When a woman’s body washes up in the South China Sea, the death is pinned on the mysterious Mr. Han, an island recluse and cat-stroking villain with a prosthetic hand who could’ve stepped right out of a Bond film.
That this should be the casus belli for the hundreds of fatalities that ensue, is a little rich but hey…who needs plot when there are fists of fury?
Enter the Dragon.
British intel tries to get Lee (played by the redoubtable Bruce Lee) to infiltrate Han’s island, where to-the-death martial tournaments are frequently held.
Since there’s the obvious potential red herring large enough to be spotted from a helicopter, the film deals with it abruptly: Mr. Han doesn’t like guns! (He had a bad experience with them. Ergo, anyone’s frisked coming in and if they’re found packin’, they’re sent packing! So intel couldn’t just arm Lee to the tits and have him shoot the place to bits. Clear?
Done.
Instead, Lee uses his guile and his incredibly ass-kicking ability to get his hands on Han.
There’s a reason rappers Wu-Tang Clan “kicked rhymes like Jim Kelly” in Da Mystery of Chessboxin.’ Jim Kelly (Williams) is simply awesome and he’s along for the ride as a tournament combatant.
The Kentucky native sports a giant ‘fro, cool yellow gi and beats down opponents with his karate skills. He’s Black Belt Jones, for chrissake.
Also, b-movie greats Bolo Yeung (Bloodsport) and John Saxon (Cannibal Apocalypse and A Nightmare on Elm Street I and III) are on hand to compete in this tournament. Bolo folds up one of Han’s henchman like an accordion in one of cinema’s most memorable deaths.
When Han accuses Williams of breaking curfew as well as the bones of his faceless, inept security detail, we get the following:
Han: We are all ready to win, just as we are born knowing only life. It is defeat that you must learn to prepare for.
Williams: I don’t waste my time with it. When it comes, I won’t even notice.
Han: Oh? How so?
Williams: I’ll be too busy looking gooood.
Amazing.
A lean Bruce Lee’s acrobatic chop-socky beat-downs carry the day, but there’s no denying the charisma of Han (Shih Kien) and the coolness of his prosthetic weaponry.
**** (out of 5)
Really Awful Movies 
I’m not a huge martial arts movie guy, but this is one worth owning. Where I can’t tell a lot of the other movies in the genre apart, this always stands out. Also, Jim Kelly and his afro are nothing short of amazing. I just kind of wish the afro would have survived when he got killed.
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Ha! That is the one thing that would have made the movie better! Could’ve been a sequel: Enter the Dragon 2: The Afro Strikes Back!
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Especially because the afro would have been on a skeleton, if I remember correctly. There is probably no way to mess up a movie about a skeleton with an afro that knows karate.
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I read somewhere that the director of this schlockfest is/was deaf. That makes total sense. The dialogue sounds like it’s written, but more important, spoken by space aliens who’ve had a really lousy teacher in human expression. There is this weird slowness about everything, the pauses and stretched out lines are like a drug induced fever dream. I admire Lee’s 100% invincibility. He pretty much knocks the shit out of the entire rest of the cast at the end, and it’s always enjoyable when the bad guy sends the opponents into battle in manageable 5 person groups to make sure the hero has a chance to waste them all. Also involuntarily hilarious: A room with many mirrors gives the chief bad guy a chance to confuse Lee beyond all measure. Where is he, where is he? No way of knowing, ’cause MIRRORS! If this is the magnum opus of martial arts movies, Napoleon Dynamite is the best Godfather.
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