Monday, 19 June 2023

Jim Kelly June Jamboree: Enter The Dragon (1973)


THE MOVIE


Some Government agency (it is never specified who or where) ask Mr. Lee (Bruce Lee) to take part in a martial arts tournament to spy on the tournament's organiser, Han - a former member of said agency that went rogue and now lives on his own island, where they believe he is involved in all sorts of illegal operations. Lee isn't interested, until he discovers that Han's henchmen are responsible for the death of his sister. I mean, she did actually kill herself, but Han's henchmen were either going to beat or kill her themselves, so it's still fair to blame them. 


On the island, Lee meets some of the participants in the tournament. Well, actually only two of them; Roper and Williams.



They're old friends from Vietnam, and both completely different; Roper is a con artist or gambling addict that is running away from gambling debts or something and always likes to say "Wanna bet?" - even when it makes no sense - while Williams is my main man Jim Kelly, who hates ghettos and the man keeping bruthas down!

Anyways, Lee has no time for funny business, so he whoops butt in the tournament

and then whoops Han's rather inept security guards.

Han gets pissed off and throws the whole tournament format out the window, which leads to an all-out brawl between the participants of the tournament and Han's henchmen, and then Han's slaves join the party to help defeat Han's henchmen as well.

The workers be uprising! It's a revolution! Han really loses it now, and is forced into a battle to the death against Lee.


REACTION

Yeah, it's Enter The Dragon. Y'all should know this. It is the quintessential martial arts movie, complete with awesome tropes like 'rogue agency officer', 'martial arts tournament on a random island' and 'seeking revenge for a sibling'. It made Bruce Lee immortal. I'm not the biggest fan of Bruce Lee, but even I will admit that I always enjoy watching this movie. 

JIM KELLY


This movie also made a star of Jim Kelly; he had some great lines, showed some serious charisma, and is probably my favourite part of the movie. When we are first introduced to Williams, we see him being harassed by the police in America - so he is forced to defend himself, and thus he has fled to take to part in this tournament.

Then he starts the tournament by giving a douchebag bully from New Zealand a serious beatdown.

So to recap; he whooped the dirtbag cops and then whooped a dirtbag Australian pretending to be a dirtbag New Zealander. Bah gawd Williams may be the greatest character in cinema history! Before the tournament begins, Han offers Williams some of his 'women' and Williams apologises to the ladies that he is only taking 4 of them because he is tired from the long journey. Classy man! And when confronted by Han about who is beating up his henchmen and infiltrating his criminal organisation, Williams does not snitch on Lee to save himself - again, he is a man of true honor! Come to think of it, there is a recurring theme for the struggles Williams faces; he is harassed by the pigs for no reason, and then gets accused of infiltrating Han's organisation for no reason. Why the man always trying to keep a brutha down, huh??

Of course, being Jim Kelly, he defeats Han and saves the world. Totally. Yup yup that is totally what happened...


I could sit here all day just making gifs from this movie - which is probably why I'm five movies into the Jamboree, but only now completing my second review.


It goes without saying that this film is highly recommended.

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