Enter the Dragon
1973 · Directed by Robert Clouse
Original language: English
- action
The story
A martial artist agrees to spy on a reclusive crime lord using his invitation to a tournament there as cover.
What it’s like
Warm, sun-struck haze over a fortress island, with humid greens, lantern-lit banquet halls and dim stone temple interiors lit in amber. The camera stays fairly composed and wide, letting fight choreography play out in full figure rather than chopped into jittery close-ups, while the zooms and slow pushes feel period-appropriate rather than frantic. The score is a brassy, funky mix of wah-wah guitar, percussion and sudden gongs, with bursts of hard-hitting combat sound: thudding impacts, shrieks, the occasional crack of bone. The mood is brisk and swaggering, part pulp adventure, part old-school spy caper, with dry humour threaded between bouts. Violence is frequent and stylised but punchy, with some bloodied faces and a few brutal kills, yet nothing lingers graphically and there is no sexual content. Best for a Friday night with friends, a nostalgic martial-arts rewatch, or anyone craving a propulsive, sun-drenched action film with a retro groove, for people who want their fights kinetic and their pace unhurried between them.
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