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Aside from being skilled in hand to hand combat, Bruce Lee was very skilled in his use of weapons, an aspect of his training that was often overlooked. Bruce Lee was very proficient in the use of many weapons, however the one he was most associated with was the nunchaku.Bruce first began using the nunchaku in the early sixties when his friend and most senior student, Dan inosanto introduced him to the Filipino martial art of Kali.
The first of Bruce's films showing him use the nunchaku was 'Fist of Fury', in which he despatched an entire gang of japanese kareteka in their dojo.
In this scene, Bruce doesn't only use the nunchaku whilst standing but also whilst lying down; striking out at the opponents ankles. The nunchaku also play a significant role during the final battle with 'Suzuki' and if you look very closely you will notice that Bruce is blinking rapidly; a dead giveaway that the film was speeded up. (This was because Bruce was still a relative novice with the nunchaku at this time) Incidentally the green labelled 'Rank' video release of 'Fist of Fury' released during the early eighties contained all of the afore mentioned scenes. They were later cut from subsequent releases by the British board of Film Censors.
'Way of the Dragon' was the next film to show Bruce using the nunchaku, only this time with a twist. Bruce had become so proficient in the use of the nunchaku between filming 'Fist of Fury' and 'Way of the Dragon' that he used not only one pair of nunchaku but two pairs, simultaneously. The English video release of 'Way of the Dragon' has never contained any of the nunchaku scenes, thanks to the narrow minded imbeciles at the BBFC, but I am sure most of you have seen the uncut version anyway. For those of you have not seen the uncut versions then I suggest you get the Cantonese version, perhaps on VCD from you nearest China town. Another incidental point is that the Cantonese version of the film contains all of Bruce's original war cries.
In my opinion the scenes in 'Way of the Dragon' are the best of all of Bruce's on screen use of the nunchaku.
After shooting 'Way of the Dragon', Bruce began shooting his dream project. 'Game of Death. Again the nunchaku was prominent in the film and again an added bonus. Not only do we get to see Bruce use the nunchaku but we get to see him battle against his weapons mentor Guro Dan Inosanto. Again this scene was cut by our friends at the BBFC, but even worse the film was hacked to bits by Raymond Chow and Golden Harvest before it was released. The scene has been re edited so much that it doesn't even resemble the original scene that Bruce had shot. having said that it still shows the enormous talent that both Bruce and Guro Dan posessed.
'Enter the Dragon' the only American film that Bruce Lee made before he died and possibly his greatest.Once more he used the nunchaku to great effect aswell as two other weapons; the long pole or staff and kali's
double sticks. After despatching a number of guards in Han's dungeon, with the staff and sticks, Bruce takes a pair of nunchaku from one of the guards and begins to swing them in mesmerising patterns. Unlike the scene in 'Fist of Fury' when the film was speeded up, this time the film had to be slowed down to keep up with Bruce's blinding speed. Just goes to show what practice can do! This is possibly the best scene in the film, but again, it was chopped up by the BBFC. As I mentioned earlier with 'Fist of Fury' the best version of 'Enter the Dragon' to get hold of is the Cantonese version as it contains the nunchaku scene plus extra footage of Bruce talking to the Shaolin priest at the monastery before Braithwaite is introduced. This scene goes a long way to explain why Bruce breaks all the mirrors in Han's museum at the end of the film.
If you cannot get hold of the Cantonese versions of Bruce's films, the american releases all contain the nunchaku scenes, but bizarrely some have other cuts to the non combative scenes in the films????
Please note - this article was written many years ago, well before the release of the uncut version of Bruce Lee's films.