Could there ever be a remake of ‘Enter the Dragon’?

Thinking the unthinkable.

Over fifty years have passed since the release of the single most iconic Kung Fu movie ever made. If everything else is game for a re-boot, why not ‘Enter the Dragon’?

For the sake of this piece, I watched the movie again and tried to impose a new screen writer’s vision on top of it. It made me reevaluate its strengths and weaknesses.

Warning; some spoilers.

In writing this I make an assumption that everybody who reads this has seen the movie, but that is silly supposition. But perhaps, at the end, if you haven’t seen it, you might feel it’s worth the effort.

Don’t go looking for any great depth. At the time some of the critics accused it of being a James Bond knock-off, complete with pussy-stroking Blofeld-type villain. It wasn’t even an ironic nod; Hollywood at the time didn’t do irony, it was too busy trying to look good (corny reference).

Recent commentators have noted two key points; the continual focus on the downtrodden and the underdog, and the multi-ethnic hero line-up.

Let me start with that.

The Bromance thing.

Enter the heroes.

Roper; cynical, wise-cracking ladies’ man. John Saxon brought to this role a throw-back vibe even then, a kind of John Wayne, but more of a playboy than a cowboy. But can he fight? Well yes, kinda… but he’d be happier in a bar room brawl than ‘Han’s Tournament’. I was never convinced that John Saxon had any real martial arts chops.

Roper’s buddy (note, not sidekick, nobody has a ‘sidekick’ in this movie) is Williams (Jim Kelly), straight out of the ghetto, hardened by life with a John Shaft attitude, only with an afro.

Roper and Williams knew each other in ‘Nam’ (hardcore credentials locked-in there). Williams’ fighting skills reflect his assured coolness. He also gets the best lines; “Bin practicing huh?” and “Man you come right out of a comic book”. But Williams’ high moral principles are sure to get him into trouble; he can’t be bought, but Roper, ever the materialist, can be tempted. However, Roper exists on a knife-edge (take note of his removal of Han’s white cat from the guillotine device).

And then there’s Lee…

I will first comment on the acting skills that Bruce Lee was able to bring to this role.

Bruce Lee wins this on expression and calmness, (that is, until he isn’t calm and the fighter is unleashed). Sardonic, smooth and knowing, assured and uber-cool, but, Bruce Lee is not given the same quality of lines as Jim Kelly, in fact, it was reported that script writers mischievously made it tough for Lee to sound out some of his lines; the most obvious ones were as he struggled to say, “Mister Braithwaite”, (why couldn’t it have been “Mister Jones”)?

The character, Lee can appear smug to the point of being self-satisfied, but he always holds it together. He is not a cardboard cut-out, his back story hinges on that old favourite trope of revenge. Bad guy Han has disgraced the Shaolin Temple yes, but Han’s ruthless bodyguard O’Hara (played almost emotionlessly by Robert Wall) forced Lee’s sister into suicide rather than be defiled by Han’s rampaging henchmen. Reason enough to set up a Han/O’Hara final showdown, each played out differently.

It has to be said that for plot continuity, neither Roper nor Williams know that Lee the Shaolin monk is on a mission. The survivor, Roper, twigs it towards the end of the movie, but only as the final showdown is unleashed.

Lee as action star and fight choreographer.

Fight choreography has come on a long way since 1973, and as Bruce Lee took full responsibility for the action scenes you have to say that by modern standards, he did pretty well. (Boy he must have struggled with John Saxon though). Not such a problem with Jim Kelly, who brought his own cool to the action. But it was what Lee showed us of his own abilities and the speed of his movement – for those wondering if any of the action was speeded up, I would say watch the fluttering flags in the background as Lee’s backfist strikes O’Hara’s face in their single ‘match’, it all looks real time to me.

Descriptions abound of Lee’s balletic movements (slowed down for our enjoyment) his unique expressions and the never heard before but much parodied, chicken-squawks. The fight with the guards was ‘truly impressive’, you could just watch that bit on its own over and over.

His physical presence, like a great dancer, is underlined by his whipcord lean physique. It is weird that nobody has been able to recreate that, all attempts since look overly-muscled, too much time on the Nautilus machines. To martial arts practitioners, it was the physique that helped give Lee credibility.

The villain.

I would say that Han (Shih Kien) was the only weak character. In a plot where back stories were thin, his was the leanest, I mean… the false hand, the reveal that was no-reveal. Yes, he truly was ‘right out of a comic book’. I don’t think it was the acting, he did the best with what he was given, instead it was the whole design of the character. Done today, we would have a more nuanced villain, imagine a Chinese version of Tom Hardy; there are some credible Chinese, Korean and Japanese actors out there who could really smash that role.

How to make an updated version.

I would say that it would be a mistake to try and ‘remake’ it; a pastiche would be totally unpalatable to the purists and the switched-on modern audience.

Why not just take the whole premise and reconstruct it? A bit like how ‘She’s the Man’ stole the plotline from ‘Twelfth Night’, or how ‘Bridget Jones’s Diary’ was partly based on ‘Pride and Prejudice’.

So what do we have? Insane power mad millionaire owns an island, lives as a recluse and only opens his doors every three years for a martial arts tournament; like Jefferey Epstein meets John DuPont (Foxcatcher scandal). Add to that the geopolitical sensitivities of an island in the China sea (think, Taiwan and the tensions around there).

The Elephant in the room.

NOBODY could replace or outshine Bruce Lee.

Really, what modern version of masculinity could replace the Shaolin monk Lee? Finding a new James Bond is an easy challenge in comparison to creating a new Bruce Lee. Because Bond is a brand and a role; while Lee (though he might be considered a brand now) was never in a ‘role’.

Based on modern trends, the sneaky way round it might be to ‘break the mold’, how about a female Shaolin monk hero? And the ‘bromance’ also being female (I am reliably informed that there is a name for it, a ‘womance’)? It was done for Ghostbusters, why not for ‘Enter the Dragon’?

A massive problem would be created if a non-Chinese actor was cast as Lee. Like Keanu Reeves or Matt Damon taking the lead in Japanese/Chinese historical fantasy movies. The ‘White Savior’ thing is bound to rub people up the wrong way.

Much more could be made of the tragic story of Lee’s sister. In the original movie the very short sequence featuring the actor Angela Mao, showed the potential of what could be done. She was brilliant in her ability to project the desperation and gutsy attempted fight back from an impossible situation. But her appearance was all too short; this could have been expanded, perhaps with Han himself being an actual presence, not just O’Hara. This would have added more spice to the revenge motive and final showdown.¹

Roper Williams.

Here, a new version could really take off; more sassiness, more quips and asides. These two could supply the hardcore muscle that counterbalances the Lee character. But they needed more opposition than just ‘Bolo’ and a bunch of teenagers in cheap white karate uniforms (the worst of all low budget extras – except of course for an uncredited Jackie Chan!) My thoughts go to Ryan Reynolds (think of Blade 4 or Deadpool).

The female characters.

Really, much more could be done here. You would feel inclined to implement the Bechdel Test that suggests a measure for female representation in film (a very simple version of it is that a movie has to have a minimal of two women in it, who talk to each other, about something other than a man). Lee’s sister, the female insider and the ‘hostess’ who becomes Roper’s chosen girlfriend, could all become meaningful characters.

And then there’s the soundtrack.

How to top Lalo Schifrin’s famous evocative musical score? So much of its time, iconic in its own way. Hans Zimmer anyone?

Conclusion.

I know this sounds like a lot to fit into two hours; but there’s the thing… Netflix could pick this up and spread it across eight hour-long episodes, punctuated with stylish set-piece action sequences and meaningful flashbacks (not just the usual yawn-fest padding you get in serialised boxsets).

You are still left with the ‘Lee’ problem though. I have no suggestion of how to get round that one. Maybe it really is impossible to do a remake?

If Hollywood were to attempt a remake; it’s possible they might do the unthinkable… bring Bruce Lee back from the dead.

Reconstruct every scene with AI, like they did for Harrison Ford in the most recent Indiana Jones movie. It could work, but they would have to pass it through the Bruce Lee estate, who are red-hot on the legal stuff.

Please feel free to add comments below. I am really curious what readers think.

1. I had a thought that maybe the ghostly half-seen image of the ‘dead’ sister appears to Lee, drifting through the crowd of Han’s concubines and hostesses on the island scenes?