Reviewed By-Steve Genier

Directed By-Ping  Lin

Cast-Bruce Li, Tang Pei, Na Yin Hsui and Wei Ping Ao

This being the first of three biopics after the untimely death of Bruce Lee. Cashing in on not only Lee's myth but his look as well. Attack of the Lee clones, this one starring one of the more popular clones,Taiwanese star Bruce Li. This film dives right into Lee's beginning up until his mysterious death. Offering such details as his often rumored romance with Chinese actress, Betty Ting Pei. A Dragon Story moves along at a snails pace, only picking up during what little fight scenes that are dished out. Fight scenes that are very much on the dull side and very poorly choreographed. I know one who tends to favor martial art films, especially those in the classic Kung-Fu stature...really don't care about character build ups and storylines. This one takes the cake for being beyond cheesy....very dull cheese. Editing for this film is very choppy, another trait for kung-fu films, but at time this is unbearable. Look, I was a huge Bruce Lee fan when I was a kid, as the same for kung-fu films..but this one is very disappointing even for the least of fans. It does seem to edge certain aspects of his raise to fame. His martial art teaching to his starring role as Keto in the Green Hornet and his hard time trying to find a decent film contract and scubbles with the director in Hong Kong. Of course Lee won that battle, not only did he start to choreograph the fight scenes, his also wrote and directed.

There is so much left out of this film in terms of learning about Bruce Lee. His family life, his film career and furthermore his pain and agony. They neglect to explain his mysterious headaches, his longtime belief of being cursed and being chased by a dragon. His addiction with work, being in shape and pain killers. Geeze in a span of a five minute time frame, the viewer is forced to watch Bruce fly back and forth between the US and Hong Kong, only viewing a plane going in circles. Also, I remember Lee as being very tanned almost bronze like in many of his films. During a couple of the fight scenes in ADS, Bruce Li has a farmer's tan. I know I'm being very picky, but hell..if you going to depict a legend like Lee do it right. Don't get me wrong, I like Bruce Li but unfortunately thing just don't  workout in this film at all. They center too much on the love interest between Lee and Pei tending to drag on being very tedious. They fail to show any valid points as to how much impact Bruce Lee really had on both the martial arts community and the action genre on a whole.