“If you’re going to try to set up how indestructible a person is, having them fight Bruce Lee and doing a good job [is the way to do it],” Tarantino said before the film’s premiere this week. “He could either fight Bruce Lee or Jim Brown … either one would really set up [that] the guy is a bad arse.”

Some fans on social media weren’t too happy about Lee being used as a mere plot device to put over another character.

“Brad Pitt beating up Bruce Lee is like those guys who think they could score on Serena [Williams],” one Twitter user commentated.

Bruce Lee role in ‘Once Upon a Time in Hollywood’ brings pressure for Mike Moh – ‘it’s a fine line’

“Yeah, right,” was another user’s reaction to the likelihood of Pitt beating Lee in a fight. “Bruce Lee deserved better than how he was portrayed in this film – a lot better,” commented one fan. “A lot I like … but yeah, that Bruce Lee scene sucks,” said another.

It is problematic that such an icon of Asian cinema is used as a mere plot device to put over another character – especially a white one, in a film with a predominantly white cast.

Film critic Yolanda Machado wrote the film “can very well be called ‘Make Hollywood Great Again’ … that Bruce Lee scene? Nope”.

Shannon Lee’s swipe at Tarantino earlier this year, where Lee’s daughter said she was upset Tarantino didn’t consult her over the project, now makes more sense.

“With Tarantino’s film, to not have been included in any kind of way, when I know that he reached out to other people but did not reach out to me, there’s a level of annoyance – and there’s a part of me that says this is not worth my time and my energy,” she told Deadline. “Let’s just see how the universe deals with this one.

“People know the name Bruce Lee and it’s exciting and they want to capitalise on that,” added Lee, who looks after her father’s estate and foundation. “They want to get involved with that, but they don’t want to get involved with me.”

Moh has defended Tarantino’s use of Lee in the film, however. In the year the film is set, 1969, Lee was starting to have an impact in Hollywood, having caught his break as sidekick Kato in ABC television show The Green Hornet, but he had yet to become a superstar.

“I think it’s cool Quentin put him [Lee] in the film because he’s a big part of 1969, he’s very iconic,” Moh said on Deadline’s New Hollywood Podcast after the film’s premiere. “I know for a fact Quentin has a love for Bruce, and it’s a lot of love for sure.”

That may be true, but it is frustrating to see Lee reduced to a comedy punchline. He is a hero and an icon for millions of people, especially Asians, and is one of, if not the most, famous figure to represent their culture on a global stage.

Just read what else Moh said about Lee. “To me, Bruce is everything,” he told Deadline. “In my studies of Bruce, I know him as the legend and so many people do but you really learn this guy.

“For me, he’s the GOAT of martial arts and action actors, but you learn he was human and he had challenges in this industry.

“He had to break through so many misconceptions, so many stereotypes, even with Kato wearing the mask and being the sidekick.”

The 35-year-old Moh also said he grew up being influenced by pop culture as an Asian-American child whose parents didn’t speak English very well – and that’s what led him to martial arts.

“I learned from TV shows, movies, video games – so Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, Street Fighter, all these things that made me wanna be those characters on the screen,” he said. “I was always performing little shows for my family and doing the moves. The first thing I formally got into at 12 years old was martial arts.”

Given all that, it has to be said that representations of Lee on screen, even 46 years after his death, still matter, and we need to be careful how he is portrayed.