It was my birthday last week and for it my bestest friends in the whole wide world (well they are now anyway) bought me the back2back Bruce Lee feature – Dragon (The Bruce Lee Story – starring Jason Scott Lee – no relation, I think) and Way of the Dragon (aka Return of the ... Read review
After 29 years of waiting, Way Of The Dragon is at last available to UK audiences as ... more
director Bruce Lee intended. Now re-instated are the 10 mins of incredible hi-impact fight footage previously prohibited by the BBFC, including Bruce's stunning double...
Set in modern Rome. A fast-moving Kung Fu story of how a country boy outsmarts big-city ... more
gangsters. Digitally re-mastered and restored anamorphic version. Now totally uncut after 29 years of censorship. Legendary double nunchaku sequences now re-instat...
Postage & Packaging: £0.00 Availability: 3-5 working days
This limited edition double film cell presentation features two strips of hand selected ... more
original 35mm film from Way of the Dragon featuring Bruce Lee. The collection has a black mount with black frame, an individually numbered plaque and certificate of authenticity.
Postage & Packaging:free Super Saver Delivery Availability:Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
Measures 36 x 24 inches (90 x 61 cm) approx,and comes to you Encapsulated in 75 micron ... more
film, heat sealed Lamination for total protection for years to come, Why buy a paper poster when a Laminated/Encapsulated poster is going to last for years and years, and wont ripple or tear like normal paper posters do, can still easily roll up, Absoluteley Timeless Image,.....Laminatedposters.co.uk....its the only way to roll.....
Postage & Packaging:free Super Saver Delivery Availability:Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
Measures 36 x 24 inches (90 x 61 cm) approx,and comes to you Encapsulated in 75 micron ... more
film, heat sealed Lamination for total protection for years to come, Why buy a paper poster when a Laminated/Encapsulated poster is going to last for years and years, and wont ripple or tear like normal paper posters do, can still easily roll up, Absoluteley Timeless Image,.....Laminatedposters.co.uk....its the only way to roll.....
Postage & Packaging:free Super Saver Delivery Availability:Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
Production Year: 1994 - Martial Arts - Director: Wong Jing - Original Language: Cantonese - Classification: 12 years and over - Starring: Gary Daniels, Chingamy Yau, Jackie Chan, Joey Wong, Kumiko Goto, Richard Norton
...it my bestest friends in the whole wide world (well they are now anyway) bought me the back2back Bruce Lee feature – Dragon (The Bruce Lee Story – starring Jason Scott Lee – no relation, I think) and Way of the Dragon (aka Return of the Dragon – no one actually seems to be able to decide what it’s correct title is). My review here is on the classic Martial Arts comedy Way of the Dragon – Bruce Lee had perfected ... ...means Little Phoenix) to confuse the spirits which Lee’s father believed would claim every son born in their family – as they had previously taken Lee’s older brother, apparently. However, his American birth certificate had Bruce Lee on it and he was encouraged to travel to America as a citizen at the tender age of 18, again to avoid the malevolent family spirits and hopefully make his fortune in the land of the free (ha ha). He ... more
It was my birthday last week and for it my bestest friends in the whole wide world (well they are now anyway) bought me the back2back Bruce Lee feature – Dragon (The Bruce Lee Story – starring Jason Scott Lee – no relation, I think) and Way of the Dragon (aka Return of the Dragon – no one actually seems to be able to decide what it’s correct title is). My review here is on the classic Martial Arts comedy Way of the Dragon – Bruce Lee had perfected the cheekily timed belt to the solar plexus well before Jackie Chan ever got a look in.
Now, if you’re reading this op, there is a good chance you know a fair bit about Lee (as he will be henceforth known), but some lovely facts and figures anyhow: Born on 27th November 1940 as Lee Yuen Kam in San Francisco – he was given a girls name (rumour has it that it means Little Phoenix) to confuse the spirits which Lee’s father believed would claim every son born in their family – as they had previously taken Lee’s older brother, apparently. However, his American birth certificate had Bruce Lee on it and he was encouraged to travel to America as a citizen at the tender age of 18, again to avoid the malevolent family spirits and hopefully make his fortune in the land of the free (ha ha). He married Linda Caldwell in 1964 and had two children, Brandon born 1965 (and died 1993 after a real bullet instead of a blank was put in a real ‘stunt’ gun on the set of The Crow) and Shannon, born 1969.
Lee died in 1973, just 3 weeks before the release of the film that was destined to make him an international star; Enter the Dragon, seemingly after taking a pill given to him by his reputed lover Betty Ting Pei; his hypersensitivity to the ingredients causing a cerebral edema meaning a coma which he never woke up from.
Lee didn’t actually make that many films but those he did make, I think, hold a special place in the minds, and video collections, of any fan, especially Fists of Fury and Enter the Dragon. But my particular favourite has to be Way of the Dragon.
WotD starts out as a fairly cheeky comedy (watch out – horrendous dubbing alert!) – Lee is sent to Italy by the uncle of a restaurant owner. She is being pressured by the mafia to give up her restaurant but obviously – it’s mandatory for this style of film – is far too feisty and independent to give in that easily (yeah right!). So country bumpkin Lee arrives to look after her. There are slapstick double take moments and some ‘riotous’ toilet humour, Lee also gets laid by a gorgeous easily nakeded Italian woman – guess who wrote (and directed) this film! Now for the real comedy – mafia boss man’s sidekick looks like a Chinese Frank Sidebottom (giant head, teeny weeny body tee hee) and makes many threats that wouldn’t scare a member of the I’m a scaredy cat fan club, and another henchman is a lanky black guy who looks, acts and is dubbed over to talk like the pimp in the wide brimmed hat and pink suit from the Simpson’s episode where they go to New York, i.e. ridiculously stereotypical and tres amusant – though I think unintentionally!
The staff at the restaurant are v unimpressed by skinny little Lee as they have been training themselves to take on the mafia guys and don’t reckon he’ll be up to much. So when the pimp turns up with his men they try to take them on and are beaten to the ground like the little girls they are lol. Eventually Lee steps in, whups everyone’s asses and they all go home for tea.
This is the point the film really picks up – there is less jokey humour and just more of Lee’s incredibly stylistic martial arts – more of his favourite topic too – the ability to fight and win without resorting to mechanical weapons – he whittles throwing needles from wood and uses them to disarm any gun toting mafia men – very effective!
This film also contains the very famous fight scene between Bruce Lee and Chucky the Champion of the World (Chuck Norris – World Middleweight Karate Champion 1968-1974) – which, apparently, is argued by many to be the best screen fight ever, and I agree that these people can’t be far wrong – it truly is an amazing sight to watch these two incredibly talented men kick seven kinds of sh*t out of each other. Even if Chuck’s excess ginger body hair is probably more terrifying than his moves.
This film has everything you could want – humour, fights, sex, blackmail, double-crossing and Chinese food (though no one ever actually eats in that restaurant!). It starts light-hearted and ends like an episode of the Littlest Hobo (remember that – the dog that travels around America befriending people who needed his help and then b*ggering off as soon as they’d got used to him – evil taunting creature) – with death and a fair amount of trauma.
If you like Bruce Lee you have to see this film, one of his very first major one’s and if you’ve recently got into martial arts films through styles as films like Blade, The Matrix and Romeo Must Die, you have to see Bruce Lee in action to realise that it can actually be done for real, without wires or CG. Watching Lee perform a scissor kick faster than the speed of light (or so it seems) will have you dying to get down the gym and learn that for yourself (practise in private unless you fancy making a total t*t of yourself.) And of course for me it doesn’t harm that he spends a lot of this film (as his others) wearing a little vest, and on really good days, nothing (on top, on top!! – he didn’t make that kind of film lol) – and showing off his fandabidosily perfect bod! You will note, also, when Lee fights he uses a particularly unusual squealing noise, which coming from anyone else would have you lyao (hence the title) but on him it just gets you on the edge of your seat waiting for him to let rip on his opponent.
Basically Bruce Lee was certainly one of the best and arguably the best martial artist ever on screen – he developed his own freeform martial art – Jeet Kune Do and proved his acting, writing and directing abilities time and again in his movies, many of which are now martial arts classics. Watch this!
Advantages: Lee at this uncompromised best, superb fight sequences, best fight ever choreographed, wonderful extras Disadvantages: absolutely catagorically emphatically NONE
...actually believe that this is the film was pure Bruce. It was the first that Bruce directed and choreographed and that becomes abundantly clear on seeing the fight scenes and some of the small comedy clips within the film.
It was the third of the Hong Kong trilogy and made after his break with Chinese director Lo Wei and is set in Rome although Lee only spent a couple of days in the city with most of the filming being done in Hong Kong.
The film ... ...toilets or speak any of the language which sets up a couple of comedy sequences early on. His relatives are somewhat disappointed to see that all he brings with him are his skills as a kung fu fighter. This soon turns to adoration as he uses his skills to dispose of the thugs who turn up at the restaurant and scare off customers. Lee gives a dazzling display of the nunchaku's and a shorter display of the long staff. There is one sequence when Lee ...
fightgear 17.07.2007
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of The Way Of The Dragon (Special Collector's Edition) (DVD)
Advantages: Supreme martial arts choreography, humourous and most memorable final fight scene. Disadvantages: If I HAD to nitpick, I suppose the comedy is quite basic
The Martial Arts genre has, ever since I started watching movies, been at the very top in my mind and has never lost its place to any other type of movie. My heart was stolen the first minute I watched Enter the Dragon, starring Bruce Lee, when I was 4 years old. It's an 18 certificate movie, but my parents were far from strict about prohibiting me from watching films of a violent nature. As I watched Bruce kick and punch his enemies all over the ... ...blockbusters for me, and over the last 20 years I have watched them all countless times and never lost an iota of enthusiasm for any. However, there is one film that surpasses the rest in storyline and quality of fight sequences and that is Way of The Dragon.
Background
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This film came at a major juncture in Bruce Lee's life. He had just featured as the leading man in two box office smash hits in China, The Big Boss and Fist of Fury. ...
oxonian 01.01.2008
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of The Way Of The Dragon (Special Collector's Edition) (DVD)
...by Bruce Lee is Enter The Dragon, It's his best film of the series of films he made. I want to discuss a bit about Bruce as well and I hope this doesn't make this in the wrong category, if it is I will get it moved... It was between the years of 1974-75 that Bruce Lee became really big, it was the Kung Fu phase and everyone was watching it. It all started with the weekly Kung Fu series starring David Carradine, now if ever a guy needed to get a life ... ...Anyway back to the master that was Bruce Lee, the guy that could stand straight while slowly lifting one leg until it was level with his stomach. I remember watching him doing this in “ Enter the Dragon” and thinking I could do that, needless to say I fell flat on my backside. The fitness and physique of Lee were just something to be envied by a skinny teenager growing up in Belfast. My mates all loved the Bruce Lee films from “Big ...
art1954 21.08.2001
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of The Way Of The Dragon (Special Collector's Edition) (DVD)
...beloved arts.
Way of the Dragon was something a disappointment. Don't get me wrong, it was a good film, but when you take into account the other films Bruce Lee starred in, you cannot label 'Way of the Dragon' as anything other than a disappointment.
The basic storyline is good but it is conducted in such a way that it has the feel of an episode of a programme on television, rather than a film. What I mean by this is that there is not the tension ... ...more should be made of the threat of the mafia.
As it is, the mafia are portrayed as a joke and they are turned into images of humour rather than threat. This is a big mistake with the film and it would be far more exciting to see Bruce Lee fighting against people posing a genuine threat to him rather than 'clowns' who he can neutralize in seconds.
Nevertheless there are two sequences that absolutely make this film. The first is a double nunchaku ...
deehanc2003 02.01.2005
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of The Way Of The Dragon (Special Collector's Edition) (DVD)
Advantages: uncut, extras, superb quality, best Lee fight scenes of any of his films, good price for all you get, and various languages Disadvantages: sadly you have to have a dvd player to watch this, as no vhs formats seem to have been released to the UK general public
...Lee fans like myself in the UK we can now watch Bruce Lee at his brilliant best. After literally years of waiting, his films are being released in the uk uncut- at least for dvd owners (i have a playstation 2 ) bad luck if you only have vhs.
I have over the years bought several Bruce Lee films only to be disappointed by the often very clumsy editing due to scenes being cut out . So when i heard of the new re-releases i was wary of being ripped off ... ...attempt to con the british consumer, however i was in for a pleasant surprise as you will be if you buy this dvd film . Not only are all the cut scenes re-instated, which to my mind are the very best of Bruce (this is the only film Bruce Lee directed . His humour is unmistakable and as for the action scenes all i say is Bruce should have directed all his films) the Chuck Norris fight is a classic as is the double nunchuck fight in the back alley. ...
petemanz 20.07.2001
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of The Way Of The Dragon (Special Collector's Edition) (DVD)
A man visits family in Italy and finds himself defending his own kind when they are attacked by the mafia.
Release details
DVD Region
DVD
Studio(s)
E1 ENTERTAINMENT; ARVATO SERVICES
Release date
11/06/2001
No of Discs
1
Catalogue No
MDV 511
Barcode
5032438505111
Languages
Main Language
English\Cantonese\Chinese
Technical information
Special Features
Feature Length Audio Commentary With Bey Logan And Jon Benn, Original Theatrical Trailer, UK Promotional Trailer, Rare UK 70s Trailer And TV Spots, Production Photo Gallery, Rare Photo Archive, Extensive Interview Gallery, Reflections On The Little Dragon Promo, Making Of Way Of The Dragon Text Files
Aspect Ratio
16:9 Anamorphic Wide Screen
Sound
Dolby Digital AC-3
Dubbing Sound
Dolby Digital 5.1 English Digitally Restored Digitally Remastered
DVD Description
Bruce Lee pays a visit to family members who own a restaurant in Italy, but mobsters who want the land the eatery is built upon, harass the owners, forcing Lee to defend his family as only he can. In the film's high-voltage, high-kickin' finale, Lee, for the sake of his loved ones, must battle a U.S. karate expert (Chuck Norris) in a Roman coliseum. The last film that Bruce Lee completed, he did not live to see its release.
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