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Death of Huo Yuanjia, retribution for Shanghai. The barely suppressed hysteria of "body, spirit, and patriotism" is unveiled in the extravagant overture, the prodigal disciple (Bruce Lee) returns to the academy too late for the master's funeral, under a downpour he must be restrained from hugging the coffin. Oaths of nonviolence don't last long under Japanese occupation, the hero's kung-fu wrath erupts mightily in the oppressor's bushido dojo: Calmly unbuttoning his black jacket while surrounded by white judogi ("One on one? Or all at once?"), he tears through a roomful of foes and then heads to the park for an iconic kick of resistance, shattering the "No Dogs and Chinese Allowed" sign in slow-motion. The main villains are a Mifune stand-in with a painted-on Snidely Whiplash mustache (Riki Hashimoto) and a shaggy Russian brawler in a pinstripe tuxedo (Robert Baker), special scorn is saved for the traitorous weasel serving as interpreter (Ping-Ou Wei). (Playing the police inspector in the middle, director Lo Wei reveals an Edward G. Robinson side.) The fights are shot with a quick, alert eye—the camera is high when the hero seizes two fighters and spins them like a dervish, then low when he wields a pair of nunchucks to shatter the ankles of a horde of opponents. At the center is Lee at his fiercest, already the superstar as mythical figure. A doomed tenderness with Nora Miao, a hint of Arsène Lupin in playful disguises (elderly newspaper seller, grinning telephone repairman), the ability to lift a scoundrel's rickshaw and smash it against the wall like Paul Bunyan. "Who says knight errantry is dead?" The coda helps itself to Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. With James Tien, Maria Yi, Chen Fu Ching, Chin Shan, Han Ying-Chieh, and Feng Yi.
--- Fernando F. Croce |