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Enter the Dragon Reaction! (Patreon)

Published:
2025-02-01 16:08:51
Imported:
2026-06
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Enter the Dragon (1973)

Full Reaction You can either stream the Full reaction below using the embedded video player, otherwise you can click the 'Download' button which will take you directly to Google Drive, enabling you to save the video to your computer instead. You must provide your own footage to watch alongside the full reactions.

Comments

Jenny Chalek

OMG I didn't know you were going to react to this! What a treat for me! I love martial arts movies.

Thomas Corp

Going into this and not exactly knowing the plot is something of a shared experience. For all that the film is iconic as it is, you sit down to start it and realize you don’t exactly know the plot. I went in with a few surmises based on homages over the years. The point remains that this is arguably the most iconic Bruce Lee film. Yes, this came out the same year he died tragically young. For some perspective, we’re both older now than he ever was, so, in a sense, he’s the younger man. The whole thing is a fantastic martial-arts film wrapped in a fun James Bond package, with some Blaxploitation for seasoning. Like Cabaret last month, this misses out on my top five of the year; 1973 was rather stocked with some really damn good films after all. It is in my top ten of the year. Glad to hear that it’s about what you expected, yet also not. Very lean movie, yes. Bruce is fantastic of course. John Saxon, handsome devil, was also great as Roper, as was Jim Kelly as Williams, sad though his character’s death is. Knew you’d like the brief focus on the plot over action. Whilst one would probably have more of it today, by the same token, it is like they say, and you observe, “The audience wants to see action, adventure. They don’t want to see a guy wrestling with his soul. Well, all right, a little for the critics.” Good point on the fights not seeming interminable. Especially the fight where Lee avenges his sister, which yeah, that part was dark. Very similar “OH!” reaction to the crotch kick. You also mention putting the acrylics to good use, I would expect nothing less. I’ll take your word on the Buffy of it all, as I haven’t seen that. Shih Kien is most excellent as Han who was just living his best Bond Villain life, and I was here for that, horrifying though it all is, I will grant you that, Jess. Mind you, we both detested the scene with the cat in the guillotine. My first thought was, “I am going to hate everyone for making me watch this.” Roper thankfully saves the cat, endearing himself further to both of us. Of course, Han reveals it was a test, a fake out. Doesn’t make it any easier to watch though. Just as it is difficult to watch the treatment of the women, who yeah, the female parts were thinly written. It is something that is bothersome; I’m with you on that one, Jess. Figured you’d comment on Bruce not having the most dialogue. Him, Bela Lugosi, Alain Delon, Steve McQueen, they’re men that do very well with more taciturn characters, and they let their presence convey a lot. As you see Bruce is great at it here. Funny you should say what you say about the sans gun business as Bruce was always annoyed by that. Even then, they do hang a good lampshade on that. No need to apologize for the consistent sartorial commentary. Particularly when this film eschews the usual fifty shades of beige and brown of the seventies, and there were sharp looks aplenty; I even said, “Look at that suit!” once or twice myself. Shared eye roll and discomfort reaction at the womanizing, which in the film itself, Lee has that same, “Jesus, man.” look on his face the first time it pops up, so he sounds like he’d be on our side on that one. You spoke of hating everything about that plotline, yeah, I figured you would, and I’m not arguing that one, Jess. Bringing us to the matter of the snake, which in preparing for the reaction a few days ago, seeing the snake made me say, “Ooooh, yeah. Forgot about that part. Ah, dang! Sorry, Jess.” Like you said, you picked the film yourself, so you can’t really blame us, though you can certainly yell at us for not giving you a head’s up. Plus side, you did get a good laugh at the one guy self-defenestrating upon seeing the snake, so that’s something. The big final fight beginning with Roper silently saying to Lee, “I got this.” and Lee respecting that. Yeah, it is stupid guy bullshit, but like you note, Roper’s got to avenge his friend. And ultimately, they both team up in the big fight, so it all balances out. The final confrontation is rightfully iconic, and I loved your comments on the mirror trickery. Other small observation. You called out Williams for avoiding the cuisine offered at the dinner. To be fair, I’d be in the same boat as Williams of being very wary about the food. I’m that atrociously picky of an eater; probably one of many reasons why I’m perpetually single. One small delightful surprise was your reaction to the name Copacabana. Would not have anticipated a Barry Manilow reference/sing along in an Enter the Dragon reaction, but here we are, and I loved it! Just very nice to see you enjoyed the film, you’re glad you finally see it, and it was a very fun reaction, Jess, thank you.

Ryan
>>163242823

The current series for the first of the month is ‘70s movies. Next is Dog Day Afternoon.

Ryan

Burning hot take alert: I find this the weakest of Bruce Lee's movies, and I strongly believe its reputation as the greatest martial arts film ever is down purely to Lee's shocking death at age 32, just a week before its world premiere. But Lee himself was very proud of it, and how much of his philosophical ideas he was able to sneak in, with the DVD I have featuring an introduction by his widow Linda where she reveals he actually did get to see the final cut and loved it. Though for the American release a lot of that material was removed in favor of focusing purely on the action, so it's good to see you got the full version, featuring lines like "Focus on the finger and you'll miss all that heavenly glory." Reviews put a lot of attention to its innovative mixing of martial arts and spy tropes, but I actually find that's the core part of what holds it back. There's simply too much STUFF in here for anything to get proper attention, and it kind of feels like a miniseries that was cut down into a single film. Most of all, I've always been baffled at their feeling the need to have Lee go to the tournament because he was hired by the government, AND to bring a traitor from his school to justice, AND to get revenge for what happened to his sister, like two or three characters were merged together at some point. Then you also add in Roper and Williams, two characters who could have been perfectly good protagonists on their own but simply can't hope to compete for our attention when you have the objective greatest action star who ever lived next to them. Eventually the movie even gives up on splitting its attention all these ways and kills one of them, and with this being 1973 of course the black guy is seen as the most disposable. Adding to the insult is that John Saxon wasn't a trained martial artist like Bruce Lee or Jim Kelly, and his fights have noticeably more editing work (and I have to think he'd have used some of that supposed skill against Freddy Krueger if he could). But for all that, there's still a lot to admire here, pretty much all of it down to Bruce himself. They knew exactly what they were doing starting the film with him fighting in a loincloth, those muscles looking like they can't be real as they appear on the verge of bursting through his skin at any moment (and quite amusing how the notoriously heavyset Sammo Hung is cast as his opponent to put his physique in even further relief). Jackie Chan was part of the film's stunt team (most noticeably, he's the guy who grabs Bruce from behind in a bear hug and gets his neck broken), and in his autobiography he describes Bruce as having a crackling energy all around him even while standing still, which he's never experienced with a single other person. My DVD also includes some priceless footage of him working out in his backyard, which a bit disappointingly doesn't include his famous ability to do pushups on just his index fingers, but you absolutely get the sense of the coiled power that was always inside him. Maybe most impressive of all is the iconic nunchuck scene where I can't fathom the amount of control required to swing them around that fast without actually hurting any of the stuntmen running at him. But knowing you, the best demonstration of his badassery would definitely be that all those insert shots of him handling the snake could easily have been done with other members of the stunt team, but he insisted on doing it all himself. The climactic fight with Han is also one of the all time great fight scenes, and it blows my mind every time knowing that this was long before they could have fixed any glimpses of the film crew in the mirrors surrounding the whole setting, but you never once see them (and trust me, I've tried). If this is anyone's first time seeing Bruce Lee, I highly recommend you also check out The Big Boss, The Way of the Dragon, and Fist of Fury, which I enjoy a lot more as pure expressions of his talent. His movies are like seeds that never got the chance to grow, and imagining what he could have done in the looser atmosphere Jackie Chan would bring to the whole genre a few years after his passing is something to sigh about never getting to see.

Ryan
>>163244612

I always appreciate when an action movie doesn't even pretend like the bad guys have any chance and just has them getting demolished. Maybe the top one of those ever is the end of Last of the Mohicans. In addition to Shih Kien's work, Han was dubbed by Keye Luke, long time Charlie Chan and Green Hornet actor who's now known pretty much entirely as the owner of Gizmo the Mogwai.

Thomas Corp
>>163377327

That’s fine with the hot take. Helping, sadly, is that there’s only the handful of films to pick from. Likewise, not entirely sure I’d say it’s the greatest martial arts film ever, one could make a case for others. So, I’m not bothered by your opinion. I like that Bruce liked it a lot. First time I saw it was the shortened version. One annoying thing is that the Criterion box set that I have, the longer cut is not on the same disc as the disc that has the film, and instead, is on one of the bonus discs. It also doesn’t come with the option for subtitles on the longer one. Say you made this today, and I don’t know why one would even try given the legacy it would need to live up to, (though I wouldn’t say no if Diana Lee Inosanto were to take a crack at it,) yeah, a miniseries format would help do better in the balance of attention that you talked about. Would also give more time to shine for Williams, who yes, does suffer from the “ the black guy is the most expendable/dies first” trope. Though overshadowed by Bruce, Jim Kelly is still great, as is John Saxon. As to John using any of the martial arts skills against Freddy, he did have in the third one, that line, “It’s really you. I killed you once before you son of a BITCH!!” which suggests he had the skill to throw down with Freddy, had he not been out of practice. Bruce is the enduring legacy of this. Heard Jackie offered the praise that he did. It is the thing of you hear everyone gush about Bruce, and you have that question of is the reputation earned, and you see him, and you get it. The man just exudes power, even when he’s really not doing much of anything. That thing of “having a crackling energy all around him even while standing still”, with him just exhibiting such a “coiled power” as you put it. Not just the nunchucks, there’s a few kicks that he does, where you just marvel at how a man can move that fast. Heard he got bit by the snake, albeit the venomous glands had been removed. An impressive display of courage and badassery, despite the severe fear that it of course incited in Jess. The entire sequence with the mirrors is one where you impress upon younger audiences how this was done long before cgi, so for there not to be even a single shot with the camera in any of the reflections, it’s a monumentally extraordinary feat. Like I said, I have the Criterion blu-ray boxset of the Bruce Lee films, so I’m game for more reactions to his work from Jess. (Though I should probably double check if there are other snake scenes that I may or may not have forgotten. Give her a head’s up if so.) There is the prevalent sadness to his films of the yearning for what could have been had he not died so young. What we have is still one of the most impressive legacies to leave behind.