The Last Dragon Is an Awesome, Joyous Snapshot of 1980s Pop Culture

I don’t know how or why but the 1985 kung fu fantasy The Last Dragon imprinted on me at a very early age. I have strong memories of watching it, loving it, and emotionally connecting with it. For some reason though, I’ve never been able to explain why. And so, with the film celebrating its 40th anniversary this week, I gave it a revisit and discovered not only why I liked it, but that it’s way, way better than I even remembered. Directed by the prolific Michael Schultz, The Last Dragon is about a New York kung fu student named Leroy (Taimak… just Taimak) who is seeking the final level of enlightenment. The journey takes him across the city searching for a master who’ll teach it to him and also puts him at odds with Sho-nuff (Julius Carry), the self-proclaimed “Shogun of Harlem” who wants to fight Leroy to prove his superiority. The main thing I remembered about The Last Dragon was it always seemed dangerous to me. Something about its martial arts mythology mixed with urban sensibilit ... Read full article.