Bruce Lee Film Banned In Britain

UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif. - The new martial-arts film "Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story" cannot be shown in British theaters because a fight scene includes an Asian weapon that is outlawed in movies and on the streets.

The co-writer and director of the U.S. box-office hit, Rob Cohen, called the British Board of Film Classification's decision "completely racist" and a restraint of trade. He said he would appeal.

The outlawed weapon is the nunchaku, two pieces of metal or hard wood connected by a short chain. It is featured in two "Dragon" fight scenes.

Cohen said the first scene in the biographical film could be edited to remove the nunchaku, but he said the second one couldn't be trimmed. In that sequence, Bruce Lee, played by Jason Scott Lee, defeats a mythical demon by strangling it with the nunchaku.

"I'd rather not release the movie (in the United Kingdom) than edit it," Cohen said.

The film was scheduled for a September release in the United Kingdom.

If "Dragon" isn't shown in British theaters or sold and rented in video stores, Universal Pictures could lose as much as $10 million, said Tom Pollock, chairman of Universal's parent, MCA Motion Picture Group.

Cohen and Pollock say the British ban is prejudiced because such Western weapons as revolvers, machine guns and explosives aren't barred. Pollock also complained the movie was banned entirely rather than just for children.