The Cutting Room Floor: Lost, Censored & Deleted Bruce Lee Movie Scenes (Article)

[Josh Baker]

So are they doing a new cut of the '72 Game of Death footage including the log fight or will it be a separate extra?

[Josh Baker]

The extended cut of Big Boss is basically historic. It's the first new footage of Bruce Lee the public has seen since A Warriors Journey in 2000 as far as I'm aware. 

[PandaPawPaw]

For years there's been little to no new BL footage since 2000 apart from the BL bicycle Green Hornet footage iirc so all this stuff coming out at once is damn amazing.

Did the Ahna Capri ETD footage come out after 2000?

I do wish the BTS/Promo footage for GOD was on this set but I guess that's owned by a Japanese collector................

[DragonClaws]

50 minutes ago, PandaPawPaw said:

I do wish the BTS/Promo footage for GOD was on this set but I guess that's owned by a Japanese collector................

 

I wonder how much of the exterior footage they will show?, will Unicorn Chan be present?.

 

[PandaPawPaw]

50 minutes ago, DragonClaws said:

 

I wonder how much of the exterior footage they will show?, will Unicorn Chan be present?.

 

If there are outtakes of the outdoor footage then maybe?

I'm curious to know how the log footage is meant to play out.

Do James and Chieh come up the stairs and Dan is sitting there waiting?

Where does the log even come from. Surely it wasn't carried up.

Also the footage in between Chieh being beaten and Bruce coming up will be new too.

In GOD 78 Dan it sitting there on his chair, gets up, picks his sticks and gets ready to fight.

I'm guessing that is from just before he faces Chieh and not Bruce?

[DragonClaws]

Just now, PandaPawPaw said:

I'm curious to know how the log footage is meant to play out.

Do James and Chieh come up the stairs and Dan is sitting there waiting?

Where does the log even come from. Surely it wasn't carried up.

Also the footage in between Chieh being beaten and Bruce coming up will be new too.

 

I'm guessing that the log scene, would have been intercut with the fight on the previouse level. Like the James Tien fight with Kareem Abdul Jabbar, being intercut with the Chi Hon-Choi fight scene?. Bruce Lee's character was still fighting on the level below, with Whang In-Sik or someone else?, by the time Tien and Chieh Yeun characters turn up to face Dan Inosantos pogoda guardian.

 

[DragonClaws]

10 hours ago, starschwar said:

As others have said, this is the long lost theatrical cut, not the censored version we've had for over 50 years! Ten minutes we've never seen before.  Still no saw in the head scene, but still - this is reason to celebrate.  I think perhaps, "Mandarin Cut" isn't the best name.  I'd have gone with, "Extended Theatrical Cut".

 

If the saw scene ever existed, it might just have only been in the early private previews shown around Hong Kong?. Before it was put out to the movie going public, across the island in multple cinemas.

 

Edited April 15, 2023 by DragonClaws

[DragonClaws]

 

 

[Coliseum1972]

wonder if the BB keyhole scene is in it , i could swear i saw such a scene as a kid

(at least were getting this , the lost footage from say Kellys Heroes or Wicker Man prolly lost forever........)

Edited April 17, 2023 by Coliseum1972

[starschwar]

2 hours ago, Coliseum1972 said:

wonder if the BB keyhole scene is in it , i could swear i saw such a scene as a kid

(at least were getting this , the lost footage from say Kellys Heroes or Wicker Man prolly lost forever........)

Your insight into how accurate this version is to your memory of the real deal would be most appreciated!

[DragonClaws]

6 hours ago, Coliseum1972 said:

wonder if the BB keyhole scene is in it , i could swear i saw such a scene as a kid

 

This sort of scene has been featured in other old school movies, where a Madam from a brothel charges guests money to look through a hole. Dont quote as my memories hazy, but I think Iron Neck Li starring Chi Kwan-Chun might be one. When he and his two friends visit a Tawanese brothel.

 

[saltysam]

i imagine this New territories outdoor footage will just be warm ups and screen tests won't it? not actual filmed footage for the movie?

[Josh Baker]

2 hours ago, saltysam said:

i imagine this New territories outdoor footage will just be warm ups and screen tests won't it? not actual filmed footage for the movie?

Apart from the footage of the fighters that would've been shown in the briefing scene at the Mafia boss' House, I don't think so. 

[DragonClaws]

 

There's now an up-dated version of the main article, including the latest news and a few other tid-bits. Please click on the link below for the latest version.

 

 

[DragonClaws]

 

Sifu Alex Richter talks about an alternative explanation 7 reason for the Way of The Dragon Hong Kong censors cuts in 1972, among many other subjects.

 

 

[Coliseum1972]

maybe Lazenby was at the june '72 showing in Lon ?

Im pretty sure we saw BB when I was a kid , it wasnt bruceploitation , in fact i had never seen a MA film ever before.....now whether i saw a keyhole scene that i cannot confirm 100% (35 yrs ago) but it sounded awfully familiar when it was written about a few yrs ago , like i had seen such a scene

Edited April 21, 2023 by Coliseum1972

[WarriorBloodCrest]

32 minutes ago, Coliseum1972 said:

maybe Lazenby was at the june '72 showing in Lon ?

Im pretty sure we saw BB when I was a kid , it wasnt bruceploitation , in fact i had never seen a MA film ever before.....now whether i saw a keyhole scene that i cannot confirm 100% (35 yrs ago) but it sounded awfully familiar when it was written about a few yrs ago , like i had seen such a scene

What do you remember, exactly?

[ShawAngela]

Sorry, but what is BB ?

[Coliseum1972]

Big Boss

[CharlieParker]

Given the quality of the screenshots from the deleted scenes, I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest that the print in question was held in some sort of official archive. 

But does anyone have a clue where this print did come from exactly?

I suggested searching the Taiwanese national film archives on these forums about a year or so ago - I wonder if that's where it was stored? It was probably the only place where you would find any sort of 'early release' of the film - as many films get/got their premiere in Taiwan to test audiences. 

Alternatively, was it simply stored in some other country's national film archive from back in the day and it had just sat there all these years without anyone knowing? Again, that would explain why it appears to be in okay shape. Many countries have their own archives where they try, in theory, to keep a copy of everything that's screened there - or passed through the censors hands.

The fact that it hasn't turned magenta and the colours look really good certainly suggests a temperature controlled environment. 

Maybe the Golden Harvest archives? But then why didn't anyone release it before - if it was there all the time? Also, there have been multiple releases of the Mandarin dub through Golden Harvest going all the way back to the days of VHS and Betmax - and they weren't this longer version - which suggests they may never have had it.

Like many others here on the forum - I'd love to know some of the back story behind this discovery. The fact that it's suddenly popped up now is still very much a real mystery.

Edited April 22, 2023 by CharlieParker

[fabhui]

3 hours ago, CharlieParker said:

Given the quality of the screenshots from the deleted scenes, I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest that the print in question was held in some sort of official archive. 

But does anyone have a clue where this print did come from exactly?

I suggested searching the Taiwanese national film archives on these forums about a year or so ago - I wonder if that's where it was stored? It was probably the only place where you would find any sort of 'early release' of the film - as many films get/got their premiere in Taiwan to test audiences. 

Alternatively, was it simply stored in some other country's national film archive from back in the day and it had just sat there all these years without anyone knowing? Again, that would explain why it appears to be in okay shape. Many countries have their own archives where they try, in theory, to keep a copy of everything that's screened there - or passed through the censors hands.

The fact that it hasn't turned magenta and the colours look really good certainly suggests a temperature controlled environment. 

Maybe the Golden Harvest archives? But then why didn't anyone release it before - if it was there all the time? Also, there have been multiple releases of the Mandarin dub through Golden Harvest going all the way back to the days of VHS and Betmax - and they weren't this longer version - which suggests they may never have had it.

Like many others here on the forum - I'd love to know some of the back story behind this discovery. The fact that it's suddenly popped up now is still very much a real mystery.

Fortune Star had a standard definition digibeta transfer of the longer 'Mandarin' print of The Big Boss.

The Hong Kong Film Archive had an actual theatrical print of it.

 

Arrow simply asked for it and they were given it.

The footage had been there all this time but no one had asked for it until now.

This was recently told to me by Brandon Bentley who has been working on the upcoming release.

Edited April 22, 2023 by fabhui

[WarriorBloodCrest]

22 minutes ago, fabhui said:

Fortune Star had a standard definition digibeta transfer of the longer 'Mandarin' print of The Big Boss.

The Hong Kong Film Archive had an actual theatrical print of it.

 

Arrow simply asked for it and they were given it.

The footage had been there all this time but no one had asked for it until now.

This was recently told to me by Brandon Bentley who has been working on the upcoming release.

Neither Fortune Star or the HKFA have the "premier" print of The Big Boss by chance?

[fabhui]

16 minutes ago, WarriorBloodCrest said:

Neither Fortune Star or the HKFA have the "premier" print of The Big Boss by chance?

Nope. I think that is now long gone. 

It seems that after the first initial screening/premier, the cutting up of the cousins, saw in the head and peephole scenes were cut from the OCN by the HK Film censors.

[WarriorBloodCrest]

6 minutes ago, fabhui said:

Nope. I think that is now long gone. 

It seems that after the first initial screening/premier, the cutting up of the cousins, saw in the head and peephole scenes were cut from the OCN by the HK Film censors.

Oh well, we can only hope new screenshots of either of those scenes will surface in the upcoming Arrow set. 

[ShawAngela]

What is the cutting up of the cousins ?