Before Bruce Lee, Hong Kong Cinema was largely made up of period pieces rife with mythological overtones. For the first time, here was a contemporary piece that retooled kung fu dynamics into a modern, gritty flick about drug smuggling in Thailand. Incidentally, it became the largest grossing movie in Hong Kong history. Bruce plays a man leaving a life of violence behind. For the first quarter of the movie, the dude keeps his fists of fury in his pockets while he and his cousins are bullied by gangsters who run the ice factory they work at. However, once members of his family start to mysteriously disappear, Bruce becomes a one man strike force to discover the truth. In other words, he kicks a lot of ass. ALL the Lee trademarks are born here: closeups of his penetrating peepers, quick camera zooms, Bruce tasting his own blood during a fight leading to even greater heights of savagery. Also making its debut is the Lee downbeat ending where the hero doesn't ride off into the sunset.

KICKASS MOMENT: Bruce knocks a foe through a wall leaving a human shaped hole in the side of the building.

KILL BILL CONNECTION : Just like Bruce in the beginning of the The Big Boss, Uma Thurman attempts to live a life of peace. Unfortunately, Bill had other plans.

Running neck and neck with Enter The Dragon for the title of Bruce Lee's best film, Fist of Fury is a revenge tale taking place in early 1900s Shanghai with Lee paying back the Japanese baddies who murdered his teacher. Bruce's character Chen is an anachronism amongst his other heroic roles in that he's almost as crazy as the villains. Lee has never been more savage in his fight scenes, and no one is spared from his bloodlust. Yet, he also gets to display his soft side with co-star Nora Miao who he shares his only on-screen kiss. A significantly less palatable part of Fist of Fury is the blatant racism. The makers of the movie are so intent in showing the cruelty inflicted on the Chinese by the Japanese, they end up painting the land of the rising sun's people in broad, terribly stereotypical strokes. Oh well. Adding to the dynamic fights is the inclusion of the famed nunchaku in Lee's hands. Seeing him fling those funky sticks around is cinematic nirvana. The final shot of Lee flying through the air into a firing squad is one of the most iconic moments in Lee movies.

KICKASS MOMENT: Too many too choose from, but Bruce about to strike a sea of Japanese opponents encircling him is pretty choice.

KILL BILL CONNECTION : Along with the obvious revenge similarities, Bruce's fights at the Japanese headquarters are strongly echoed in the Bride's showdown at the House of Blue Leaves.

This is the closest Bruce ever came to the type of slapstick Kung Fu Jackie Chan would base his whole career on. Consider Way Lee's Citizen Kane as he served honorably as tar, director, producer, and writer (Hell the guy even played a few instruments on the soundtrack!). Lee plays a country bumpkin named Tang Lung who splits his time between waiting tables at a Hong Kong restaurant and practicing martial arts. With his lameass haircut and naivete, he hardly seems like the ideal choice to travel to Rome and aid a family friend being intimidated by gangsters. That just makes the moment when he proves his disbelievers wrong all the more sweet much to the chagrin of the gangsters he disposes of. Way is best remembered for the climactic battle between Lee and Chuck Norris in the Coliseum squaring off like Gladiators from ages past. Many Lee connoisseurs cite this duel as Lee's greatest on screen moment, because it effectively demonstrates the basic principe of Jeet Kune Do (Lee's form of martial arts) by showing Tang Lung "adapt" to conquer the more powerful physically Norris.

KICKASS MOMENT: During the fight with Norris, Lee rips off a fistfull of Chuck's abundant chest hair then coolly blows it into the air.

KILL BILL CONNECTION : With this movie, Lee was the first martial arts movie auteur, a moniker now resting upon the brow of one Quentin Tarantino.

Lee's first Hollywood backed movie and the one that catapulted him to international acclaim (although he wouldn't live to see it). Thirty years later, Enter the Dragon is still considered the Alpha and Omega of martial arts films. Lee doesn't do anything drastically different from his previous work, and the plot is nothing more than a Dr. No retread. What is key to the success of Enter the Dragon is that everything was geared to let Bruce do his thing. With the money power of Warner Bros. behind him, all the things audience loved about Bruce was refined to a sharp edge. So the fights scenes display a polish heretofore unseen in cinema, Lee's moves are elevated to the superhuman, and his coolness level are off the charts. From the opening fight at the Shaolin Temple to the famous mirrored room climax with Han and his Wolverine-esque clawed hand, Enter the Dragon is one of the four or five best action movies of all time. It is painful to contemplate how this was only the beginning of Lee's career.

KICKASS MOMENT: Again way too many to pick from, but my personal favorite is when Lee comes down on O'Harra's windpipe.

KILL BILL CONNECTION : Lee disposing of guards (one of them played by a pre-fame Jackie Chan) in Han's underground headquarters is another touchstone for Kill Bill's Showdown at House of Blue Leaves. Also both movies have henchmen who wear similar battle scars. Enter's O'Harra has a long gash across his eye, and Bill's Elle Driver wears a patch to hide her missing orb.

Lee envisioned Game to be a multi-leveled film encompassing his philosophies on all things martial. He had already shot several hours for the movie's final act but ceased production when the deal to make Enter the Dragon was struck. After finishing that film, he launched back into completing Game of Death. In July 1973, he died from cerebral edema even as Enter the Dragon was breaking box office records across the globe. Four years later with Lee-mania still going strong, business partner Raymond Chow started the ball rolling to get Game of Death completed for a 1978 release. Unfortunately, only ten minutes of footage were usable so Chow had to pan out the remaining hour and a half with clips from Bruce's other movies and two doubles! Instead of making a movie worthy of Lee's name, Game of Death is an unintentionally hilarious monstrosity that continually surprises its audience by how crappy it can be. The most offensive is actual footage from Lee's Hong Kong funeral. While it's a joy to watch the actual fight scenes Lee shot, you have wade through the whole movie to get to it.

KICKASS MOMENT: The tiny Lee taking on the giant Kareem Abdul Jabar.

KILL BILL CONNECTION : No surprise here. Both Bruce and the Bride wear yellow tracksuits with black stripes although I must confess Uma is lot more fun to look at.