My special effects people must check each gun, then the actors check them, and finally I check them myself. I take any injuries that happen to the stunt people very personally. If I believe there is any danger, I will not like them go through with the stunt. For scenes with big explosions, I use the camera and the editing to help the action move along. The actors and stunt people are kept at a distance because I do not want to jeopardize anyone’s life for a shot. In all the movies I have made, there have never been any serious injuries. While filming Hard Target, one of our stuntmen was a little too brave, which resulted in a broken leg, but all of the stunts are always done with safety in mind.”

Like The Crow (which was directed by Alex Proyas), Hard Target (1993) was actually a non-union production despite being regarded as a mainstream Hollywood film. Besides the obvious, what’s poignant about this is that Brandon Lee had wanted John Woo to be the director of Rapid Fire (1992) but Woo turned it down. There is a cruel irony about Jean-Claude Van Damme being favoured over Brandon since the latter could speak better English and was a professionally trained actor. The trajectories of their careers allow for multiple comparisons - they both starred alongside Dolph Lundgren in the nineties, and had worked with Hong Kong fight choreographer Meng Hoi near the beginning of their careers. They even fought Bolo Yeung on screen, and bearing it mind that it wasn’t exactly de rigueur for a martial arts actor to fight Bolo in a Hong Kong movie. Without going into a long list of names, look at the people who didn’t get to fight him. Hard Target was filmed in New Orleans, where Shannon Lee had resided in from 1987 to 1993.

In December 1992, JCVD and Darcy LaPier pub-crawled through New Orleans with a couple named Carey Crone and Tara LeBlanc. The latter wanted to sue the other couple for propositioning them in their hotel room. 1985 was when Ng See-Yuen’s final Bruceploitation movie - No Retreat, No Surrender - was completed. In 1986, Brandon was 21 years old when he went to H.K. to act in Legacy of Rage. You would think that he would have been approached earlier. After attending Emerson College in Boston, he returned to L.A. in 1985. He was 20 at the time. That’s a pretty early age to graduate. The director of Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story, Rob Cohen, mentioned in a 1993 article that he had already heard about Bruce doing cocaine. Brandon already had a heavy shadow to live under as the son of the martial arts king. Being the son of a famous junkie would have made it worse, so he opted to lie when doing interviews. In a 1997 book called The Essential Jackie Chan Sourcebook, one of the two authors (either Jeff Rovin or Kathy Tracy) wrote: “Jason Lee, the actor who portrayed Bruce in the biographical film Dragon, also claims Lee’s widow admitted to him what had happened.”

The company behind No Retreat, No Surrender, Seasonal, seems to have a connection to the company who produced Legacy of Rage - D&B Films. This company was co-owned by Sammo Hung, who was still working for Golden Harvest. Andre Morgan left the latter in 1984, and he was actually a silent partner for D&B. He was the reason why they were able to sign Brandon to a two picture contract. Seasonal’s Ng See-Yuen discovered Cynthia Rothrock but she ends up making her debut in a D&B film (Yes, Madam) which was directed by a Seasonal director - Corey Yuen Kwai. In fact, Sammo was originally going to be the choreographer for Legacy of Rage but he dropped out at the last minute. The official reason was that he didn’t want Golden Harvest to think that there would be a conflict of interest, especially since they wanted to sign up Brandon.

Sammo was the common denominator between D&B and Golden Harvest in two facets (or should that be faces?) - Michelle Yeoh and Cynthia Rothrock. The latter went from co-starring in Yes, Madam (1985) to being cast in a small role for Sammo’s The Millionaire’s Express (1986). As for Michelle, she went from having a supporting role in D&B’s The Owl and Dumbo (1984) to having a cameo in Golden Harvest’s Twinkle, Twinkle, Lucky Stars (1985). On his Bruce Lee forum, Spanish author Marcos Ocana referenced one of the screenwriters of The Crow (which was released in 1994): “During the filming of The Crow, a guy named David Schow filmed about 16 hours behind the scenes, about five minutes of which can be seen on YouTube. A 90-minute “making of” was made with that footage to sell it along with the film, and in the end the producers ended up scrapping the idea. James O’Barr was telling me the other day that there were very interesting things in that footage that the fans would have loved to see.”

Hong Kong film historian and film-maker Bey Logan found a project that would have been suitable for Brandon Lee and Donnie Yen. In late 1992, Bey interviewed Brandon when the latter was participating in a U.K. publicity tour for Rapid Fire. They had an enthusiastic conversation about Hong Kong films. Although Brandon left Hong Kong, his curiosity had not waned. After their interview was finished, Bey showed him a recently published novel by Richard La Plante. Titled Mantis, it was about a serial killer who is a Kung Fu expert. Bey wanted his friend Donnie to play the killer, while Richard wanted Brandon to play one of the two cops who hunt him. Previously, Richard had been rejected by Jason Scott Lee (who had just finished starring in Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story). Brandon expressed interest in the project, but his death killed the project. The combination of Brandon, Donnie and a Hong Kong fight choreographer would have rivalled whatever competition that Jean-Claude Van Damme would have presented.

Another thing about JCVD and surprising connections - a producer named Edward R. Pressman. This line producer of The Crow not only worked for the Cannon film company in the eighties, but he was one of the producers for Street Fighter (where he had a cameo as a “lonely cook”). Ed Pressman went on to produce another JCVD movie: Legionnaire (1998). When Ed produced for Cannon, it was for a film called Masters of the Universe (1987). This starred Dolph Lundgren who, as I alluded to earlier, went on to star alongside Brandon Lee and JCVD in Showdown in Little Tokyo (1991) and Universal Soldier (1992) respectively. Back to The Crow, the Bridget Baiss book about the film mentioned that JCVD had attended what was supposed to be a cast and crew screening. Much later on, Pressman failed to produce a remake of Bloodsport.

If you go to YouTube and look up “Brandon Lee 1993 Inside Edition, The Big Picture, Hard Copy” then you will find a video where David Carradine referenced a drive-by shooting as one of the many things that plagued the production of The Crow. The crew member wanting to remain anonymous speaks for itself. Generally, some people back then were talking about murder including Steven Seagal and Brandon’s publicist: Alan Nierob. Back to Michael Chan Wai-Man, he had an acting role in Brandon’s Legacy of Rage (1986). In a 2020 Chinese article, Chan is quoted as saying that Brandon’s death had been planned for a long time. In the aforementioned 2022 video, Chan said: “He offended many, telling directors how to film all the time. He was like this in Hong Kong. He was f#cking shot dead in America. He was shot on f#cking purpose. Because you’re cocky. Fake guns in America are not fake, the bullets are blank; put a real bullet in and the end.”