The press materials that accompanied the new trailer for Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” say the film “visits 1969 Los Angeles, where everything is changing.” But a delightful scene in the trailer, featuring Mike Moh as Bruce Lee, seems to take place in 1967.
Or 1966. Let me explain.
In the late 1960s, Lee kicked around Hollywood serving as a martial-arts “sifu,” or master, to actors like Steve McQueen. He also choreographed fight scenes and played sidekick roles, even though he could out-kick, out-punch, and usually out-joke the leading man.
His first big sidekick role was as Kato on “The Green Hornet,” which aired on ABC from 1966 to 1967. On the show, Lee’s Kato wore a traditional chauffeur’s uniform of black gloves and a collared, double-breasted black tunic. He also wore a hat and a cool mask.
When Lee (played by Mike Moh) smack-talks with stuntman Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt) in the trailer for “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” he is wearing what appears to be, yep, a traditional chauffeur’s uniform of black gloves and a collared, double-breasted black tunic. (No hat or cool mask.)
See what I’m getting at? It seems that the scene takes place during some downtime on the set of “Green Hornet,” which folded two years before 1969, when the press materials for “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” say the film takes place.
There are of course a lot of possibilities here. Maybe Lee still had his Kato costume lying around in 1969, and liked wearing it. But that seems unlikely, since Matthew Polly’s “Bruce Lee: A Life” tells us that Lee was never pleased with second-banana roles.
(Excerpt) Read more in: The Wrap