Born in San Francisco on November 27, 1940, Bruce Lee became the martial artist who reshaped how the West saw Chinese martial arts, and this film traces his path through archival interviews and footage of the man himself. It follows him from childhood roles in Hong Kong cinema through his martial arts training, his development of Jeet Kune Do, and his push against the rigid styles he trained under, into the Hollywood and Hong Kong film work that made him an icon. Lee talks about his own philosophy of combat, treating fighting as something to be stripped of ritual and adapted to the individual, and the footage captures both his physical speed and his fluency as a speaker explaining his ideas on camera. The film stays close to his own words rather than outside narration, letting his interviews carry the account of how a teenager who once lost street fights in Hong Kong became the most recognized martial artist of the century.