- Directed by Robert Clouse, Enter the Dragon has the honor of being the first James Bond film to star an Asian actor. Sure, Bruce Lee plays a character named Lee instead of Bond and is completely respectful to the film's women (Ahna Capri, Betty Chung), but there are plenty of Bond motifs lurking in the margins, from the island fortress to the endless stream of henchmen (Bob Wall, Yang Sze) to the villainous Dr. Han (Shih Kien), who transforms his disfigurement into a deadly weapon. But since the film stars Bruce Lee, there are also a lot of really impressive demonstrations of martial arts that are admittedly more convincing than anything you'd see deployed by MI6.
- The plot of Enter the Dragon is simply that Lee is tasked by a British agent (Geoffrey Weeks) with investigating Han's island stronghold while attending a martial arts tournament. Also present are two Americans: the unlucky gambler Roper (John Saxon) and the unjustly persecuted Williams (Jim Kelly). Although the movie tries to give these men personalities and backstories (through a rare double-flashback, in Lee's case!), the entire affair is naturally an excuse for Lee to punch and kick a bunch of people, which he does with great adroitness. Lee resembles a coiled spring when he isn't fighting, and it is always fun to watch him uncoil in the direction of some hapless hired goon. While every scene in Han's palatial fortress is oddly captivating, the film's most memorable moment arrives in the final confrontation between Lee and Han, which takes place in a wonderfully mirrored labyrinth. The other James Bond would attempt the same trick the following year in The Man With the Golden Gun.
- This was Lee's final completed film.
