Simply A Masterpiece

A Masterpiece!

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

It may have Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris in it - but those are the only bright spots on an otherwise laughable film.Was this film made by an Italian tourism board? On the way to the restaurant at the heart of the film, they happen to drive past every Roman monument. Furthermore, the film is terribly lit and shot. More than once, the film is out of focus. There are needless zoom-ins and zoom-outs. These film techniques work in fight sequences but not more low-key scenes.Maybe humour is just lost in translation, but the jokes where Bruce Lee has to go to the toilet (which ceased to be amusing quick) are laughably embarrassing to watch. The pace of the movie is very bad. One of the aforementioned toilet scenes has the girl of the film waiting for Bruce Lee while he's in her bathroom. I also fail to see how any assassin would use a shotgun for taking someone out from afar. The cinematography is also very poor.Thankfully, the fighting scenes deliver and Bruce Lee is on form. His fight scene with Chuck Norris is the film's highlight, but even that is filled with nonsense. Why, exactly, is there a little cat that the director feels compelled to cut to every 30 seconds? When there is a dramatic zoom-in, zoom-out on Lee and Norris, we get another close-up of the cat, ZOOMING IN AND OUT OF IT! Why?! (And thankfully, Chuck Norris would realize he looks better in a beard, and spare us shots of his hairy shoulders.) In terms of fighting, Way of the Dragon is a good watch, but so many pointless shots could simply have been, and should have been, cut. I'm almost positive the makers of The Hangover watched this film, as the main henchman could very well be Leslie Chow's cousin. He adds some comedic elements, but apart from him and the fighting scenes, Way of the Dragon isn't even an unravelled patch on Enter The Dragon.

A man (Bruce Lee) visits his relatives at their restaurant in Italy and has to help them defend against brutal gangsters harassing them.I am by no means an expert on martial arts films or on Bruce Lee. I happen to enjoy the films of Donnie Yen, who I presume was heavily influenced by Lee (because, after all, everyone was influenced by Lee).This film has the distinction of including multiple jokes about Bruce needing the bathroom far more frequently than the average human being. More interestingly, it also features Chuck Norris as the villain Colt. Younger people today (2013) may barely recognize Norris, as he has no beard here and has some strange 1970s clothes.

Bruce Lee's filmography was short. A short role in "Marlowe", three Cantonese action flicks and one Hollywood venture with the near perfect "Enter the Dragon"*. "Way of the Dragon" was Bruce's only self directed work and while he'd started work on "Game of Death" he never got to finish it. His two other Cantonese films; "Fist of Fury" and "The Big Boss" were directed by Chinese pro Wei Lo who succeeded in bringing out Bruce's best when it came to his acting and, wisely, let Bruce loose when it came to choreographing the stunning fight scenes he's most known for. Although "The Big Boss" isn't very good, "Fist of Fury" is and it probably showcases best Bruce's acting and unbelievable martial arts skills. With "Way of the Dragon" Bruce wanted director's choirs and, sadly, he doesn't fare well. Taking obvious cues from Wei Lo but also influenced by American and Italian film making (my guess; Sergio Leone was a favorite of his); "Way of the Dragon" works best when simply focusing on breathtaking action and not the central story of a Chinese relative helping his kin keeping a restaurant safe from mafia enforcers. Bruce clumsily injects far too many scenes with silly and badly staged humorous sequences*. The location photographers went a little too nuts with Roman locals and the film practically slows to a halt midway through as Bruce and girl spend a day walking around the city. What drama there is is amateurishly handled and for too much over the top acting is let loose. The atrocious dubbing is among the worst I've seen and it doesn't help matters either. But the action scenes are simply sensational and ensure the film as a classic Bruce Lee flick. The one on one with Chuck Norris is legendary, the double nunchaku fight is intense and overall when it comes to fight scenes the film is impeccable. There's even a very surprising twist near the end that I didn't see coming and the dramatic ending is quite well played out. One must keep in mind how difficult and ambitious a project this was for Bruce. Only allowed to spend a limited time in Italy and with a crew that had a two week limit; it's maybe not so surprising that many of the location shoots turned out the way they did. It was a big thing for a Chinese film to be shot in Europe and there's a funny story involving the shooting in the Coliseum (extremely illegal and fast feet were required). Bruce's intentions were to bring Chinese films up to the level of American films and this was his debut feature. Taken as such; it's not at all bad. Bruce definitely would have polished his directorial skills and honed his craft even more. So we'll never know what he could have delivered but if the 40 minutes or so of footage he completed for "Game of Death" is anything to go by it would have been something special. As it stands; "Way of the Dragon" is a wholly uneven mixture of exceptional fight scenes coupled with a very rough mix of silly humor and amateurish drama (for the most part). *In the filmography listings above I left out his television credentials which of course included "The Green Hornet", "Batman", "Longstreet" and others along with many bit parts in Chinese films. *I must admit that one scene; where an opponent of Bruce gets hold of one his nunchaku's and accidentally knocks himself out is simply hilarious. I rewinded at least three times*

Actually , my personal favorite was Fist of Fury (Chinese Connection in the US) but this is also a very good movie and it seems that it was the favorite of his wife Linda Coldwell. Way of the Dragon was known as Return of the Dragon in the US and Chuck Norris must have had fond memories of this one. The illegal filming in the Colosseum in Rome must have been a very daring thing to do. The scene with the dart in a man's backside was quite funny. This was to my knowledge the only Bruce Lee film with some humour in it. The question "Is hore name Tang Lung?" (no spelling error by the way, just the accent the man was speaking) by the Korean guy is the line I think I remember best. It was Bruce's first attempt at directing and he did a very good job too.