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March 8, 2014
Table of Contents
1 Introduction
2 Plot
[F] Famous Chinese Shopping City / Books /
Game of Death

Wikipedia

 		 
Game of Death (死亡遊戲) was the film Bruce Lee had planned to be the demonstration piece of his martial art Jeet Kune Do. 54 minutes of footage was shot before his death, some of which was later lost and has not yet been recovered. The remaining footage has been released with Bruce Lee's original English dubbing 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.

After the death of Bruce Lee, 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 (also entitled Game of Death) which was released in 1978, five years after his death, by Columbia Pictures.

Bruce Lee fans generally disown the 1978 version as cashing in on Bruce Lee's image.

The film is avalible on DVD from 20th Century Fox, and the documentary Bruce Lee: A Warrior's Journey is avalible from Warner Brothers|Warner Home Entertainment, on its own and on the second disc of the 2004 Special Edition of Bruce Lee's Enter the Dragon.
Plot

spoiler
In the movie, Bruce Lee's character fights his way through three stories of a five-level pagoda (the first and second floors were not filmed before his death), encountering a different martial artist, each representing a different level of fighting on each floor from standard untrained guards on the bottom, through to ritualised martial arts each opponent being more challenging then the last. On the final floor, Bruce Lee encounters his greatest challenge in Kareem Abdul-Jabbar representing Bruce Lee's Jeet Kune Do, a form of Martial Arts which draws on all others, and has no set forms, insisting that there is no correct response to any situation, that true advantage is gained from being unpredictable. Lee is only able to finally defeat this opponent via a medical condition he has making his eyes vulnerable to light - his fighting style being utterly flawless.

Or at least that was the original vision behind the movie. The 1978 version uses the shot footage married to an entirely new plot involving Bruce Lee's character, Billy Lo, running from racketeering after gaining international success as a martial arts movie star. After being shot during the filming of a movie by a racketeering henchman, Billy Lo uses the opportunity to fake his death and disguise himself, extracting revenge against those who wronged him one at a time. The footage described above was incorporated to now represent the crime boss' personal bodyguards and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar having a slightly more extensive role.http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077594/plotsummaryhttp://www.allbrucelee.com/movies/game_of_death.htmhttp://www.kungfucinema.com/reviews/gameofdeath.htm

Plot-related Trivia and Gaffs
  • The rumors surrounding Bruce Lee's death and the involvement of the Chinese Triads 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 comprised entirely of stock footage)http://www.allbrucelee.com/article/mystery_of_bruce_lee.htm

  • Footage from two previous movies, Return 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 Return of the Dragon.http://www.allbrucelee.com/movies/game_of_death.htm

  • The funeral scenes of Billy Lo are in fact the actual, factual funeral scenes shot from 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.
Trivia

Kill Bill volume 1 pays a large homage to this film with Uma Thurman's character 'The Bride' wearing the same style of yellow and black striped tracksuit which Lee wore in the surviving footage. He wore this to show that he did not belong to the inferior styles of martial arts of the past shown by his opponents in their traditional martial arts uniforms but that he represented the present and superior form of fighting. Or, more simply, he argued that the attire of the fighter did not matter ??? as long as it afforded flexibility and ease of movement, that was all that was needed.

Shaolin Soccer also pays a tribute to Game of Death with the goalie (who bears a striking resemblance to Bruce Lee overall) wearing a very similar jumpsuit. It is also present in the MMORPG Anarchy Online as a high leveled piece of martial artist equipment.

The second episode of Cowboy Bebop, "Stray Dog Strut," further plays homage with the episode's main antagonist being named Hakim (after Kareem Abdul-Jabar's character) and bearing a strikingly similar appearance. Spike also goes shopping for nunchucks early in the episode, a weapon very closely associated with Bruce Lee.
External links

  • imdb title|id=0077594|title=Game of Death


Category:Martial arts films

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Copyright & Resource Links
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Game of Death".


Last Modified:   2005-11-07


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