Enter the Dragon (1973) (R)

Enter the Dragon (1973) (R)
Directed by Robert Clouse
Starring: Bruce Lee, John Saxon, Jim Kelly, Ahna Capri

Daddy Says:

The credit on the screen may say it was directed by Robert Clouse, but this is Bruce Lee's film all the way. One of the first pure martial arts movies seen by American audiences, Enter the Dragon remains a classic of 70's cinema to this day.

Bruce Lee plays a martial arts expert named Lee (go figure), who is recruited by a government agency to join a tournament being held on an island run by a former student named Han. Han's island is populated by his own trained army, and Lee is tasked to find out what secret activities Han is up to and then call in the cavalry. He's just like James Bond, if Bond knew how to kill people with kung-fu. In a flashback, we also see that Han's bodyguard was responsible for his sister's suicide, giving Lee a personal motive for revenge as well. I'll give you two guesses as to who Lee's first opponent in the tournament is, and the first two don't count.

The story is really secondary here, to the spectacular fight scenes (choreographed by Lee himself). The final battle between Han and Lee takes place in a hall full of full-length mirrors, where the opponents cannot be sure if they're attacking or being attacked by a real person or just a reflection. It's stunningly choreographed, and photographed, which must have been extremely difficult considering how many reflective surfaces were around.

It's sometimes silly. The exaggerated slow-motion and facial expressions, combined with the dubbed in sound effects, often evokes laughter instead of the seriousness being portrayed on the screen. But if you like action movies at all, and martial arts movies in particular, you owe it to yourself to see what I consider to be the best of them all.

Rating for Enter the Dragon: *****.

Daughter Says:

I just want to start out by saying that Enter the Dragon is a cool name. It is a great name for a kung-fu movie. It had a semi-great film to go with that great name.

I really enjoyed this movie. I thought I’d be extremely annoyed having to read it (I thought I had to read the movie because it was a Bruce Lee film after all). But then I found out that it was in English, but once again disappointed to find out that it was dubbed. I hate when people’s words don’t match their mouths. It’s like an OCD kind of thing. But my prediction was wrong. The dubbing was semi-decent. Only so often were their words off from their mouths. It was very satisfactory.

I did giggle occasionally, because like any older kung-fu movie it had a lot of really cheesy sound effects. (Wah Yah! I’m a ninja!). That’s all that went through my head every time Bruce Lee karate kicked or chopped a guy. It was really bad when he was climbing walls all dressed in black. (It’s making me giggle just thinking about it.) On the plus side, the fight scenes were really cool. I really liked the mirror scene. The only problem I had with that was when Lee remembered what his master told him. It was very strange.

Other than that, this movie was really awesome. I had tons of fun watching the fighting scenes and laughing at Bruce Lee when he made funny faces.

I highly recommend this movie if you’re looking for a good karate movie. This one is definitely the one for you. It’s got everything a karate movie could ever hope for. If I had to choose a Bruce Lee movie or a Jackie Chan movie, I think I would most likely go for Bruce Lee. He is a master at kung fu and I can see why Kill Bill looked for this movie and others for inspiration.

Rating for Enter the Dragon: *****.