My daughter, Ariel, saw “The Green Hornet” with her friends and picked up on an in-joke in there that went right past me…which is mildly annoying, since I was the one who gave her the piece of information in the first place that the gag was based on.
At one point, Kato is miffed that there’s a photograph of the Hornet in the newspaper and no sign of him. And Britt says calmly, “You move too fast for the camera,” which promptly placates Kato. The thing is, Bruce Lee really DID move too fast for the camera. This gung fu moves were so quick that the camera equipment at the time couldn’t pick him up and the directors had to slow him down so the TV audience would be able to see what he was doing.
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I first heard that from Harlan Ellison as he was telling a story at HeroesCon. He also had a great one about bringing a producer to the set and the guy must have made some challenge to lee to impress him or something. lee ran straight at him and at the last possible microsecond flipped over him and the guy promptly peed himself.
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That was from some prompt from the audience. One of the many great things about Harlan Ellison is you can just yell out some obscure name or event–“Hey Harlan! Jan Žižka at the Battle of Deutschbrod!”–and there is an excellent chance he will have at least a good story about it and quite possibly have actually been there.
I was happy to see the new Kato do Bruce Lee’s famous one-inch punch.
Well, really, Bill … if everybody who said they were at the Battle of Deutschbrod was really there, it’d have been flippin’ Woodstock or something. I mean, come on.
I don’t mind if they say the were at the battle of Deutschbrod but when they tell me they stayed until Hendrix played…well, I’ve seen the video and t place was practically empty. Bášŧárdš stayed for Sha-Na-Na and then skipped out.
How about “Harlan! Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra!”
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How about, “Harlan! Zorro on the internet!”
Maybe that’s how Harlan ended up at the bet between Asimov and Hubbard that created Scientology that no one else has ever had direct knowledge of.
This is something I noticed in the trailers, too: they slow the action/people around Kato to make Kato appear faster. I guess they wanted to give the appearance of the Bruce Lee-esque Kato? But in the end, nobody was/is as fast as Bruce Lee was.
Nothing against the new Kato, but Bruce Lee was pretty unique. Probably the most influential martial artist of the 20th century.With all the tradition and regimentation practioners had built up around the various schools of kung-fu, it was refreshing to discover someone who felt that, after a certain point of proficiency it boils down to being flexible,adaptable, and unpredictible. And then he went and invented his own style of martial arts to encompass his ideas. Quite the artist!
I love what Bruce Lee did but is anyone else with me on the thought that there was more art than martial in his martial arts? I mean, would lee be able to compete in MMA were he alive and in his prime? You don’t really see too many practitioners of classic martial arts doing all that well in the octagon.
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Not that I’m saying Bruce Lee couldn’t kick actual ášš; he could kick mine 17 different ways before waking up. And in a fight without any rules at all Lee could do things not allowed in sanctioned fighting. But it seems as though those who do best in MMA are more likely to have trained in grappling styles than in Jeet Kune Do.
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“I love what Bruce Lee did but is anyone else with me on the thought that there was more art than martial in his martial arts?”
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His movie martial arts style was head and shoulders above a lot of what was out there before insofar as looking like a real fighting art, but it absolutely was movie martial arts.
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However, Lee could fight very well and a lot of his techniques would have served him well in the early octagon.
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“mean, would lee be able to compete in MMA were he alive and in his prime? You don’t really see too many practitioners of classic martial arts doing all that well in the octagon.”
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That’s somewhat of an unfair question in that almost no martial artist of his time would fair as well as their reputation would suggest in today’s octagon. The reason being that they really weren’t putting the best of all of the disciplines through a blender and adding a touch of wrestling and boxing to them the way they are now. I have no doubt that a Bruce Lee in his prime and as just the fighter he was would have done well in the early years of MMA though. Likewise, I think that if Bruce Lee were alive and coming into his prime now he could have been an amazingly successful MMA fighter in his weight division since the principles of his philosophy would have dictated that he learn these new things coming out of BJJ and MMA and work and refining and perfecting them. Combine that with his physical conditioning and his speed and agility and I’m sure that he would have made himself an Anderson Silva (without the antics) and GSP level champion.
i think you may be right–I guess the one question we don’t know is how well he could take a punch.
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GSP vs Lee…maybe we’ll get to see it in heaven.
There’s a stand-up comic (sorry, I forget his name) who did a bit on how people are always so impressed with the martial arts you see in the movies. He then did a series of moves, along with his “realistic” commentary with each move: “You fall down, you flip over, you go through a wall, the check’s in the mail…”
This isn’t to slight Bruce Lee, but action movie fight scenes are heavily choreographed and the winner is more pre-determined than in a Harlem Globetrotters game. Granted, some practicioners do it much better than others (notably the ones that don’t rely on massive special effects in the fights), but it’s ultimately an intricate dance, not an actual fight.
I wondered if it was a in-joke that Kato never had a codename. From what I saw in the the original series (correct me if I’m wrong), Kato was called “Kato” by both Britt Reid and by the Green Hornet, but no connection was ever made between the two. (“Wow, the Green Hornet has an Asian sidekick named Kato. And Britt Reid has an Asian assistant named Kato. What a coincidence, huh?”) And in the movie, I think the Green Hornet called him “Kato” a few times, and Kato was annoyed that he didn’t have a name for his secret identity.
I alway found it weird that Kato didn’t have a code name, the same was true for Bucky. “Hey I wonder who Captain America and Bucky really are, maybe Steve Rogers and his teenage pal Bucky have an idea”.
I’ve read that in the radio series, Sidekick Kato was only referred to as “the Hornet’s man” and such, never Kato
I’ll have to listen and see if that’s true. Just by chance my aunt gave me a CD of the old Green Hornet radio show. It must have belonged to my uncle who passed away not that long ago.
mayb the people those days are pure dumb, they could not figure out the conincedence.
seth looks dammn stupid in his role. not cut out to be cape crusader, instead make himself more like a stupid fool in the role.
James Lynch said, “From what I saw in the original series (correct me if I’m wrong), Kato was called “Kato” by both Britt Reid and by the Green Hornet, but no connection was ever made between the two.”
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I’ve only seen three episodes of the TV series (which were made into a “movie” released on videotape sometime in the 90s), and would have to look at them to refresh my memory as to whether the Hornet addresses Kato by name in public; but in the radio show (which is the original original series, the Hornet does not address Kato by name in public. At least not to my recollection. If there was such an instance, it would probably have been a rare exception.
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Rick
On the radio and tv series, the Hornet never used Kato’s name in public (or earshot of criminals)
Kato is usually referred to as “the Hornet’s man” or “the Hornet’s chauffeur” by police and crooks alike.
Curiously, in the final two-parter “Invasion from Outer Space”, the villain, Mabuse, knows Kato’s name!
Tangenting here a little bit, but I’m surprised no one has really mentioned what a beauty Britt’s Girl Friday (played by Wende Wagner) was.
What an exotic and unique beauty. And so classy. Died in ’97 of cancer. Too young.
Dave
Okay, I’m going to go off topic – but speaking of obscure shout-outs in recent movies…. anyone else see The A-Team? When Murdoch is in the mental hospital and they’re watching the “fake” movie he’s sent…. the credited star of the film is Reginald Barclay. Best part of the movie, for me.