Way of the Black Dragon & Death of Bruce Lee [DVD] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]

WAY OF THE BLACK DRAGON-Carter Wong and Ron Van Clief team up to take on villains who are involved in slave trading. You will also recognize other old school stars like Hoi Meng, Chan Lung, and Chan Lau, but nobody does anything noteworthy. Seriously, usually I have something to say about someone, but nobody did ANYTHING good in this movie! And that brings me to the movie iteslf which is dreadful. It is a very bad movie and it is obvious they didn't even have a script when filming started. And, the director doesn't really have a clue what to do. It is just pitiful. The best fight scene is between Van Clief and Carter Wong. Charles Bonet shows up for a very forgettable finale. It only took about 20 minutes to start asking myself if this movie was ever going to end. 1.5/5

Bonus features include some behind the scenes footage of the making of the film with an audio commentary on it(8 minutes long). The commentaries are the real reason you should buy this 2 disc DVD set. Ron Van Clief and George Tan give all the info you could ever ask for on this movie. As good as a commentary gets.

DEATH OF BRUCE LEE-First off, don't go into this expecting to find out about Bruce Lee's death(the commentary will probably surprise a lot of people though). The movie is less than B-grade and should not be taken seriously whatsoever. All that happens is people walk around and get into fights. So if you can get past that, then you can just enjoy the Bruce Lee imitations by Charles Bonet and all the mindless fighting. At least the movie has star power and the action is good at times. Van Clief ALWAYS looks good. I will try to name most of the guys who I spotted in this. Starting with Ron Van Clief of course, Charles Bonet, Jason Pai Paio, Wong Chi-sang, Charlie Chin, Qui Yuen(old lady landlord in 'Kung Fu Hustle'), Chan Lau, San Kwai, and Bai Sai Ngai(AKA big eye little eye). The guy with the bald head and mustache is the same villain from 'Black Dragon'(at least I think it was called Black Dragon) which was another Pai Paio/Van Clief movie. It is just as bad as this and Van Clief isn't in it much and just runs around with a gang beating people up. It was actually a gang of good guys if I remember correctly. This movie is directed by Lu Chun Ku who made a ton of great movies. This is not one of them. It is absolutely horrible. 1/5.

Special features again are outstanding and a real dream come true for any Van Clief fan. There is 22 minutes of behind the scenes on this disc with commentary. It includes one of those behind the scenes fights you always hear about. It's a fun little match. The commentary on the movie is AMAZING!! They did a good job filling up 91 minutes on 'Way of the Black Dragon', but if you are a Bruce Lee fan, you may want to at least rent this somewhere if possible. 'Death By Misadventure' was a very good documentary and has a great commentary also, but this is magnificent. Since it is a Van Clief movie, they do talk about his career. So it is really worth hearing for fans of both martial arts masters and it's loaded with plenty of other information to ensure that any fan of kung fu cinema will enjoy it.

I should give this a 4/5 star rating, because the audio quality is bad and both movies are full screened. Nothing near as bad as some of the other audio commentaries Gerorge Tan has done in terms of sound though. Definitely listenable. I can't take any points off because the 3 1/2 hours of Van Clief commentary is just so awesome.

Just got a hold of this double feature.

Have to say I'm not a real big fan of the Black Dragon films in general but I gave this set a peek.

Both films are `modern day' but feature many actors from traditional kung fu films such as Carter Wong.

The action (and clothes)is very very 1970's so if that's not your bag then look elsewhere.

Death of Bruce Lee has Ron Van Clief and Charles Bonet trying to find out how Bruce Lee died and getting into al kinds of fights along the way.

What's real interesting is spotting the actual stuntmen who worked on Enter the Dragon and other Bruce Lee films appearing in this one.

Way of the Black Dragon is shot mostly in Thailand and Ron doesnt even appear for the first half hour or so.

Now the bonus features are real good and make up for the quality of the films.

Audio commentary with Ron Van Clief and George Tan for both films and it's really packed with information.

Nothing is wasted there.They talk about the making of the films and also Van Clief's life and career before and after each film.

Listen for a bit where Ron starts to talk about doing bodyguard work for James Brown and then it seems to cut off.Too bad!

There's also a lot of behind the scenes footage from both films.

That's greast material and there is commentary on that section too.

So I give 2 stars for the bonus features,1 star each film and 1 star for the audio commentary.

Grandmaster Van Clief is one of the top masters in the world and it's about time he gets the respect deserved with his own collection.

Death of Bruce Lee is the second film he made in Hong Kong after the Black Dragon which launched his career.

Way of the Black Dragon came after this film.

Looking forward to the audio commentary and behind the scenes footage!

I read there's tons of bonus extras all endorsed by Grandmaster Van Clief.

Now look,...I saw these films in the theater when they came out in 1975. Ron and Charles were stuntmen...not actors so don't expect golden globes here. Van Clief was part of the east coast swell of martial artists who rode the wave of popularity created by Hong Kong movies released in the U.S.in the early seventies. These two were part of the incoming flux launched by the Shaw brothers releases and the iconic pop culture arrival of the Bruce Lee films. In spite of the conveyor belt production values, these works took lucrative advantage of the controversy surrounding Lee's passing. I was surprised Van Clief even agreed to do a picture exploiting the circumstances of his friend's demise considering they did know each other. But like any actor in Hong Kong in those days, the producer owned the rights to the material with no regard for nobility and actors did what they were told. Even Ron had to carry towels at one point before calling the plays.

For Serafim Karalexis, an independent producer from Israel ( he was the guy in the white suit who answered the door in the "Bruce" movie), "The Black Dragon" was an opportunity and a litmus test to see if an Asian audience was ready for a black lead character.The Chinese didn't care about that as long as you were a credible martial artist. So the film cruised on Jason Pai (experienced actor) for the first hour to introduce Ron slowly as a heavy at first.I was reminded of "The Big Boss", a film originally written for James Tein (Shoe Shang). You didn't see Bruce fight for a long while until the ice factory. That footage rewrote the script and Bruce replaced Tein as the lead. Politics, man. They didn't risk much dialogue on him either. But Ron's fighting persona gelled into something close to carrying a character the audience could hang their hats on.

The second movie billed as "The Death of Bruce Lee" was still in the papers at the time and the name carried a built in audience and piggy backed Ron's persona as a character in itself. He was "Ron" in the movie. The same thing with Charles as "Charley 'le-po' Pentara" in the movie. It also reversed the Hollywood formula of the "black assistant dying first". However, they still needed a heroic foil to balance Ron's presence. They got more than that with Charles Bonet. So if this movie did well, it could be released later as"The Black Dragon's Revenge" or "The Black Dragon revenges The Death of Bruce Lee."

One version of the movie poster actually had a picture of the face of Bruce's corpse on it with the caption underneath reading, "Bruce lee dead". I was beyond repulsed. I have that poster and that part is whited out. How sub basement pond scum tabloid could they be? But this was the media's attitude toward his image and memory at the time.

This second film does have its redeeming points. The katas performed by the actors were real forms actually done in the tournaments where Van Clief competed. The kata by Van Clief done prior to breaking the tiles was standard fare in New York tournaments.

* POSSIBLE SPOILER *

I remember the audience really getting into Charles Bonet. This stunt guy had acting chops to match his karate chops. He nearly stole the film in the showing I attended probably because his acting gave his fighting style content...or he just probably imitated Bruce.Either way, he had a fight scene that still gives me chills. He was hit by a poison dart. On the dart's impact, the music comes in and Bonet pauses against the wall. He's poisoned. He knows it. The audience senses he 's not going to make it but they want him to. Bonet realizes his disadvantage, is enraged by it, and resigns himself to it and its all done in his eyes supported by a sharp music cue. What?! You could hear a pin drop in the theatre. And right there, he goes into a snake animal form kata with emphasis on deep breathing,and to his enemies amazement, oxygenates his blood so he could last just a little longer to take as many with him as he could. The audience starts applauding. Wow. Every blow had to break something. The subtle sounds of him cracking their ribs and necks all seasoned by Bonet's fierce but vulnerable delivery was a fantastic arc in the movie that paid homage to how the details performed in kata becomes part of the self preservation mechanism that reflects the attitude of " a true warrior fights onward to irrational death". This is the purpose of kata in martial arts! And the audience got it. Im telling you...the audience cheered. I haven't seen a scene designed like that since. Naturally, Van Clief avenged his colleagues with no remorse even with the woman he fought like a man...with good reason. The audience cheered again. Watch it to see how it turned out.

I had the pleasure of meeting Ron Van Clief in the office of my instructor's karate school when he was a guest demonstrator for the Martial Arts Expo in Chicago in November of 1975. The second film came out that month. He was a credible martial artist who made a credible transition to the action film market. It was a shame he had to do it outside the U.S. It was also a shame Van Clief and Bonet didn't become the fixtures in martial arts films the way others like Kieth Scott, Ed Norton, and Cynthia Rothrock, had. Jim Kelly was on a roll briefly after "Enter the Dragon" but that was it.

These two films did well in their day. So please suspend disbelief and special effects over story cynicism and view them in their simplicity and appreciate them for the time they were made in and the entertainment they provided. Bruce lit the global fuse and these films labored the wave before Jackie Chan spoiled us all.

5 STARS because this is a great to watch.These are 2 rare movies that have plenty of martial arts.Also there are extras here.These are old classic movies for the martial arts fan.