The Better Bruce Lee Movie

For some, The Big Boss will always be the best Bruce Lee film. Perhaps it was the first Bruce Lee movie; perhaps it was the setting in an ice factory plant in Thailand was appropriate for the plot of the movie.

As usual,as with other films in the 1960s, it's mayhem and murder for drugs that made the plot both arresting and interesting. For a first Bruce Lee movie, it was certainly explosive.

The Fist of Fury set during the era of Japanese occupied China played too much on Chinese values and loyalties with the final sacrifice by Chen in his death at the hands of the local police force. There was plenty of excitement here especially playing on anti-Japanese feelings. Some of the sub-plots were pretty creative.

For me, The Way of the Dragon was the apex of the Bruce Lee movies. It was one cool movie and did not overplay on Chinese values though the camaraderie continues to be there. Set in Rome,it provides a pleasant departure from Asian settings and the cultural shocks that Tang Lung underwent were quite humorous especially his need to search for the bathroom in a foreign land. However, there was little screen chemistry between Bruce Lee and Nora Miao. It never built up in the Big Boss, tried for a dismal breakthrough in Fists of Fury and was undeveloped once more in The Way of the Dragon.

Chuck Norris, Nora Miao, Malisa Longo and Wei Ping Au made this one a great outing at the cinema in the 1970's

I still enjoy the movie even now on DVD.