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Lee's legacy lives on

Bruce Lee

It is a tribute to something, the power of cinema or just charisma, that 23 years after his death, Bruce Lee remains an icon to a substantial portion of the male population, including many who were not even born when Lee was alive and kicking. For the Bruce Lee Club (HK) for example, he lives on not just in films but in interviews, memorabilia and even in a life size statue which forms the centre point of their exhibition, Super Bruce Lee, held in the Arts Centre until July 31.

Judging by the crowds, despite his sex appeal, Lee was a man's man, there is scarcely a woman in sight, but dozens of young men peering eagerly at the video clips of his movies, listening transfixed to the personal accounts of his friends, and mulling over the Bruce Lee plastic toys.

This is a shrine to Lee, and a chance for the curious outsider to observe the phenomenon of the Lee fixation.

Just like watching real television If the joy of having the kids around all day now it is school summer holiday is beginning to wear thin, you can always resort to that tried and tested cure-all, and put them in front of the television. Theatre company Chung Ying has even arranged to make this a guilt-free experience with its new show Children TV, aimed at six to 12-year-olds. Children TV the theatre show includes all the essential ingredients of any successful programme. The troupe will recreate cartoons and fashion, and spice it all up with a bit of on-stage roller skating, acrobatics and magic, at the Cultural Centre Studio Theatre between August 1 and 4 at 7.30pm, and matinees at 2.30pm on August 3-4.

Alternatively there is the worryingly subversive Be Naughty to Have Fun show at City Hall until July 29 at 7.30pm, and Saturday and Sunday at 2.30pm, billed as a hilarious comedy based on the premise that 'goody goodies are just so square. Who wouldn't rather fool around at school'? Pretty dangerous stuff, one can only hope our young people see the irony, otherwise come next term, many teachers are going to be having a particularly hard time. Astonishingly this too is organised by the Urban Council, without their customary disclaimer about 'not representing the views of the Urban Council'.

Fine time for conceptual geniuses There is a wearisome sameness to the promotion efforts of that temple of bad taste, Vincent Lee Fine Arts in the Ritz-Carlton. All the artists they have exhibited have apparently been recognised as geniuses almost from the moment of conception, and most have improbably colourful life histories to tell as well. This month's crop include Californian water-colourist Steve Hanks, who just graduated from high school after a childhood travelling the world with his service family. Hanks still treasures a first grade report card that said 'Steve is going to be an artist'. Isn't that just the cutest? Or if oils are more your fancy, there is Spanish painter Royo who so impressed his parents that by the age of nine, they were coughing up for private tutors to help him develop his talent. What these two also have in common is a penchant for gushy, paintings of women in the rich, ripe fullness of her beauty, wearing a meaningful smile and occasionally gazing coyly out of the canvas. Slick does not begin to describe it.

Digging deep in Ed Wood's jumper Theatrical oddball of the week is the Friend and Friend Theatre company's production of Ed Wood in the McAulay Studio at the Arts Centre, which has its last few shows this weekend. After all, what better place is there to celebrate the life and times of Hollywood's master of tacky horror movies than here, where for a long time Hong Kong's film industry had its own reputation for much the same thing.

Most of us probably know about Ed Wood via the Tim Burton movie of the same name, where Johnny Depp explored the full range of his acting abilities portraying the director in wig and angora jumper, and in his more formal attire, directing Bela Lugosi through his last movies.

The genius of Ed Wood, if you are not familiar with him, is that he was a passionate but incompetent film-maker with no taste at all, except a quirky preference for wearing women's clothes both on and off the set. How the Friend and Friend Theatre Company plan to translate all this, let alone why, remains as much a mystery as to why Ed Wood kept going as long as he did.

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