cult film freak: bruce lee

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Written by James M. Tate / 3/30/2026 / No comments / bruce lee , karate , maria yi , nora miao , seventies , wei lo

BRUCE LEE & NORA MIAO 'FIST OF FURY/THE CHINESE CONNECTION'

<p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-PMHIYFlgYTmsRfI4ncsPGgCNTULtCgTUU6iWSsuKJnH_uANJiVL7OouQIZtuxoH7SUjh4CPE4hXe0iAohX7UF9rULb-UqNLHVvss9pfYOVjpygyT4McKk7TaA5R09Q-1NIK_TUeKSpvjf9hq_dSb-g3ZtU5E2rzmMEBe9eSiHGAWAWhmP0lY9zNYBQYn/s2036/Screen%20Shot%202026-03-30%20at%2011.42.22%20PM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1028" data-original-width="2036" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-PMHIYFlgYTmsRfI4ncsPGgCNTULtCgTUU6iWSsuKJnH_uANJiVL7OouQIZtuxoH7SUjh4CPE4hXe0iAohX7UF9rULb-UqNLHVvss9pfYOVjpygyT4McKk7TaA5R09Q-1NIK_TUeKSpvjf9hq_dSb-g3ZtU5E2rzmMEBe9eSiHGAWAWhmP0lY9zNYBQYn/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202026-03-30%20at%2011.42.22%20PM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Bruce Lee in FIST OF FURY/THE CHINESE CONNECTION Year: 1972 Rating: ****1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>In FIST OF FURY aka THE CHINESE CONNECTION, composer Richard Loo's Spaghetti Western style chanting soundtrack (with tense cues from Johnny Keating's <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2020/09/AR.html">ROBBERY</a>) leads to the polar opposite of Bruce Lee's first feature <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2026/03/bboss.html">THE BIG BOSS</a> (ironically re-titled FIST OF FURY in America): there he's calm and passive until being pushed into fighting while here, right off the bat, he feverishly attacks a coffin...<br><br>There's also a tremendous progression of aesthetics: the previous vehicle's a shoddy/rural low-budget modern-western while FURY is both plushly stylistic and genre stylized, taking place within either cool Asian-designed interiors or the kind of nighttime film-noir atmosphere when Lee's sneaking around, attempting to keep Japanese gangsters (having just occupied pre-WW2 Shanghai) from shutting down his master's multi-tiered dojo...</p>

bruce lee, karate, maria yi, nora miao, seventies, wei lo

BRUCE LEE & NORA MIAO 'FIST OF FURY/THE CHINESE CONNECTION'

Bruce Lee in FIST OF FURY/THE CHINESE CONNECTION Year: 1972 Rating: ****1/2 In FIST OF FURY aka THE CHINESE CONNECTION, composer Richard Loo...

BRUCE LEE IN 'ENTER THE DRAGON' WITH JOHN SAXON & JIM KELLY

<p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPaI469nA88IHOfjCYerBlmsZGJXOZu_PMSyKoBSEsXn2qfqlgon6jaSnWtTSj0ZAdVp3sikNmXAL5VBG_R9MveVWqYEj4Jh7gaunyCHAzMZ7Qf0Jvk4uhje71kqEfgyqPKulpQCmsoOd-3eGEhTDTRTxEXul1-nohTotDRJsh61qvK2mzuT2f26tJPZ4d/s1896/Screen%20Shot%202026-03-30%20at%2011.45.20%20PM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1896" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPaI469nA88IHOfjCYerBlmsZGJXOZu_PMSyKoBSEsXn2qfqlgon6jaSnWtTSj0ZAdVp3sikNmXAL5VBG_R9MveVWqYEj4Jh7gaunyCHAzMZ7Qf0Jvk4uhje71kqEfgyqPKulpQCmsoOd-3eGEhTDTRTxEXul1-nohTotDRJsh61qvK2mzuT2f26tJPZ4d/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202026-03-30%20at%2011.45.20%20PM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Bruce Lee in ENTER THE DRAGON Year: 1973 Rates: *****</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>By the time Bruce Lee, starring in his first and last American produced motion picture, squares off against island-ruling heavy Han in ENTER THE DRAGON, one important thing is crystal clear... <br><br>Nobody, from henchmen <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2024/11/tconnection.html">Bolo Young</a> to Robert Wall, or co-stars John Saxon or <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/search/label/jim%20kelly">Jim Kelly</a>, could have taken him on and so, liken to a James Bond franchise villain, the seedy-smiling, slave-owning, harem-surrounded Kien Shih has a glove with knife-fingers to give him that needed/necessary edge...<br></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p><span></span></p>

adventure, ahna capri, bolo yeung, bruce lee, jim kelly, john saxon, karate, robert clouse, seventies, spy

BRUCE LEE IN 'ENTER THE DRAGON' WITH JOHN SAXON & JIM KELLY

Bruce Lee in ENTER THE DRAGON Year: 1973 Rates: ***** By the time Bruce Lee, starring in his first and last American produced motion picture...

BRUCE LEE, NORA MIAO, MARIA YI, MARILYN BAUTISTA 'THE BIG BOSS'

<p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8p6WGUUgA77c2jGbqAmOucKGpeAbGkPxvR2RosOq_wv9xbEyJSXcrPWK_TxyRTSwVKP-RVwcCyKUzzEXF8o4YGzVIjRgxVi7dRR46PDRlSG6EPgGbQcYlDE-mhcytqkaUQL0cbRLh9bD5pUe9Q_90K8oCmaN7nr4lXFI2ODS__ooBrapbgX8y30Q3S7RQ/s2098/1.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="832" data-original-width="2098" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8p6WGUUgA77c2jGbqAmOucKGpeAbGkPxvR2RosOq_wv9xbEyJSXcrPWK_TxyRTSwVKP-RVwcCyKUzzEXF8o4YGzVIjRgxVi7dRR46PDRlSG6EPgGbQcYlDE-mhcytqkaUQL0cbRLh9bD5pUe9Q_90K8oCmaN7nr4lXFI2ODS__ooBrapbgX8y30Q3S7RQ/s16000/1.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Title: THE BIG BOSS Year: 1971 Rating: **1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>The <i>Kong-Mark</i> is around 45-minutes into a movie when what's anticipated finally occurs... the giant titular ape KING KONG rampaging after the kind of expository needed to build the characters and overall tension...<br><br>And that's when otherwise meditative Bruce Lee finally springs to life against an extremely small rural village's bevy of goons at a central ice factory.... although this first of two karate fights only lasts about a minute... <br><span></span></p>

action, bruce lee, exploitation, james tien, karate, maria yi, marilyn bautista, nora miao, seventies, wei lo, ying-chieh han

BRUCE LEE, NORA MIAO, MARIA YI, MARILYN BAUTISTA 'THE BIG BOSS'

Title: THE BIG BOSS Year: 1971 Rating: **1/2 The Kong-Mark is around 45-minutes into a movie when what's anticipated finally occurs... ...

BRUCE LEE, NORA MIAO & CHUCK NORRIS 'RETURN OF THE DRAGON'

<p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWHwJ3tCY4MjWXng9MXlgkz5h-TOEKRLVi3v79xcfa6qCEYaByPZCC-aZtHLFQfKJrmXfnMsCnV1GMV0JrYtpXjHBYV9s-v9pj4lZgA5cK-dFu3RkXHSdvg3hKguk-4zf-JGieO2szc_TkS08MxsqvW4f_ymDDrfB5LDJKZq9YnJBexeuDH1tBlrArW0Pj/s2102/1%202.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1174" data-original-width="2102" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWHwJ3tCY4MjWXng9MXlgkz5h-TOEKRLVi3v79xcfa6qCEYaByPZCC-aZtHLFQfKJrmXfnMsCnV1GMV0JrYtpXjHBYV9s-v9pj4lZgA5cK-dFu3RkXHSdvg3hKguk-4zf-JGieO2szc_TkS08MxsqvW4f_ymDDrfB5LDJKZq9YnJBexeuDH1tBlrArW0Pj/s16000/1%202.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>The Way of the Dragon/Return of the Dragon Year: 1972/1974 Rating: ***1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>With a Spaghetti Western opening score and cool Asian animation of 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... <br><br>So it's intentionally misleading for an audience that was rabid for more Bruce Lee, as if the "Dragon" 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...</p><p><span></span></p>

action, bob wall, bruce lee, chuck norris, comedy, crime, gangster, karate, malisa longo, nora miao, seventies

BRUCE LEE, NORA MIAO & CHUCK NORRIS 'RETURN OF THE DRAGON'

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 of...

BEWARE OF THE GRANDMASTER

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnmUsQwKzAlGfeyiCAhTWbuQhxpu-QCQFFbRFSP6AsEOPOQp3T1oWgPdOtuTBSIG6ADBfRnSMVO1O4caj_lx_J4hGcsgbTvF5CSmzfLhZqsOYd_Lt30DroLfjgL6S3CGq9XLEbuME9ynU1/s1600/dragon2_zps08954cfc.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="274" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnmUsQwKzAlGfeyiCAhTWbuQhxpu-QCQFFbRFSP6AsEOPOQp3T1oWgPdOtuTBSIG6ADBfRnSMVO1O4caj_lx_J4hGcsgbTvF5CSmzfLhZqsOYd_Lt30DroLfjgL6S3CGq9XLEbuME9ynU1/s640/dragon2_zps08954cfc.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">THE GRANDMASTER attempts the popular prequel-device to the Bruce Lee canon</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Having briefly met both Jim Kelly and John Saxon, who played Williams and Roper, co-leads in the Bruce Lee classic ENTER THE DRAGON, and being a personal friend of Sharon Farrell, who appeared in MARLOWE, a Neo Noir starring James Garner wherein The Master provided a glorious cameo...<br />
<br />
Knowing these people have provided more of a "mystical aura" connecting to the Lee legend than this new motion picture about Bruce's trainer, THE GRANDMASTER…<br />
<br />
This is a double-edged warning. First off, it’s <i>not</i> a review. The GRANDMASTER was such an awful experience that there was no way to sit through the entire movie. The second warning is this: if you want to feel some kind of residual magic concerning the greatest Martial Artist of all time, avoid this dud at all costs…<br />
<br />
Consisting of a choppy collection of close-up and medium shots lacking both suspense and structure, the cinematography resembles a glossy MTV video if produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, sans the entertainment value, making THE GRANDMASTER a ponderous kick in the pants to everyone wanting part of the Bruce Lee Experience…<br />
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For that, just rent or buy ENTER THE DRAGON and, like the rest of us, watch it 100 times and then some… It never gets old! <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2aZtN3IFT19s10PmA_w0J8J0yoa9Q0Kd87-5G9mJU4oc8zdcYrs33T4DpoerTM38bG6F2chODN1JOZpTJh2Mvszm0BPvh-1OHXuM3ecv5umu_kTQiope4a4G3_alRLRLCMnV0ZWfaXsof/s1600/photo-13_zps82185fea.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="504" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2aZtN3IFT19s10PmA_w0J8J0yoa9Q0Kd87-5G9mJU4oc8zdcYrs33T4DpoerTM38bG6F2chODN1JOZpTJh2Mvszm0BPvh-1OHXuM3ecv5umu_kTQiope4a4G3_alRLRLCMnV0ZWfaXsof/s640/photo-13_zps82185fea.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Personally autographed ENTER THE DRAGON poster by Jim Kelly and John Saxon</td></tr>
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2013, bruce lee