Revisiting the Cinematic Value of Bruce Lee’s Martial Arts Films through the Lens of Physical Artistry

This study employs body aesthetics and semiotic theories to analyze Bruce Lee’s martial arts films, revealing how the cinematic body transforms from traditional ethical symbols to vehicles of national identity. Through multidimensional encoding of corporeal forms, kinetic grammar, and audiovisual rhetoric, Lee’s muscular physique evolves into a “poetic symbol” of anti-colonial resistance. The iconic scene of shattering the “Sick Man of East Asia” plaque functions as a performative act of symbolic healing for national trauma while establishing new paradigms for global action cinema. The generational shift from “externalized power” to “internalized cultivation” in martial arts narratives demonstrates how body imagery facilitates cross-media dissemination of physical aesthetics, providing innovative frameworks for traditional martial arts revitalization and digital-era cultural soft power construction.