1972 • Hong Kong • Directed by Bruce Lee

Having established himself as the biggest box office draw in Hong Kong, Bruce Lee leveraged his success into a new deal with Golden Harvest that would allow him to write and direct as well as star in his own projects. He only got to complete one film under this deal before his untimely death, but it’s arguably his most personal and exciting: The Way of the Dragon.

Tang Lung (Lee) is a naïve country boy from Hong Kong who is shipped off to sunny Rome in order to assist a family friend whose Chinese restaurant is under threat from a local gangster. Training the waiters in self-defence while taking on Italian thugs single-handedly, the gangster decides to retaliate by flying in some of the best fighters from America (including Colt, played by Chuck Norris) and Japan to take Tang down. Soon the columns of the Colosseum will rumble with the sound of Tang Lung’s fury!

Lee’s only completed directorial effort is unlike any kung fu film that came before it, mixing thrilling action, stunning international location filming and charming humour in a way that would prove heavily influential on other Hong Kong filmmakers in the years since.