Way of the Dragon
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Way of the Dragon (《猛龍過江》 released as Return of the Dragon in the U.S.) was the third major film of Martial Arts Legend Bruce Lee. Bruce Lee was the leading role, writer, director, and producer of this film.
Cast
- Bruce Lee as "Tang Lung" (a.k.a. "Dragon")
- Nora Miao as "Chen Ching Hua"
- Chuck Norris as "Colt"
- Robert Wall as "Bob" (Colt's student)
- Ing Sik Whang as "Japanese Martial Artist"
- Wei Ping-Ao as "Translator"
Plot synopsis
Tang Lung (Bruce Lee), is sent from Hong Kong to Rome to help a family friend whose restaurant is being targeted by the local mafia. After their offers to purchase the restaurant outright are repeatedly turned down, the gangsters turn to intimidation. Tang Lung fends off the local gangsters, but that doesn't stop the Mafia boss. He hires martial arts experts, the best of whom is known as "Colt" (Chuck Norris). Inevitably, this leads to a showdown between Tang Lung and Colt in the Colosseum.
The film was released in 1972.
Trivia
- Way of the Dragon was the first Hong Kong film to be shot on location on a Western continent.
- The Italian gangsters in the film speak English, not Italian, because all of their scenes were shot in Hong Kong.
- Only Bruce Lee and Nora Miao appear in the outdoor sequence showing Roman monuments.
- Jackie Chan's Rumble in the Bronx is said to be a tribute to Way of the Dragon. The set-up has a similar plot of a young man going to a foreign country to help out at his uncle's shop.
- While it went largely unnoticed by Western viewers, the soup scene proved memorable to Chinese audiences. Campbell Soup had become a popular brand in Hong Kong when Way of the Dragon was first released.
- The Nunchaku scene was heavily edited when the movie first appeared in England.
- Way of the Dragon is the only movie to show Bruce Lee wielding two nunchaku at once.
- The original Chinese audio track has the Chinese characters speaking Chinese and the Italian gangsters speaking English. This distinction explains why Tang Long looks puzzled when the gansters speak to him. In the English translation, everyone speaks English, so it's not immediately clear why he can understand some people but not others.
- National Review author and novelist John Derbyshire has an uncredited role in the film.
External links
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