10 Things You Didn’t Know About Enter the Dragon

Enter the Dragon is one of the most ground breaking Martial Arts films in history. It introduced many Americans to kung fu and it introduced the world to a man named Bruce Lee. Lee became a star overnight and just as the world finally started to accept an Asian leading man Bruce passed away. The film would go on to be a huge success but there are a few things that you probably didn’t know about Dragon. John Saxon had a background in karate, Jim Kelly was a kickass martial artist, Robert Wall was a champion in his own right, and I don’t think I need to tell you just how awesome Bruce Lee was. Take a peek at a few other tidbits you may not have known.

1. The Producers had seen Bruce before and wanted to develop a project for him. The lead role of the show Kung Fu was for Lee but people didn’t want a Chinese star.
2. Bruce was so nervous that he wasn’t on set for days. They filmed as much footage as they could without Bruce but once he got going he would work overtime to get the scenes right.
3. One of the biggest worries was “why doesn’t someone just pull a gun?” They took special care to put into the script the scene where Bruce asks that question himself. If you remember, all weapons were confiscated before getting to the island as guns were not allowed.
4. The film was originally titled Blood and Steel.
5. The Bruce versus Sammo Hung scene was put into the film at the request of Lee. He wanted to get some of his philosophical stuff into the film. Bruce also fought legendary bad guy Bolo Yeung and beat up a young Jackie Chan in a fight scene.
6. This was one of the first international films to be made entirely in Hong Kong.
7. The aerial shots of Han’s Island were done by flying over using Roy Chow, who played the Monastery Monk at the beginning of the film. He was actually a helicopter pilot who knew the surrounding area really well and since the regulations between China and Hong Kong were so strict, they needed a man who knew where he could fly. They captured the scenes by having the Producer Paul Heller and his camera sitting next to Chow in the chopper.
8. For the actresses playing prostitutes, they had to actually hire women from the strip clubs by the hour. Most actresses wouldn’t take a role like that so they had to pay the dancers by the hour, which became pretty expensive. The same was done for the scene of the women with their faces painted.
9. Bruce Lee really did grab a live Cobra and stuff it into the bag.
10. The mirrored set was discovered by accident. They came across a room at a hotel that had an entire wall of mirrors and when the producers showed Bruce they decided to do an entire room filled with the mirrors.