GAME OF DEATH (1978) Review. Playing Games with Death? Bruce Lee at Golden Harvest: A Retrospective.
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- Опубліковано 25 сер 2024
- A discussion and review of Game of Death (1978) courtesy of the recently released Arrow Video 4K UHD box-set as well as my overall thoughts and recollections on the film.
Released five years after Lee's untimely death, does the film do justice to Lee?
I think you pretty summed up everything about game of death. It was one of those things it could of been really good. I remember the Cantonese version on channel 4 years ago having completely different music. One thing that John Barry’s score was what semi made it good.
They showed the Cantonese version on UK TV??
Its great that you give your own honest views, I agree with your sentiments on this film. Actually many reviewers on YT seem afraid to speak their minds and will say everything they watch is great and worth the time, so it is nice to get some honesty on you tube for once.
Thank you @heartofcinema3454 for the kind replies! I do agree I think people worry too much about alienating people with their views is it leads to a kind of a weird conformist film culture. But I want my channel to be open and honest as film forum for debate and discussion ideally!
Chuck Norris was offered the part of Stick,As a Norris fan i would have loved to see a fight scene between him and the Billy Lo character but i also appreciate Norris for turning it down
I totally agree with you. As a kid I really enjoyed the 1978 movie. The version I had didn't include the Dan Inosanto fight at all, and it ended with the shot of evil Doctor lying dead on the street. Funny. I didn't even notie the cardboard cutout scenes, or fight with Steiner. As a kid me and my brother thought Bruce Lee was shot and killed during the time he was filming Game of Death II (hence he died during the coffin stealing scene)....
The only good fake Bruce Lee fight the 1978 movie has is the locker room one, with Bob Wall and idk... Kim Tai Chung? Anyway that is really good, but apart from that.... only the intro scene has a true charm.
Thanks for the comment @bbenjoe! Yeah it's a kind of surreal film to watch as a kid and you can't put your finger on why until different elements start coming together that stand out. Yes, the Carl Miller (Bob Wall) fight scene is very entertaining even more so for its hilarious use of looping two kicks over and over like some Street Fighter combination at the end!
@@reel_reflections I think the film was 'undercranked' (sped up) but not looped
The version I saw had the Dan Inosanto fight scene, but I wasn't too keen on the nunchaku vs nunchaku part.
Agreed, that part always came off as hokey given how it was shot and edited. We will never know if that would have been dropped on the editing room floor had Lee survived; nice idea but not well executed.
I have the same recollection and relationship with this film as you. The roughest part for me is that they dropped in actual footage from his funeral. It really doesn't make the story any more believable and is just unnecessary.
I completely agree, I think the funeral footage is the most egregious case of how the film is exploitative.
You've quadrupled your subscribers since your first video, well done. 😉 👏
Thank you my friend.
Thank you as always Cheekster! Hope you enjoy.
Think you can say 1978 Game of Death is a love/hate movie, it got right some things and then made awful ones too 😅 I just watched both the Cantonese and Mandarin cuts, yeah one has him arrested, then one is the happy ferry ending. I do love my original poster for it, I have it hanging with a red frame in my bedroom.
Agreed, I think I can ironically enjoy it from a distance now, probably the added nostalgia helps with that. But objectively, it's a poor piece of work done in inexcusably bad taste.
Perhaps the most disturbing aspect for me still to this day isn't even all the crimes of morality that were committed with this film but more the scene where "he" dies in the film being precisely the same way his son was to die in the future after this film was made. Always has disturbed me. Always will. Especially with all the conspiracy theories specifically regarding to his families curse.
Just got through watching the Final Game of Death and the narrator talks about the premature deaths of other people associated with the film (both Lee's and the 78 version) that I didn't know about. Adds to the superstition of not titling a film with the word 'death' in it.
Dan Inosanto is Filipino not Korean. The film 'Bruce Lee: A Warrior's Journey' has the majority of the Game of Death footage that was filmed by Bruce Lee. The log scene apparently only recently surfaced. I agree the 1978 version of 'Game of Death' is not a good film. In all honesty I wouldn't bother with Game of Death 2, it's unwatchable. The only redeeming features are deleted scenes from Enter The Dragon in that film. In no way does the finished version of Game of Death do any justice to Bruce Lee. It's mostly the opposite of what he had in mind.
Ji Han-jae is Korean; the guardian of the fourth floor in Lee's intended footage. I don't state that Inosanto is Korean here. And it is the fight with Ji Han-jae I was referring to.
The log scene has resurfaced yes and can be seen in The Final Game of Death.
Don't be ridiculous. Game of Death 2 is way better, or at least way more entertaining than this one!
A terrible film which would have been exceptional… had Bruce Lee finished it , or other jokers hadn’t started on it..
The locker room fight scene is great though. Its the best (fake Bruce Lee) fight scene in this film and the soundtrack also works pretty great with the choreography as well.
That fight scene is a guilty pleasure, especially the ridiculous looping of repeat kicks to Miller before he is sent back into the locker!
no i agree that version sucked! saw it at the drive-in in 78
That's pretty cool! I'm sure it enhanced the experience nonetheless?
Were you aware back then of Bruce being only in the final sequence?
Wow, there are some really bad takes here. And I'm not talking about the video!
Game of Death 1978 made Bruce Lee turn over in his grave ⚰️ because It's very disrespectful & a horrible movie 🤮 & also a cash grab 💰 There's no redeeming quality at all in the Game of Death 1978, just total trash🗑️ln my opinion 👍🏿