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| The Way of the Dragon/Return of the Dragon Year: 1972/1974 Rating: ***1/2 |
With a Spaghetti Western opening score and cool Asian animation showing a Chinese boat moving swiftly through water, the actual translation to Bruce Lee's THE WAY OF THE DRAGON has to do with a dragon going overseas... but is mostly remembered as the re-titled RETURN OF THE DRAGON, released in America after ENTER THE DRAGON, in which Lee died at the tail-end of production...
So it's intentionally misleading for an audience that was rabid for more Bruce Lee, as if the character were returning when in fact, his Tang Lung had never been to Rome, where this, the third of Bruce's three Hong Kong action-crime flicks, takes place...
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| Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris in Return of the Dragon/The Way of the Dragon |
Best remembered for the last twenty-minutes, where Lee takes on the central crime syndicate's final henchman Chuck Norris in the famous Colosseum showdown... and while one of the greatest final battles ever filmed, Norris isn't a through-character that Lee anticipates fighting throughout the story...
Which is mostly a kind of slapstick comedy/karate exploitation hybrid involving the cutest of Asian ingenues Nora Miao (appearing in all of Lee's early entries), whose wide-eyed, vulnerably-adorable rich girl presents the primary exposition: of Lee protecting her uncle's restaurant from those gaggle of gregarious Italian goons...
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| Bruce Lee in Return of the Dragon/The Way of the Dragon |
Mostly keystone cop style thugs (orchestrated by wacky musical cues)... however, during the sporadic fight sequences in the restaurant's back-alley (one including double-nunchucks), the violence is very real, overshadowing the hit/miss hijinks leading up... making WAY OF THE DRAGON more a collection of terrific bouts than the kind of old-school gangster flick it's attempting to both embrace and parody...
Somewhat awkwardly paced because first-time director Lee, who always perfectly choreographed the action, wasn't yet steady at the art of punctuating the story along with the punches... but this DRAGON has an addictive/pulpy cadence nonetheless, with an underline suspenseful tension that it's leading to something glorious.
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| Nora Miao and Bruce Lee in Return of the Dragon/The Way of the Dragon |
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Nora Miao in Return of the Dragon/The Way of the Dragon
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| Nora Miao in Return of the Dragon/The Way of the Dragon |
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| Nora Miao in Return of the Dragon/The Way of the Dragon |
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| Nora Miao and Bruce Lee in Return of the Dragon/The Way of the Dragon |
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| Bruce Lee in Return of the Dragon/The Way of the Dragon |
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| Malisa Longo in Return of the Dragon/The Way of the Dragon |
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| Malisa Longo Nora Miao in Return of the Dragon/The Way of the Dragon |
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| Bruce Lee in Return of the Dragon/The Way of the Dragon |
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| Bruce Lee in Return of the Dragon/The Way of the Dragon |
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| Bruce Lee in Return of the Dragon/The Way of the Dragon |
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| Bruce Lee in Return of the Dragon/The Way of the Dragon |
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| Nora Miao in Return of the Dragon/The Way of the Dragon |
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Nora Miao in Return of the Dragon/The Way of the Dragon with Ping-Ou Wei
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| Bruce Lee in Return of the Dragon/The Way of the Dragon |
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| Bruce Lee in Return of the Dragon/The Way of the Dragon |
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| Bruce Lee in Return of the Dragon/The Way of the Dragon |
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| Bruce Lee in Return of the Dragon/The Way of the Dragon |
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| Nora Miao in Return of the Dragon/The Way of the Dragon |
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| Nora Miao in Return of the Dragon/The Way of the Dragon |
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| Nora Miao in Return of the Dragon/The Way of the Dragon |
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| Chuck Norris in Return of the Dragon/The Way of the Dragon |
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Bruce Lee in Return of the Dragon/The Way of the Dragon with Nora Miao
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| Chuck Norris in Return of the Dragon/The Way of the Dragon |
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Chuck Norris in Return of the Dragon/The Way of the Dragon with Bob Wall
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| Bruce Lee in Return of the Dragon/The Way of the Dragon |
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| Bruce Lee in Return of the Dragon/The Way of the Dragon |
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| Bruce Lee in Return of the Dragon/The Way of the Dragon |
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| Chuck Norris in Return of the Dragon/The Way of the Dragon |
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| Bruce Lee in Return of the Dragon/The Way of the Dragon |
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| Chuck Norris in Return of the Dragon/The Way of the Dragon |
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| Bruce Lee in Return of the Dragon/The Way of the Dragon |
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| Chuck Norris in Return of the Dragon/The Way of the Dragon |
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Bruce Lee in Return of the Dragon/The Way of the Dragon with Chuck Norris
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| Bruce Lee in Return of the Dragon/The Way of the Dragon |
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| Bruce Lee in Return of the Dragon/The Way of the Dragon |
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| Chuck Norris in Return of the Dragon/The Way of the Dragon |
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| Bruce Lee in Return of the Dragon/The Way of the Dragon |
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| Bruce Lee in Return of the Dragon/The Way of the Dragon |
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| Bruce Lee in Return of the Dragon/The Way of the Dragon |
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| Chuck Norris in Return of the Dragon/The Way of the Dragon |
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| Bruce Lee in Return of the Dragon/The Way of the Dragon |
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| Bruce Lee in Return of the Dragon/The Way of the Dragon |
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| Chuck Norris in Return of the Dragon/The Way of the Dragon |
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| The Kitten in Return of the Dragon/The Way of the Dragon |
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| Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris in Return of the Dragon/The Way of the Dragon |
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| Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris in Return of the Dragon/The Way of the Dragon |
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| Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris in Return of the Dragon/The Way of the Dragon |
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| The Kitten in Return of the Dragon/The Way of the Dragon |
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| Chuck Norris in Return of the Dragon/The Way of the Dragon |
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| Chuck Norris in Return of the Dragon/The Way of the Dragon |
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| Bruce Lee in Return of the Dragon/The Way of the Dragon |
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| The Kitten in Return of the Dragon/The Way of the Dragon |
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| Nora Miao in Return of the Dragon/The Way of the Dragon |
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| Nora Miao in Return of the Dragon/The Way of the Dragon |
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| Bruce Lee in Return of the Dragon/The Way of the Dragon |
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