When martial arts became one of the great plots on the big screen, people are clamoring for the best Bruce Lee movies.
Kung fu flicks were the range during the 1870s to 1980s, and they remain some of the best films until now. When it comes to martial arts movies, Bruce Lee is among the most popular personality. Many, if not everyone in any generation, know of him. Bruce Lee helped define and shape that martial arts culture. To this day, he remains one of the forefront names when it comes to martial arts. Although the life of the legend was short, his legacy remains.
Best Bruce Lee Movies of All Time
If you are a die-hard Bruce Lee fanatic or enjoy martial arts films, here are some of the classic and best Bruce Lee movies of all time.
#1. Enter the Dragon
If there is a movie that helped cement Bruce Lee’s name and legacy in martial arts and the movie world, it’s going to be Enter the Dragon. The movie was a massive success and reached incredible fame worldwide. Unfortunately, it was the last film of the legend, and he wasn’t able to bask in the glory and popularity as he passed away one month before the movie premiered.
Enter the Dragon, to this day, remains one of Bruce Lee’s most famous movies. Bruce Lee was able to stamp his personality and style on every part of the film, from every punch and kick, as he played the character of spy on a tournament initiated by a crime lord. The extraordinary fight scenes in the movie became a classic in the movie culture.
The multiracial star-filled movie was a kung fu craze on the big screen, and Bruce Lee’s intense performance was its pinnacle. This 1973 movie is his best Bruce Lee movies and remains as such to this day. Enter the Dragon is a must-watch, especially if you are a huge Bruce Lee fan, and it doesn’t matter if you’ve watched the movie before.
#2. The Return of the Dragon/Way of the Dragon
Bruce Lee wasn’t only an impressive mixed martial artist and actor, but he was also many things. Bruce Lee was a writer, producer, and director as well, with his skills proven in the 1972 film, Way of the Dragon. It was his directorial debut and a ticket to the Hollywood scene, one of the best Bruce Lee movies of all time.
It was a Hong Kong movie starring a Chinese bumpkin, played by Lee, who went to Rome to protect a Chinese restaurant against the mafia. The plot was as simple as one gets, like most of Bruce Lee’s movies. The appeal of it remains on the legendary fight scenes between Bruce Lee’s character and the opposing role of Chuck Norris, who would later be another renowned name in the martial arts world.
#3. Fist of Fury
The Chinese Connection or the Fist of Fury is another must-watch if you are a die-hard Bruce Lee fanatic. It features a great plot that you can see in newer kung fu movies, a student avenging the death of his master or teacher. Like any other movie of the martial arts legend, this one comes with a lot of incredible fighting scenes as well.
Fist of Fury is one of the best Bruce Lee movies of all time and features some of the most famous fight scenes in the history of kung fu cinema. Although the dubbing for the movie could be better, the Fist of Fury offers non-stop action. It may not be a perfect one in terms of emotional style in films, but Bruce Lee’s fight choreography was nothing but riveting that it took center stage once again.
#4. Gu Xing Xue Lei
This Hong Kong-based movie premiered in the US late in 1955 as An Orphan’s Tragedy, which got loosely based on the Great Expectations classic novel by Charles Dickens. The plot surrounds the life of a young man, played by Bruce Lee, who became a student of an escaped convict as he tries to make the hardest decisions about his life and his future.
Gu Xing Xue Lei was one of the best Bruce Lee movies, which features the legend at his young age, which is a fun one to watch for all his fans.
#5. Game of Death
Bruce Lee worked on Game of Death before he got pulled away to film Enter the Dragon, for which he wasn’t able to return and complete the movie before his untimely death. Despite that, Game of Death remains one of the best Bruce Lee movies of all time.
Before he passed away, the legend was able to shoot around 30 minutes of fight scenes for the martial arts film. However, it got compressed into about seven minutes at the end of the movie, which was a shame. Still, Game of Death stays as a must-watch for any fan of the legendary martial artist.
The second installment of the movie surrounds the life of the brother of Bruce Lee’s character in this film, trying to avenge the death of his brother.
#6. The Orphan
Aside from his legendary fight scenes, Bruce Lee was an impressive actor as well. He can play the character of a swaggering hoodlum in a Hing Kong street that no one can imitate, not that they didn’t try, which was evident in the 1960 movie The Orphan.
The movie features the 18-year-old Bruce Lee before he went from Hong Kong to San Francisco. He played the character of a misguided youngster, Ah Sam, who turned his life around from being a robber after befriending the headmaster of an orphanage.
The Orphan wasn’t like most of Bruce Lee’s films, which comes with tons of fight scenes. Instead, this one covers Hong Kong’s documentary value in the 60s and the actor’s skills on the big screen. The film even got named as one of the top Chinese Motion Pictures during the 24th Film Awards in Hong Kong.
#7. The Kid
In his years as an actor, Bruce Lee appeared in several movies for supporting roles. His first starring role was in 1950 for the film The Kid. He was only ten years old when he worked in this movie, where he played a street urchin role with a cocky bravado. His character in ‘The Kid’ got him the distinction as Hong Kong’s Macaulay Culkin and led the movie to box-office success. However, despite the plans for its sequel, Bruce Lee wasn’t able to film it as his parents put him into a time-out in show business because of fighting on the streets. Still, ‘The Kid’ stays as one of the best Bruce Lee movies that features his unique take on acting.
Bruce Lee was the first Asian artist to capture Hollywood’s imagination and love towards martial arts on the big screen. He is one of the most influential martial artists in the world up to this day, and one of the famous faces in kung fu cinema worldwide. This list of best Bruce Lee movies is a perfect example of his legacy.
