Enter the Dragon (1973)

Don’t think. FEEL. It is like a finger pointing away to the moon. Do not concentrate on the finger or you will miss all that heavenly glory.

– Lee

There is something about Bruce Lee that I can’t put my finger on. He has “it”. Whatever it is, he has it. His intricate moves, facial expressions, the cadence of his voice. He commands the screen whenever he is on it.

That being said, this is first time that I saw Enter the Dragon in it entirety.  I have seen the climactic scene with the room full of mirrors a couple of times. Wow! Even though this movie was released in 1973, that scene is still great. That is a testament to the filmmaking. The rest of movie not so much.

Like many other martial arts movies, the plot is basic. Bruce plays the Shaolin monk Lee, a master of the ways of Kung Fu. He is recruited by Braithwaite (Geoffrey Weeks), a British officer to spy on a local Hong Kong kingpin, Han (Shih Kien). Han used to be a Shaolin monk who turned into being a cocaine pusher and white slave trader.

Braithwaite wants Lee to enter a tournament that will take place on Han’s private island.

When Lee arrives he sees other fighters there like Williams (Jim Kelly), Roper (John Saxon). Han wants to have control over the outcome of the tournament. He enlists his henchmen, Oharra (Robert Wall) and Bolo (Yang Sze) to keep everyone in line.

It was a solid movie for being the first American produced one. Great fight scenes. The dialogue was wooden.

I had trouble with a couple of sequences. There is a scene in the middle of the movie when Han shows his true colors that completely bored me to no end. Also, when Lee is in “stealth mode”, he is fighting the guards and you could hear the sound effects loudly. I thought that a person trying to hide in the shadows should not draw attention to themselves.

Judgment: If you want to see Bruce Lee at his best, I would suggest you check out this movie.

Rating: ***1/2