Way of the Dragon (Meng Long Guo Jiang) (1972) Directed by Bruce Lee

"Oh, what rippling muscles! We don't want to kill you."  Ho, after copping a cheap feel of Tang Lung's pecs and abs.

One of the handful of Chop Sockey movies Bruce Lee made after his stint on The Green Hornet, and before returning to America in Enter the Dragon, this movie was released in America as a sequel to that blockbuster hit.

It suffers in comparison, because it is a Hong Kong movie, filmed in Italy, and dubbed in English, mostly by Lee himself.  It has all the subtle sincerity of porn that thinks it tells a story.

The plot is very simple; Tang Lung (Bruce Lee) has been dispatched by his uncle to assist his uncle's old friend, Uncle Wang (Chung-Hsin Huang) and his niece, Chen Ching Hua (Nora Miao).  She owns a restaurant left to her by her father.  The problem is some mafia types want to buy her out, and they are scaring away the customers.  No one seems to know how this peasant boy from the Chinese country side is supposed to help; they were expecting a lawyer.

But Tang Lung is very useful; backed up by the waiters Tony (Tony Liu), Jimmy (Unicorn Chan) ((no, really!)), Thomas (Fu Ching Chen) Robert (Robert Chen) and Ah Quen (Di Chin) Kun Li returns as Ah Kun, he faces down against the thugs, and like a hero in a serial western, disarms them, throws the gun away, then proceeds to beat the snot out of them.

Tensions mount between the two sides, even the big boss (Jon T. Benn) gets involved.  Unlike the Big Boss in the movie of the same name, this mafia don is not the kind to fight himself; instead he hires a ringer.  The greatest martial artist in America...Colt (Chuck Norris).  And it is a cataclysmic battle to the death between these modern day gladiators in the perfect setting; the Coliseum!

The Analysis.

The Bad.

This film was done entirely silent, and all speech was added later.  Many are voiced by Lee himself, including the Boss.  There is a convention that Lee only speaks Manchurian, and the Mafia only speaks Italian, but everyone in the movie speaks bad English, so Lee expects Ho to translate for the Boss...it makes sense, sort of, but it comes across funny.  Many of the thugs worked this film because they were too ugly and couldn't act well enough to make it in porn.

The Good.

Oh, there is so much good.  As bad as this movie is, it is absolutely charming.  It has a sense of humor; Tang Lung can't read Italian so he ends up ordering five kinds of soup at the airport.  There is a flirtatious Italian lady who takes him back to her rooms for...well, it gives us a gratuitous bosom shot, and Lee retreats in panic, his country Chinese manners overwhelmed by the free love society of Rome in the 70's.  The clothes are also hilarious, though I don't think that was intentional; just fashionable.

And Lee himself is charming.  His little black coolie suit, feeling so awkward and out of place, and yet when he smiles, he lights up the screen like the sun coming from behind clouds.  And when he does kata at home; it is just an excuse to showcase Lee without his shirt.  And it works.  The man had the most impressive latisimus dorsai this side of Steve Reeves.  And yet his musculature is sleek, compact, and graceful, not bulky.  He is a beautiful man, standing still, and when he moves, he is poetry in motion.

Of the bad guys, one is my favorite.  Ho (Ping-Ao Wei) is the Bosses right hand, and it is a limp wristed appendage.  Ho dresses like a pimp, and acts like an Asian Paul Lynd.  He is as gay as a tree full of monkeys on nitrous oxide!  He is that kind of creep that gives gay villains a bad name.

And of course, when the mafia thugs try to meet Tang Lung on his own terms...there are few things as funny as watching a fat mobster in a bad disco shirt trying to use a nunchuk against a master...it goes exactly how you would expect.

This is the only time Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris worked together.  (Norris has more hair on his back than I have on my entire body.  They could have shaved him.)  Their battle in the Coliseum, yes, the actual Coliseum is famous for that, and one other fact; it was the last movie ever actually allowed to be filmed in the ancient amphitheater.

Bruce Lee's impact on popular culture was profound, from moving the Martial Arts from the mystical fringes of our perception to creating an international craze.  He also helped break down the racial barriers, and empowered many minorities because at last there was a hero who wasn't white.  And he did it with five movies.  This was the third.

Bruce Lee died on July 20, 1973.  He was 32, and in his short life, he revolutionized the Martial arts with his form of formlessness, Jeet Kun Do, brought the Martial Arts to America, and opened our eyes to the hidden culture of the Far East.  Not a bad legacy.  Rest in Peace, Sifu.

This is entered in my Everybody Was Kung Fu Fighting! Write Off.

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age