Game of Death (1978)

A martial arts movie star must fake his death to find the people who are trying to kill him.

Directors:

Robert Clouse, Bruce Lee (uncredited)

Writer:

Robert Clouse (as Jan Spears)

Stars:

Bruce Lee, Gig Young, Dean Jagger

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Bruce Lee	...	Billy Lo / Hai Tien (original 1972 footage) (archive footage)
Gig Young	...	Jim Marshall
Dean Jagger	...	Dr. Land
Hugh O'Brian	...	Steiner
Colleen Camp	...	Ann Morris
Robert Wall	...	Carl Miller
Mel Novak	...	Stick
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar	...	Hakim / Mantis (original 1972 footage) (archive footage)
Chuck Norris	...	Fighter (archive footage)
Dan Inosanto	...	Pasqual / Third Floor Guardian (original 1972 footage) (as Danny Inosanto)
Billy McGill	...	John
Sammo Kam-Bo Hung	...	Lo Chen (as Hung Kim Po)
Roy Chiao	...	Henry Lo
Tony Chiu-Wai Leung	...	David (as Tony Leung)
Jim James	...	Surgeon

Storyline

In this movie, Bruce Lee is a very famous martial-arts master who stars in many films. After an unsuccessful murder attempt against him, everyone thinks his is dead, but he's just hiding, preparing his revenge...

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Plot Keywords:

bare midriff | slim attractive girl | chinaman | chinawoman | actress | 

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Taglines:

Bruce Lee challenges the underworld to a Game of Death.

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Genres:

Action | Crime | Drama | Thriller

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Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

Hong Kong USA

Language:

English Mandarin Cantonese

Release Date:

8 June 1979 (USA)

Also Known As:

Bruce Lee's Game of Death

Filming Locations:

Hong Kong, China

Box Office

Budget:

$850,000 (estimated)

Gross USA:

$10,000,000, 1 January 1980

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$20,000,000, 1 January 1984

Company Credits

Production Co:

Concord Productions, Columbia Pictures Corporation, Golden Harvest Company

Technical Specs

Runtime:

100 min 103 min (original premiere) 54 min (current existing footage) 40 min (2000 incomplete) 35 min (2000 incomplete) 62 min (original cut) (1972)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Sammo Kam-Bo Hung almost didn't appear in the film. When Bruce Lee personally asked him to be part of the film, Hung waited for eight months without follow-up and eventually went to film projects in Korea and Thailand. He flew back to the set in China when promised that filming his part would only take a few days.

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Goofs

After the mansion fight scene. Stick says, "There was something there I recognized." Yet he clearly wasn't there when the fight happened. If he was there then why didn't he help him?

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Quotes

[first lines]
Director: Cut! Okay, that's a print. That was great, Billy! Okay everybody...
[stage light collapses, crew gasps]

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Alternate Versions

New Zealand theatrical and videotape versions were originally cut to remove the entire nunchaku battle between Bruce Lee and Dan Inosanto, although the censors later allowed this sequence to appear intact in the documentaries The Curse of the Dragon and Bruce Lee: A Warrior's Journey. In 2005 the cut was also waived for the Region 4 DVD release of "Game of Death".

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Connections

Edited into Reflections on 'The Little Dragon' (2001)

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Soundtracks

Game of Death
(Hong Kong version only)
Music by Joseph Koo
Lyrics by James Wong
Sung By Roman Tam

User Reviews

A total hack job, but still quite entertaining

'Game of Death' is the equivalent of having your dog swallow a gold ring - you've got to sift through the cr*p to find the polished stuff.

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 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.

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.

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.