Starring: Bruce Lee, Kim Tai Chung, Coleen
Camp, Gig Young, Dean Jagger, Hugh O'Brien, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Dan Inosanto,
Sammo Hung
Director: Robert Clouse
Choreographer: Bruce Lee, Sammo Hung
Early in the second half of 1972, Bruce Lee begun work on a project
called Game of Death. The project was meant to be the ultimate
expression of his jeet kune do style.
The story would have followed the adventures of a retired martial arts champion
whom the Korean underworld blackmails into entering a mysterious pagoda
inhabited by different fighters in order to find an undisclosed treasure at the
top level. Bruce Lee had filmed 100 minutes of footage—mainly three of the five
planned fights inside the pagoda and, as shown in Bruce Lee, the Legend, some of the fights with pagoda’s outer
guards. Filming was interrupted by Bruce Lee’s being invited to star in Enter the Dragon, and his plans to pick
up filming afterward were permanently ended by his untimely death.
More
than four years after his passing, producer Raymond Chow of Golden Harvest
decided to shoot new footage and complete the film. He hired Robert Clouse,
best known for directing the highly-successful Enter the Dragon, to helm the new scenes, which Clouse himself
penned. A Korean tae kwon do expert,
Kim Tai Chung, was hired to play Bruce Lee’s character, Billy Lo, in the new
scenes. Chow and Clouse assembled a new cast of American actors, including
Oscar winners Dean Jagger and Gig Young. The movie was a global hit, making
about 43 million dollars, or a 170 million dollars adjusted for inflation. Today
the finished film gets a lot of flack from genre fans, when in fact it is
actually a very solid martial arts film. In fact, it's actually (take a deep
breath here) one of my favorites.
We open James Bond-esque opening title sequence, complete with an awesome theme
from from 007 composer John Barry. We cut to a movie studio, where a fight
scene being filmed. The fight is between Billy Lo (Bruce Lee and Kim Tai-Chung)
and Chuck Norris (courtesy of Way of the Dragon stock footage). When the scene is finished, a light fixture
falls from the rafters, almost hitting Billy. It's dimissed as an accident and
Billy goes about his business. A mysterious man named Steiner (Hugh
O'Brien, of Killer Force and The Shootist) pays Billy a visit in his
dressing room. Steiner threatens Billy about not joining his outfit, known as
“The Syndicate”, who responds by smacking Steiner in the face.
Reporting back to his superior, the diabolical Dr. Land (Brigham Young himself,
Dean Jagger), Steiner tells of Billy Lo's increasing resistance to their
efforts to get him to join them. Suggesting that they "squeeze" him a
little more, Steiner and his motorcycle-driving goons attack Billy and his
singer girlfriend, Ann (Coleen Camp, who starred the previous year in Death Game). That evening, Billy and
Ann have dinner with Jim Marshall (Gig Young, who did some karate chopping of
his own in The Shuttered Room),
Billy's journalist friend. Jim warns Billy about the Syndicate, and how rebellious celebrities—or even those in a
slump—often find themselves committing suicide against their will.
“You lose, Carl Miller!”
The next day, Billy goes to see his uncle (A
Touch of Zen’s Roy Chiao), a famous Peking Opera actor. Their meeting is
interrupted by the appearance of the Syndicate, including Karl Miller (Robert
Wall, of Enter the Dragon) and
Pasqual (Chinese Stuntman’s Dan
Inosanto). Billy manages to hold them off, but they eventually best him and
leave him a final warning. When he doesn't call back, the Syndicate decides to
make an example out of him.
Billy realizes that there’s no way out and decides to finish his last movie before
confronting them head on. He warns Ann to leave Hong Kong and go back to the
USA, so she doesn't get caught in the cross-fire. On the set of his last movie
(cue stock footage from Fist of Fury),
Billy is shot in the face by a Syndicate hitman (Mel Novak, who shows up today
in low-budget schlock like Ebola Rex and
Samurai Cop 2) dressed as an extra. I
find it interesting that this happens to Bruce Lee's character in this film and
then his real-life son Brandon Lee was killed essentially the same way on the
set of The Crow. Coincidence? What do you think?
In any case, Billy Lo survives and revenge is now on the menu.
The story is nothing new, as we've seen Bruce Lee pushed over the edge before.
Bruce Lee in reality only really comes into the movie for the climax. The Billy
Lo for the majority of the film is played by Korean actor Kim Tai-Chung[1].
You can tell that they were trying to mask the fact it wasn't the real Little
Dragon in most of the scenes. There are a lot camera shots from behind or shots
of Kim in a fake beard and huge dark sunglasses. Once in a while, there are
scenes of Bruce Lee looking at stuff from his other films spliced in here and
there. The worst example of that is when Billy Lo is fighting Carl Miller in a
locker room: Billy gets kicked in the head and we cut to Bruce Lee in a
restaurant (from Way of the Dragon)
getting slapped. The change of scenery is painfully obvious. Even more embarrassing
is in the very beginning you can actually see an actual cut-and-paste job where
the editors pasted Bruce Lee onto Kim Tai-Chung's form on the filmstock.
Admittedly, it fooled me the first two times I saw this film back in middle
school. Yeah, it's pretty bad, but wuddiagonnado?
Now the most important part about this film is the fight scenes. There are two
choreographers: Bruce Lee and Sammo Hung. Bruce choreographed his own fight
scenes, which include the stock footage at the beginning and the three major
climatic duels. The first of these three has Bruce taking on Dan Inosanto with
nunchaku and a bamboo cane. Inosanto is best known for being the one who taught
Lee how to use the nunchaku. The two
engage in a wild nunchaku swing-off
after Inosanto’s escrima proves to be
too rigid. Next, Bruce faces off with hapkido
grandmaster Ji Han Jae (Fist of Unicorn) using his usual moves plus a lot of the jujitsu that Bruce Lee had
incorporated into his Jeet Kune Do style. Hapkido
as a style is known for its elaborate kicking, joint locks and throws.
Master Ji mainly demonstrates the throws and grabs associated with his style.
Finally, the final duel is between Bruce Lee and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Standing
at seven-foot-two, the basketball legend was also student of Bruce’s and fights
with jeet kune do, plus the advantage
that his size gives him against a much-smaller opponent. These three fights[2]
make up one of the greatest climatic sequences ever filmed.
“Rude bitch.”
“One rebel begats another. It's the Billy Lo syndrome.”
“A venereal disease. Often terminal.”
As a Golden Harvest production, Raymond Chow had his top action director, Sammo
Hung, choreograph the fight sequences for the new footage. Most people who are
familiar with Asian cinema will know that Sammo Hung is THE greatest Bruce Lee
impersonator in the business, which may come across as a surprise, as he weighs
over 200 lbs. This title was earned through his work in Enter the Fat Dragon and Skinny Tiger, Fatty Dragon. Having done this film before either,
you can see the beginnings of his talent in that regard. However, he proceeds
to make Kim Tai-Chung look quite good. While not as good as Bruce Lee, he kicks
great and manages to do the Bruce Lee-isms without going overboard.
One observation I would like to make about the action is the portrayal of the
Billy Lo character. Much like Steven Seagal, Bruce Lee tended to destroy all
the bad guys that he fought in his films (setting aside the main villain). I
remember my brother complaining that this film didn't make Bruce Lee out to be
invincible. I'm glad for it. It's a nice change of pace. In all of the fight
scenes, Billy Lo takes a couple of good hits. You know what? Excellent. It makes
his character all the more human.
It is also worth pointing out that this movie uses its talent well, especially
Sammo Hung and Robert Wall. Prior to this film, Sammo Hung had a cameo in Enter the Dragon as Bruce Lee's opponent at the very beginning. Robert Wall was in
both that and Way of the Dragon.
In neither of these two movies were those actors given much of a showcase.
Bruce Lee destroyed both of them with the greatest of easeThat is remedied
here. . The greatest martial arts movies in my opinion are the ones that
make the most of the talent involved. Wall is given two major fight scenes
(one against Hung and one against Kim Tai-Chung), both of which show us that he
actually knows martial arts (you wouldn't have guessed that from his role as
O'Hara in Enter the Dragon). Hung also gets to show off some
his fighting/acrobatic skills (in addition to his choreography talents) in his
fight against Wall. Sure, he's done far better, but it's better than what Enter the Dragon did for him.
“Get away from me, you bastard!”
Two of the men credited with the stuntwork are Bill Yuen and Mars. Mars was a
regular from Jackie Chan's Hong Kong movies. Bill Yuen is better known as Yuen
Biao, a long-time friend, collaborator, and co-student of Jackie Chan and Sammo
Hung. In addition to the flips and somersaults that Yuen Biao does, he
probably also did the two best moves of the movie. The first one is when Billy
Lo does a back flip and kicks Robert Wall in the face. The second is the
multiple "Chun Li" kicks that he performs in the same fight. That was
the first time I ever saw those kicks, although it wouldn't be the last time.
Donnie Yen has used those kicks in some of his movies, including the
popular Iron Monkey, High Voltage,
and his TV series The Kung Fu Master.
Now the film's influence extends to even into the 21st century. The yellow
jumpsuit that Billy Lo dons during the warehouse fight has become a Bruce Lee
trademark. It was used in a few Brucesploitation films, including New Game of Death (1975) and Enter
the Game of Death (1978). Pop-singer Jackie Cheung, playing a parody of
Jackie Chan, wears it at the climax of the 1995 Jet Li film High Risk. Most famously, Uma Thurman
donned the outfit for Quentin Tarantino's epic Kill Bill Vol. 1, which itself has been parodied numerous times,
like in the cartoons Family Guy and Billy and Mandy.
In addition to the costume, Jackie Chan's endearingly goofy City Hunter (1993) paid homage to
this film. In it, there's a scene where Jackie takes on a pair of seven-foot
tall black men in a cruise ship's theatre and ends up taking some hints from
Bruce Lee's fight with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, which is playing in the
background. Michelle Yeoh had a similar David-and-Goliath throwdown
in Project S (1993), as did Yuen
Biao in Don't Give a Damn (1995). Even in recent times, films
like Legendary Assassin (2009) can trace their lineage back to this one through their
David and Goliath fights.
“Where’s the doctah!!!!????”
In closing, if you want hot Hollywood actors performing movie fighting in front of a green screen, look somewhere else. If you want people flying around on wires looking pretty, this isn't your film. If you want a complex storyline revolving around well-developed characters, watch a Chiense wuxia TV series. If you want to see the best Bruce Lee fights, some good choreography from a young Sammo Hung, some good Bruce Lee impersonating, a young Sammo Hung in action, and an older Robert Wall in action, then this is the film for you.
[1] - Kim Tai-Chung would continue the
Brucesploitation angle throughout his career: he starred in this film’s sequel,
Tower of Death (1981); the Korean
chopsockey film Bruce and Jackie to the
Rescue (1982); and he played the ghost of Bruce Lee in No Retreat, No Surrender (1986).
[2] - The documentary Bruce Lee: A Warrior’s Journey (2000)
informs us that there had been two more fights planned. In one, Bruce would
have thrown down with Korean hapkido
Whang In-Sik. Whang, who fought Bruce in Way of the Dragon, would have played a kicking expert. The second unfilmed
fight would have been with the late Taky Kimura, who was going to play a
praying mantis stylist. One would assume that Bruce would have used the fights
to decry flashy-but-ineffective kicks and the too-rigid traditional stances of
Chinese kung fu, respectively.
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