More about life than about Kung Fu, Dragon is a solid, entertaining drama/biography. Jason Scott Lee plays the legendary Bruce Lee (no relation) with a winning charm and moving pathos. Lauren Holly puts a soul behind what could have been a gratuitously tearjerking role as wife Linda. Bruce Lee’s family was haunted by demons, and Cohen weaves a supernatural subplot depicting Lee in a fantastic lifelong battle with these gargoyles. The unexplained mystery of it all might have taken the film too far if it weren’t so uncannily real: Lee died mysteriously, and the film depicts Bruce trying to make sure the demons can’t hunt his son Brandon. But within months of the completion of Dragon, Brandon Lee was killed in a freak accident while filming The Crow. Watching scenes of fatherly protection are downright spooky.
Cohen appears to have made the film too big, but he got lucky in that Bruce Lee’s life was so much larger than average. The final result is an impeccable fit.