Enter the Dragon
Directed by	Robert Clouse
Produced by	Fred Weintraub Paul Heller
Written by	Michael Allin
Starring	Bruce Lee John Saxon Ahna Capri Shih Kien Robert Wall Angela Mao Betty Chung Geoffrey Weeks Peter Archer Jim Kelly Bolo Yeung
Music by	Lalo Schifrin
Distributed by	Warner Brothers (Americas, Europe, Japan) Golden Harvest (Asian countries except Japan)
Release date(s)	July 26, 1973 August 17, 1973
Running time	98 min.
Country	Hong Kong United States
Language	English

Enter the Dragon (Chinese: 龍爭虎鬥) aka. The Deadly Three, originally titled Blood and Steel is a 1973 American martial arts film directed by Robert Clouse; starring martial artists Bruce Lee and Jim Kelly, as well as actor John Saxon. It is the last completed film Bruce Lee appeared in before his death. He died six days before the film was set to be released.

In 2004, Enter the Dragon was deemed "culturally significant" and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.

Contents 1 Overview 2 Plot 3 Cast 4 Box office legend 5 Reception 6 On-set incidents 7 Additional information 8 Notes 9 Enter the Dragon in popular culture 10 Remake 11 DVD releases 12 HD DVD release 13 Blu-ray Disc release 14 See also 15 References 16 External links

[edit] Overview

It was the first Chinese martial arts film to have been produced by a major Hollywood studio and was produced in association with Golden Harvest and Lee's Concord Production Company. The film is largely set in Hong Kong.

Among the stuntmen for the film were members of the Seven Little Fortunes, including Jackie Chan and Sammo Hung. This was arguably instrumental in Chan and Hung's further association with Golden Harvest studios, which later launched their careers. The portly Hung is shown fighting Lee in the opening sequence of the movie.

The finished version of the film was significantly different from the original screenplay drafts as Bruce Lee revised much of the script himself, including having written and directed the film's opening Shaolin Monastery fight sequence. Lee wanted to use the film as a vehicle for expressing what he saw as the beauty of his Chinese culture, rather than it being just another action film.

[edit] Plot

Lee is a Shaolin martial artist from Hong Kong who possesses great philosophical insight into martial arts as well as physical prowess. He receives an invitation to a martial arts competition on an island organised by the mysterious Han. Lee learns from his Sifu (master) that Han was also once a Shaolin student, but had been expelled from their order for abusing their code of conduct.

A man called Braithwaite from an international intelligence organization approaches Lee and asks for his help in an undercover mission. Han is suspected to be involved in illegal drugs and prostitution dealings, but since part of Han's island is beyond international jurisdiction, they are unable to conduct any formal investigations. Han runs a martial arts school on his island to recruit talents to serve him and tests a secret drug formula on his servant girls, as well as holding his tournament every three years. Lee is the ideal candidate for the mission as his fighting skills are valuable since Han disallows firearms on the island. Before leaving, Lee learns from his father that Han's henchman O'Hara had caused the death of his elder sister years ago.

Lee arrives on Han's island and receives a warm reception. Joining him are other competitors - Roper, a White American playboy-gambler on the run from the mob; Williams, a Black American activist on the run from the law after fighting two White policemen in Los Angeles. Roper and Williams defeat their respective opponents in the competition held the following morning. That night, Lee begins searching the island for evidence and finds a secret entrance to an underground base. He runs into Han's guards but manages to take them down before they could identify him. He is seen by Williams, who is taking a stroll, and Williams is seen by a guard and reported to Han.

The next day, Han warns the competitors about wandering out of their rooms at night. He punishes his guards for failure in their duties and the guards meet their horrible ends at the hands of the sadistic Bolo, Han's chief bodyguard. Moments later, Lee is called to his first match and his opponent turns out to be O'Hara. Lee defeats O'Hara and is forced to kill him after O'Hara attempts to attack him using broken glass bottles. Han is disgraced by O'Hara's dishonourable actions and calls it a day. He asks Williams to meet him later and accuses Williams of attacking his guards the previous night. Williams denies it and Han kills him after a brief fight.

Han takes Roper on a tour of his underground base and invites him to be his representative for his operations in the United States. When questioned, Han shows Roper the mutilated corpse of Williams, hinting that Roper will face the same fate if he refuses to cooperate with him. The same night, Lee breaks into the underground base and gathers sufficient evidence to warrant Han's arrest, but sets off the alarm unknowingly while using the radio transmitter to contact Braithwaite. He fights with several of Han's guards during his escape but is eventually lured into a trap and captured.

The next morning, Han asks Roper to fight Lee as a test of his loyalty. Roper refuses and Han sends him to fight Bolo instead. Roper emerges victorious and the infuriated Han orders his men to kill both Lee and Roper. Despite being helplessly outnumbered, Lee and Roper manage to hold off the enemy until the captives in Han's underground prison break free and join their side to even the odds. Amidst the chaos, Han attempts to sneak away but Lee spots him and follows him. Han is killed by Lee after a spectacular fight, on his own spear. When Lee returns to Roper, he sees that most of Han's men have been defeated and rounded up. They exchange thumbs-up just as military choppers arrive in response to the distress call.

[edit] Cast

Bruce Lee as Lee John Saxon as Roper Shih Kien as Han Ahna Capri as Tania Angela Mao as Su Lin Jim Kelly as Williams Robert Wall as O'Hara Bolo Yeung as Bolo Betty Chung as Mei Ling Geoffrey Weeks as Braithwaite Peter Archer as Parsons Ho Lee Yan as The Old Man Marlene Clark as Roper's Secretary Allan Kent as Golfer William Keller as Los Angeles Cop #1 Mickey Caruso as Los Angeles Cop #2 Pat E. Johnson as Hood #1

Darnell Garcia as Hood #2 Mike Bissell as Hood #3 Jackie Chan as Han's Henchman (stuntman, uncredited) Roy Chiao as Shaolin Abbott (uncredited in U.S. version) Paul Heller (uncredited) Sammo Hung as Shaolin Fighter (martial artist, uncredited) Lam Ching Ying (uncredited) Tony Liu as Tournament Fighter (uncredited) Keye Luke (voice, uncredited) Hidy Ochiai (uncredited) Steve Sanders as (uncredited) Wei Tung as Lao (Lee's Student) (uncredited) Donnie Williams as (uncredited) Tadashi Yamashita as (uncredited) Yuen Biao (uncredited) Yuen Wah (uncredited) Dylan Holmes (uncredited)

[edit] Box office legend

Enter the Dragon was a huge success during its original theatrical release. It grossed an estimated $25,000,000 in North America,^[1] and an estimated $90,000,000 worldwide,^[1] off a very modest $850,000 budget.

In Hong Kong, the film grossed HK$3,307,536^[1]—huge business for the time, but substantially less than Lee's Fist of Fury and Way of the Dragon.

[edit] Reception

Enter the Dragon holds a 97% rating on RottenTomatoes.com, with 37 reviews counted and an average rating of 7.8/10.

The film also ranks 474th in Empire magazine's 2008 list of the 500 greatest movies of all time.^[2]

[edit] On-set incidents

Lists of miscellaneous information should be avoided. Please relocate any relevant information into appropriate sections or articles. (December 2009)

• Lee was bitten by a cobra during filming of the scene in which he infiltrates Han's underground lair. Fortunately the snake had been de-venomized prior to Lee handling the snake.
• Lee once collapsed in May 1973 during the dubbing of Enter the Dragon.
• During the fight scene with Wall, Lee cut himself on glass bottles that were not the sugar glass props normally used in the film industry.
• Lee's famous, running thrust kick into Wall's chest at the end of their fight scene broke Wall's sternum, and broke one arm of each of two extras, into which Wall was propelled and fell. The rest of the fight (with the glass bottles) was delayed for one month, until Wall had healed well enough to perform the choreography. The kick and fall were scripted and rehearsed, but Lee was unhappy that the kick would not look real on screen. Wall exhorted Lee, "Go for it, man. I'm a professional." The result, on the eighth take, put Wall in hospital. This incident, as well as others, helped give rise to the rumour of an on-set feud between Wall and Lee, and that this feud prompted Lee to fight him for real (see next note).
• During the making of 'Enter the Dragon', it has been said that Lee had developed a grudge against Wall due to the cut injury he had sustained when Wall had held onto the "real glass" bottle during their fight scene (where O'Hara smashes the bottles). Wall and others deny these allegations however, stating the whole event was blown out of proportion and that it was something instigated by director Robert Clouse.^[3]

[edit] Additional information

Lists of miscellaneous information should be avoided. Please relocate any relevant information into appropriate sections or articles. (December 2009)

• It is arguably the most influential kung-fu film ever, kick-starting the kung fu film genre in the United States and establishing Bruce Lee as a cultural icon.
• In October 1973, Enter the Dragon was the number one box office film in the United States.
• The production budget was $850,000 and the filming was completed in less than three months.
• In 1977, Enter the Dragon was listed as one of the 20 most profitable films in the history of cinema.
• In Empire magazine's 201 greatest movies of all time, it was ranked number 197.

[edit] Notes

Lists of miscellaneous information should be avoided. Please relocate any relevant information into appropriate sections or articles. (December 2009)

• Sammo Hung appears as the Shaolin student who spars with Lee in the opening scene.
• Jackie Chan appears as a guard during the underground lair battle scene and gets his neck snapped by Lee.
  

  

  Jackie Chan's character gets his neck snapped by Bruce Lee
• Roy Chiao appears as Lee's Sifu. All of his scenes were in the initial release of the Hong Kong version (and are among the few that weren't edited out of the film since) and he received on-screen credit for it. However, he is uncredited in the U.S. version, and almost all of his scenes were edited out of the initial U.S. release. Chiao's scenes were later restored in the DVD release of the U.S version in 1998.
• The scene in which Lee states that his style was the style of "Fighting Without Fighting" and then lures Parsons into boarding a dinghy is based upon a famous anecdote involving the 16th century Samurai Tsukahara Bokuden.^[4][5]
• Critics have referred to Enter the Dragon as "a low-rent James Bond thriller",^[6] a "remake of Doctor No" with elements of Fu Manchu.^[7] An aspect of this does come in when, while showing Roper around his museum, Han strokes a white cat in a manner similar to that of James Bond villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld.
• According to Shannon Lee, who appeared on a Spike TV special, airing the film, she states there was a debate on deciding the title, as the film originally was supposed to be named "Blood and Steel" or "Han's Isle". The film was named "Enter the Dragon", as she states her father was known as "The Dragon".
• At the beginning of Lee's fight with Han (in the courtyard, right after Han scratches him with the bear-claw), Lee counter-attacks with the same pattern (sidekick, reverse roundhouse, and jumping kick) that he used at the beginning of his fight with "Hsiao Mi" in The Big Boss.

[edit] Enter the Dragon in popular culture

Lists of miscellaneous information should be avoided. Please relocate any relevant information into appropriate sections or articles. (December 2009)

• This film was good inspiration for actor and action/martial arts superstar Jean-Claude Van Damme - when he was a kid - to become who he is today^{[citation needed]}.
• This film is parodied in The Kentucky Fried Movie as A Fistful of Yen.
• Many of the moves performed by Bruce Lee in this film (such as his Somersault Kick) are used for the characters Marshall and Forest Law in the video game series Tekken. In Tekken 5, one of Marshall Law's selectable outfits is the same outfit that Bruce Lee wears in the climatic fight sequence in this film and the claws marks on his chest is even present.
• Various moves and character nuances of Lee in the film are the basis for the character Maxi from Soulcalibur series.
• The classic Beat 'Em Up series Double Dragon has many of its thugs named after characters from Enter the Dragon including Williams, Roper, Oharra, and Bolo.
• The plot of the original Mortal Kombat video game is identical to that of Enter the Dragon.
• Liu Kang, from the Mortal Kombat series, is based on Bruce Lee's character.
• In rapper Andre Nickatina's album, Raven in My Eye, several songs start or end with themes from Enter The Dragon.
• Pump It Up Zero (an arcade dance simulation video game) has a mix of the theme song of Enter the Dragon arranged by South Korean hip hop group JTL.
• There were several references to Enter the Dragon in The Boondocks animated television show, most notably in the episode "Granddad's Fight".
• The main theme of the film was used as an introduction to most of the songs on Jamiroquai's Dynamite era.
• The final fight of the film between Lee and Han inspired two films: Conan the Destroyer and The Shadow.
• An article^[8] in The Onion from March 2004 covered a similar style of tournament, this time held by Donald Rumsfeld.
• The makers of Balls of Fury have referred to their film as "the retarded ping-pong version of Enter the Dragon".
• The scene with the mirrors (Bruce Lee fighting Shih Kien) was a homage to the funhouse climax scene from Orson Welles' The Lady from Shanghai
• The Ska punk band, Inner Terrestrials, covered the Enter the Dragon theme while incorporating their own anarchistic lyrics.
• In Jackie Chan Adventures, the plot of episode "Re-Enter the J-Team" is based on Enter the Dragon.
• Is the favourite film of the Japanese director Shinichiro Watanabe.
• In the film The Last Dragon, the lead character (nicknamed "Bruce Leroy") is a dedicated fan of Bruce Lee.
• In the Family Guy episode "No Chris Left Behind", Ernie the chicken crashes through a window and gets cut in the stomach. He wipes the cut with his finger, and then licks it—a homage to Lee's confrontation with Han at the end of Enter the Dragon.
• The legendary rapper Kool G Rap wrote a song entitled "Enter The Dragon."
• In Street Fighter II V one of the costumes for Fei Long resembles Lee's sparring outfit in the film, complete with the same claw scars.
• In the Dead or Alive game series, Jann Lee uses the fighting style: Jeet Kun Do.
• In the Virtua Fighter game series, Jacky Bryant uses the fighting style: Jeet Kune Do.
• The film is also frequently shown on G4TV as part of their "Movies That Don't Suck" feature film.
• The main theme of the film was used as the background music for the "Honeycomb Maze" challenge on the Japanese game show Takeshi's Castle.
• The online game Dragon Fist 3: Age of the Warrior features many characters from martial arts movies with the actor animated, and one of them is Mr. Lee (Lee's character) from this film.
• Kenshiro from Fist of the North Star is based on Bruce Lee's character.

[edit] Remake

In August 2007, Warner Independent Pictures announced that television producer Kurt Sutter would be remaking the film as a noir-style thriller entitled Awaken the Dragon.^[9]

According to Latino Review Korean singer-actor Rain is rumoured to star in the movie.

[edit] DVD releases

Warner Brothers

• Released: July 1, 1998
• Aspect Ratio: Widescreen (2.35:1) anamorphic
• Sound: English (5.1), French (5.1), Spanish (5.1)
• Subtitles: English, French, Spanish
• Supplements: Introduction and interview with Linda Lee Caldwell; Commentary by Paul Heller and Michael Allin; Location: Hong Kong with Enter the Dragon documentary; Bruce Lee: In His Own Words documentary; Backyard Workout documentary; Trailers and TV spots; Production notes
• Region 1

Warner Brothers

• Released: May 18, 2004
• Aspect Ratio: Widescreen (2.35:1) anamorphic
• Sound: English (5.1), English (1.0)
• Subtitles: English, French, Spanish
• Supplements: Commentary by Paul Heller and Michael Allin; Location: Hong Kong with Enter the Dragon documentary; Bruce Lee: In His Own Words documentary; Backyard Workout documentary; Blood and Steel documentary; Bruce Lee: A Warrior's Journey documentary; Bruce Lee: Curse of the Dragon documentary; Trailers and TV spots
• Region 1, NTSC

Universe (Hong Kong)

• Aspect Ratio: Widescreen (2.35:1) letterboxed
• Sound: Cantonese (5.1), Madarin (5.1)
• Subtitles: Traditional, Simplified Chinese, English, Japanese, Indonesian, Malaysian, Thai, Korean, Vietnamese
• Supplements: Stars' Files, Trailer for the film and Trailer for The Big Boss, Way of the Dragon, Game of Death and Legacy of Rage
• All regions, NTSC

Fortune Star - Bruce Lee Ultimate DVD Collection (Hong Kong)

• Released: April 29, 2004
• Aspect Ratio: Widescreen (2.35:1) anamorphic
• Sound: Cantonese (DTS 5.1), Cantonese (Dolby Digital 5.1), Cantonese (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono), Mandarin (DTS 5.1), Mandarin (Dolby Digital 5.1)
• Subtitles: Traditional, Simplified Chinese, English
• Supplements: Original trailer, New trailer, Still photos, Slideshow of the photos, Celebrity interviews, Alternate opening credits, Unseen footage, Game of Death NG Shots, 32-page booklet
• Region 3, NTSC

[edit] HD DVD release

Warner Brothers

• Released: July 11, 2006
• Aspect Ratio: Widescreen 2:40:1
• Sound: English (5.1), French (1.0), Spanish
• Subtitles: English SDH, French, Spanish
• Supplements: Interview with Linda Lee Caldwell, The Making of ENTER THE DRAGON, A Warrior's Journey, The Curse of the Dragon, Bruce Lee: In His Own Words, Hong Kong with ENTER THE DRAGON, Backyard Workout with Bruce, Theatrical Trailer, and TV Spots
• Region free

[edit] Blu-ray Disc release

Warner Brothers

• Released: April 17, 2007
• Aspect Ratio: Widescreen 2:40:1
• Sound: English (5.1), French (1.0), Spanish
• Subtitles: English SDH, English, French, Spanish
• Supplements: Interview with Linda Lee Caldwell, The Making of ENTER THE DRAGON, A Warrior's Journey, The Curse of the Dragon, Bruce Lee: In His Own Words, Hong Kong with ENTER THE DRAGON, Backyard Workout with Bruce, Theatrical Trailer, and TV Spots (Special features are the same as the HD-DVD Release)
• All regions

Kam & Ronson (Hong Kong)

• Released: October 15, 2009 ^[10]
• Aspect Ratio: Widescreen 2:35:1
• Sound: Cantonese (DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1), Cantonese (Dolby True HD 7.1), Mandarin (Dolby Digital EX 6.1), Thai (Dolby Digital EX 6.1)
• Subtitles: Traditional Chinese, English, Thai
• Region A

[edit] See also

• Jackie Chan filmography

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Enter the Dragon

• Enter the Dragon at Rotten Tomatoes
• Enter the Dragon at the IMDb
• Enter the Dragon at the Hong Kong Movie DataBase
• Enter the Dragon at Allmovie

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