Game of Death

When you see that Bruce Lee did not acknowledge “Way of the Dragon” to look right for international release, we can only think at what he would have done with the horrible mess of “Game of Death,” released in 1978.

Lee had started to work on film in 1973, but once he was offered the starring role in “Enter the Dragon.” That’s when he put “Game of Death” on hold but sadly he never completed the film since he died after finishing “Enter the Dragon.” In 1978, new footage using three Bruce Lee doppelgangers was shot to join the few scenes Lee had completed – a terrible attempt  to make a feature-length movie.

Almar Haflidason said in his review, “The result is, at times, nothing short of ludicrous but there are plenty of enjoyable moments: the standard of the choreography is excellent, and the final 20 minutes - which are almost all of Bruce fighting - are well worth holding out for.”

Lee plays Billy Lo, a famous movie star who fakes his death so he can get revenge on a gang of criminals that want to ruin his career. What is really said is that the producers actually used real footage from Lee’s real funeral for Lo’s funeral scenes!

Everything aside (there is good handful), this allows the character of Billy to reach the tower of death where, on each floor, he must fight a warrior of different fighting arts. This is where we get to see Bruce fighting and it’s the best parts Haflidason noted, “The new DVD release contains all the fights in the correct order, including the previously banned scene with Dan Inosanto.”

Including a John Barry score (Haflidason said, “often similar to his music for "The Specialist"), the action direction of the new scenes by Sammo Hung, mixed with the international thriller look that director Robert Clouse adds, makes this a really entertaining if kind of uncertain pleasure.

Famous basketball player and former student of Bruce Lee, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is in here as the last person Billy fights, but I don’t think that’s a spoiler. I actually found the real footage that Lee shot for this film on YouTube, which I also happened to have seen on TV a long time ago, and I found that to be much better than the mess that we got.

This is where a new genre called Bruceploitation was introduced, once of which is “Game of Death II” or “Tower of Death,” released in 1981. These two movies are included in the Bruce Lee DVD Collection, that both state star Bruce Lee. Except “Tower of Death” only has stock footage of Bruce Lee. But is it a good movie?

When Bruce Lee died in 1973, he only had four completed films and one – “Game of Death” – where he only had shot the ending fight scenes that are exciting. “Game of Death” was completed by producer Raymond Chow with the help of Lee stand-in, Kim Tai Chung, and released in 1978. Even though that was a mess (Lee’s fight scenes excepted), it was a huge hit , worldwide, mainly in Japan. Daniel Auty stated in his review, “So when Japanese investors, eager for a sequel, were offered more unused Game of Death footage, they snapped it up; what they actually got was a couple of minutes of Enter the Dragon outtakes, none of which happened to feature the great man in combat.” However, it was enough to put Lee’s name on the credits, and in 1981, “Tower of Death” (aka “Game of Death II”) was released.

“Game of Death’s” protagonist Billy Lo (Kim Tai Chung, except a few footage of the real Bruce Lee) returns to his home in China to see his master Chin Ku (Hwang Jan Lee) and his misbehaving brother Bobby. Chin Ku dies mysteriously and Billy senses something wrong – unfortunately he is also murdered, leaving Bobby (Tai Chun) to find out what happened and avenge his brother’s death. The mystery takes him to the stronghold of American kung fu expert Lewis, played by Roy Huran, who tells him about an inverted tower underneath the land that may have the answer to Billy’s murder.

“Tower of Death” is in no way a good martial arts movie. Auty said, “Storylines are obviously not the genre’s strongpoint, but this one is so poor that it really does take a lot of fighting to pad the film out to even 82 minutes. The cutting from a bewigged Kim Tai Chung to shots of the real Bruce Lee is so jarring that it’s a relief when Billy Lo is killed off after half an hour, although when his ‘disguise’ does come off, it becomes clear that Tai Chung wasn’t hired for his acting abilities or martial arts skills (much of his fighting was doubled by star-to-be Yuen Biao).” Again, the dubbing in the English version is bad even by the low standards in the genre (thankfully the UK DVD also has the film subtitled in Cantonese), and there’s a scene where Bobby is attacked by a lion that’s so noticeably fake that you think if it is really meant to be a man in a panto suit!

In the end, there is some really nice kung fu fights, thanks to Yuen Woo-Ping, the famous fight choreographer famous currently for “The Matrix” trilogy and “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.” The momentum may be slightly low during the final act, but you get some exciting action as Bobby fights minions through the underground tower.

I don’t think people should see these movies, but if you want, then it wouldn’t hurt, but these movies are definitely weak. I can’t really say I like these movies, especially since Bruce Lee didn’t really have anything to do with the sequel and the original never came to fruition the way Lee wanted. However, this is what we have, so what can we do?

Sorry for posting this, today was a really busy day. However, we have now ended “Bruce Lee Month.” I hope everyone enjoyed and stay tuned next month when I do my seventh annual “Black History Movie Month.”