Way of the Dragon (1972)

Tagline: MAN, CAN WE USE HIM NOW! Bruce Lee is back in the fantastic all new adventures of the Super Hero from “Enter the Dragon...” ..his last performance is his best!

Curiosity: Bruce Lee vs. Chuck Norris.

Plot: Chen Ching Chua (Nora Miao) knows a guy who knows a guy who knows Tang Lung (Bruce fuckin’ Lee) and asks him to help defend her restaurant from gangsters over yonder in Italy. Tang shows up and beats the gangsters up, down, and all around (except off, ’cause that would be a completely different movie). Annoyed that Tang is so dang good at kung fu fighting, the Mafia boss (John T. Benn) hires international karate masters to fight Tang. The strongest and best of these new arrivals is Colt (Chuck fuckin’ Norris). Can Tang take him down? Will he ever stop being scared by sexually aggressive Italian women? Will he take his shirt off and do that high pitched screaming thing?

[SPOILER ALERT: Yes, no, yes.]

Thoughts: At a trim 90 minutes (Give or take. Like pretty much all of Lee’s films, there are plenty of alternate cuts, ranging from 80 to 100 minutes or so), Way of the Dragon is a little more focused than Lee’s other films up to this point. This comes at a price, though. The characters and story are less developed. Tang shows up pretty much just because. The Mafia is obsessed with controlling a Chinese restaurant in Italy… just because. As always, though, these lacking elements are canceled out by the action.

Compared to Fist of Fury or The Big Boss, Way of the Dragon’s fight scenes are much more minimalist, often focusing on one-on-one combat and how the slightest movements – both intentionally and unintentionally – can determine a fight. One idea the film slips in is “no way as way.” Tang announces his moves as he performs them early in the film to intimidate his foes, but it also shows how the character is very much into routine. He can perform these moves without thinking because he’s practiced so much and they follow a preset pattern that his enemies can’t figure out. But when he comes up against someone just as skilled – Colt – Tang has to alternate his pattern and even use unconventional moves, like ripping off Colt’s chest hair, to gain the upper hand. It’s when Colt can’t similarly adapt that he begins to lose the fight. It’s a pretty long, brutal scene too, which justifies the movie around it.

Reflection: This was much more satisfying than the time Lee fought Jackie Chan in Enter the Dragon.