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Enter the Dragon was shown in cinemas as a 4K 50th Anniversary presentation, with Shannon Lee introducing it, the daughter of its star, Bruce Lee, who sadly passed away in 1973 before this movie was even released, from a cerebral edema. Shannon was just four years old at the time.
About the plot, and there’s a kung fu tournament run by a bad guy called Han (Shih Kien), and Lee (Bruce Lee) is recommended for it, since he’s great at martial arts, to the point where he even instructs a young man who is learning the art, “Don’t think, just feel”.
However, Han’s army sees everything going tits up before the tournament – and as this happens early on, I will mention it here – as there’s fisticuffs all over the place, which leads to Lee’s sister coming up against Han’s bodyguard, O’Hara (Bob Wall). However, even though she managed to defeat many a man just moments earlier, suddenly she has a crisis of conscience, and commits hari kiri in front of him? That felt completely unnecessary, and I felt it was rather on her. Jeez, at least try and fight your way out!
Also along for the ride are Vietnam veteran Williams (Jim Kelly) – with a massive afro, and Roper (John Saxon – Tenebrae: Director’s Cut), who owes a ton of money from gambling. At first, I was trying to work out if one of them was meant to be a bad guy, in terms of which is likely to want to bump Lee off. I certainly get the feeling of Lee and Roper dancing around each other. Was I right?
As for Han – who’s a nasty piece of work, he’s trafficking young women, who just disappear after they’ve been in his employment, leaving Lee to infiltrate, and find out what’s going on. However, if Han goes to jail, who pays out the cash at the end of the tournament?
Enter The Dragon takes rather a while to get going, but it made me laugh when Williams and Han are having a fight, which leads to one of the latter’s underlings getting punched and landing on Han’s desk, after which Han just smacks him to get him away from there. Imagine if your employer did that?!
For a few asides, it was interesting to see contestants betting on Grasshoppers to fight to the death, as well as Lee saying he brings the art of fighting without fighting… Is that where Seinfeld‘s book for George Costanza came in, “Acting Without Acting”?
Also, very oddly, there’s a ton of of prisoners in Han’s lair, who are incredibly passive. How are they just putting up with that?
So, on my first viewing, Enter The Dragon is a bit of a mixed bag, but romps along reasonably well at 102 minutes, plus the ten-minute intro from Shannon. Bruce Lee certainly does put in a great performance, and amongst his actions in the ring, he has so much concentration on his face. Also, the 4K image is great for face close-ups, but at other times, it can be a bit iffy, say on group shots, but that’s just the nature of shooting on film.
It’s also good to know that the film has been uncut in the UK since 2001, after almost three decades of ridiculous censorship from the clowns at the BBFC which included cuts due to nunchuks, and the 2023 BBFC submission sees the film being given a 15-cert, rather than the 18-cert before, but still remaining uncut.
Enter the Dragon is available to buy on 4K Blu-ray, Blu-ray and DVD.
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 102 minutes
Release date: August 11th 2023 (4K Restoration)
Studio: Warner Bros
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 (Anamorphic Panavision)
Cinema: Cineworld Didsbury
Rating: 7/10
Director: Robert Clouse
Producers: Raymond Chow, Paul Heller, Leonard Ho, Bruce Lee, Fred Weintraub
Screenplay: Michael Allin, Bruce Lee
Music: Lalo Schifrin
Cast:
Lee: Bruce Lee
Roper: John Saxon
Williams: Jim Kelly
Tania: Ahna Capri
Han: Shih Kien
O’Hara: Bob Wall
Su Lin: Angela Mao Ying
Mei Ling: Betty Chung
Braithwaite: Geoffrey Weeks
Bolo: Yang Sze
Parsons: Peter Archer
Old Man: Ho Lee Yan
Thug in Prison: Jackie Chan (uncredited)
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.