Happy Birthday to Bruce Lee!
I decided to celebrate by reviewing his only movie as director and his most ambitious Golden Harvest film completed during his lifetime: The Way of the Dragon (1972). This movie takes place in Rome, Italy and stars Lee as a martial artists from Hong Kong who comes to Rome to defend the Chinese community there. It is the second movie after The Big Boss (1971) to find Lee's character acting in such a capacity. We see the action increased as the henchman are more dangerous (I mean it is the Italian Mafia) and they have recruited a deadly martial artist of their own (Chuck Norris). The climatic fight at the Roman Colosseum would be one of the most spectacular one-on-one clashes in Kong Fu cinema until Enter the Dragon (1973).
Besides the action sequences, the most notable (and noticeable) thing about this movie is Lee's involvement behind the camera. Besides co-production of Raymond Chow (the Run Run Shaw of Golden Harvest Studio), the cinematography of Tadashi Nishimoto (a veteran of Hong Kong cinema despite being Japanese), and be edited by Yao Chung Chang, all the major roles of the crew are by Lee himself. This really shows the contrast between a professional like Lo Wei and someone who gets the idea, but is not polished. Lee as a film director is a little rough, but he was fortunate to have Cho, Nishimoto, and Yao working with him. Luckily, his skills as action-director are more than able to compensate for his skills as a screenwriter and film-director. The truth is, the fight between himself and Norris is the pay-off for everything we have to sit-through leading up to that point. The stretching sequence of those two in the lead-up to their fight is the most intense warm-up I've ever seen on film. Even without Enter The Dragon, this movie would've made him an international superstar either way. This film and The Big Boss are at the bottom of my personal Bruce Lee list, but are still worth checking out. Happy Birthday to the Master.
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