Game of Death

The end of a legend.

The Game of Death  is a 1972 film starring late martial arts legend Bruce Lee. It was almost the film Bruce Lee had planned to be the demonstration piece of his martial art Jeet Kune Do. Over 100 minutes of footage was shot prior to his death, some of which was later misplaced in the Golden Harvest archives. The remaining footage has been released with Bruce Lee's original English and Cantonese dialogue, with John Little dubbing Bruce Lee's Hai Tien character as part of the documentary entitled Bruce Lee: A Warrior's Journey.

During filming, Lee received an offer to star in Enter the Dragon, the first kung fu film to be produced by a Hollywood studio (Warner Bros.), and with a budget unprecedented for the genre ($850,000). Lee died of cerebral edema before the film's release. At the time of his death, he had already made plans to resume the filming of The Game of Death.

After Lee's death, Enter the Dragon director Robert Clouse was enlisted to direct additional scenes featuring two stand-ins which, when pieced together with the original footage as well as other footage from earlier in Lee's career, would form a new film (also entitled Game of Death) which was released in 1978, five years after his death, by Golden Harvest.

Originally Hai Tien, later Billy Lo.

The movie we won't see: Original "Game of Death" plot

The original plot involves Lee playing the role of Hai Tien, a retired champion martial artist who was confronted by the Korean underworld gangs. They tell him the story of a pagoda where guns are prohibited, and under heavy guard by highly skilled martial artists who are protecting something (which is not identified at all in any surviving material) held on its top level. The gang boss wants Hai to be a part of a group whose purpose is to retrieve said item. They would be the second group to try to do so as the first attempt with a previous group had failed. When Hai refuses, his younger sister and brother are kidnapped, forcing him to participate. Hai, as well as four other martial artists (two of which were played by James Tien and Chieh Yuan), then fight their way up a five-level pagoda, encountering a different challenge on each floor.

Immediately after defeating all of his oponents, Hai turns around and descends the staircase, heading out of the pagoda. Despite all the talk of something awaiting up top of the (now unguarded) flight of stairs, there is no mention of anyone going up to retrieve it. No surviving material explains how this will affect Hai or his captive siblings...

Colleen Camp plays Lee's girlfriend. Boobs!

This is not Bruce Lee.

13 Production secrets revealed! 

1. Bruce Lee had filmed over 30 minutes of fight scenes for this film when work was suspended to allow Lee to work on Operación dragón. However, Lee died before he could return. Six years later, director Robert Clouse fleshed out a feature around the original footage with a new cast, including two stand-ins for Lee, whose faces are hidden by dark sunglasses and shadows (the trick doesn't really work that well but, it's something). Close-ups and stills of Lee's face (including a cardboard cut-out!) were also used.

2. Dan Inosanto was the only cast member of the original 1972 footage shot by Bruce Lee to shoot scenes for the 1978 version of the film. The rest of the actors (James Tien, Han Jae Ji, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) only feature in archive footage. This footage can be seen in its entirety in Bruce Lee: A Warrior's Journey. However, if Lee's "brothers" footage was included we could have enjoyed of longer fight sequences at the pagoda. The reason why this didn't happen is beyond me, I mean this is the final Bruce Lee film! why would you waste some scenes just because you decided to get rid of a couple of characters?

3. George Lazenby was originally meant to be in this film and was due to meet Bruce Lee on July 20 1973, the day Lee died. For other reasons, Lazenby was not involved in the final project as directed by Robert Clouse.

4. Chuck Norris was considered for the role of Steiner, but turned it down maybe, because he didn't want to play the bad guy again, or just because he didn't want to get his ass kicked (again) by Bruce Lee.

5. Chuck Norris threatened legal action against Golden Harvest for giving him screen credit for this film. Norris' appearance in the film is archive footage from Way of the Dragon. 

Deleted Lee's partners from the original film archives.

David & Goliath.

6. In the film, Bruce Lee's character fakes his own death; the funeral scene includes real footage of Lee's actual funeral.

7. 'Bruce Li' (Ho-Chung Tao) was offered the role as 'Bruce Lee's' stand-in, but declined because he said it was disrespectful to Lee, as it was his movie.

8. Sammo Hung almost didn't appear in the movie; after being asked personally by Bruce Lee to be part of the film, Hung waited for eight months without follow-up and eventually went to film projects in Korea and Thailand, only flying back to the set in China when promised that it would only take a couple days to film his part.

9. The inspiration for progressively ascending a pagoda tower to fight opponents was originally featured in Chang Cheh's swordplay epic 'Bao Biao (1969)' aka 'Have Sword Will Travel' written by resident Shaw Brother screenwriter Kuang Ni.

10. Director Robert Clouse wrote the script under the pseudonym Jan Spears.

11.Robert Wall, who appears in the final version of "Game of Death", had also been slated to appear in the early 1970s version as intended by Bruce Lee.

12. In this movie, Bruce Lee's character is shot with a prop gun that was secretly made to fire a real bullet and kill him. Lee's son, Brandon, was killed on the set of The Crow, when a prop pistol accidentally shot him in the abdomen. Coincidence?

13. Hapkido Master Ji Han Jae, who plays the second guardian 'Bruce Lee' battles in the Pagoda/Restaraunt, gets no screen credit in the 1978 version of the film. A strange omission considering his substantial role in the original shoot.

The greatest nunchuck master of all times.

 The movie we can see: Game of Death 1978's Robert Clouse cut 

 
Completely different to Bruce's original vision, the 1978 version is hugely controversial. To some, it's a shameless cash-in and insult, to others it's a curiosity. To me personally, it's a guilty pleasure. Obviously, with such limited footage of Bruce Lee to use, the film was always going to suffer. Not only that, but how do you incorporate the footage into a film and give it context? The stand-in's that are used to fill the time leading up to the Lee footage are never going to fool anyone. Even as a kid, I could tell it is someone else. The techniques used to have Bruce Lee on screen range from awful (superimposed heads) to tasteless (his real funeral) to fairly good (quick cuts from old footage). The disguises that Billy Lo and Bruce's doubles wear throughout the film are hokey but nothing that we haven't seen in Lee's films before (Fist of Fury), so that didn't bother me too much.

Corporate bad guys.

Despite some awful dubbing and a poor script, 'Game of Death' is still watchable for it's action. Fight choreographer Sammo Hung makes the non-Lee fight scenes entertaining even if the doubles don't match Bruce Lee's speed or technique. However, they do capture some traits of Lee's fights including the slow motion finishing move. Also, the film's budget allows for a number of locations ensuring that Billy's quest for revenge keeps moving. In this regard, the Hollywood frills that are added give the film a degree of watchability, especially the classy score which appears throughout and heightens the final scenes.

But of course, the main point of watching 'Game of Death' is to see Bruce in action. Although criticised for cutting down the "pagoda sequence", I think it still contains enough to satisfy. You have to remember that this original footage included two companions of Lee's who don't feature in the 1978 film, meaning a lot had to be left out. The nunchuk duel is unique while the fight with Kareem Abdul Jabbar is bizarre but thrilling.

Another wonderful but deleted scene from the final edition.

Finish him!

There are some moments of bad taste, but on the whole the film is a cheesy and quite fun attempt to build up to the final 20 minutes. Whether you think this was a cash-in or a tribute, you still need to see it in order to understand the 'Game of Death' phenomenon.

Overall, a tribute or failed tribute movie that wanted us to stare at the magnificence of a real martial arts artist. I know there are hundreds of questions this film will let unanswered forever, for instance why didn't the director & producers use Bruce Lee's original script? don't tell me they couldn't afford secondary characters! or why did the use real scenes from Bruce Lee's funeral to cover the idea of Billy Lo faking his death? isn't that a bit morbid? Why did Lee's brothers have to dissapear? you cut original Bruce Lee scenes in half by doing so!!! you morons!!! 

I rate the film 5/10 only because we have Bruce Lee's last fighting sequences ever filmed. The plot is full of holes & most of the film is a neverending wait for the rea deal. You've been warned!

Here's the movie trailer: