Bruce Lee: Game of Death Movie Review, Film Still and Poster

U.S 1978
Director: Robert Clouse
Cast: Tai Chung Kim, Yuen Biao, Bruce Lee, Sammo Hung, Robert Wall, Gig Young, Dean Jagger, Colleen Camp
Running Time: 1 hour 41 minutes
Distributor: Columbia Pictures

Review of the Movie

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BRUCE LEE: GAME of DEATH
Storyline:
Cast:
Ending:
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Excited and confused...Yeah, that's exactly how I felt watching Game of Death. After watching Bruce Lee's first major film "The Big Boss", I was already one of his fans. I remember as a kid me and my friends used to imitate Lee's move and ended up with dirt all over our clothes. Surely I watch Lee's next movie gleefully. And after a while, the rundown theater shows Lee's fifth major film Game of Death or in its Chinese title Sîwáng de Yóuxì. By the time of the actual date of the release of this kung fu movie, Lee's already famous worldwide for his martial art prowess, and the actual intention of Game of Death is also to further showing Lee's martial art capabilities named Jeet Kune Do.

About excited and confused on the first sentence. I was sure everyone else too, by seeing their faces and also talk about it with my buddies. The biggest confusion that leads to the biggest question was..."Was that really Bruce Lee that we're watching (in Game of Death)?" I was sure as heck that it is not Bruce Lee on the movie, except for the ending scenes that last about a couple of minutes. So let me just tell you a bit of info.

Bruce Lee has already died on July 20th 1973, only a month before the U.S. release of his latest legendary movie Enter the Dragon. So how could it be he also starred in Game of Death that's released in 1978? Apparently, Game of Death was supposed to be Lee's fourth film even before Enter the Dragon with Bruce himself who directed, starred and also written the screenplay for Game of Death. However on the way of filming, he's given the chance to star on the first Kung Fu film to be produced by Hollywood major studio, Enter the Dragon. So Bruce postponed his own movie in order to role on this historical Kung Fu movie. But fate talked differently when Bruce died even before he could complete Game of Death.

Afterwards, the director of Enter the Dragon, Robert Clouse, stepped forward to direct Game of Death, however in order to fill out the running length that's more than 1 hour and a half, Robert Clouse has to find someone else to fill the role of Bruce Lee and of course this person has to look similar with Bruce. This explains everything, why I and my friends were confused at the look of Bruce. Bruce's character Billy Lo was then played by the now-famous Yuen Biao and Tai Chung Kim.

The storyline of Game of Death is a major spoiler for Bruce's previous movies such as Way of the Dragon and Fist of Fury. So it is highly advisable for you who haven't watched those movies, to not watch Game of Death first.

The story revolves around Billy Lo (Yuen Biao, Tai Chung Kim, Bruce Lee), a famous action star that has recently play along with Chuck Norris (footage from Way of the Dragon). He has to fight against the threat of the mafia led by Dr. Land (Dean Jagger) and his band of henchmen with various martial art capabilities. After the filming of his movie (footage of Fist of Fury), Billy even has to fake his own death (footage from the actual funeral of Bruce Lee). Billy is in difficult position since he also has to save his fiancée, the singer Ann Morris (Colleen Camp), from the mafia. Billy's struggle goes on until he finally has to deal with Dr. Land's main forces in red pepper restaurant, consisting of three powerful men including the very tall guy named Hakim (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar).

Speaking first about the acting quality, well Game of Death is headlined by Hollywood high-profile actors such Dean Jagger and Gig Young, so I'll say the performance they've given is simply good and blends well to the overall tone of the movie. Above all, Dean Jagger who could enliven his mafia boss character. However the flaw comes from the rudimentary acting of Colleen Camp that at some point even downright fake.

The biggest flaw however, absolutely, comes from the pasted face of Bruce Lee onto Tai Chung Kim's face when looking himself in the mirror and several others weird scenes of inserted footage from Bruce Lee's previous film, that solely show Bruce saying a word or two. I won't go as far as saying that this make Game of Death looks like a comedy, but those pasted/inserted scenes are definitely funny on its own way.

Game of Death is famous or infamous by its weird storyline. However for the actual Bruce's fans, the scenes where Bruce has to fight Dr. Land's three men are delightful to see. As was intended to show the power of Jeet Kune Do, then Bruce as always had given the exciting performance. The way he kicks, punches and using his nunchuks and even cool-looking blue swords are simply awesome. This set of fights would be the source of numerous fighting games and comic books (like Dragon Ball and Great Teacher Onizuka) afterwards, where our hero has to fight enemies with increasing difficulty.

One of the most memorable aspect of this movie of course Bruce Lee's yellow-black tracksuit, that has also inspired and imitated and used by so many famous movies, such as TMNT, Shaolin Soccer and of course Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill volume 1 where the sexy Uma Thurman runs amok in this yellow-black tracksuit.

So, Game of Death actually only has a so-so quality and even below it, concerning the flick as an action one. But it's also totally famous and notorious for game of Death has become the source of inspiration/reference for so many popular-culture instances after its release.

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