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

[Yihetuan]

7 minutes ago, DragonClaws said:

 

Anyone here buy Darren Chua & Steve Kerridges Making of The Big Boss book?, the price was a bit steep for my budget. I wonder how their material on the missing Big Boss scene compares with Brandon Bentley's essay on the same subject?, featured on the recent Arrow Bruce Lee releases.

 

@De Ming Li bought it. Maybe he can share some info and answer your query?

 

[De Ming Li]

@DragonClaws  I received the new book this week. I'm happy to take screenshots of any content you or anyone else would like to see.

[PandaPawPaw]

3 hours ago, De Ming Li said:

@DragonClaws  I received the new book this week. I'm happy to take screenshots of any content you or anyone else would like to see.

Any pics of any rare/missing stuff would be cool.

[WarriorBloodCrest]

3 hours ago, De Ming Li said:

@DragonClaws  I received the new book this week. I'm happy to take screenshots of any content you or anyone else would like to see.

Anything pertaining to the final brothel scene, for starters? Cheers.

[DragonClaws]

On 11/24/2023 at 1:15 AM, WarriorBloodCrest said:

Anything pertaining to the final brothel scene, for starters? Cheers.

 

Brandon Bentley went into some detail in a recent YouTube interview, regarding this subject and a few others. I just cant recall which interview it was?. He also covered the subject of missing Big Boss material on the Fantical Dragon Youtube channel, with the exception of the Brothel sequence. Ive Posted at least one of these interview in this thread.

 

On 11/23/2023 at 9:24 PM, De Ming Li said:

@DragonClaws  I received the new book this week. I'm happy to take screenshots of any content you or anyone else would like to see.

 

Much appreciated, thought I wouldnt expect you to share or reveal too much of the NEW books content online. Anything relating to the scenes/footage, thats still absent would be much appreciated. 

 

[WarriorBloodCrest]

On 11/24/2023 at 6:24 AM, De Ming Li said:

@DragonClaws  I received the new book this week. I'm happy to take screenshots of any content you or anyone else would like to see.

Not to come off as demanding, but it's been about a week. I take it you haven't started reading the book yet? An update would be nice.

[DragonClaws]

 

Which part of the final duel featured in Way of The Dragon, are Chuck Noris & Bruce Lee staging?.

 

 

[De Ming Li]

4 hours ago, WarriorBloodCrest said:

Not to come off as demanding, but it's been about a week. I take it you haven't started reading the book yet? An update would be nice.

I will definitely do it over this weekend. 

[WarriorBloodCrest]

3 hours ago, De Ming Li said:

I will definitely do it over this weekend. 

Sounds good. Would you be okay with doing a video showcasing all the pages? It would be probably more practical for you and whoever would be interested in the book. 

[De Ming Li]

27 minutes ago, WarriorBloodCrest said:

Sounds good. Would you be okay with doing a video showcasing all the pages? It would be probably more practical for you and whoever would be interested in the book. 

I will probably just be taking photos of the pages of interest with my phone and putting these up.

[Yihetuan]

17 minutes ago, De Ming Li said:

I will probably just be taking photos of the pages of interest with my phone and putting these up.

Sorry dude, I should've just kept my mouth shut and not pinged you after reading some of the replies here.

[De Ming Li]

2 minutes ago, Yihetuan said:

Sorry dude, I should've just kept my mouth shut and not pinged you after reading some of the replies here.

No it's all good.

[De Ming Li]

41 minutes ago, WarriorBloodCrest said:

You are literally doing Buddha's work, bless you. Is it all from the book or there's a bit more? Cheers.

There’s a bit more, I will put those pages up shortly.

[WarriorBloodCrest]

2 hours ago, De Ming Li said:

This is everything in this incredible book

Any chance for closer, individual shots of each of the film strip blocks as shown in page 104? That would be my only additional request. Even still, you've done amazing work. Bless you for all eternity. 

[DragonClaws]

 

A big thank you to @De Ming Li.

[Karlos]

Please note we've had to remove the pages of the Big Boss book from this thread at the author's request.

Thanks 

[De Ming Li]

39 minutes ago, Karlos said:

Please note we've had to remove the pages of the Big Boss book from this thread at the author's request.

Thanks 

Fair enough. Thanks Karlos

Edit: I hope neither Steve Kerridge nor Darren Chua are too upset over this. We clearly got a fantastically informative book (quite possibly the best on The Big Boss) from their efforts.

Edited December 6, 2023 by De Ming Li

[ShawAngela]

31 minutes ago, De Ming Li said:

Fair enough. Thanks Karlos

Edit: I hope neither Steve Kerridge nor Darren Chua are too upset over this. We clearly got a fantastically informative book (quite possibly the best on The Big Boss) from their efforts.

Is Darren Chua the same guy who had a site selling dvds a while ago and called chua import dvds or something like that ?

[PandaPawPaw]

I always thought the opening funeral set was really good and seeing it as just a 'Set' is quite strange but also impressive.

Same with the WOTD Colosseum set. I think they did an excellent job of matching the real one with the set they made.

[DragonClaws]

On 12/17/2023 at 2:27 AM, PandaPawPaw said:

Same with the WOTD Colosseum set. I think they did an excellent job of matching the real one with the set they made.

 

Robert Lee has said there was an alternative version of this fight? did Bruce Lee film a different version? Or was there a longer/extended edit of the fight we see in current versions of the film? I've always got the feeling his Golden Harvest films were all shortened during their preparation for foreign audiences.

They did a great job on the set, especially for a low budget movie. It would have looked better visually if they had filmed it on location. Even if they had permits, they would have needed crash mats etc, for some of the falls.

[DragonClaws]

 

 

[DragonClaws]

 

Has anyone noticed that James Tien's characters death in the Mandarin Cut of The Big Boss, is slightly shorter than in regular versions?. In the Mandarin Cut his bodies laid prone on the ground, while in the regular cut you see his body fall back onto the ground. A big thanks to Nick Clarke for sharing alternative Mandarin Cut of The Big Boss  with a different dub, on his forum. This version features a shorter version of Malalin Bonnak's (Wu Man) death scene.

Link - https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/bruceleelivestributeforum/exclusive-bruce-lee-blu-ray-boxset-with-long-lost--t5109-s320.html

Edited January 13 by DragonClaws

[saltysam]

On the 4K, if you watch the hybrid version mixing the restored transfer and the mandarin extra footage,it's uncut.

[starschwar]

I can confirm that the shot of James Tien's character's death is frame-for-frame identical when comparing the restored Mandarin Cut (as opposed to the raw scan) to the shorter version as presented in The Criterion collection.  The raw scan is known to be missing some frames, so I would chalk this up to print damage and not any sort of deliberate alteration to either version of the film.  The restored Mandarin Cut runs for 1:50:50.  The raw scan is only 1:49:07.

Edited January 13 by starschwar

[DragonClaws]

15 hours ago, starschwar said:

The raw scan is known to be missing some frames, so I would chalk this up to print damage and not any sort of deliberate alteration to either version of the film.

 

Thanks for clearing that up @saltysam & @starschwar, I didnt think anyone had omitted for any reason, just that you get slight variations even in the more common prints released on VHS/DVD/Blu-Ray/Digital.