Kung fu master Bruce Lee, who was born in SF's Chinatown but raised in Hong Kong, is the subject of a new biopic currently making the festival rounds, Birth of the Dragon. Directed by George Nolfi, the film centers on a legendary fight in 1965 between Lee and rival Wong Jack Man, years before Lee would become a 1970's movie star and American popularizer of martial arts. SF Gate points us to the trailer above, just released last week, though there is not yet a release date for the film.

The movie was shot on location both in San Francisco and in Vancouver.

The movie stars Hong Kong actor Philip Ng as Lee and Xia Yu as Wong, and in a move by writers Christopher Wilkinson and Stephen J. Rivele that could anger some Asian Americans, the protagonist appears to be a white guy played by Billy Magnussen, who comes to San Francisco and meets Lee at his kung fu school. (This harkens back to the backlash over Roland Emmerich's recent fictionalization of the Stonewall Riots, which were largely led by people of color and trans women, starring a white male protagonist.)

As SFGate notes:

The [1965] fight, of which Wong, Lee, and witnesses have all given varying accounts, has long been a topic of debate. Lee and his wife at the time, Linda Lee Caldwell, both say that the fight was short-lived and ended after Wong tried to run, whereas Wong and other witnesses say Wong lost his footing after more than 20 minutes of fighting.

Based on the trailer, the film seems to favor the latter account, depicting a more of a match between equals.

Lee actually would later found his own form of Chinese kung fu, Jeet Kune Do, which is less fixed or patterned than other forms of martial arts.