Enter The Dragon

Brief History on Bruce Lee

Bruce Lee was arguably the most famous Chinese American of the 60s and 70s, he is credited for making Chinese films and in particular Chinese Martial Arts movies a mainstay in the Chinese and American cultures. He was born in San Francisco's Chinatown and he died at the age of 32 in Hong Kong. He came to be known for the role of Kato in the short lived television series The Green Hornet as well as playing the same role in 3 episodes of Batman.

Lee was unhappy with the roles he was being offered and on the insistance of his friends he went back to Hong Kong to star in a series of films. The first being "The Big Boss" (71) the second "Fist of Fury" (72). His third film would end up also being his directorial debut in 1972's "Way of the Dragon" a movie which introduced film audiences to Chuck Norris.

Lee began work on his fourth film Game of Death but production stopped when he was offered the lead role in "Enter The Dragon" which is the first Chinese Martial Arts film to have been produced by a major Hollywood studio. Unfortunately Lee was never able to see the complete finished product as the film was released 6 days after his death.

Lee's influence has been seen far and wide as most Chinese actors state Lee was a major building block to their own careers. Jackie Chan and Stephen Chow have both stated they were enormous fans of Lee and Chow even created a film in 1991 called "Fist Of Fury 1991" which is his homage to Bruce Lee.

Plot

Lee (Bruce Lee) is a Shaolin martial artist who is invited to a martial arts competition by a mysterious man named Han. Lee learns that Han was expelled from his current school and that Han's bodyguard was the man responsible for killing Lee's sister. The British Government contact Lee and ask him to look into Han's dealings as he may be a drug trafficker as well. Lee agrees and head's to the island as both a participant and a double agent.

My Thoughts on the Film

I was actually surprised to find out this film was completely in English. The martial arts were done much differently in this film then any many of the other films we've seen, it was a lot of close up fighting and a lot of slow motion. This was the first Bruce Lee movie that I've seen and one thing which really stuck out was while he was fighting he was making a lot of noises with each kick and punch, and it made me wonder if this style of fighting is actually what inspired a lot of kids to play fight Karate that way, saying things like "Yah" as they hit someone. My favorite scene of the movie was the fight between Lee and Han's bodyguard. The tension was very high and Lee's emotions were incredibly intense.

Lee as an actor was actually really good as well, I was surprised to find he could speak English so well and that he didn't need to only do martial arts. The other characters in the movie were all done well but I can tell why Bruce Lee is the one most people talk about, he has an amazing presence on screen.

The movie felt a bit like a James Bond film which apparently I'm not the only one who thinks that, and also Lee was in talks at the time to possibly star with George Lazenby to co-star in the next James Bond film.

Trivia

A young Jackie Chan can be seen near the end of the movie in a brief cameo as he fights with Bruce Lee.

References

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_lee

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enter_the_Dragon

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070034/