My Review of "Way of the Dragon"

I loved Way of the Dragon when I first saw it as a young child. I realize now that this movie is very much like an anime before Animes were big. There was so much to love back in the day but I wasn't sure how I would receive the movie today. As with many movies that I re-watch from the past, there's a chance it might suck. I was willing to risk my memory of this movie to give it another watch.

This movie is basically about a character named Tang Lung, played by Bruce Lee. He's basically sent to protect his cousin's small Chinese restaurant in Rome, Italy. Which incidentally led me to travel to Rome. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to find any Chinese restaurants there.

The owners of the restaurant Chen, played by Nora Miao refuses to sell the restaurant to some organized crime boss, played by Jon T. Benn. So this boss continues to harass them by sending his henchmen to bully the employees and scare off patrons.

The bullying pretty much ends once Tang Lung comes to town but the crime boss still thinks he's in charge because he's got money to spend on tougher henchmen.

First off, this movie was filmed very amateurishly. I own the official bluray version of this movie and some of the scenes are totally out of focus. Especially the beginning of the movie. It is distractedly blurry and out of focus.

The sound effects are pretty much what you'd expect from a movie from 1972. Filming has come a long way since the 1970's and it really shows in this movie. I'm sure they had a lower budget than most movies back in those days so I guess I'll let that one go.

Some people watching the movie today might be so accepting of what seems like a flamboyantly gay character in the movie. They have to watch the movie in its entirety to understand why this character isn't necessarily politically correct. This movie shies away from sex but there is a scene where he kind of flirts with Tang Lung. However, in no way were there any derogatory remarks against gays or the fact that he was flamboyant. Tang Lung even seemed to be accepting of the guy at first. For a movie that came out in 1972 this may have seemed quite forward thinking.

Watching this movie again I didn't realize how many jokes were placed in this movie. There are a number of gags that include an ongoing toilet jokes. It was unexpected when I saw it again. You can see how this movie influences everything from video games, movies and TV shows.

Tang Lung is basically like Ryu from the Street Fighter series except with Chinese Kung Fu. He's a loner looking to practice his martial arts and willing to accept challengers. You can see that Tang Lung also seems to have martial arts principles of only fighting people that are looking to fight and not beat someone down when they're willing to surrender. I don't know why they did this but he's also a guy that shy's away from sexual relations.

This movie doesn't have a ton of dialogue. It goes from one fight set up to the next and the fights are very different from what we're used to today. You can see how fast Bruce Lee is in this movie however the fights are not choreographed in a much more dramatic fashion. You'll clearly see how people get hit and there's a ton more emotion in the fighter's faces. Each fight is almost like a story of its own. Although, the fights seem much more tame to today's standards they're really well done. You can still feel much more impact in the fights of this movie than a lot of the action sequences in a few of the movies that come out today.

After seeing this movie again, I realized this movie is very cartoonish but that's not a bad thing. It's still very much as entertaining as I remembered it in my past. I could re-watch this movie over and over and not get tired of it.

Overall, I still thought this movie was highly entertaining and it was able to rekindle my memories of the movie. A good movie is able to stand the test of time and this movie was able to do just that. That's why I have to give this movie an 8.5 out of 10. If you're interested in seeing a good Bruce Lee movie I would highly recommend this movie to you. I'm just worried that I'm a little biased because of my nostalgia for this movie.