Return of the Dragon
by Bruce Lee
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Bruce Lee, Chuck Norris, Chung-Hsin Huang, Nora Miao, Ping-Ao WeiDirector: Bruce Lee
Producer: Bruce Lee
Writer: Bruce Lee
Cinematographer: Tadashi Nishimoto
Editor: Yao Chung Chang
Producer: Raymond Chow
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; English (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
Format: Color, DVD, Letterboxed, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 2.35:1
Running Time: 90 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2002-05-21
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Movie Reviews of Return of the Dragon
Movie Review: My favorite Bruce Lee movie
Summary: 5 Stars
In Rome, a beautiful Chinese girl inherits a restaurant which soon becomes infested with thugs and hooligans. The local mafia boss wants her to sign over the restaurant to him. Business plummets like a mother. In desperation, she pleads for help from her uncle in China. But, in his stead, her uncle sends Tang Lung, a bumpkin from the Chinese countryside. We see Tang Lung demonstrate his rusticness in metropolitan Rome, and we note the girl's chagrined reaction. She doesn't think he can help her. Boy, is she ever wrong.
As a side bar, let me mention that should you ever frequent this restaurant, don't for the love of Buddha order the Chinese spare ribs. You really won't like it. Anyway, because of all the thuggery, the restaurant has hosted so few customers lately that the staff now has all the time in the world to train in karate, these guys hoping like mad that they could fight off the goons. Tang Lung comes in with his Chinese boxing, and these waiters, with their urban cool, regard him with disdain. Initially. But since Tang Lung is being portrayed by Bruce Lee, can adoration be far behind? No. Tang Lung is soon proving his mastery of the nunchuk and doing that thing where the dragon is whipping its tail as he inflicts his dazzling Chinese boxing on the mafia henchmen. The restaurant staff is soon begging him for martial arts lessons, their white karate keikogi (or 'gi') discarded on the floor.
Tang Lung exhibits his naivete when he orders the mob boss to back off and then expects that to be that. The mob boss, naturally, doesn't back off. His local muscle outmatched by Tang Lung, he contracts elsewhere for better muscle. And, so, enter Colt, the formidable American karate champion. And so now will Tang Lung's Chinese boxing hold up?
Given, there's not that many to pick from, but as seminal as ENTER THE DRAGON was, my Bruce Lee film of choice is this one, RETURN OF THE DRAGON. Three things inform my choice. First, it's refreshingly set in scenic Rome, Italy. For martial arts cinema, this qualifies as exotic locale. It plonks our provincial lead character in curious situations as Eastern and Western cultures clash. This movie also finds Lee at his most humorous (and it's rare that Bruce Lee is humorous on screen), especially during the first half of the film. He smiles a lot in this one. Lastly, we get Bruce's mesmerizing death match with Chuck Norris at the Roman Colosseum (worth the price of admission alone). As far as Bruce's movie antagonists go, I'll take Chuck over beefy Bolo Yeung or that old dude with the metal hand or the guy who killed his teacher.
RETURN OF THE DRAGON (a.k.a. WAY OF THE DRAGON) was written and directed by Bruce Lee himself, and the man knows how to showcase himself and his skills. As ever, the Little Dragon is crazy intense and catlike graceful and so charismatic and, boy, does he ever love to show off his superhumanly toned physique. (And if I had dude's build, I would, too.) This is also the movie in which Bruce amazingly kicks up and shatters the ceiling lamp, a move that had my mouth all agape when I first saw it for the first time. But my favorite part of the film? Probably Bruce's tearing out a tuft of Chuck Norris's chest hair. And then Chuck's reaction to that. Oh, also, the unfortunate Robert Wall surfaces. But he survives Bruce's wrath in this one. Guy ain't so lucky in ENTER THE DRAGON.
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