The Way Of The Dragon - The same year Bruce Lee broke new ground with Enter the Dragon, he wrote, directed and starred in this classic martial arts film that has lost none of its power to amaze.
The film resembles a western in its plot- a country bumpkin comes to Rome to help his relative`s restaurant which is being threatened by gangsters. He sorts out the bad guys and then leaves - like The Man With No Name.
It`s a shame that Bruce only directed one film. He brings great style to the fight scenes, so they are nothing short of excitement. The one thing the film is guilty of is not having a bit on the humor side. Compared to the amount of humor in your average Jackie Chan film, this is virtually humor-free.
That said, the fight scenes are incredible. An example is a brawl Bruce has with some thugs in an alley. He graduates from a stick to not one, but 2 nunchucks. The one scene this film will always be remembered for is the fight with future bad movie star Chuck Norris in the colleseum. The choreography for this one scene is beautiful and it`s as good as anything in The Matrix trilogy.
Jakcie Chan nicked the plot of this film to make Rumble in the Bronx. It`s basically the same film, only the gangsters are bikers, Rome is New York and the restaurant is a supermarket.