It's today well known that Bruce Lee was a close student of Ip Man, widely considered one of the great teachers in the 20th Century. Although it's been many years since I studied Bruce Lee's films, it occurs to me that Wing Chun is not the dominant style of fighting Lee employs.
This is likely because Lee, like all of the great fight choreographers, adapted the arts for the lens, because real-world techniques don't often translate as visually interesting on film. (A parallel to this is Dustin Hoffman talking about acting for the camera, film acting widely regarded as the art of the closeup, where the hands often need to be raised very close to the face b/c the shot is tight.)
Lee also make other changes such as maximum muscle flex during fight sequences, not because this is how one fights in the ring or on the streets, but b/c it had a tremendous effect on audiences and created a Kung Fu craze.
It's notable that Lee, the son of an actor, was involved in film his entire life, starting as a child actor. It's often said that this can result in a deep, instinctual feel for the medium. (Examples range from artists like Ron Howard to actors like Shannen Doherty knowing when to demand lighting be reset to make them look good.)
Therefore it's a natural assumption that what Lee employed on-screen was different that what he would have employed in the ring or on the rooftops of Kowloon.
- What was the dominant martial style Bruce Lee used for his on-screen fighting?
