The Way of the Dragon

Hong Kong action film from 1972. Bruce Lee made it through Concord Production, the company he founded with Raymond Chow of the Golden Harvest studio, and had full control over the production: he is the screenwriter, director, lead actor and choreographer of the fight scenes. The film was originally intended only for the Asian market; in the USA it was released in August 1974 under the title Return of the Dragon. The owners of a restaurant in Rome face pressure from a crime boss who wants their property. They ask relatives in Hong Kong for help, and these send a young fighter, Tang Lung, who at first glance seems like a simple country bumpkin. Tang Lung's main opponents are representatives of karate from various countries: Chuck Norris plays the American champion Colt, Robert Wall a European karate fighter and Hwang In-shik a Japanese karate fighter. Hwang, however, is not actually a karate fighter but a Korean hapkido master, a student of Ji Han-jae. At the time of filming Norris had a real competitive career behind him: in 1967 and 1968 he won the All-American Karate Championship, and from 1968 he held the title of professional middleweight champion. For him it was the first credited film role. Against the superior numbers of his opponents, Tang Lung also reaches for the nunchaku. In the fight with Norris, Lee performs a kick that later became known as the oblique kick: a slanted kick aimed at the knee or leg of the opponent. Some MMA fighters use this technique today, most prominently Jon Jones.

Martial arts in this work

Fight choreography

Bruce Lee himself directed the choreography of all the fights. The climax of the film is the fight between Tang Lung and Colt in the Roman Colosseum, of about ten minutes, in which different fighting styles face each other. Lee shot it in long takes and with a composition in which the whole bodies of both fighters remain visible. Dramatic lighting makes both men look visually larger. Where exactly the fight was made, sources disagree: according to some it was shot in the Colosseum, according to others only exteriors were shot in Rome and the fight was filmed in a reconstruction in a Hong Kong studio. We have not been able to decide between the versions. Lee and Norris knew each other from karate tournaments in the nineteen-sixties and were friends and training partners. Lee introduced him to film audiences as his opponent.

People and martial arts

• Bruce LeeDirector
• Bruce LeeFight choreographer· Jeet Kune Do (real practitioner)
• Bruce LeeActor — as Tang Lung· Jeet Kune Do (real practitioner)
• Chuck NorrisActor — as Colt· Karate (real practitioner)
• Bob WallActor — as Bob· Karate (portrays the art on screen)
• Hwang In-shikActor· Karate (portrays the art on screen)

Awards

• Nominated · Golden Horse Awards, Best Feature Film (1973)