Essay, Research Paper: Brandon Lee

Brandon Lee was born on February 1, 1965 to Bruce Lee (Martial Arts idol) and Linda
Lee, and brother to Shannon Lee. In 1965 Brandon and his family lived in Hong Kong
where Brandon became fluent in Cantonese by the age of 8. He attended Boston's
Art-Oriented Emerson College in NY. Growing up as the son of a mythologized movie
legend Bruce Lee, who died at 32 of a brain edema, when Brandon was 8. Brandon
studied Martial Arts and drama, like his father. When his mother took him for martial
arts lessons when Brandon was 9, he saw a picture of Bruce Lee on the wall, started to
cry and ran from the room. For a long time, his attitude was that he didn't need school,
and he thumbed his nose at the rules. In 1983 Brandon was expelled from school
because of misbehavior, but received his diploma at Miraleste High school.
Shortly before Bruce Lee died in 1973, whose Chinese name Lee Shao-lung,
which means Little Dragon, had bought a house in a Hong Kong suburb called Kowloon
tong (Pond of the Nine Dragons). The Lee family was believed to be cursed with the
jealous wrath of the neighborhood's resident demons. The curse lasts, it is said, three
generations.
Brandon was in the movies, "Rapid Fire", "Showdown Little Tokyo", and a few
more films, including "The Crow". He turned down offers to be in "Dragon: The Bruce
Lee story". Bruce Lee died while filming a movie at the age of 32, of what is to be
believed, a brain edema. Brandon died at the age of 28 on the set of "The Crow".
Brandon Lee died during a mishap on the set of "The Crow". On March 30, the
cast and crew of The Crow had allegedly come to work after having had just eight hours
off. It was shortly after midnight on March 31 when Brandon went in front of the
camera. The scene was a flashback intended to explain how his character Eric Draven
had been killed in the first place. The scene required a gun to be loaded, cocked, and
then pointed at the camera. But because of the close range of the shot, the bullets that
were loaded had real brass caps, but no powder. After the cut, the propsmaster dry fired
the gun to get the gun ready for the scene, knocking an empty cartridge into the barrel of
the gun. The armsmaster was supposed to handle the scene, but had left the set early for
the day. The gun was loaded with blanks. Lee entered the set carrying a bag of groceries
containing an explosive blood pack. The script called for Funboy (Michael Massey) to
shoot Eric Draven (Brandon Lee) as he entered the room, setting off the blood pack. The
cartridge that was stuck in the barrel was shot at Brandon through the bag he was
carrying, killing him. The cap of a blank accidentally got lodged in his spine after
penetrating his abdomen. The doctors worked desperately for five hours, but it was no
use. He was pronounced dead at 1:04 P.M. the next day.
According to the weapons expert, the metal tip of one of the dummy bullets,
which had been loaded into the gun for the close-up, had somehow pulled loose from its
brass casing. When the dummies were unloaded and replaced with blanks, the metal tip
remained behind in the gun's cylinder. As soon as the blank went off, its explosive force
launched the dummy tip through the gun barrel and into Lee's body.

Brandon was supposed to marry Eliza Hutton on April 17. His body was flown to
Seattle to be buried beside his father in Lake View Cemetery. On April 3rd, there was a
funeral. There were around 400 people there, including Steven Seagal, David Carradine,
and Brandon's best friend and Stunt coordinator, Jeff Imada. Jeff was so shaken he
couldn't even speak. Linda (Brandon's mother) kept everyone spirits up by saying,
"Brandon would have wanted this to be a joyful occasion. We're here to be happy and to
celebrate the life of Brandon Lee."