Enter The Dragon Extended Version

[Eboni Kleifgen]

AfterBruce Lee had achieved great success with his three previous films, all of which were produced in Hong Kong, it was only a matter of time before Hollywood recognized that there was money to be made with Lee and the martial arts genre. And so, in 1973, Warner Bros. released their first US production with Bruce Lee, titled Enter the Dragon, in theaters. For its "25th Anniversary" a DVD with many interesting extras, mostly hosted by Bruce Lee's then-wife, was released. This DVD also exclusively included an extended version of the film.

But what's new about this "Special Editon" of the film? Two scenes have been added here. Right at the beginning (after the fight against a young Sammo Hung), there is a conversation between Bruce and a monk played by Roy Chiao. Here, Bruce was able to convey parts of his philosophy, which was somewhat lacking in the original theatrical release. In general, the scene provides a different explanation for Lee's character's motivation to take on the main villain, Han. Brief parts or remnants of it could already be seen in Game of Death II in the early 1980s. In the finale, there is also an additional scene that refers back to this conversation. In both instances, there were also brief moments trimmed, which in the theatrical version appeared at the respective scene transitions.

While the DVD and the Blu-ray released since 2007 "only" had the extended version, the 4K premiere available since August/September 2023 (depending on the edition) for the first time offers both versions of the film on a single medium. The picture quality represents a significant improvement over all previous releases, and every fan is strongly recommended to get this release. Our comparison, originally published in 2002, has thus been revised with this edition.

I would love to see a theatrical version of this. I hate how john little dubbed over bruce lee on the extra monk scene, i actually managed to get bruce lee's real voice for that scene but not sure if the quality is high enough.

I read that the new transfer on blu-ray has some cropping and the colors are bad... the old version has jaggies, and there is a asian version but i dont know much about that transfer. I would really like to see the theatrical version done right.

I know this thread is for the theatrical version of ETD but for anyone interested here is bruce's original voice from the monk scene, there is some dialogue missing from the end of the scene and sorry it is not the best quality but it is the best i could get a hold of, it was ripped from the vynal '' bruce lee my way of kung fu ''

If you want to compare the 2 go ahead. I spent hundreds of hours color correcting and remixing the sound with a few alterations to scene orders and extra footage not in the theatrical version or the special edition. Fixed missing frames and sizing issues and the film slipping out of the scanner and other problems where the shot is full frame but not cropped. I fixed all the jump cuts and I also fixed some audio synch problems.

I may need to go over it briefly again if I decide to release it so it is for streaming only at this point. I might also upscale it. Not sure I am quite finished with it yet. I am letting the dust settle on it.

The project is now deleted but I have a cut that I can adjust from this point. The last parts will be up for streaming Sunday or Monday which means I will be deleting the parts that are currently up at this time.

It is the same transfer as the DVD but better encoded on the DVD although some shots In the Diagostini source I used had even worse colors meaning that it was a partially corrected Raw Scan that was Prior to the Special edition and the Laserdisc release.

Newbie here, I just got the bluray with both the theatrical version and the special edition and am not sure which one I should watch. Is the special edition only different in the 3 additional minutes that got added or are there other differences? If I have never seen the film before, should I go with the theatrical or special edition?

The special edition also has an extended scene in the mirror room scene and many other audio changes throughout the film like in the guillotine scene . I think you should definitely watch the theatrical version.

It's been almost half a century since Bruce Lee's martial arts classic, Enter the Dragon , was released into theatres and it is rightly regarded as a benchmark of the genre. Even tothose without an interest in film censorship, it is probably fair to say that it is somewhat common knowledge that Enter the Dragon was subject to cuts in Britain, just as casual film lovers are no doubt aware of the Video Nasties era and the fact thatmany horror films were once heavily cut or banned in the UK. What may not be so widely known is just how much was cut from Enter the Dragon and on how many separate occasions. There have been at least four different versions of the film released in theUK, each with varying degrees of censorship, and we'll be discussing the cuts made to each of them in this episode of the series.

Censorship solely for the sake of censorship

Enter the Dragon was first submitted for a UK theatrical release in August 1973, just one month after Bruce Lee's untimely death. Stephen Murphy was the Secretary of the BBFC at the time, and he felt that the film offered violence solely for the sakeof entertainment without any contextual justification. Although Murphy acknowledged the fact that the film was fantastical in nature, he felt that the level of brutality and sadism could only be accommodated at the adults-only 'X' category. Even at thehighest classification, he stated that cuts were required to various scenes of so-called "excessive" violence, as well as various imitable techniques. As a result, a cuts list was drawn up on August 14th , with cuts demanded in almost everyreel of the picture. In the end, following discussions with the distributors, the necessary cuts were whittled down to specific scenes in Reels 3, 4 and 5, with the BBFC mostly asking for general reductions as opposed to the outright removal of entirescenes.

The first changes made to the film occurred when the villain Han decrees that his guards have proven themselves less than worthy in allowing Lee to secretly investigate the island the nightprior and so makes them face-off against his prize fighter, Bolo. For the UK cinema version, the BBFC demanded:

Following the necessary changes required by the BBFC, Enter the Dragon was passed 'X' on October 23rd 1973. The BBFC do not indicate the total amount of footage that was removed, although a contemporaneous BFI review suggests that a little more than aminute or so of footage was cut. The decision to make cuts to the film attracted various complaints at the time of the film's release in the UK. On the one hand, some members of the British public still felt it was too violent and, unusually, that itmight encourage people to try kung-fu for criminal purposes. Furthermore, the success of the film raised fear amongst certain members of the public at the spread of the use of nunchaku and other martial arts weaponry amongst violent youths in London whowere apparently trying to emulate Bruce Lee.

Nunchaku obsessive

In 1975, James Ferman became Secretary of the BBFC after Stephen Murphy had resigned from the position. Ever mindful of public concerns, Ferman honed in on the negative media coverage surrounding Enter the Dragon and asked the distributors to recallthe film in 1979 so that further cuts could be made. He requested that they remove the sight of nunchaku being used in the main fight in Han's underground lair, as well as removing sight of the weapon from the film's trailer and promotional posters. Theposter changes consisted of changing the nunchaku held between Lee's hands into a bo stick, such was Ferman's disturbance.

These changes were arguably a case of closing the stable door after the horse had bolted, given that film had been widely available for some time with all of the nunchaku footage intact. In addition, following consultation with law enforcement, theBBFC decided that the sight of nunchaku should be removed from films entirely from this point forward in order to discourage the spread of their use. Lee vs Ferman for the 1988 video release

TheBBFC's policy on the outright removal of all sight of martial arts weaponry continued well into the 1980s and 1990s, with special regard to home video releases where videos risked being viewed by underage viewers or having scenes played out of context.Prior to the introduction of the Video Recordings Act 1984, Enter the Dragon was released uncut on video in the early 1980s without a BBFC certificate and was even shown uncut on British television. Following the implementation of the VRA, the film wasrequired to be classified by the BBFC for video and it was submitted for a rating in the late 1980s in its uncut version. Naturally, cuts were demanded to the film for home viewing.

Some of the original cinema cuts from 1973 were waived, namely those made to the fights between Lee and Oharra, Han and Williams and Roper and Bolo but the sight of Bolo's killing of twoguards in Reel 3 was still censored. Additionally, James Ferman demanded that the cuts he ordered in 1979 to the sight of nunchaku be replicated on video. This included any scenes showing the weapon being carried, as well as its appearance in fightsequences. As a result, the BBFC cuts for video demanded:

The effect of these cuts can be seen in the video at the end of this article. After the removal of offending footage, Enter the Dragon was classified 18 for a VHS release on January 31st 1988 after 105 seconds of cuts. The back cover of the videotape featured a prominent note that the film was a "BBFC edited version".

3a8082e126