Our fervid chase of the assassin brought us to a roundabout. The assassin on the red Ducati took the second exit. We were gaining when the Revenging Manta, the ninja vigilante of downtown Orlando, unfastened his seatbelt, slid the passenger door open, and climbed to the roof. He advanced to the hood of the van. He leapt into the air, shurikens flying.

— To be continued.

Tonight’s movie is 1972’s The Way of the Dragon from director Bruce Lee. That’s right. Our star is pulling double duty as lead and director. Our film starts out with a man named Tang Lung (Bruce Lee) arriving in Rome, Italy and hanging out in the airport while he waits for a ride. Tang attempts to eat a little kids ice cream cone before settling on an airport restaurant where he devours seven soups before leaving to look for his ride.

Tang was sent to Rome, Italy to help a young woman named Chen (Nora Miao) and her uncle Wang (Huang Tsung-hsing) because they are being pressured to sell their Chinese restaurant to a crime syndicate. I won’t use the term mob or Mafia, but you get the idea, Tang is supposed to reason with the criminals that keep chasing the customers away from Chen’s establishment. The staff of the restaurant practice martial arts in their spare time and Tang does some sparring with them. During practice, Tang sends one of the cooks flying into a stack of boxes with one kick. That’s not fancy special effects or fight choreography. That’s just Bruce Lee unleashing the power of the dragon!

It’s not long before the syndicate sends some goons over to the restaurant to intimidate the owners into selling. A back alley brawl with Tang shows these goons whose boss and we get a return of the nunchucks. That’s not going to happen. They dispatch a hitman to Chen’s apartment, but Tang manages to disarm him before he flees. That same hitman tries sniping Tang and Chen, but Tang chases after him across the rooftops in Rome. You get the gist of the situation. The syndicate tries to intimidate the restaurant owners and Tang retaliates. He just wants them to leave the restaurant alone.

Frustrated by the constant thwarted attempts to get the property, the head of the syndicate sends three renowned martial artists to finish off Tang once and for all. One is from Japan. One is from Europe. The third is from America. This American martial artist is Colt, one of the fiercest men who ever existed and he’s played by none other than Chuck Norris. That’s right. You get a showdown between Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris in this motion picture. This sort of exhibition justifies the existence of movie theaters.

The final fight between Tang and Colt takes place in the ruins of the Roman Colosseum. Before either of them even fight, they stretch. It feels like this stretching goes on forever, but the match finally commences and it’s like two tigers vying for dominance. In case you didn’t know, Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris used to train together so seeing them spar on the big screen is a feast for the senses.

I won’t tell you who wins, but you already know.

Jeff Shuster (episode 47, episode 102, episode 124, episode 131, episode 284, episode 441, episode 442, episode 443, episode 444, episode 450, episode 477, episode 491, episode 492, episode 493, episode 495, episode 496, episode 545, episode 546, episode 547, episode 548, episode 549, episode 575, episode 596, episode 597, episode 598, episode 599, episode 642, episode 643, episode 644, episode 645, and episode 670) is an MFA graduate from the University of Central Florida.