The Dragon Lives, 1976 - ★★★

The Dragon Lives, 1976 - ★★★
REVIEWED

"Little Dragon, he's an hero. He's the man they call Bruce Lee" - Theme song (Anders Nelson)

Considering it was made only a few years after his death, and decades before wikipedia Dragon Lives is an entertaining, surprisingly faithful funky fu biopic of Bruce Lee starring talented bruceploitation clone Bruce Li (Ho Tsung Tao). Li's perfectly cast as the egomaniac, womanizing but supremely dedicated legend who died tragically young. Kicks off with a young 7-8 year old Bruce being disciplined by his renowned master Ip Man in HK for beating up his bully classmates. Cuts to titles and the obligatory groovy theme tune Little Dragon which we hear multiple times (6 or 7 at least) throughout the film. Then we get brief scenes of grown-up Lee struggling to cut a break in the US till he became a rising star of LA's martial arts tournaments, and picked up by Hollywood executives to star in Green Hornet. His short burst of US fame quickly dried-up so he heads to HK to star in his legendary spell of martial arts films, with his famed informal no-style technique. The death scene is messy and more than a little surreal, but I can forgive it for being vague, it did at least hint earlier he wasn't eating enough and training far too hard. Really enjoyed it, was well worth seeing again.


IMDB Page
Originally taken from Letterboxd

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