He passed away on June 29th, 2013 and has joined his co-star and friend Bruce Lee, the great in heaven.
Enter the dragon, the famous Bruce Lee film was released in 1973. I watched this movie about 7 or 8 years later during my College days. Going to the movies in theatres was a big thing at that time. English movies reached our small town years later after their release elsewhere in the world. We were allowed only 3 or 4 movies only the whole year, only during vacation and festival season. No weekend movies :) at all! It was 40 years ago, no TV, no Internet, no mobile phones and no blogging, lol!
Enter the dragon became a huge hit in Kerala like elsewhere in India and the rest of Asia. Bruce Lee hairstyles became quite common. Karate academies started mushrooming all over the State. The youngsters started signing up for karate classes. Those who could not attend an academy started doing self-learning like hitting the bricks, doing free exercises, kicks etc at home. I was in this group:) Hours together, we friends used to chat about this movie. I think this was the only movie we were able to watch twice in cinemas; we were allowed by our parents to go for it one more time: some extra pocket money :) was given.
We were crazy at that time! The craze still goes on, Bruce Lee is still very much alive in the minds of the people here.
Countless times I have watched this movie when VCD, DVD etc. came into existence. I knew each and every scene in that beautiful thriller by heart. It was my lifelong ambition to sign up for professional Karate classes. Finally, I was able to attend some about 4 years ago. Boy, how thrilled I felt when I put on that white robe with a white starter belt!
Without any doubts, I can state that no other movie star has influenced people in our place like Bruce Lee.
We all liked Jim Kelly very much. It was an everlasting impression he has made in the minds of people in this Asian country as the character 'Williams' in the Enter the dragon movie. When he was murdered by the villain in the movie we simply could not tolerate it; we wanted Bruce Lee to crush that monster then and there. We admired Jim's cool attitude, body language, fighting style and of course the beautiful hairstyle!
More about this legend http://www.jimkellykarate.com
We miss you, Jim!
May his soul rest in peace!
Productive, happy and cool people are awesome. Some live their life happily, enriching theirs' as well as others' mind, body and the soul. It is an art, living life like that peacefully. We can learn a lot from them. Listen, observe and learn from them. Be inspired; be motivated!
- No need for some great people to prove anything to anybody. They live naturally and will find lots of followers with them forever. We call such people legends.
