Leofwine_draca EXIT THE DRAGON, ENTER THE TIGER is your run-of-the-mill Bruceploitation film, shot by a Hong Kong outfit in Taiwan. The story takes the real-life circumstances surrounding the death of Bruce Lee and uses it as a basis for a story about Bruce's buddy going after the gangsters who had him killed. I always think there's something a bit repellent about these rip-off films which include real-life footage of the star's funeral including shots inside the open casket.In any case, EXIT THE DRAGON, ENTER THE TIGER is very much par for the course for this genre. The title is probably the best thing about it. There's a lot of routine action, some of it quite well-handled, and not much in the way of wit or originality. The plot never really goes beyond having our Bruce Lee impersonator beating up one bunch of bad guys and going on to the next. The '70s trappings are as fun as ever and there's some snazzy music ripped from a blaxploitation movie. Bruce Li is the star of this one and even though he's not trying to be Bruce Lee, he does a good job of playing someone very similar.

Frank Markland Bruce Li stars in a dual role playing Bruce Lee (before he dies) and one of Lee's best friends who battles those responsible for Bruce Lee's death, for reasons unknown the bad guys kidnap Bruce Lee's mistress Betty Teng Pei and Bruce Li kicks but to avenge the matter and make everything okay. The movie is sort of offensive with the premise, however politics aside the movie is just plain dull. Indeed Bruce Li's fight sequences are often shot so we can't see what he's doing. The story makes no sense and the movie doesn't work on any level, even as exploitation. Indeed Bruce Li looks like Bruce Lee and manages to do some impressive moves (though we can't fully enjoy it, as we can't see what's going on) but the movie is lethargically paced, the action badly shot and of course no momentum develops between the action, so what were left with is a boring kung fu movie with better than average production values but nothing worthwhile to watch.* Out Of 4-(Bad)

jaibo Exploitation cinema exploits audience desire for lurid subject matter, and there can be few more morally reprehensible forms of exploitation than the short-lived "Bruceploitation" genre, which sought to make money out of films pertaining to the death of Hong Kong's box office hit, Bruce Lee. But to call these films on their lack of scruples is to waste breath - such films luxuriate in their own lack of taste. There is an extent to which the whole of drama and cinema is an exploitation of the difficulties of life, and perhaps these films are a little more honest than most. In any case, there was a public need to air concerns gossip and conspiracy theories about Lee's death, and so these films provided a place for such a need to be fulfilled.What is really fascinating about Exit the Dragon, Enter the Tiger is it takes a postmodern notion of everything being up for grabs as fiction and stretches it to rarely reached lengths. A film in which a new film star investigates the death of an old film star, in which an actress plays an actress who was present at the old film star's death, which plays out in the style of the films of the old star's films - it's heady stuff.The investigation into the death of Lee by his pupil and supposed successor Li is a pretty flimsy affair. We never get to find out why Bruce was killed, but Lee's real death provides a basis for a fictional plot about a drugs ring wishing to use martial arts stars as couriers. But it's a pacey enough film, with excellent widescreen cinematography (the framing is particularly impressive) and sharp editing, and if the plot is rather slight and the characterization rather one dimensional - well, we are dealing with a genre (the martial arts film) which is hardly known for its sophistication in those departments. Li doesn't have Lee's presence and charisma, but he's cute and is convincing enough at the centre of some tasty fight sequences.All of the positive elements of the film come together at one moment in the final scene - Li is fighting the drugs kingpin The Baron, who unsheaves a sword-stick and lashes at our hero. Li's shirt is cut off, and bare chested with cuts across his body, he looks just the image of Bruce Lee in a famous scene from Enter the Dragon. The film has been building towards this moment, and all Li has to do is vanquish the villain to take the mantle of his forebear, which he does. No matter that Li didn't go on to nearly the same international success as Lee, and faded rather ignominiously from the screen by the early 80s, this film has done exactly what it intended to do - momentarily replace Lee with a plastic facsimile, air a bit of gossip about his death and make a small pile of money in the process.It's no good expecting anything else of a film like this, and it's as honest about its intentions as can be - and given the low-brow nature of those intentions, a considerable amount of film-making skill and effort has been put into the picture - you have only to think for a moment the logistical difficulties filming the final seaside rocks at incoming tide sequence must have presented to realize that although the filmmakers are exploiters, they certainly weren't slackers.

Brian Washington This is just another example of someone trying to make a quick buck off of the death of a legend. This film basically is about a supposed disciple of Bruce Lee named David hunting for the people who allegedly murdered his mentor (for the record, his official cause of death was listed as a cerebral edema). However, all this film does is exploit the death of Bruce Lee and all the theories surrounding the sudden death of perhaps the greatest ambassador for the martial arts. Why couldn't they just let the man rest in peace? Sure he died at a young age, but there probably was nothing sinister about it. However, the main problem I have with it is the fact that they tried to pass off a "Bruce Lee" wannabee off as the genuine article. This made this film more of a rip off than it already was. I hope that the person who made this garbage feels real good about the way he tarnished a true legend of the screen.