Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		3.0
Audio		2.5
Extras		1.0
Overall		2.0

Enter Three Dragons Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman June 23, 2024

Note: This film is available on Blu-ray as part of Severin's The Game of Clones: Bruceploitation Collection Vol. 1.

When Severin Films released Kung Fu Trailers of Fury and Return of Kung Fu Trailers of Fury several years ago, I'm sure I wasn't the only one initially thinking, "Well, that's a stupid idea for a release", only to have the sheer lunacy of the trailers assembled in both collections "fight back" against that assessment, as if to say in response, "Yeah, well who's stupid now?" In fact, both Kung Fu Trailers of Fury and Return of Kung Fu Trailers of Fury were kind of deliriously enjoyable in their own slapdash way, and those releases evidently were one of the inspirations for a full on collection of so-called "Brucesploitation" films, this time offering the actual films in addition to their trailers. The goofily affable Michael Worth, who has contributed so many fun commentaries through the years to various kung fu films on Blu-ray, is your "host" of sorts here, offering introductions to all the films and commentaries for many of them. If none of these films is ever going to be acclaimed as an unappreciated masterpiece, and if both video and audio on many of the films in this set might be charitably termed problematic, merely having these films in high definition will be alluring, and an absolute glut of other supplemental material is included as well, making this a probable "must have" for a certain demographic.

Michael Worth contributes some really fun introductions to each and every film in Severin's massive set, and he frequently is unabashedly disparaging in his comments, though always kind of hilariously in an obviously loving and tradition honoring way. Worth makes no bones about how completely incomprehensible this film is, while also mentioning it kind of plays as a "test run" of sorts for the later The Clones of Bruce Lee, the film that shares a disc with this one. Once again there are several "versions" of Bruce Lee, but kind of weirdly (especially considering the whole Brucesploitation situation), not really. Instead, we have what might be called "versions" of Dragon Lee, or at least characters named Dragon, along with a focal character who is neither Bruce nor Dragon nor any other kind of Lee, named Sammy (Samuel Walls). It's absolutely impossible to really understand (even characters in the film seem confused), but it has a goofily enjoyable amount of mayhem, especially at the climax. It's understandable why this film was paired with The Clones of Bruce Lee on one disc, since they both feature "doubles" (and/or "triples", as the case may be), and both were directed by Joseph Kong, but this "warm up" act for that later film can't help but seem like a letdown when seen second.

Enter Three Dragons Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Enter Three Dragons is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Severin Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.35:1. Michael Worth states this was culled from an internegative from Transcontinental, and this transfer shows many of the same pluses and minuses of other films in this set. Once again there are some really noticeable anamorphic oddities where the rectangle of the frame almost looks like it's become a parallelogram, so that things are kind of weirdly tilted/skewed (see screenshot 4). There's also some kind of odd looking squeezing that tends to be further in toward the center of the frame than may be typical (see screenshot 6). There's some of the same kind of damage on tap in many of the other transfers, but as with this film's disc mate, The Clones of Bruce Lee , not nearly as bad as is seen elsewhere. The palette is somewhat variable, often kind of brownish and faded looking, but then at certain moments as in a long outdoor sequence shortly after the half hour mark, rather good and nicely suffused, at least relatively speaking.

Enter Three Dragons Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Enter Three Dragons features DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono that as with several other tracks in this set features some pretty bad high end distortion that creates sibilance in spoken material and a kind of metallic sound in some of the scoring, especially noticeable in some of the percussion. There's the same overall boxy sound that gives a kind of hollow ambience to the chop socky sound effects that is evident in many of the other tracks in this set. Optional English subtitles are available.

Enter Three Dragons Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Severin's Kung Fu Theater With Actor/Director/Bruceploitation Expert Michael Worth (HD; 1:59) offers a brief introduction. This is accessible as either a standalone supplement or under the Play Menu, where it's authored to lead directly to the feature.


• Trailer (HD; 3:29)

Enter Three Dragons Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

When Michael Worth mentions having "three drinks and three cookies" before watching this film, one might reasonably assume he is thinking of something like the cookie version of an Alice B. Toklas brownie, since being either chemically, alcoholically or herbally "enhanced" may be the only way to "understand" this film, even if you have no memory of it afterward. This is fun in a certain way, but can't help but compare unfavorably to the even more gonzo The Clones of Bruce Lee. Both video and audio encounter some major hurdles, but I'd still rate at least the video here as relatively better than some of the other transfers in this set.