Game of Death

For other uses, see Game of Death (disambiguation)

Game of Death (traditional Chinese: 《死亡遊戲》; simplified Chinese: 《死亡游戏》; Jyutping: Sei5 Mong4 Jau4 Hei3; pinyin: Sǐwáng Yóuxì) is a 1978 Hong Kong action film co-written (under the pseudonym Jan Spears along with Raymond Chow) and directed by Robert Clouse. During filming, of The Game of Death (1972), Bruce Lee stops filming because received an offer to star in Enter the Dragon. Lee died of cerebral edema before the film's release. After Lee's death, Enter the Dragon director Robert Clouse was enlisted to finish the film using two stand-ins; it was released in 1978 as Game of Death (and sequel Game of Death II in 1981) married to an entirely new plot. The revised version of the film uses only 11 minutes and 7 seconds of the footage from the original The Game of Death. But on 2019 producer Alan Canvan edited Game of Death Redux as a special features of Game of Death.

Billy Lo

 * You lose Carl Miller!
 * [Billy stops Ann from shooting Dr Land] Let it go. What must be done is being done.

Dr Land

 * [last lines] Son of a bitch! Goddamn bastard! Goddamn...! [screams and falls]

Steiner

 * You've got till tomorrow morning to call us. It's the last time we're gonna ask Billy.

Director

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

Dialogue

 * Dr Land: So much for the weather report. I'm not the only one who just arrived. How about your trip to Berlin Stick?
 * Stick: It went pretty much as you figured. Now that he's the big star, I couldn't reason with him. He said he was pulling out and he threatened me.
 * Dr Land: Oh my my my my. The rest of it was in the papers. That's when he committed suicide huh? Haha!
 * Stick: He just got up and jumped out of the window...


 * Steiner: Dr Land.
 * Dr Land: Yes?
 * Steiner: The money is all here. Every dollar.
 * Dr Land: I'd be surprised if it weren't.


 * Dr Land: [referring to Ann's calling Land and Steiner murderers after Billy's death] Rude bitch.
 * Steiner: One rebel begats another. It's the Billy Lo syndrome.
 * Dr Land: A venereal disease. Often terminal.

Quotes about Game of Death

 * Five years after his passing, excerpta from the film Lee had worked so feverishly on during the final months and hours of his Life, are edited into a film featuring Lee's title, The Game of Death. But the film bears no comparison to Lee's original multi-level vision. Without Lee's choreograghy notes, script-outline and motif the producers are uncertain what to do with the 100 minutes of footage they have in their possession. Moreover, they discovery that Lee was such a perfectionist that of the 100 minutes of footage they have in hand, two-thirds turn out to be outtakes and retakes, shot that Lee himself had discarded for sequences in the film that he felt were beneath his standard of quality. They deem only 11 minutes and 7 seconds of the footage ti be worthy of inclusion in their film. The rest, approximately 21 minutes worth, they discard. Intercutting actual footage of Lee into fight sequences involving lookalikes and even using cardboard cutouts of Lee's head, the end result Is viewed by many as an exploitive and grotesque joke played on the great artist's legacy. By now, even Lee's most zealous fans are beginning to believe that the original footage Is gone. And that It will never be possible to see the footage Lee shot in its entirety nor to ever learn what his original storyline for the film was. In the fall of 1994, during research conducted for a multi-volume book series based on Lee's surviving writings, Lee's original script and choreograghy writings for The Game of Death are recovered. The writings confirm what had long been suspected thath Lee had shot considerably more footage for The Game of Death than had been seen to date. Another unexpected surprise Is discovered among his choreography writings. His hand-written storyline, 12 pages in length and containing all scene breakdowns and select dialogue passages the original storyline stands in sharp contrast to the one presented in the film released under the same name. After the discovery of Lee's script notes a search to find the missing footage Is launched. It will last some six years, but then the miraculous happens. The original 35mm film footage Is located. After having been separated for over a quarter of a century Bruce Lee's original footage and script notes are finally reunited. Over the course of this film, you'll see this footage as Bruce Lee had intended for It to be shown, and you'll also come to understand the struggle he had to undergo in order to bring It to the big screen. And perhaps along the way, you'll come to know the real Bruce Lee the man behind the legend, a little better as well.
 * (Bruce Lee: A Warrior's Journey), Bruce Lee: A Warrior's Journey quotes at the imdb.com
 * Game of Death Redux showcased 23 minutes of the 1972-era Game of Death footage that was presented closely the way Bruce intended, while at the same time, keeping in-tact some of the stronger as aspects of the universally panned, pieced together 1978 film, such as John Barry’s acclaimed score, as well some of the film’s strong audio design.
 * First version of Game of Death Redux on cityonfire.com
 * Bruce’s tracksuit is orange-yellow in this movie because Clouse darkened the film print, thus resulting in a change in its color from bright yellow to orange. Clouse darkened the film because in his version of Game of Death, Bruce fights Kareem at night, whereas in Bruce’s version of the movie, the pagoda battle is during the day.
 * (Joe Kenney), Game Over! on cityonfire.com

Cast

 * Bruce Lee — Billy Lo (archive footage)
 * Kim Tai-jong — Billy Lo (doubling for Bruce Lee)
 * Yuen Biao — Billy Lo (doubling for Bruce Lee)
 * Albert Sham — Billy Lo (doubling for Bruce Lee)
 * Christopher Kent — Billy Lo (voice: dubbing for Bruce Lee)
 * James Tien — Charlie Wang (archive footage)
 * Kareem Abdul-Jabbar — Hakim (archive footage)
 * Don Barry — Boat Captain / Hakim (dubling for Kareem Abdul-Jabbar)
 * Ji Han-jae — Restaurant Fighter (archive footage)
 * Chuck Norris — (archive footage)
 * Dan Inosanto — Pasqual (also archive footage)
 * Gig Young — Jim Marschall
 * Dean Jagger — Dr. Land
 * Hugh O'Brian — Steiner
 * Colleen Camp — Ann Morris
 * Robert Wall — Carl Miller
 * Mell Novak — Stick
 * Billy McGill — John
 * Sammo Kam-Bo Hung — Lo Chen
 * Roy Chiao — Henry Lo
 * Tony Chiu-Wai — Leung Davi