Enter the Dragon is a 1973 martial arts film directed by Robert Clouse and written by Michael Allin. The film stars Bruce Lee, John Saxon, Ahna Capri, Bob Wall, Shih Kien, and Jim Kelly. Enter the Dragon was Bruce Lee's final completed film appearance before his death on 20 July 1973 at the age of 32. An American-Hong Kong co-production, the film was premiered in Los Angeles on 19 August 1973, one month after Lee's death.
Martial arts films are a subgenre of action films that feature martial arts combat between characters. These combats are usually the films' primary appeal and entertainment value, and often are a method of storytelling and character expression and development. Martial arts are frequently featured in training scenes and other sequences in addition to fights. Martial arts films commonly include hand-to-hand combat along with other types of action, such as stuntwork, chases, and gunfights. Sub-genres of martial arts films include kung fu films, wuxia, karate films, and martial arts action comedy films, while related genres include gun fu, jidaigeki and samurai films.
Bruce Lee was a Hong Kong-American martial artist and actor. He was the founder of Jeet Kune Do, a hybrid martial arts philosophy drawing from different combat disciplines. Credited with helping popularize martial arts films in the 1970s, Lee is considered by some commentators and martial artists to be the most influential martial artist of all time and a pop culture icon of the 20th century, who bridged the gap between East and West. He is credited with promoting Hong Kong action cinema and helping to change the way Chinese people were presented in American films.
Fang Shilong, known professionally as Jackie Chan, is a Hong Kong actor, director, writer, producer, martial artist, and stuntman known for his slapstick acrobatic fighting style, comic timing, and innovative stunts, which he typically performs himself. Before entering the film industry, he was one of the Seven Little Fortunes from the China Drama Academy at the Peking Opera School, where he studied acrobatics, martial arts, and acting. Chan has been acting since the 1960s, performing in more than 150 films. He holds the Guinness World Record for "Most Stunts by a Living Actor", and is one of the most influential action film stars of all time.
Ip Man, also known as Yip Man, was a Chinese martial artist. He became a teacher of the martial art of Wing Chun when he was 20. He had several students who later became martial arts masters in their own right, the most famous among them being Bruce Lee.
Ted Wong was a martial arts practitioner best known for studying under Bruce Lee.
The Way of the Dragon is a 1972 Hong Kong martial arts action comedy film co-produced and directed by Bruce Lee, who also stars in the lead role. This is Lee's only complete directorial film and the last one released during his lifetime. The film co-stars Nora Miao, Robert Wall, Wei Ping-ou and Chuck Norris.
Chopsocky is a colloquial term for martial arts films and kung fu films made primarily by Hong Kong action cinema between the late 1960s and early 1980s. The term was coined by the American motion picture trade magazine Variety following the explosion of films in the genre released in 1973 in the U.S. after the success of Five Fingers of Death. The word is a play on chop suey, combining "chop" and "sock".
Yeung Sze, better known as Bolo Yeung, is a Hong Kong former competitive bodybuilder, martial artist, and martial arts film actor. Primarily cast as the villain in the movies he stars in, Sze is globally known for portraying Bolo in Enter the Dragon (1973), starring Bruce Lee, and for his collaborations with Jean-Claude Van Damme in Bloodsport (1988) and Double Impact (1991), as well as other numerous appearances and a long career in Hong Kong martial arts films.
Bruceploitation is an exploitation film subgenre that emerged after the death of martial arts film star Bruce Lee in 1973, during which time filmmakers from Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea cast Bruce Lee look-alike actors ("Lee-alikes") to star in imitation martial arts films, in order to exploit Lee's sudden international popularity. Bruce Lee look-alike characters also commonly appear in other media, including anime, comic books, manga, and video games.
Hong Kong action cinema is the principal source of the Hong Kong film industry's global fame. Action films from Hong Kong have roots in Chinese and Hong Kong cultures including Chinese opera, storytelling and aesthetic traditions, which Hong Kong filmmakers combined with elements from Hollywood and Japanese cinema along with new action choreography and filmmaking techniques, to create a culturally distinctive form that went on to have wide transcultural appeal. In turn, Hollywood action films have been heavily influenced by Hong Kong genre conventions, from the 1970s onwards.
Alexander Fu Sheng, also known as Fu Sing, was a Hong Kong martial arts actor. One of Hong Kong's most talented performers, Fu rose to prominence in the 1970s starring in a string of movies with the Shaw Brothers that accrued him international stardom throughout Asia and parts of North America.
William Cheung or Cheung Cheuk-hing is a Hong Kong Wing Chun kung fu practitioner and currently the Grandmaster of his lineage of Wing Chun, entitled Traditional Wing Chun (TWC). He also heads the sanctioning body of TWC, the Global Traditional Wing Chun Kung Fu Association (GTWCKFA). He is the recipient of a Masters Award for lifetime achievement in Kung Fu from Martial Arts Australia.
Kung fu film is a subgenre of martial arts films and Hong Kong action cinema set in the contemporary period and featuring realistic martial arts. It lacks the fantasy elements seen in wuxia, a related martial arts genre that uses historical settings based on ancient China. Swordplay is also less common in kung-fu films than in wuxia and fighting is done through unarmed combat.
Lam Sai-wing was a Hung Gar martial artist. He was a student of the Chinese martial artist, acupuncturer and folk hero of Cantonese ethnicity, Wong Fei-hung.
A statue of Bruce Lee was unveiled on 26 November 2005, in the city of Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina, by sculptor Ivan Fijolić. Located in Zrinjevac City Park, the life-sized statue stands 1.68 m tall, shorter than Bruce Lee's actual height of 1.72 m, and was a symbol of solidarity in the ethnically-divided city until it was stolen in a heist on March 4, 2024, and was subsequently found albeit cut in pieces.
The Martial Arts History Museum is a museum in America devoted to the history of martial arts located in Glendale, California. It was created as an educational facility teaching young people and visitors about art, culture and tradition and how Asian history became part of American history through the martial arts. The Martial Arts History Museum is divided into several sections including China, Japan, Korea, Thailand, the Philippines, Hawaii, Anime and Media.
Carter Wong is a Hong Kong actor and martial artist, who is mainly known for roles in Kung Fu action movies. The biggest movies he was featured in are Big Trouble in Little China (1986), and Yong zheng ming zhang Shao Lin men (1977). As an actor, he contributed to more than seventy martial arts films. He also worked as a stuntman in films, and was the fighting instructor for the movie Rambo III. Wong is still active in martial arts.
Philip Ng Wan-lung is a Hong Kong-born American actor, martial artist and action choreographer. He is currently based in Hong Kong.
Chu Tat-shing is a Chinese sculptor and visual artist. He is known for his sculpture of Bruce Lee at the Hong Kong Heritage Museum. He has also made sculptures of Sun Yat-sen on display in Hong Kong and Hawaii. The sculptures at the SARS Memorial in Hong Kong Park were made by him.
