Way of the Dragon
- ️Wed Oct 10 2012
Way of the Dragon (traditional Chinese: 猛龍過江; literally, "The Fierce Dragon Crosses the River"; also known as Return of the Dragon in the United States) is the third film to feature Bruce Lee, as well as being his only complete directorial film and the last one to be released during his lifetime.
Tang Lung (Lee) is sent from Hong Kong to Rome to help his friend's niece Chen Ching Hua. She and family friends operate a Chinese restaurant which the local mafia wants to own. In order to force them to sell, the mafia has been trying to bankrupt them by having mooks frighten away any prospective customers. They then scarper before the police arrive. Lung is a Fish out of Water, speaking no English or Italian. This leads to some humorous moments prior to him engaging the mob, such as accidentally ordering five bowls of soup at an airport cafe and mistaking a prostitute's advances for mere friendly gestures (this is probably the most humorous of Bruce Lee's films, possessing an almost Jackie Chan-like feel during its first quarter or so). Chen, initially, is irritated by his cultural incompetence and doesn't trust him, but later comes around to him. After Lung and the restaurant staff beat up the first batch of mooks, the mob boss pays a visit with a bigger batch of mooks. When Lung beats up these as well, the mob boss calls in some of the top fighters in the world. This leads to what some consider one of the greatest moments of martial arts cinema, as Bruce Lee dukes it out with Chuck Norris at the Colosseum.
This film provides examples of:
- Author Appeal: A lot of Lee's personal philosophy about the value of different martial arts and the inherent superiority of guns is reflected on the film.
- Bowdlerise: In the original Cantonese version, Tang Lung uses several times the vulgar term 屎坑 (si hang, literally "shit hole") to refer to the toilet, which shows that he is an uneducated peasant. However, the English dub and the subtitles of the Criterion release use simply the word toilet. (In certain subtitled versions, the word is more correctly translated as shitter.)
- Cute Kitten: A cute little kitten lurks about in the background during the Lee/Norris fight scene for no discernible reason (aside from Rome having a fairly large stray population).
- Equal-Opportunity Evil: The crime boss has an effeminate, Chinese lackey and thugs that are both white and black who scare away the customers and beat up the staff. After Bruce deals with these guys, the crime boss flies in an American to kill Tang Lung.
- Fanservice: The Italian prostitute briefly appears topless and her bare chest is visible.
- Guns Are Worthless: Averted. Until Colt, guns are the only method the Mafia has to fight Tang Lung, who has to take exceptional precautions to avoid being gunned down. Even although he often manages to disable gunmen by using special darts, his final exchange with the crime boss leaves very clear that guns are the superior weapon of the two.
- I Am Not Leonard Nimoy: As shown on this very page, people are often unaware that Tang and Colt are the names of Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris' characters, focusing far more on the martial arts legends and their battle at the end.
- The Mafia: The antagonists of the movie are part of it.
- Need a Hand, or a Handjob?: An Italian prostitute smiles at Tang Lung, then puts an arm around him. Lung thinks these are just friendly greetings, so he reciprocates her gestures and follows her to her apartment. He is shocked when she appears topless in front of him.
- Never Bring a Knife to a Fist Fight: Any time a mook wields a gun against Lung, he is able to knock it out of his hand.
- New Old West: The film has the classic western plot of a lone hero arriving in a foreign town to help the downtrodden. It even ends with Tang Lung walking off into the distance.
- Spaghetti and Gondolas
- Recycled Soundtrack:
- Part of the soundtrack is taken from Ennio Morricone's score for Once Upon a Time in the West, particularly during the Colosseum scenes.
- Additionally, a snipped of John Barry's score for Diamonds Are Forever was used in the scene where Uncle Wang, showing his true colors, wickedly stabs Tony and Jimmy in their backs with a knife.
- Shout-Out: The film has one to the famous scene in Dr. No where James Bond waits by the door of his hotel room with a gun and shoots a would-be assassin. In this version, though, the result is reversed; Tang lays a beatdown on the waiting gunman before he has time to shoot.
- Took a Level in Badass: While they're still nothing compared to the more highly trained Tang and Colt, the staff manages to go from being easily floored by Mooks to being able to put up a decent fight after some training from Tang.
- Translation Matchmaking: It had its name changed to Return of the Dragon in the US to make it seem like a sequel to Enter the Dragon (which was actually made after this film but released in the US prior to it) in order to capitalize on that film's success.
- Underestimating Badassery: For a while, nobody at the restaurant takes Tang Lung seriously due him being a Fish out of Water, and the first group of thugs think it'll be easy to defeat him due to being just another "Chinese boxer". This ends the moment one of the thugs actually tries to fight him and is knocked out so fast nobody has a clear idea of what Lung did to him exactly.
- Villainous Valour: Say what you want about Colt, but the guy is not a coward. Even when it becomes clear that he's outmatched, he never tries to flee, surrender or use dirty tricks (which Lung often uses, though not in this duel). Even with an arm and a leg severly wounded (perhaps broken), he still decides to stand up and fight. This impresses Lung, who drapes Colt's gi top over him as a sign of respect after killing him.
- With Catlike Tread: One mook that Lee nails is right on course to brain him from behind... until he says that he's got him.
Did we mention that Bruce Lee pwned Chuck Norris?