Game of Death

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Game of Death
死亡遊戲
Game of Death Movie Poster
Directed byBruce Lee (original ver.-unc.)
Robert Clouse (completed ver.)
Sammo Hung (completed ver./HK-unc.)
Written byBruce Lee (org. story - unc.)
Jan Spears (Robert Clouse/Raymond Chow) (completed ver.)
Produced byRaymond Chow
Bruce Lee (unc.)
StarringBruce Lee
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Tai Chung Kim
Yuen Biao
Gig Young
Dean Jagger
Colleen Camp
Robert Wall
Hugh O'Brien
Mel Novak
Sammo Hung
James Tien
Chieh Yuan
Dan Inosanto
Ji Han Jae
Chuck Norris
CinematographyGodfrey A. Godar
Tadashi Nishimoto (original ver.-unc.)
Music byJohn Barry
Joseph Koo (H.K. ver.)
Distributed byGolden Harvest (H.K.)
Columbia Pictures (U.S.)
Release dates
March 23 1978 (H.K.)
June 8 1979 (U.S.)
October 22 2000 (U.S.) (org. incomplete ver.)
Running time
103 min.
LanguageEnglish

The Game of Death (simplified Chinese: 死亡的游戏; traditional Chinese: 死亡的遊戲; pinyin: Sǐwáng de Yóuxì) was the film Bruce Lee had planned to be the demonstration piece of his martial art Jeet Kune Do. 100 plus minutes of footage was shot before his death, some of which was later misplaced in the Golden Harvest archives, and has not yet been recovered (such as one fighter attacking Dan Inosanto with a thin log). The remaining footage has been released with Bruce Lee's original English and Cantonese dialogue, with John Little himself dubbing Bruce Lee's Hai Tien character as part of the documentary entitled Bruce Lee: A Warrior's Journey. Most of the footage which was shot, is from what was to be the centre piece of the film.

While in the middle of filming The Game of Death, Bruce Lee was given the offer to star in Enter the Dragon. The first kung fu film to be produced by a Hollywood studio, and with a budget unprecedented for the genre, it was an offer Lee couldn't refuse. Unfortunately, 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 a stand-in which, when pieced together with the original footage as well as other footage from earlier in Bruce Lee's career, would form a new film (entitled Game of Death (simplified Chinese: 死亡游戏; traditional Chinese: 死亡遊戲; pinyin: Sǐwáng Yóuxì) which was released in 1978, nearly 5 years after his death, by Columbia Pictures.

Original plot

The original plot involved Lee playing the role of a retired champion martial artist who was confronted by the Korean underworld gangs. They tell him the story of the pagoda's treasure and guns are prohibited. When Lee refuses, his younger sister and brother are kidnapped, forcing him to participate. Hai Tien (Bruce Lee's character), as well as four other martial artists (two of which were played by James Tien and Chieh Yuan), fight their way through a five-level pagoda, encountering a different challenge on each floor. The setting of the pagoda was at Beopjusa temple in Songnisan National Park in South Korea.

The pagoda, called Palsang-jon, is the only remaining wooden pagoda in South Korea. At the base of the pagoda they fight 10 people all black belts in martial arts, while inside the pagoda, they encounter a different opponent on each floor, each more challenging than the last. Although his allies try to help out, they are handily defeated, and Lee must face each of the martial artists in one-on-one combat. He defeats Filipino martial arts master Dan Inosanto, hapkido master Ji Han Jae, and finally Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who fights with a free and fluid style mirroring Lee's Jeet Kune Do. Because Kareem's character has great size and strength in addition to a fighting style as potent as Lee's, he can only be defeated once Lee recognizes his one weakness-an unusual sensitivity to light. Lee smashes the surrounding windows, weakening him with exposure to daylight, and finally manages to kill him.

Original production

Although the pagoda was supposed to have five floors, complete scenes were only shot for three of the floors-the "Palace of the Tiger," where Lee faced Inosanto, the "Palace of the Dragon", where he fought Ji Han Jae, and the final floor, where he fought Abdul-Jabbar. Hapkido master Ing-Sik Whang was slated to play the guardian of the first floor, a master of a kick-oriented style, while Bruce's longtime student and good friend Taky Kimura was asked to play the guardian of the second floor, a stylist of praying mantis kung fu.

The goal of the film's plot was to showcase Lee's beliefs regarding the principles of martial arts. As each martial artist is defeated (including Lee's allies), the flaws in their fighting style are revealed. Some, like Dan Inosanto's character, rely too much on fixed patterns of offensive and defensive techniques, while others lack economy of motion. Lee defeats his opponents by having a fighting style that involves fluid movement, unpredictability, and an eclectic blend of techniques. His dialogue often includes references on their weaknesses.

Bruce Lee: A Warrior's Journey

Several years later, Bruce Lee historian John Little released Bruce Lee: A Warrior's Journey, a documentary revealing the original footage and storyline of The Game of Death. The documentary also includes a fairly in-depth biography of Lee and leads into the filming of The Game of Death. Fans still believe there is more footage to be found. Originally meant to be a documentary in its own right, now it can be found on the second disc of the 2004 Special Edition DVD release of Enter the Dragon, along with the documentary Bruce Lee: Curse of the Dragon.

Bruce Lee in G.O.D.: Shibōteki Yūgi

In 2000, the Japanese film Bruce Lee in G.O.D. 死亡的遊戯 was released on DVD. This film shows Lee's original vision from the film through the existing footage that was shot for the film before he died, interviews, and historical reenactments of what went on behind the scenes. A "special edition" DVD was released in 2003.

Cast

Filmed Cast

Intended Cast

Game of Death (1978)

The 1978 version uses portions of the original footage married to an entirely new plot involving a new Jan Spears' character, Billy Lo, struggling against a racketeering "syndicate" after gaining international success as a martial arts movie star. When Billy refuses to be intimidated by syndicate henchman Steiner (Hugh O'Brian) and his gangs of thugs, syndicate owner Dr. Land (Dean Jagger) orders his assassination to serve as an example to others.

Disguised as a stuntman, Land's assassin Stick (Mel Novak) sneaks onto the set of Billy's new film, and shoots Billy during filming. A fragment of the bullet passes through Billy's face, leaving him alive but in need of plastic surgery which alters his facial features. Billy takes the opportunity to fake his death and disguise himself, exacting revenge against those who wronged him one at a time. When the syndicate threatens and kidnaps his fiancee, Ann Morris (Colleen Camp), Billy is forced to come out of hiding in order to save her. In the revised film, Bruce Lee's fight scenes inside the pagoda are assumed to take place in the upper floors of the Red Pepper restaurant, where Dr. Land and his thugs have laid an ambush.

Production

The revised version of the film uses only 11 minutes and 7 seconds of the footage from the original The Game of Death, and for the vast majority of the film, the role of Billy Lo was shared by Yuen Biao, taekwondo master Tai Chung Kim, and Chen Yao Po and was voiced by Chris Kent. The plot of the film allowed Kim and Yuen to spend much of the film in disguises, usually involving false beards and large, dark sunglasses, that obscured the fact that they bore little resemblance to Lee. Many scenes, including fight scenes, also included brief close-up bits of stock footage of the real Bruce Lee from his pre-Enter the Dragon films, often only lasting a second or two. These clips are easily recognizable due to the difference in film quality between the old and new footage.

Several actors associated with previous Lee movies were included in the re-shoot for the final 1978 film. For example, Robert Wall, a villain in both Way of the Dragon and Enter the Dragon, plays a kickboxer named Carl Miller who must battle with Billy Lo. Sammo Hung, who appeared in Enter the Dragon, served as the fight coordinator for the re-shoot of Game of Death, and also appears in the scene as a ring opponent for Miller. In order to maintain continuity with the fight footage taken from the original film, Dan Inosanto (renamed Pasqual) and Ji Han Jae (whose character was unnamed and was not shown until near the end of the film) were given small parts as additional enforcers for the syndicate. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar refused to participate in the re-shoot, with another tall African-American stand-in (renamed Hakim) included instead. Although Chuck Norris is credited as starring in the movie, his role is limited to clips from Way of the Dragon inserted into the film.

The film quality of the Clouse-directed footage was noticeably higher than that of Lee's earlier Hong Kong films, and John Barry provided an original soundtrack. The film also featured performances by experienced actors as well as up-and-coming stars, including two recipients of the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor (Dean Jagger and Gig Young) and several who have been honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, including Dean Jagger, Bruce Lee, Chuck Norris, Hugh O'Brian, and Gig Young.

In Hong Kong, the film was dubbed into Cantonese, and had significant changes, such as the inclusion of a fight in a green house with Casanova Wong and a different opening and closing credits sequence, featuring a new theme song (see 'Trivia' below), plus a couple of minor scenes. Several scenes were removed, also, including the fight in the opera house dressing room. All of the extra footage used in the Hong Kong version was included on Hong Kong Legends' 2-disc DVD release of the film.

Cast

Theme song

Game of Death (死亡遊戲)

The American score was composed by John Barry.

Reception

The movie was successful at the box office but was not well received. Criticism of the revised version included the inclusion of scenes that could be considered in bad taste, such as the incorporation of footage of Lee's actual funeral. Another scene, often pointed out by critics of the film, involved a shot of Kim looking at himself in the mirror, with an obvious cardboard cut-out of Lee's face pasted onto the mirror's surface.

However the action directed by Sammo Hung for the scenes with the Bruce Lee lookalikes and the footage that Bruce Lee shot for the original footage with the final three fights helped alleviate the problems the movie has. Apart from the cheesy techniques used to disguise the fact that Bruce Lee was being played by stand-ins, the movie enjoyed respectable production values.[1][2]

Other Game of Deaths

After the death of Bruce Lee, several studios exploited the situation by making their own versions of The Game of Death based on what they had learned of the story from production stills and magazine articles. Many of these films pre-dated Robert Clouse's "official" Game of Death.

Clouse's film had a sequel in 1981, Game of Death II, which also used footage from Bruce's earlier films to have him make an appearance in the beginning of the film, only to be killed off midway, allowing his on-screen brother take on the role of protagonist. Aside from the English dub giving the "Bruce Lee" character the name Billy Lo, this movie would seem to have no connection with Clouse's film.
  • The Games of Death of Infernal Varanne (2009): Director of this Motorcycles stunt film added a "S" to the word Games in the title. The film is a video clip of one hour showing the stunts and the lifestyle of the Infernal varanne team, all around the world. The soundtrack is composed of modern rock, but the main theme is a rap remixed version (By DJ KOMIX) of the original title of John Barry.

The yellow-and-black tracksuit

File:Yellow Jump Shirt.jpg
Screenshot of Game of Death, Bruce Lee is wearing his iconic yellow-and-black tracksuit.

The yellow-and-black tracksuit which Lee wore in the film has come to be seen as something of a trademark for the actor, and is paid homage to in numerous other media. In the Clouse-directed remake, the filmmakers rationalized its presence by including a scene where Billy Lo disguises himself as one of Dr. Land's motorcycle-riding thugs, who all wear striped jumpsuits.

In movies

  • Uma Thurman wears a similar suit in Kill Bill Volume 1 when she travels to Japan to take on an underworld boss and assassin played by Lucy Liu. In homage to both the film and the remake, Thurman wears the suit as part of her motorcycle-riding gear, and keeps the suit on during her battle with Liu and her gang, the Crazy 88.
  • In Shaolin Soccer, a similar suit is worn by the goalie "Lightning Hand" who resembles Bruce Lee.
  • In the Jet Li film Meltdown, Jacky Cheung plays a movie star who is losing his fighting ability due to his cowardice. When he regains his courage at the end of the film, he wears a copy of the yellow tracksuit. The role is generally felt to be a parody of Jackie Chan, but the references to Bruce Lee are also obvious.
  • The 1980s film The Last Dragon produced by Motown legend Berry Gordy centered around a Bruce Lee fan in search of reaching Martial arts enlightenment who instructed his students wearing the same tracksuit.
  • In City Hunter, there is a memorable scene in which Ryu Saeba (Jackie Chan) uses the techniques in the movie finale to defeat his two towering black opponents.

In video games

  • Fei-Long, from the Street Fighter series is a tribute to Bruce Lee.
  • Marshall Law and Forrest Law, from the Tekken series of fighting games, resemble Bruce Lee's with their moveset, whoops and yells and wears a sleeveless version of the tracksuit.
  • In WWE Legends of Wrestlemania There is a tribute to Bruce Lee because in legend killer mode there are tiers on wich you fight a different legend.
  • In Dead or Alive 4, Jann Lee's third costume is none other than the tracksuit and his ending movie includes him watching Bruce Lee movies to help him practice Jeet Kune Do.
  • In the Playmore fighting game Rage of the Dragons, Mr. Jones (who already bares a striking reseblance to Kareem Abdul Jabar) wears a suit very similar to the infamous yellow jump suit.
  • The suit is present in the MMORPG Anarchy Online as a piece of equipment for powerful martial artist characters.
  • In Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow, one equippable item is the "kung fu suit," which is a yellow tracksuit with black vertical stripes along the sides.
  • Although it does not appear in any Street Fighter games, Fei Long wears the jumpsuit in several issues of the Udon Street Fighter comic book and in Masahiko Nakahira's Cammy manga.
  • In the video game Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories, the main character can wear an identical outfit called the "Dragon Jumpsuit".
  • The final stage of the game Streets of Rage 2 has the player character ascend an elevator through a series of floors, fighting off enemies as well as one of the previous bosses and a unique boss at the top floor before fighting the final boss: a wrestler, a claw-user, and a martial artist named Shiva, who bears a similarity to Lee's character's first opponent in the lost footage.
  • In the video game Shadow Hearts: From the New World talking cat and drunken master Mao confronts the master of cat martial arts, the tracksuit-clad "Bruce Meow".
  • A suit called "Billy Lo" appears in the online game Rumble Fighter. (They also have a JKD cash item fighting style, over there called "Astros" and not cash.(http://www.ogplanet.com/rf/))
  • In WWE SmackDown vs Raw 2008, in the Create a WWE Superstar function the tracksuit is emulated.
  • In Mortal Kombat Armageddon in the Kreate-a-fighter-section
  • In Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4, the character Chie Satonaka's Persona is dressed in the same yellow jumpsuit, and fights with a combination of spears and Jeet Kun Do.
  • In Street Fighter 4, the character Rufus wears a yellow and black tracksuit. The suit matches his personality of having a great love for martial arts movies, leading to his style being adopted from imitating martial arts movies and mail order courses.

In music

  • A short promotional video for the virtual band Gorillaz showed the fictional animated guitarist, Noodle, taking on a pack of thugs while dressed in the tracksuit and imitating Lee's fighting style. Noodle has also worn this suit in the Game Of Death short clip from the Celebrity Takedown DVD.
  • The band Sugar Ray, in their video for the single "When It's Over," included a segment in which one of the band members fantasizes about having a kung fu battle similar to the fight scene between Lee and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. The band member wears Lee's tracksuit, his opponent wears a beard, clothes, and sunglasses similar to Abdul-Jabbar's, and the video duplicates the scene in which a seated Kareem kicks Lee in the chest, knocking him down and leaving a huge footprint on his chest.
  • Topper Headon of The Clash was known to wear a similar jumpsuit at live shows.
  • Avant-garde guitarist Buckethead is inspired by Bruce Lee in several ways and in 2006 released a song called "Game of Death" on his website to honour this movie.[3] He also wore a yellow tracksuit while playing live and performed with nunchakus on stage.

In anime and cartoons

  • In the Karate Island episode of SpongeBob SquarePants (which is itself a take-off of "Game of Death"), Sandy Cheeks wears a yellow tracksuit similar to Bruce's.
  • In the Urusei Yatsura episode titled "The Mendo Family's Masquerade War," Ataru was wearing a yellow tracksuit with black stripes while trying to court Mendou's sister who is sporting nunchakus. Both Ataru's yellow tracksuit and the Mendou sister's nunchakus are a homage to Bruce Lee.[1][2]
  • In the anime/manga Tenjou Tenge, there is a short appearance of a character named "Inosato Dan" who is the leader of the "Jun Fan Gung Fu club" (Jun Fan is Bruce Lee's Chinese name). He resembles Bruce Lee very much, and wears the jumpsuit. However, in the anime the colors of the jumpsuit are switched to a black suit with yellow stripes.
  • Duel #25 of the Yu-Gi-Oh! manga features some references to Bruce Lee. Yugi's fighting-game character of choice is a Bruce Lee clone called Bruce Ryu. His opponent, the villain of the chapter, wears the yellow jumpsuit and calls his fight with Jonouchi a "Game of Death."
  • The second episode of the anime series Cowboy Bebop, "Stray Dog Strut," further plays homage with the episode's main antagonist being named Abdul Hakim (after Kareem Abdul-Jabar's character) and bearing a strikingly similar appearance.
  • The character Mr. Tanaka from Sonic X wears the suit in an episode.
  • The character Sasshi, from the anime Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi, also gets a uniform called the Game of Death suit, later imitating Lee in both appearance and mannerisms.
  • Another reference is found in GTO, where the main character, Onizuka Eikichi, wears the same suits when performing strength feats like breaking a baseball bat with a kick in front of his class.
  • In episode 18 of the anime, Gintama, Kagura wore a suit similar to Bruce's suit in this movie.
  • The character, Mandy, from "The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy" wore a yellow jumpsuit in the episode "Modern Primitives / Giant Billy and Mandy All-Out Attack". The episode also had parodies from "Akira"(Mandy drives a bike similar to Kaneda's in the series), the "Godzilla" franchise (There are several giant monsters that parody monsters from the franchise including the name of the episode), and "Kill Bill"(A check off list plus a red screened close-up mimicking the bride).
  • A game sprite resembling an Asian man can be seen wearing Bruce Lee's game of death suit during the first and third season's of ReBoot
  • A Gorillabite from the band Gorillaz is titled Game of Death. In the bite, Noodle, the guitarist, dons the yellow tracksuit to take on Russel.
  • The cover for the third volume of the American DVD release of the anime, PaniPoni Dash!, features the main character Rebecca Miyamoto wearing a track suit similar to Bruce Lee's. The subtitle for the DVD, "Class of Death", also pays homage to "Game of Death".
  • In episode 20 of Hayate no Gotoku, Hayate asks Maria is she knows "the art of assassination". She denies it, but Hayate and doesn't believe her and Nagi imagines what Maria would look like wearing a yellow jumpsuit and holding nunchucks.
  • Episode 100 of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003)cartoon depicts Master Splinter's former owner, Hamato Yoshi, wearing the yellow tracksuit.
  • In the classic anime/manga series "Dragon Ball" During his early adventures, Goku enters a military base named "Muscle Tower" in the shape of a dumbbell, in which he visits numerous floors, fighting enemies that inhabit them. He fights a robot, a ninja, a beast, and a general of the military.

Trivia

  • On Ji Han Jae's floor, the sign near his arena read, in Chinese, "Temple of the Dragon". When Bruce was filming his final 3 fight scenes, the set designers mistakenly thought that Ji's floor was the last floor before reaching the top treasure. The sign, according to Bruce's notes, should've read "Temple of Gold".
  • The rumors surrounding Bruce Lee's death and the involvement of the Chinese Triad society may have been initiated by this film. Some believe that the plot of this film was constructed to make audiences believe Bruce Lee, in the form of Billy Lo, was still alive, "laying low" and making movies (as further evidenced by additional movies released after Game of Death composed entirely of stock footage)[3]
  • Footage from two previous movies, Way of the Dragon and Fist of Fury were used in the making of Game of Death. Most notably, the scene where Billy Lo is shot is perfectly derived from the final scenes of Fist of Fury and the Kim Tai-Jung shot scenes also reuse the original sets and scenery. Also, the footage featuring Chuck Norris was reused from Way of the Dragon.[4]
  • The funeral scenes of Billy Lo are, in fact, footage of Bruce Lee's own funeral.
  • When Billy Lo confronts the martial arts masters in the pagoda (now the "Red Pepper" restaurant run by the racketeers) the scene is clearly during the middle of the night. However, he defeats Kareem Abdul-Jabar's character, Hakim, by blinding him with natural sunlight when he tears down one of the original pagoda's walls. Beyond the wall, one can see that it's clearly meant to be daytime. When Billy Lo confronts the crime boss on the restaurant's rooftop, once again it becomes night.
  • One of the Bruce Lee doubles in Clouse's version of the film was played by Yuen Biao, who would later become a martial arts star in his own right.
  • The "death" of Lee's character in Clouse's version would later eerily mirror the tragic death of his son Brandon Lee in 1993, who was accidentally fatally shot on the set of The Crow.
  • In one scene in Game of Death, Bruce Lee's stand-in looks at himself in the mirror, with a cardboard cut-out of Bruce's face pasted onto the mirror's surface. In The Crow, Brandon Lee's stand-in looks at himself in the mirror, with Brandon's face digitally superimposed onto the mirror's surface.
  • Gig Young played his final role in this film, before killing both himself and his wife, Kim Schmidt, whom he met in Hong Kong during the filming of Game of Death.
  • In the Chinese version, there's a theme song sung by the late Roman Tam entitled Game of Death. Tam sung the song in both Cantonese and Mandarin (one for each respective version). This song went on to become a No. 1 hit when it was released in 1978. It was released on LP and Cassette under the album title Game of Death. Both songs are only available in CD format on the Japanese soundtrack for this film which as of 2006, is out of print.
  • The film is available on DVD from 20th Century Fox, while the documentary Bruce Lee: A Warrior's Journey is available from Warner Home Entertainment, on its own and on the second disc of the 2004 Special Edition of Bruce Lee's Enter the Dragon.
  • Many computer and video games, such as Kung Fu Master, have followed a similar plot, in which the main character must fight different opponents on different floors of a tower.
  • The Nike ad campaign of "LeBron James in Chamber of Fear" is based on the movie. In it, LeBron dribbles his way up a pagoda while facing Hype, Temptation, Haters (the Fo Shizzles), the Dragons of Complacency, and Self-Doubt. The Haters' Chamber stars Jim Kelly, who featured in Lee's Enter The Dragon.
  • A fictitious casting for the role as Bruce Lee is depicted in the mockumentary Finishing the Game.
  • In the Mandarin version of the film, there was unseen footage at the ending of the film which was not released in other prints elsewhere. After Billy defeats Dr. Land in the finale, there are no police approaching the scene. It cuts straight to Jim hugging Anne at the passenger terminal where Anne and Billy depart together. In the final film released elsewhere around the world, the last we actually see of Anne is when she escapes out into the rainy night at the warehouse where she is rescued by Billy. The last we see of Jim is where he tells Billy over the phone that Anne has been captured and explains what the Syndicate wants Billy to do. The ending for the Mandarin print shows that both characters did appear in the original intended ending written by Robert Clouse under the pseudonym called Jan Spears.
  • Beopjusa was chosen by Bruce Lee as the original setting for the movie Game of Death, with the five floors of Palsangjeon pagoda representing five different martial arts. Since Bruce Lee died before the movie was completed, the screenplay was changed, and Beopjusa was edited out.[4]

References

  1. ^ Game of Death, Bey Logan audio commentary disc one (DVD featurette) (DVD). Hong Kong Legends, UK. 1978 (film), 2001 (DVD). {{cite AV media}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  2. ^ http://www.thespinningimage.co.uk/cultfilms/displaycultfilm.asp?reviewid=2051
  3. ^ BUCKETHEAD Covers 'Game Of Death': Audio Available - Aug. 21, 2006
  4. ^ See the films Game of Death and Bruce Lee: A Warrior's Journey at 50m30s

External links

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