Anybody else think the '78 version of Game Of Death is under rated?

[ChineseSausage]

IMHO the film is not as bad as most folks seem to think. The most noticeable flaw this film has is the way the filmmakers edited previous footage from Leef's other films and the way they avoid showing "Lee's" face. That could have been avoided by hiring a Lee lookalike who had a better resemblance (like Ho Chung Tao or Dragon Lee). Cardboard cutup on mirror image is another big fail.

[Cognoscente]

On 8/28/2011 at 5:00 AM, Bruce said:

Simply the fact that Bruce was going to have at least 35 minutes of straight fight scenes might've been a problem; would audiences that didn't really have any indepth knowledge of martial arts or appreciation for Bruce's "lessons" want that much fighting without a breather?

Maybe Bruce had the idea of intercutting the fights with George Lazenby's scenes or other scenes in general.

[Cognoscente]

It's interesting that Clouse decided for Billy's surname to be Lo. Clouse could have used another Chinese name which began with L like Lung, Lau or Liu but he chose Lo...as in Lo Wei.

Same thing with Sammo's character. Yuen Lung would have been a good name, but Clouse opted to go for Lo Chen.

[tomgray2404]

Neither underrated or overrated - just crazy. I admit that it's a guilty pleasure of mine because there are a lot of well-executed fight scenes, but it's essentially junk.

Using footage of Lee's funeral is one of the most hideous things in cinema history. He essentially made that studio and that's how you repay him? Whoever gave the go-ahead on that needs help.

The story is ludicrous and the continuity is worse.

[Cognoscente]

There's a '70s newspaper article where Colleen Camp claimed that Raymond Chow was calling the shots. Clouse should have used his Bruce Lee biography (or at least a magazine) as an opportunity to talk about what went down. The funeral footage shows that Chow didn't have much respect for Bruce, as was already seen in The Man and the Legend. It's a wonder that they didn't film him in the morgue. What's more surprising was that Lee's American friends and family didn't stop Golden Harvest from filming his Seattle funeral.

As for the continuity of Game of Death '78, I would like to see a fan-edit where the Lee footage from other movies is taken out.

Something that has recently crossed my mind: seeing as how some of Bruce's inner circle stuntmen (Lam Ching-Ying, Peter Chan Lung and Billy Chan Wui-Ngai) began filming an American movie (The Dynamite Brothers) on August 6, 1973, they could have attended his Seattle funeral.

Back to Chow and Lo Wei, The Tattooed Dragon (released in December 1973) is another example of posthumous exploitation. Jimmy's character is named Yee Chao-Lung as a variation of Bruce's Chinese name. When Bruce was alive, he was angry about being replaced on A Man Called Tiger. Imagine what his reaction would have been upon seeing a pre-release version of The Tattooed Dragon, which was finished in early July.

There's even a scene which uses the main theme from Enter the Dragon. The fact that the film takes place in Thailand makes the movie seem like The Big Boss Reborn or Enter the New Dragon. 1973 was the year when it felt like filmmakers were trying to reboot Lee by making strangely familiar films in Thailand with other stars. Bloody Ring essentially has Larry Lee being shamelessly groomed as a pseudo-Bruce whereas Golden Harvest's The Skyhawk was a quasi-remake of The Big Boss.

[PandaPawPaw]

I personally don't want any more versions of GOD unless there is new footage.

I'd like to see an Anime version of GOD. That way you don't have to worry about doubling Bruce or finding shots from other films.

OK I know it's not Bruce but that still looks awesome! Imagine that type of animation but for a BL film.

[tomgray2404]

On 10/16/2022 at 6:26 PM, Cognoscente said:

There's a '70s newspaper article where Colleen Camp claimed that Raymond Chow was calling the shots. Clouse should have used his Bruce Lee biography (or at least a magazine) as an opportunity to talk about what went down. The funeral footage shows that Chow didn't have much respect for Bruce, as was already seen in The Man and the Legend. It's a wonder that they didn't film him in the morgue. What's more surprising was that Lee's American friends and family didn't stop Golden Harvest from filming his Seattle funeral.

As for the continuity of Game of Death '78, I would like to see a fan-edit where the Lee footage from other movies is taken out.

Something that has recently crossed my mind: seeing as how some of Bruce's inner circle stuntmen (Lam Ching-Ying, Peter Chan Lung and Billy Chan Wui-Ngai) began filming an American movie (The Dynamite Brothers) on August 6, 1973, they could have attended his Seattle funeral.

Back to Chow and Lo Wei, The Tattooed Dragon (released in December 1973) is another example of posthumous exploitation. Jimmy's character is named Yee Chao-Lung as a variation of Bruce's Chinese name. When Bruce was alive, he was angry about being replaced on A Man Called Tiger. Imagine what his reaction would have been upon seeing a pre-release version of The Tattooed Dragon, which was finished in early July.

There's even a scene which uses the main theme from Enter the Dragon. The fact that the film takes place in Thailand makes the movie seem like The Big Boss Reborn or Enter the New Dragon. 1973 was the year when it felt like filmmakers were trying to reboot Lee by making strangely familiar films in Thailand with other stars. Bloody Ring essentially has Larry Lee being shamelessly groomed as a pseudo-Bruce whereas Golden Harvest's The Skyhawk was a quasi-remake of The Big Boss.

I was never offended by the funeral being filmed for documentaries. That comes with the territory when someone ultra-famous passes away. You're essentially capturing history.

My issue is with them working genuine funeral footage into a script with all the imagination of a Scooby Doo sketch. That's next-level disrespect.

 

[Cognoscente]

Ponder this: If Jackie Chan died during the making of Armour of God, would Golden Harvest have filmed his funeral to be put into the movie?

[DarthKato]

It was pretty clever how they went about hiding the double and splicing in scenes of him from other stuff(I agree that the real funeral scenes were in bad taste). So maybe not underrated, but not bad either. Its a strange little thing that was made, that is fun to watch once or twice and then put away until you want to see the last twenty or so minutes again. 

[Cognoscente]

I have a theory as to why they didn't complete it much earlier on. In 1973 and '74, they were making money off of ETD which they marketed as Bruce's final film; likewise later on when The Way of the Dragon was released as Return of the Dragon in some territories.

It's difficult to market something as being someone's final product when you've got something else of theirs currently going on in the works.