Fighting Spirit Celebrates 50th Anniversary of Enter The Dragon

Following the highly successful Bruce Lee Movie Marathon in June, the Fighting Spirit Film Festival continues its commemoration of Bruce Lee's films marking 50 years since his death. The Mockingbird Cinema in Birmingham will once again play host to a spectacular Fighting Spirit event on 13th August; 'Enter the Dragon at 50; A Bruce Lee Retrospective + Q&A'. This one day special will feature screenings of Bruce Lee's classic films as well as special documentary, along with an  insightful Q&A, the mix of debate and kick-ass entertainment for which Fighting Spirit is well known.

MEET THE BIG BOSS

Kicking off the day, starting at 3 pm we will be a screening of Lee's breakout Hong Kong smash hit 'The Big Boss', his first film for Golden Harvest. Often over-looked and under-appreciated 'The Big Boss' has  a history of censorship and editing starting with a few shots of excessive blood-letting cut by Hong Kong censors prior to its October release. Further cuts were made for Singapore, and in April 1973 for the US release. There, it was renamed 'Fists of Fury', and ended up  a different film to the one that premiered in Hong Kong. Many scenes have since been restored over the years, though the early cuts are believed to have been lost for good 'The Big Boss' has undergone a 4K restoration and presented as the 'Mandarin Cut' by Arrow Films.

BRUCE LEE'S THAILAND ADVENTURE

The screening will be followed by the documentary 'The Big Boss: Return To Thailand' at 5:15 . Written and directed by Matt Routledge charting his journey visiting some of the filming locations that still exist from over 50 years ago. What started as a small 15-minute passion project has evolved into a feature length documentary o be included on  Arrow Film's 'Bruce Lee at Golden Harvest' box set. Matt himself will be there for the Q+A afterwards. 

TIME FOR THE DRAGON TO ENTER

Finally, the main event starts at 7 pm with a screening of the 4K restoration of 'Enter The Dragon'. It's a film that needs little, if any introduction, certainly for generations  of  martial artists, action movies fans and cinephiles. 'Enter The Dragon' shaped the evolution of action cinema, Hong Kong action and its stars as well expanding the world's passion and knowledge of martial arts. It is a film of its time that has stood the test of time, and 50 years on still has people as excited about it today as the first time it impacted on the big screen.   

Tickets are available from the Mockingbird Cinema website. For more information head over to the Fighting Spirit Film Festival website.