SuperDragon: The Bruce Lee Story (1974) (2024)

Popular reviews

• Review by Lexzilla ★★

  So boring. A tabloid version biopic, everything hidden beneath layers of cloying melodrama as it zips through his career and instead mostly focuses on his extramarital affair.

  The earliest Lee biopic, this was out before the man had been in the ground for a year. And so much about it screams hurried production. Like the few and far between fights are so ill though out and incompetently filmed that they clearly show every time the punches and kicks fail to connect. There’s a scene in Bruce’s school where an interloper comes in for a challenge and the punches were so wide, I had to rewind just to check they were meant to be fighting and not doing some weird mating…

• Review by Jack Russo ★★★

  A tabloid biopic, containing what's undoubtedly the worst performance of Bruce Li's career but by that very virtue it is a necessary one; he's the façade of Lee, a half-truth reported with upmost sensationalism in the absence of the real subject. All conflict here pertains to melodrama, the scant few fights using that physical motion to pivot into torrid allegations surrounding Lee's extramarital affairs and the Hong Kong film industry proper. In that sense this pre-empts Wong Jing's High Risk by incorporating caricatures rather than characters, particularly with the depiction of Run Run Shaw - a stubborn fool - and Lo Wei - a petulant hothead - emphasising the gulf between great businessmen such as themselves and great artists such…

• Review by Will Sloan

  The year after Bruce Lee’s death, this sleazy, ripped-from-the-headlines biopic inaugurated the career of his greatest imitator, “Bruce Li,” real name Ho Tsung-Tao. It was the first of five Lee biopics of Lee that Ho starred in between 1974 and 1976, of which it is probably the worst and definitely the cheapest. Which means, of course, it’s essential viewing for all Bruceploitation scholars.

  The first 30-or-so minutes are a sketchy run-through of Lee’s adult life up to his Hong Kong stardom. We begin with Bruce delivering Washington Post newspapers and beating up thugs in a very Taiwanese-looking Seattle (the Post publishes in Washington D.C., which should give you some sense of the film’s attention to detail and texture). He goes…

• Review by David Sodergren ★★

  Ponderous biopic Super Dragon is the first leading role for one of my favourite kung-fu stars, Ho Tsung-Tao, and all I can say is, well, you gotta start somewhere, I suppose.

  As a biopic, it’s a disaster, with Bruce a leading man by minute ten and a married father of two before the end of the first act. Instead of focusing on his martial arts and movie career, the film chooses to zero in on his tempestuous affair with Betty Ting-Pei, and what a boring, soapy melodrama it is.

  Tacky Shaw Brothers cash-in Bruce Lee and I took a similar route, but at least that film had the jaw-dropping chutzpah to cast Bruce’s real life mistress as herself in a…

• Review by Fu for Thought ★★½

  I don’t actually think this is a bad film. It’s very dull but I think that’s partly due to the horrendous dub. It lacks any kind of pizazz. In fact, I’d go on record as saying it’s one of the worst dubs I’ve ever encountered.
  The plot (a semi-Bruce Lee biopic) is solid enough and Bruce Li makes for a “just fine” Bruce Lee. But none of this is insulting. It’s that pesky dub.
  To add to the boredom, the film lacks martial arts action. There’s a bit here and there but how are you going to have a Bruce Lee biopic and not cram it with fight scene? I supposed it’s because they were going for a biopic and not a Bruceploitation film. Not Bruceploitation as we know it, anyway.
  If I could, I’d give this 2.75 stars. It’s not awful but it’s a painful snooze fest.

• Review by Boxhamster ★★

  Gesichtet wurde die DVD von Picture Lake/SchröderMedia (Asia Line Vol. 15).
  Fassungstitel: Die Bruce Lee Story.

  Wie der Titel schon vermuten lässt, erzählt der Film die Geschichte von Bruce Lee. Nunja, zumindest werden Stationen seines Lebens abgeklappert und es wird einiges hinzugedichtet.
  Seine Karriere in Amerika vom Zeitungsausträger zum Fernsehdarsteller wird knapp abgehandelt. Der Großteil spielt in Hongkong, wo sich die Filmproduzenten den Kampfkünstler für sich zu gewinnen versuchen.
  Da den Machern das Ganze wohl nicht interessant genug erschien, wurden abseits der Dreharbeiten ein paar Konflikte erdacht, wie die Fremdgeherei von Bruce, seine Vernachlässigung von Frau und Kind und Kloppereien. Letztere sind mittelmäßig inszeniert und wirken wie im Fall der drei Schwertangreifer, denen er sich mit Hilfe eines Nunchakus erwehrt…

• Review by Richard ★★

  Super Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story (AKA Bruce Lee: A Dragon Story) was the first, and is still the worst, Bruce Lee biopic. Rushed (it came out the year after Bruce's passing), cheap, sloppy, and very inaccurate. It makes Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story look like a documentary! It also feels more like "The Betty Ting Pei Story" (although not as much as Shaw Brothers' Bruce Lee and I, obviously). Ho Tsung-Tao (AKA Bruce Li) does an okay job portraying the legend for the first time, but he would definitely improve both his acting and martial arts a lot in the years following this fiasco. Still, it's definitely worth a watch for Bruce Lee (and Li) fans and everyone interested in the Bruceploitation phenomenon, as this film is most likely the one that started it all.*

  *I don't believe The Real Bruce Lee was released as early as 1973...

• Review by se13an ★★

  Bruce Li as Bruce Lee in the Bruce Lee Story

  Trashy paperback romance version of the story of Bruce Lee. This was the first biopic of Bruce Lee after his death and you can really tell they rushed this one out. They knew what they wanted, the salacious relationship between Bruce Lee and Betty Ting Pei. Betty Ting Pei appears about 25 minutes into the movie. The first chuck of Bruce Lee’s life is absolutely blitzed through to get to what the movie wants, the trashy affair. The movie is so focused on the melodrama it half asses everything else. The fights are clumsy, and mostly pointless, the acting is what you’d expect for a trashy rip-off that is mostly…

• Review by Michael DiBella ★★

  I'm watching a bunch of the Kung Fu and Kung Fu adjacent movies mentioned in the book, These Fists Break Bricks: How Kung Fu Movies Swept America and Changed the World by Chris Poggiali & Grady Hendrix (2024) boxd.it/ygpKW

  This was mentioned in the chapter on Bruceploitation.

  Watched the Blu-ray from the epic Severin - Game of Clones Blu-ray Box Set.

  Dreadfully dull Bruce Lee biopic, one of two included in the epic set from Severin. They both kind of suck but this one is definitely the worst. Forget about how gross it is that they tried to pass this thing off as some sort of true story in a shameless attempt to exploit Lee's death for commercial gain. The same…

• Review by Michael Van Vleet

  "Siu-lung, your past victories have proven Chinese kung fu is superior!"
  "Thank you. The main reason that people practice kung fu is to develop their bodies."
  "I see."

  Folks. It's not good. Of historic interest to Brucesploitation fans, because it was the first biography pushed out after Bruce Lee's death. And what happens when you rush things? This sort of thing.

  Bruce Li would play Bruce Lee quite a few times, but he's still figuring it out here... and so is everyone else involved. About the only scene I enjoyed was when Bruce and his wife arrive home by car only to see three Japanese dudes waiting for them in traditional dress, two of whom have swords on their hips.…

• Review by A Merrit ★★

  An early attempt at a Bruce Lee biopic, starring Bruce Li. Honestly, not sure why you'd watch this one when Bruce Lee: the Man, the Myth exists which is the far superior biopic (also starring Bruce Li.) It stays pretty close to the actual Bruce Lee's life, so no crazy random fights, but also focuses way too much on Betty Ting Pei's part in Lee's life. I prefer the tackier takes on the subject matter, although this one does end with showing Lee's actual corpse. Li was not in peak form yet when this was made. It shows in the fight scenes that he does do are rather sloppy compared to his later films. Overall it's fine, but there are better Lee biopics, even ones that also star Li.

• Review by Joseph Howell ★

  The first Bruceploitation movie to take the “autobiographical” route, and it’s a chore to get through despite some hilarious dubbing and fun music. It’s more of a dull melodrama with a some fight scenes sprinkled in than it is an action movie (and the right scenes themselves are underwhelming to say the least). Also weirdly disrespectful, as it tend to look at Lee as if he was good at fighting and nothing else. If there is one good thing about this, it’s the angry director who steals every scene he’s in. If the whole movie had been about him, I’d love it, but alas.