4.6 - ENTER THE DRAGON (1973) and Strength

The Prestige

This week our focus has shifted from the Japanese and Chinese films laying the groundwork for the Martial Arts genre, as we land in the realm of a classic of ‘Western’ cinema: ENTER THE DRAGON. There’s not a lot to say in terms of reviews — it’s ENTER THE DRAGON! — but we soon get onto discussions of breakout films, Western/Eastern editing, and a canny use of multiple cinematic genres.

Next Week
Next week sees us continue our movement Westwards, with another Martial Arts feature aimed at a Western audience: the 1984 classic (what a great year!) THE KARATE KID.

This Week’s Media
QUEER EYE S3 (2019): David Collins, Antoni Topolski, Tan France
THE LIMITATIONS OF THE MCU (2019): Patrick (H) Willems

Recommendations
THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. (1964–68): Sam Rolfe, E. Darrell Hallenbeck, Robert Vaughn
MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE (1996): Brian de Palma, Tom Cruise, Jon Voight
A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET (1984): Wes Craven, John Saxon, Ronee Blakley
MORTAL KOMBAT (1995): Paul W.S. Anderson, Linden Ashby, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa

Footnotes
First of all, the Patrick (H) Willems YT series on the MCU starts here. Onto this week’s episode...the wikipedia entry on Bruce Lee’s life is well worth reading. (I can’t stop reading, for example, about the various feuds and spats he had with people!) These reflections on Bruce Lee’s role in the film, from those involved in its making, are interesting. For more on the use of ADR in films, as mentioned by Rob this week, see here. (And this is a good article, also on the subject.) Finally, for more on the blaxploitation genre, which explains something of the Jim Kelly narrative in ENTER THE DRAGON, see here.