The Way of the Dragon

猛龍過江 (1972)

Timing: 1:40 (100 min)

7.372/10
1269

0/10
20

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All about film

Video 5

Photo 63

Actors and characters

Release date

1972-12-30

Country

Hong Kong

Production

Concord Productions, Orange Sky Golden Harvest

Genre

Action, Crime

Budget

$130 000

Revenue

$27 000 000

Website

Director

Bruce Lee

Actors

Bruce Lee, Nora Miao, Chuck Norris, Wei Ping-ao, Huang Tsung-Hsun, Robert Wall, In-shik Hwang, Ti Chin, Tony Liu, Little Unicorn
All actors and roles (10)

Scenario

Producer

Bruce Lee, Raymond Chow Man-Wai

Operator

Tadashi Nishimoto

Composer

Joseph Koo

Artist

Audition

Editing

Peter Cheung
All team (20)

• The film was shot without sound. The entire soundtrack was created during editing.
• The film features not only original music, but also music by Ennio Morricone, written for Sergio Leone's Westerns.
• For its American release, the film was titled “Return of the Dragon” to capitalize on the success of another Bruce Lee film, “Enter the Dragon” (1973), which was released slightly earlier.
• The scene of Bruce Lee's fight with Chuck Norris in the Colosseum was filmed on a soundstage at Golden Harvest Studios.
• Developing the fight between Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris’s characters took 45 hours. Describing the characters’ movements in this scene alone occupied nearly a quarter of the script.
• Few members of the film crew had international passports or work visas, which meant they could only work in Rome for a maximum of three weeks. All the necessary footage was shot in two weeks.
• In preparation for his directorial debut, Bruce Lee read about ten books on all aspects of filmmaking.
• Bruce Lee instructed Chuck Norris to gain weight so that he would appear as a more formidable opponent in the final scene.
• According to those involved in the filming, permission to film at the Colosseum was not obtained, so several scenes were quickly shot there without the knowledge of the Italian authorities.
• The film was titled 'Return of the Dragon' for its American release to capitalize on the success of another Bruce Lee film, 'Enter the Dragon,' which was released earlier.
• As part of preparing for his directorial debut, Bruce Lee read about ten books on all aspects of filmmaking.
• Filming took place from May 4th to June 29th, 1972 in Italy and Hong Kong.
• For its American release, the film was titled "Return of the Dragon" to capitalize on the success of another Bruce Lee film, "Enter the Dragon," which had been released earlier.