Old School Kung Fu ’17: Hapkido

Genuine trained martial artists always use diplomacy first, falling back on their fighting skills only as a last resort. Discipline and humility are always essential to the warrior’s code—and it is also better not to reveal your best moves too soon. Unfortunately, the Japanese occupiers of this provincial Chinese city are spoiling for a fight, so Yu Ying and her brothers will eventually have to give it to them in Feng Huang’s Hapkido, which screens during this year’s Old School Kung Fu Fest at the Metrograph.

Yu Ying, Kao Chang, and Fan Wei are Chinese, but they have been faithfully studying hapkido in occupied Korea with their master. However, they will have to make a hasty return to China, after laying a beating on a group of Japanese thugs. They hope to open a Hapkido school in a provincial town that ought to be off the Imperial authorities’ radar, but the local Black Bear karate school is not exactly welcoming.

Members of the Black Bear School use their Japanese lineage to bully the rest of the town. Their master, Toyoda, refuses to allow the Hapkido School to open, out of malicious anti-Korean prejudice. Of course, every time his followers goad the Hapkido teachers into a fight, they get publicly humiliated. Usually, Yu Ying and her older brother make a valiant effort to practice the forbearance advised by their master, but not so much the hot-headed Fan Wei. Eventually, his fighting will get him killed, but at least he also catches the eye of the pretty Miss Sau before that.

Essentially, Hapkido argues forbearance is all very good up to a point, but eventually bad guys need to be put down. In terms of narrative, it is your basic, pan-Asian (Chinese and Korean) anti-Japanese score-settling. However, the fight scenes are some of the best of the era. Hapkido was one of Master Sammo Hung’s earliest films as both the fight choreographer and a featured player, charismatically portraying the rashly heroic Fan Wei.

He also had some of the best movie martial artists to work with, starting first and foremost with the legendary Angela Mao Ying. Yu Ying is definitely the sort of role that was in her power zone and she duly knocks it out of the park. Reliable Carter Wong Ka-Tat is also totally solid as the dependable Kao Chang. Real life hapkido masters Hwang In-shik and Ji Han-jae add authenticity and spectacular chops as the siblings’ elder classmate and Hapkido master, respectively. If you look closely, you might see early appearances from Jackie Chan and Corey Yuen as Black Bear and Hapkido students. Plus, Nancy Sit adds further star power as the sweet but plucky Miss Sau.

You could uncharitable label Hapkido “formulaic,” but it is the sort of film that will totally quench your craving for martial arts action. Obviously, it would make a terrific double-feature with Feng Huang’s similarly Korean-themed When Taekwondo Strikes. Both films are great showcases for Mao that just deliver the good stuff over and over again. However, Sammo Hung fans will find Hapkido even more satisfying. Recommended with fannish affection, Hapkido kicks off Old School Kung Fu this Friday (8/18) at Metrograph. Mao fans should also check her out in King Hu’s The Fate of Lee Khan, which screens the next day.

The Angela Mao Ying Collection: The Tournament

Who knew kung fu was so bureaucratic? Not surprisingly, the Chinese Kung Fu Association is all about keeping up appearances and closing ranks. Unfortunately, Master Lau finds himself effectively black-balled when his son and a fellow student are humiliated in Thailand by Muay Thai fighters. However, he also has a daughter. There will be some avenging to do in Feng Huang’s The Tournament, which is included in The Angela Mao Ying Collection now available from Shout Factory.

Fighters are not legally responsible for deaths in the ring during Thailand’s mixed martial arts matches. Nevertheless, Pepsi evidently signed on as a sponsor. Eager to showcase Muay Thai’s dominance, agents regularly try to recruit Chinese Kung Fu practitioners, offering them large sums just to participate. When loan sharks kidnap the sister of one of Master Lau’s students, he and Lau’s son Hong reluctantly accept. Hong loses badly, but at least he survives. His friend is not so lucky. The shame wrought by the scandalized Kung Fu Association effectively kills Master Lau as well.

Despite their denigration of Lau’s Kung Fu, nobody can best his daughter, Siu Fung. Yet, she only outrages the provincial fools further when she vows to study Muay Thai, in order to develop tactics to beat it. The Association’s decent but ineffectual director has a colleague in Thailand who can help. Under his tutelage, Hong and Siu Fung (with a new boyish coif) will win some redemption in the ring, but this earns them further enemies amongst their mobbed-up opponents.

Arguably, Tournament is a sort of MMA movie-forerunner, in which Kung Fu, Muay Thai, and karate all face each other at some point. It also offers a rare look at Mao without her trademark braids. However, Sammo Hung’s presence as co-action director and one of Lau’s pig-headed colleagues is a welcome guarantee of quality control. He deals with the gloves and pads well enough, but the action in the ring pales in comparison to Mao’s three major throw-downs, including an Odysseus-like coda in which the returning Siu Fu and Hong must eject an interloping Japanese karate dojo from their father’s studio.

Of course, Mao is in her element as the disciplined, outside-the-box Siu Fu. Her frequent co-star Carter Huang is reasonably serviceable (again) as Hong. Hung also gets a chance to show some of the charisma that would be apparent in later films. However, the villains are a rather interchangeable lot of moustache-twisting types.

The Tournament might be a bit programmatic (in a Golden Harvest sort of way), but it is a fine example of Mao and Hung doing their thing, which is also worth seeing. Frankly, it would be nice to have a few more like this. Easily recommended for Mao fans and martial arts connoisseurs, The Tournament is now available on DVD as part of Shout Factory’s Angela Mao Ying Collection.

The Angela Mao Ying Collection: The Himalayan

It is sort of like Shaolin’s Tibetan Buddhist cousin, but it is not called Esoteric Kung Fu for nothing. Practitioners are few and far between, but it might be just the discipline to take on the savage tiger claw. Regardless, vengeance will not be denied in Feng Huang’s The Himalayan (trailer here), which is included in The Angela Mao Ying Collection now available from Shout Factory.

In the high Himalayas, a martial arts competition is a fine place for a courtship. As it happens, when Ceng Ching-lan faces Gao I Fan, they make more of an impression on her father, Lord Ceng and his older brother, Gao Zhen, than on each other. An arrangement is quickly struck, but when I Fan expresses reservations, the devious Gao Zhen permanently dispatches his brother, replacing him with a more compliant look-a-like. He was adopted anyway.

It quickly becomes apparent Gao has designs to take over the power and wealth of the Ceng house. Through his dreaded tiger claw kung fu, Gao incapacitates Lan, framing her for the murder of the latest I Fan. Fortunately, her boyhood chum Xu saves her from the ritual cast-off-into-the-river form of execution. Together they will regroup in the Eagle Lama’s monastery, hoping to be deemed worthy of learning his rare Esoteric Kung Fu.

With its wide mountain vistas and Tibetan-Nepalese locations, The Himalayan is an unusually visually striking martial arts film, much in the King Hu tradition. Similarly, it also has some highly cinematic fight scenes choreographed by Sammo Hung (sharing duties with Han Ying-chieh). However, since it was produced by Golden Harvest in the 1970s there are also the requisite nude scenes featuring Angela Wang En-chi as Gao’s vixen accomplice, Man. Genre fans will also want to keep their eyes peeled for Hung, Jackie Chan, and Corey Yuen, who pop up briefly as fight extras.

While Mao is not always front and center, she still takes a strong and steely star turn as the wronged Lan. She meets one of her best antagonists in the form of Chan Sing, who truly looks like he enjoys evil scheming more than any Bond villain. His tiger claw moves are also suitably fierce. Yet, it is Han, the co-action director, who nearly steals the show as Uncle Qu, Lord Ceng’s wise but surprisingly spry old advisor.

Altogether, The Himalayan is a winning blend of Buddhist wisdom and exploitation goodies. It is a great showcase for Mao, while getting the most from a talented supporting ensemble. Enthusiastically recommended, The Himalayan is now available on DVD as part of Shout Factory’s Angela Mao Ying Collection.

The Angela Mao Ying Collection: A Queen’s Ransom

In 1975, Hong Kong was a Crown Colony that wanted to stay that way. Therefore, do not expect them to have much sympathy for an Irish assassin. The HK police will do everything in their power to protect the Queen during her royal visit, but they are already stretched thin dealing with the massive influx of immigrants from Vietnam and Cambodia. There is also some business about a gold shipment in Ting Shang-hsi’s A Queen’s Ransom, which is included in The Angela Mao Ying Collection now available from Shout Factory.

Poor police chief Gao already has more than he can handle, but when Jenny the bargirl’s tip regarding a Filipino client pans out, he assigns Det. Chiang to watch over her. She is relentlessly cute, but also ethically flexible, so it is not just for her protection. It turns out her thuggish customer is part of a team recruited by IRA splinter-group leader George Morgan to assassinate the Queen during her state visit.

Meanwhile, in what seems like an entirely different film, a former Cambodian princess has arrived in a refugee camp, where she stoically accepts her fate. She hardly ever speaks, but she still has her dignity and martial arts skills. The latter will come as quite a surprise to Ducky, the working class HK laborer who befriends her.

Ransom was clearly conceived as a HK version of the 1970s Alistair MacLean film adaptations that usually featured dozens of tiny little boxes of cast photos running across the bottom of their one-sheets. True to form, Ting compulsively introduces new characters throughout the film. Yet, somehow he successfully ties up all his rangy subplots, but not exactly with an elegant knot a salty seafarer would admire.

Frankly, the first two acts are somewhat slow and the interconnectedness of many scenes is not readily apparent. However, it provides an intriguing time capsule of mid-1970s Hong Kong. As go-go as times then were, it probably still seems quaint to residents of today’s mega-mega HK. Ting also cleverly integrates archival footage of both the Queen and the real life refugee camps.

Just as notable is the assembled rogues’ gallery of evil, which one would not even see in American films of the era. In addition to his IRA roots, Morgan hires Jimmy, an HK expat who had become a specialist in guerilla warfare with the North Vietnamese. Like a good Viet Cong, he is only interested in money. Morgan also recruits an African American clearly inspired by the Black Panthers. To create sexual tension Judith Brown (a women-in-prison cult movie favorite) duly taunts him into some rough sex as Black Rose. However, the most ideologically driven members of the gang are unquestionably are the Japanese Red Army terrorists, who also turn out to be the dumbest.

At least Ransom finally delivers a showdown between George Lazenby and Angela Mao. Without question, it is the best choreographed fight of the film. Mao still brings all kinds of grace and presence as the Princess, but Ting criminally under-employs her. During Stoner, his previous Golden Harvest film, George Lazenby was clearly inspired to hold up his end by Mao and their fight choreographer-co-star Sammo Hung. In contrast, here he mostly just seems to be playing out the string as Morgan. Even legend-in-the-making Jimmy Wang Yu’s namesake seems a bit lost in the convoluted backstories and digressions. Still, there is no denying future HK horror maven (Tanny) Ni Tien lights up the screen as Jenny.

Ransom is an odd mishmash of elements, but it is likely to excite the curiosity of HK film fans. It is not a great showcase for Mao, but it is not a bad filler film to go along with more representative outings like the seriously cool Broken Oath, so it is sort of recommended as part of the value-packed Angela Mao Ying Collection, recently released by Shout Factory.

The Angela Mao Ying Collection: Stoner

Which is more deadly, Angela Mao Ying’s hapkido or George Lazenby’s mustache? It had better be Mao, because the one-and-done Bond eventually shaves his ‘stache to throw off the bad guys. It is all part of the sex-and-drugs-and-martial arts glory of Feng Huang’s Stoner (trailer here), which is included in The Angela Mao Ying Collection now available from Shout Factory.

Joseph Stoner is an Australian cop, whose girlfriend was deliberately hooked on a new form of sexually-charged heroin in retribution for his relentless investigations. Sometimes they also say he is American, but that would make him one of those Yankee coppers that drive on the left side of the road. Either way, its not worth getting hung up on.

Angela Li Shou-hua is also a cop, who has been sent undercover into Hong Kong from Taiwan to investigate the mysterious syndicate that keeps buying creaky decommissioned freighters at auction for ridiculous prices. They are both investigating the same outfit, but drug lords have no idea the shy young immigrant selling sodas on a desolate stretch of beach is actually a lethal martial artist. 

However, they see Stoner coming from a mile away and put Agnes Wong Yen-yen, their designated femme fatale, on the case. After a contrived meeting, they capture a blackmail shot of Stoner in bed with Wong. Yet, it really doesn’t seem to bother him because, A: it’s the 1970s and B: she’s hot.

In fact, you really cannot get much more 1970s than this. Supposedly, the bare bones of Stoner were originally conceived as a vehicle for Bruce Lee and Sonny Chiba, but the latter dropped out after the former’s tragic death. Frankly, it is impossible to glean much of the initial concept from the final film that is Stoner. The irony further compounded with the casting of Betty Ting Pei (in whose apartment Lee somewhat scandalously passed away) as the temptress Wong.

Add in an incredibly funky soundtrack and some wild psychedelic interludes (that go on much longer than they should because they are designed to accommodate bare breasts) and you have cult movie gold. Believe it or not, Stoner is not a perfect film. Huang keeps his co-leads plugging away separately for way too long and he somewhat favors the title character over Mao’s Li. Still, it is wildly entertaining when they take on the collected bad guys (while Stoner fights off a dose of horndog H).

As usual, Mao throws down with grace and authority, just generally commanding the screen in all respects. It is important to remember the love-him-or-hate-him Bond also had skills, which is why the Broccolis hired him in the first place. Ting adds some smart, saucy smolder as Wong and you knew Sammo Hung had to be in here as one of the chief henchmen.

This is the sort of film you can watch over and over and over again. The normal critical standards do not apply—it just delivers. Highly recommended for fans of Mao, Ting, Hung, and Lazenby (you know who you are), Stoner is now available on DVD as part of Shout Factory’s Angela Mao Ying Collection.

The Angela Mao Ying Collection: When Taekwondo Strikes

Where could you find a heroic film treatment of a European Christian missionary? Hong Kong in 1973. Father Lewis (Lu Yi) is a true humanitarian who supports Korea’s aspirations for liberation. Unfortunately, the Japanese occupation does not cotton to his interference and act accordingly. However, his allies are not nearly so prone to turn the other cheek. Angela Mao will get some serious retribution in Feng Huang’s When Taekwondo Strikes (trailer here), which is included in The Angela Mao Ying Collection now available from Shout Factory.

Wan Ling-ching is Chinese, but she has always identified with her oppressed Korean comrades. She can also fight, but her hapkido is different from the taekwondo practiced by Li Jun-dong, the leader of the local resistance. Li has masqueraded as the good Father’s servant, but the jig is up. Initially, the Imperial enforcers are a bit circumspect dealing with Father Lewis for fear of antagonizing his embassy, but then they realize he is French and proceed to torture him with impunity. Things really look bad when Li is also captured, but Wan tries to keep his hot-headed apprentice and Mary, the Father’s kung fu kicking nun-niece, focused and together.

Taekwondo is a rather fascinating manifestation of Angela Mao’s international superstardom, obviously produced with an eye towards the Korean market. In addition to the setting, it is the only martial film starring taekwondo grandmaster Jhoon Goo Rhee (dubbed “the Father of American Taekwondo”), who is all kinds of steely awesome as Ji. Mao’s Wan is also terrifically cool, charismatic, and lethal. Unfortunately, throughout Strikes, they are surrounded by spectacularly bad decision-makers with insufficiently established motivations, especially the rather dazed looking Anne Winton as Mary. She’s got the moves, though, as we would expect from “Jhoon’s best student,” as the trailer tells us.

Indeed, what Strikes does well, it does tremendously well. That would be the fight scenes choreographed by Chan Chuen and Sammo Hung, who naturally appears as a Japanese enforcer. The climatic all-hands-on-deck throw-down is a massively satisfying genre pay-off that will have fans yelling and cheering at the screen.

Even though Mao shares the beat-down duties with Rhee quite equally, her star-power is clearly driving the bus. If you are looking for straight forward adrenaline-charged martial arts with a few awkward line-readings, it is tough to beat. It is also rather strangely in-line with the recent bumper crop of WWII-era anti-Japanese action films coming out of the Chinese language territories these days—aside from the sympathetic portrayal of western Christians. Recommended for fans of Mao and Hung, When Taekwondo Strikes is now available on DVD, as part of The Angela Mao Ying Collection.

The Angela Mao Ying Collection: Broken Oath

She retired in 1992, but she is still one of the biggest stars around. She brought down the house presenting the Asia Star Award to her frequent co-star-action choreographer Sammo Hung and if the producers of the proposed Expendabelles film cannot lure her into a big screen return than they simply should not bother going any further. Viewers can appreciate her power and presence in Shout Factory’s 3-DVD Angela Mao Ying Collection, on-sale today, which includes Jeong Chang-hwa’s Broken Oath (trailer here).

Lotus Liu never knew her mother, but she inherited her drive for revenge just the same. After four turncoats murdered her father, the principled General Liu, her mother Yee-mei was consigned to the remote Wolf’s Teeth Island prison, where she dies during childbirth. Thousand Hands, Lotus’s not so rehabilitated pickpocket god-mother, raises her as her own daughter, but never reveals her birth mother’s tale of woe, in hopes of breaking the cycle of violence (in addition to her titular oath). Right, good luck with that.

Eventually, Lotus is expelled from her Buddhist nunnery, discovering her true origin story shortly thereafter. With the help one of Thousand Hands’ stealthy-fingered associate, Lotus proceeds to hunt down her father’s four betrayers one-by-one. So far, so good, but she is not quite sure what to make of the mysterious stranger, who frequently materializes to point her in the right direction.

Often cited as a fan favorite, Broken was Mao’s final film for Golden Harvest (considered the successors to the Shaw Brothers as the next great HK distributor-production house). It is easy to see why. While technically a period wuxia film, it definitely has the sensibilities of a 1970s revenge thriller. There are also the exotic Devil’s Island style prison scenes, a small army of undercover cops targeting enemy #4, and a dash of Buddhist teachings.

Most importantly, there are some spectacular fight sequences featuring Mao and her co-stars, including Hung in as a featured bodyguard. Action directors Yuen Woo-ping and Hsu Hsia frequently mix martial arts styles to play to the strengths of each cast-member, but they always keep it dazzling cinematic and impressively kinetic.

Mao electrifies Broken, brooding with intensity and throwing down with authority. She is unquestionably the star, even though the big fight sequences are distributed surprisingly equitably amongst the ensemble. Wang Lai also lends the affair plenty of grace and dignity as Thousand Hands, while Ho Mei makes a strong impression in her brief but fan-serving appearance as the wronged Madame Liu.

Broken Oath seriously delivers the goods for martial arts connoisseurs in general and Angela Mao Ying fans in particular. It is a perfect opener for Shout Factory’s highly recommended collection, now available on DVD. More coverage to come.

King Hu at BAM: The Fate of Lee Khan

The Spring Inn is a lot like Rick’s in Casablanca. Nobody is shocked to find gambling there, while the resistance rubs shoulders with the occupiers. King Hu appreciated the dramatic possibilities of a nice isolated inn, setting three of his classic films within such seedy establishments. Fittingly, The Fate of Lee Khan, the third and least widely seen of his so-called “Inn Trilogy,” screens during the BAM Cinématek’s retrospective, All Hail the King: the Films of King Hu.

Ever since she set up a dice table, “Wendy” Wan Jen-mi’s Spring Inn has crushed the business of her closest competitor. He does not mind, though, because he is her superior in the underground opposition to the Mongols. From him she receives advance warning the dreaded warlord Lee Khan will soon be staying at her inn. The ruthless prince has intercepted a strategically important map from their compatriots, so Wan must steal it back. She has just the right staff for the job: four reformed criminals now working as waitresses. Additional back-up arrives in the form of lowly scholar Wang Shih-cheng and troubadour Sha Yuan-shan, who masquerade as Wan’s bookkeeper cousin and his servant.

After a fair amount of carousing with the rustic locals, the scene is sufficiently set for Lee Khan’s arrival and the fighting chops of former pickpocket Hai Mu-tan are thoroughly established. With the inn closed to all except the staff and the Mongol entourage, the sneaking around begins in earnest.

Frankly, Fate leans more towards intrigue than adrenaline-charged smack-downs, but action director Sammo Hung still blocked out some nice sequences to showcase his good friend Angela Mao. Even though it is a supporting part, nobody can miss the star power she brings to bear as Hai. As Wendy, Li Hua-li is hardly anyone’s push over either. In fact, the five women of Spring Inn vividly demonstrate Hu’s facility for strong “nuxia” swordswomen characters.

One of the strangest aspects of Fate is Lee Khan himself. Feng Tien’s portrayal is not so very far removed from Conrad Veidt’s Maj. Strasser in Casablanca, oozing cunning and malevolence. Yet, everything he says, such as officials should live close to the citizens they govern and should hire the most qualified scholars regardless of ethnicity, makes a good deal of sense. In fact, it sounds downright progressive for the era. Nonetheless, he is still the bad guy.

Featuring characters as colorful as their costumes, The Fate of Lee Khan is a fast-paced comedic-tragedy that should fully satisfy wuxia connoisseurs. It is important both as part of Hu’s thematic trilogy and a relatively early turn from Mao (shortly following Enter the Dragon and Hapkido), but because life is not fair, it is hard to find a watchable print with English subtitles and the original Mandarin dialogue. Since BAM will screen it this Sunday (6/15) as it should be seen, it ought to be a high priority for Hu and Mao fans during the All Hail the King retrospective, now underway in Brooklyn.

Wing Chun at BAM: Enter the Dragon

It is the first true martial arts film selected for the Library of Congress’s National Film Registry.  Bruce Lee’s first Hollywood star vehicle and his final fully completed film represents kung fu cinema at its most cross-overiest, yet it is still legit to the bone.  In honor of Ip Man and Wong Kar Wai’s The Grandmaster, Bruce Lee & director Robert Clouse’s Enter the Dragon (trailer here), begins a week of restored DCP screenings today, as part of BAM Cinematek’s Wing Chun classic film series.

Lee’s namesake is a Hong Kong Shaolin standard bearer knocking on the door of complete martial arts enlightenment.  While glory in the ring hardly interests him, he agrees to compete in the triannual martial arts tournament sponsored by Han, an international vice lord and general megalomaniac.  Sent in by British Intelligence sans back-up, Lee is to reconnoiter around Han’s pleasure palace and hopefully fight his way out of any trouble he might encounter.  It is not much of a plan, but it will suffice.

The stakes turn out to be unexpectedly personal for Lee.  Shortly before embarking, he learns Han’s thugs were responsible for the death of his sister, Su Lin.  As one might expect of Lee’s kin, she put up a heck of a fight.  Han’s chief enforcer O’Hara still bears his scars from the encounter.  He is due for some more pain. However, Lee will meet some friendly Americans en route, such as the well heeled Roper, who is looking to hustle some action to pay off his gambling debts, like a kung fu Fast Eddie Felson. In contrast, Roper’s former Army buddy Williams seems more interested in hedonistic pleasures supplied nightly to the fighters.

Enter might not sound earthshakingly original, but that is partly a function of how widely imitated it has been, especially the iconic hall of mirrors climax.  Scores of movies have copied its general template of the ostensibly upright kumite going on above ground, while armies of henchmen in color-coded gis labor towards nefarious ends below.  Without it, there is no way we would have guilty pleasures like the Steve Chase beatdown, Kill and Kill Again, which is a thoroughly depressing thought to contemplate.

All the elements come together, but there is still no question this is Lee’s show.  Almost supernaturally intense and charismatic, Lee was clearly at the peak of his powers throughout Enter.  It is a massively physical performance (featuring some impressive acrobatic feats), yet Lee still takes care to convey the philosophical side of Wing Chun.  The restored print includes more scenes of Lee as a spiritual teacher that work quite well. 

Even with Lee’s overpowering presence, Enter is the film that really put Jim “Black Belt Jones” Kelly on the map. As Williams, he contributes attitude and energy that further distinguished Enter from its genre predecessors.  In fact, the cast is loaded with notables, including John Saxon, hamming it up with relish as Roper.  Fans often wonder why so little was subsequently heard of Betty Chung, but she has some nice rapport with Lee as Mei Ling, a fellow undercover operative. 

There are also plenty of established and future action stars, most notably Angela Mao absolutely crushing Su Lin’s brief but pivotal flashback scene.  Bolo Yeung also appears in exactly the sort of role that would make him famous.  Sammo Hung has a briefer turn as a Shaolin martial artist who fairs poorly against Lee—but not as nearly as badly as blink-and-you-missed-him Jackie Chan, whose meat-for-the-grinder henchman gets his neck snapped by our hero.

But wait there’s more, including a classic funky eastern fusion soundtrack by Lalo Schifrin that opened up a lot of ears up to the Argentinean composer and former Dizzy Gillespie sideman.  Without question, this is a historically and culturally significant film, well worthy of being selected for the National Film Registry.  Logically, it anchors BAM’s Wing Chun series in honor of Lee’s revered master, Ip Man.  Highly recommended beyond martial arts enthusiasts, Enter the Dragon begins a week long run (8/30-9/5) today at the BAM Rose Cinemas.