After the release of Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood,” there was quite a bit of controversy surrounding the filmmaker’s depiction of Bruce Lee. In the film, you may remember, it’s shown that Brad Pitt’s character is able to beat up Lee in a fairly quick manner. But it wasn’t only the fight that people took issue with, it was just how Tarantino chose to paint Lee. That is to say, many people, including Lee’s family, weren’t happy. Now, we can add Donnie Yen to that list.
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Speaking to Variety, as he’s promoting the new “John Wick: Chapter 4,” legendary martial arts actor Donnie Yen talked about the negative depictions of Asians and Asian culture in cinema. This led to a comment about ‘Once Upon a Time’ and how it portrayed Bruce Lee. Let’s just say that Yen is not amused by Tarantino’s film.
“Everybody is entitled to their opinions,” Yen said. “Quentin Tarantino is a very renowned filmmaker, and he’s entitled to his status. And I’m entitled to state my own view. Obviously, he was making fun of Bruce. It was cartoonish.”
At the time of the release of the film, Bruce Lee’s daughter was upset with Tarantino’s use of her father in the film, as well as how he reacted to the criticisms. She said that the film made her father look like an “arrogant asshole.” The filmmaker infamously went on the Joe Rogan podcast to tell everyone who didn’t like the film (minus Lee’s family) to “suck a dick.” Clearly, he didn’t really care what critics and film fans had to think about it. It would be interesting to see how he reacts to Yen’s comments, as you must expect that Tarantino is a fan of the actor’s work.
Obviously, this is a debate that won’t ever go away, as Tarantino is steadfast in his defense. You can watch Tarantino’s defense of the scene in the Joe Rogan clip below: