Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #40146 in DVD
• Released on: 2002-05-21
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Formats: Color, DVD, Letterboxed, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 90 minutes

Amazon.com
Bruce Lee wrote and directed Return of the Dragon, his third film, a mix of hard-edged kung fu and goofy humor. Once again he plays the country boy who travels to a foreign land, in this case Italy, where his restaurant-owning cousins face trouble from the local syndicate. Their strong-arm tactics have driven customers away and now threaten the family, but Lee refuses to buckle under their pressure and takes them on in a series of impressive confrontations. The film ends with a memorable showdown with world-champion karate artist Chuck Norris in the Roman Colosseum (though much of it is staged in a rather cheap studio set), a brutal, almost inhuman battle that revels in the intense punishment taken by the combatants. Norris is one of Lee's best opponents and a marvelous physical contrast: brawny and hairy, using power and blunt karate moves while lean, wiry Lee counters with speed, gymnastic prowess, and balletic grace. The mix of comedy and kung fu comes off as camp at times, but that's hardly the reason to see the film. When Lee gets into action, whether he's taking on a gang of knife-wielding thugs or dueling Norris to the death, he becomes the total focus. Originally titled The Way of the Dragon, this film was renamed in the wake of Enter the Dragon to cash in on that movie's popularity. --Sean Axmaker

Customer Reviews

American DVD release only, not the movie.
Retrun of the Dragon was the American re-cut and badly dubbed version of Bruce Lee's classic Way of the Dragon. Believe it or not this movie was Lee's highest grossing film in Hong Kong. He made this movie especially for that market. That's why it's so different than the others. But the DVD is bad. Go out and get the import disc title Way of the Dragon. The movie is a lot longer, it's uncut and in cantonese with english sub-titles and the movie is correctally matted at 2.50.1. You'll see it like you never have before!

Bruce Lee's 2nd Best Film Behind Enter the Dragon!
I am a hardcore Bruce Lee fan, owning all 3 of Lee's Hong Kong movies (On the Hong Kong Legends un-cut original audio track versions), Enter the Dragon: 25th Anniversery Edition DVD, Bruce Lee: A Warrior's Journey, Bruce Lee: The Master Collection DVD Set and about half a dozen documentaries and I can tell you with all honesty this is his most thrilling and fun movie to see (Behind Enter the Dragon) There is plenty of awesome martial-arts sequences which are still very impressive, the American-dubbed versions from FOX is hilarious to watch and Chuck Norris provides Lee with his most challenging advesary he ever fought. Some of the scenes in this classic is down right side-spliting ("I'd like some Chinese spare ribs") And what about that stupid, irritating Chinese man with that gay giggle! Man, he gets on your nerves. (Although Bruce Lee kicked his butt in Fist of Fury) Anyway, the main highlight of the film is of course the battle between Chuck Norris and the dragon, Bruce Lee. This fight is probably, in my opinion, the most realistic, brutal and awesome fight sequence ever captured on film (Forget Jackie Chan, that crazy monkey! Ok, he's fun to watch but he is nothing like the Legend) Other great fight scenes include the nunchuku alley-fight, the boss's HQ fight, Lee vs. Japanese Fighter and European Fighter and Lee vs. Norris. My friends and I always get a kick out of this one and his other excellent movies. So if you have not seen Return of the Dragon before check it out now and all his other kick-butt films. Long live Bruce Lee!

Bruce Lee's best
This is perhaps the best martial arts (from a basic, pure karate perspective) movie, from the man who had started the whole martial arts revolution on screen and made it a household name. There are probably many martial artists who are, and were better than Bruce Lee, but no one compares to him when it comes to understanding the arts and how to project it on screen. His sense of choreographing fight scenes is still unmatched in the world of cinematic martial arts. This is the one simple reason what makes 'Return of the Dragon' the best of Lee's movies. The climatic battle scene with Chuck Norris remains the best-choreographed karate demonstration on screen, so far. He was perhaps the only true movie martial artist who could take of his shirt and have the male audience want a body like him. Like, 'Enter the Dragon', this movie didn't have a host of big-name martial arts stars like Jim Kelly, Yang Ze, and others. It had a relatively unknown Chuck Norris (to the rest of the world) after his reign as a seven-time US Karate champion, but the movie did make Norris a household name. Return of the Dragon remains Lee at his best, without all the glamor and high budget extravaganza of Enter the Dragon. If you like Bruce Lee, and martial arts, the buck stops here.