The Way of the Dragon

"The Colosseum . . the battleground of Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris."

1972 1h 40m CN

👍

7.4

SOLID

🍅

88%

FRESH

😬

METACRITIC

⭐

7.1

IMDB

★7.4TMDB · 1,350🍅88%Rotten Tomatoes●58Metacritic★7.1IMDB · 44,051

ActionCrime

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

After a Chinese restaurant in Rome is threatened by the mafia, who will stop at nothing to acquire the property, the owner recruits a family friend in Hong Kong, kung fu expert Tang Lung, to help them defend their business.

“The Colosseum . . the battleground of Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris.”

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Cast

Bruce Lee
Tang Lung
Nora Miao
Chen Ching Hua
Chuck Norris
Colt
Wei Ping-Ao
Ho
Huang Tsung-Hsun
'Uncle' Wang
Robert Wall
Fred
Hwang In-shik
Japanese Fighter
Chin Ti
Ah Quen

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Bruce Lee
Writers: Bruce Lee, Joe Cheung Tung-Cho
Languages: Cantonese, Mandarin, English, Italian
Countries: Hong Kong, China, Italy

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Shot for just $0.1M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Grossed $27M — a 207.7× return. The kind of profit studios chase for a decade.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

ERA

Did you know

54 years old — a genuine piece of film history.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

Dialogue crosses 4 languages: Cantonese, Mandarin, English, Italian.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

International production across 3 countries: Hong Kong, China, Italy.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Bruce Lee, shot by Tadashi Nishimoto. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Joseph Koo. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Peter Cheung Yiu-Chung shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Bruce Lee directs. Tadashi Nishimoto behind the camera. Joseph Koo scores. Peter Cheung Yiu-Chung cuts. Made its budget back several times over at the box office. Produced in Hong Kong, China, Italy. Dialogue in Cantonese, Mandarin, English, Italian.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Shot for just $0.1M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.
2Grossed $27M — a 207.7× return. The kind of profit studios chase for a decade.
354 years old — a genuine piece of film history.
4Dialogue crosses 4 languages: Cantonese, Mandarin, English, Italian.
5International production across 3 countries: Hong Kong, China, Italy.
6Directed by Bruce Lee, shot by Tadashi Nishimoto. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
7Original score by Joseph Koo. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
8Editor Peter Cheung Yiu-Chung shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
9Bruce Lee and Nora Miao and Chuck Norris carry the top of the cast.
10Marketing tagline: "The Colosseum . . the battleground of Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris.".
11IMDB entry: tt0068935 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
12Classified under 21 themes, including "martial arts", "kung fu", "rome, italy", "colosseum".
13Released under 25 different titles around the world.

The technical file

Cinematography: Tadashi Nishimoto
Original score: Joseph Koo
Editing: Peter Cheung Yiu-Chung
Costume design: Chu Sheng-Shi
Makeup / hair: Hsieh Tse-Ming
Runtime: 100 min · 1h 40m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $130,000
Box office: $27,000,000
Return: 20769% of budget
Original language: CN
IMDB: The Way of the Dragon (1972)
Rotten Tomatoes: 88% 🍅 Fresh
Metacritic: 58/100
IMDB rating: 7.1/10 · 44,051 votes
MPAA: R

Awards

1 win total

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Community reviews

What people are saying

CinemaSerf2024-12-17
★ 6/10
You can certainly see that the camera loved the charismatic Bruce Lee in this otherwise rather predicable action adventure. He's the young "Tang" who arrives in Rome from Hong Kong to help out in a family restaurant that's under siege from the local mafia who want the premises for themselves. His arrival is quite timely as his adeptness with Kung Fu helps him to eradicate the local enforcers with comfortable ease. In the end they decide to get serious - perhaps the building is on an oil well, or something, so draft in the legendary "Colt" (Chuck Norris) who has the young upstart "Tang" firmly in his sights. There is astonishing agility on display here from an array of experts in this, and other, martial arts that showcase their athleticism and fleetness-of-foot using hands, improvised weapons, balance and precision to exhibit the artistic elements of this deadly form of combat really well. Away from those precisely staged activities, though, the rest of this is a rather ordinarily constructed drama that makes as much of visionary director Lee's limitations as an actor as it extols his skills as a fighter. Essentially, we can live without many of the first eighty minutes, especially the romantic interludes which come across as particularly wooden, and just settle down for a denouement that would have had Nero himself gripped from his throne in the ancient Coliseum.

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