Bruce Lee: The Way of the Dragon

	Hong Kong 1972 Director: Bruce Lee Cast: Bruce Lee, Chuck Norris, Nora Miao, Robert Wall, Paul Wei Ping-Ao, Chung-Hsin Huang Rating: R Language: Mandarin Release Date: 30 December 1972 Running Time: 1 hour 40 minutes The Movie Review		BRUCE LEE: The WAY Of The DRAGON ( Meng long guo jiang ) Storyline: Cast: Ending: Overall:
	By year 1972, martial artist named Bruce Lee has already well known in Asia with his two Hong Kong blockbuster movies The Big Boss (1971) and Fist of Fury (1972). And Bruce just kept on running even faster with the release of The Way of the Dragon. The Way of the Dragon was released in Hong Kong in the same year as Fist of Fury and also made way for Bruce Lee as a director and a writer. Of course he also starred as the lead actor. TWOTD was Bruce's third major film but Bruce had actually appeared in 23 movies before this. Funny thing is, TWOTD was well known in the U.S. as Bruce's 4th major film. This was solely because TWOTD was released in U.S. after the legendary Enter the Dragon (1973). This is also the reason why the U.S title for The Way of the Dragon is "Return of the Dragon". Kinda confusing right? Absolutely, since Lee's first major movie the Hong Kong and the U.S. title were already interchangeable, so I'm trying to focus on the original Hong Kong title. If in The Big Boss, Bruce travels to Thailand. In Fist of Fury he travels to mainland China. Then in The Way of the Dragon, Bruce "invades" the western hemisphere, he goes to Rome, Italy. Bruce roles as Tang Lung, a guy who is sent from Hong Kong to Italy to help his fellow countrymen and a girl named Chen Ching Hua (Nora Miao) who run a Chinese restaurant business. The problem is the local mafia wants to take over the restaurant despite Ching Hua's disapproval. So the mafia boss sends his thugs to terrorize Ching Hua and her loyal employees, only to find Tang Lung stands in their way. It goes on and on until the mafia hires foreign hotshot named Colt (Chuck Norris). In TWOTD Lee no longer performs with fellow actors from two previous movies, notably only with Nora Miao who has more screen time, dialogue and role than before and Paul Wei Ping-Ao the sleazy villain who roles again as one. Quite different with Lee's two previous movies, this one has some comedy sprinkled in it. So the fans could actually know Lee's sense of humour. I've gotta admit, the comedy is gentle and only induce a few chuckling moments, but those jokes have given different atmosphere to the overall action scenes. Now talking about the action scenes, well... frankly after seeing Lee's two previous films, I was actually disappointed. His third movie is still consisting of Lee beating the crap out of his opponents, but Lee doesn't give his trademark of taunt and shout, which are one the most satisfying aspect of his martial arts. And where is his locked-up facial expression? Oh man, those are almost invincible. Besides his fighting scenes now are more of a showcase of his Kung Fu prowess and those scenes are not that great either (compared to his previous movies that is). What I'm trying to say is, the fighting scenes are not interconnected by a good/exciting storyline and the drama is weak too. Luckily the scene where Lee is fighting Chuck Norris inside the Colosseum of Rome is quite a salvation for the other fighting scenes. However, as a fan myself, no matter how inferior TWOTD compared to the other two, it's still highly worthy to collect and definitely a must to watch. © iwan pranowo of Movielogy.com Twitter: @movielogy posted: 2008

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