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

[DragonClaws]

 

Anyone here know if the editor's of Enter The Dragon have been interviewed at any point?. I understand that Kurt Hirschler saldy passed away in 1986. George Watters and Peter Cheung are still alive, while it's some time ago, and surely ETD was just one of many edited jobs, for the two men. It would be interesting to ask either of them, if they can recall any scenes they chopped out, or if they cut violence/nudity from the film, to appease the MPAA?.

[DragonClaws]

 

One for@Fist of the Heavenly Sky.

Anyone here bought any of these magazines?, have to say I'venot purchased any so far. As a younger fan I would have loved to have seen a series of magazines, like this. Apart from the odd decent article in IMPACT and Martial Arts Illustrated, it was often the same old stories and images re-packaged.

 

Edited June 21, 2018 by DragonClaws

[DragonClaws]

 

Is the DVD/Documentary King f Kung Fu, this project in the link below?.

The video I posted in this thread was taken down pretty quickly, but it featured many BB images.

 

 

[Fist of the Heavenly Sky]

On 6/21/2018 at 12:28 PM, DragonClaws said:

 

One for@Fist of the Heavenly Sky.

Anyone here bought any of these magazines?, have to say I'venot purchased any so far. As a younger fan I would have loved to have seen a series of magazines, like this. Apart from the odd decent article in IMPACT and Martial Arts Illustrated, it was often the same old stories and images re-packaged.

 

I haven't bought any of them. Nothing personal towards Steve Kerridge or Ricky, but I wasn't exactly impressed with the contents of the previous magazines, which is why I opted out of chipping in. I might pre-order, but only under the guarantee that further previously-never-seen BB material will be on the booklet + DVD.

[DragonClaws]

On 6/25/2018 at 10:52 AM, Fist of the Heavenly Sky said:

I might pre-order, but only under the guarantee that further previously-never-seen BB material will be on the booklet + DVD. 

 

Contact Ricky Baker via social media, and see what he says about it?.

The King of Kung Fu preview video that was removed from social media, did feature a lot of unseen, to me at least, BB images. Probably the reason it was taken down so quickly, as surely certain fans would have lifted the images for their FB/Twitter pages.

[Fist of the Heavenly Sky]

10 hours ago, DragonClaws said:

 

Contact Ricky Baker via social media, and see what he says about it?.

The King of Kung Fu preview video that was removed from social media, did feature a lot of unseen, to me at least, BB images. Probably the reason it was taken down so quickly, as surely certain fans would have lifted the images for their FB/Twitter pages.

What were the BB images you recall seeing? The unseen ones, that is.

[BiggWill1988]

Great Thread, I'm not even posting this as a joke, I heard years ago from many friends they saw a alternate ending where Bruce lives in the ending of Fists Of Fury and jumps over the gate and the firing squad miss when they shooting at him and hes running away. I never believed it but people kept telling me they saw it on vhs in the 80s. They swore by it, I think there confusing it with something else or remembered it wrong. I also remember reading the same thing online too that this was true, i cant even remember where this was like more then 10 years with people saying they saw it, I never believed this rumor but i figured why not ask. 

[Fist of the Heavenly Sky]

31 minutes ago, BiggWill1988 said:

Great Thread, I'm not even posting this as a joke, I heard years ago from many friends they saw a alternate ending where Bruce lives in the ending of Fists Of Fury and jumps over the gate and the firing squad miss when they shooting at him and hes running away. I never believed it but people kept telling me they saw it on vhs in the 80s. They swore by it, I think there confusing it with something else or remembered it wrong. I also remember reading the same thing online too that this was true, i cant even remember where this was like more then 10 years with people saying they saw it, I never believed this rumor but i figured why not ask. 

I never heard of this before, but at least for me, it would've been a far more satisfying ending if Chen Zhen had embraced life rather than death.

[DragonClaws]

6 hours ago, Fist of the Heavenly Sky said:

What were the BB images you recall seeing? The unseen ones, that is.

 

Mostly behind the scene production still's, it was montage of them, and I didnt get a second chance to see it, before the clip was pulled.

 

2 hours ago, BiggWill1988 said:

Great Thread, I'm not even posting this as a joke, I heard years ago from many friends they saw a alternate ending where Bruce lives in the ending of Fists Of Fury and jumps over the gate and the firing squad miss when they shooting at him and hes running away. I never believed it but people kept telling me they saw it on vhs in the 80s. They swore by it, I think there confusing it with something else or remembered it wrong. I also remember reading the same thing online too that this was true, i cant even remember where this was like more then 10 years with people saying they saw it, I never believed this rumor but i figured why not ask. 

 

Never heard of this rumour befor, they did film multiple endings for many Asian films of that era.

 

 

[Panteri]

On 6/21/2018 at 2:28 PM, DragonClaws said:

 

One for@Fist of the Heavenly Sky.

Anyone here bought any of these magazines?, have to say I'venot purchased any so far. As a younger fan I would have loved to have seen a series of magazines, like this. Apart from the odd decent article in IMPACT and Martial Arts Illustrated, it was often the same old stories and images re-packaged.

 

Is this actually from the saw scene or just an outtake? I’ve never actually seen this picture before, it actually makes me want to buy their book once it the full version comes out later this year. There’s fake blood on the back of the guys head which makes it seem like the real thing, but I’ve never seen Bruce with two hands on the saw.

Great thread btw. The Big Boss has always been my favorite BL movie mainly because the mystery of all of the deleted scenes always fascinated me. I remember a couple of years ago somebody on this forum who was appearntly very highly regarded in the trading scene claimed to have the saw scene. I remember him posting an extremely blurry pic but I don’t think anything came of it. Some posters were convinced that it was a fake and the guy with the saw scene stopped posting. Even if it was fake, I wish he would have posted the whole thing since he claimed that it was from a beta tape which means it predates photoshop and the like. I’m still convinced it could have been the real thing somehow lol but who knows.

Anyway, any new Big Boss pics or info are always interesting!

[Fist of the Heavenly Sky]

7 hours ago, Panteri said:

Is this actually from the saw scene or just an outtake? I’ve never actually seen this picture before, it actually makes me want to buy their book once it the full version comes out later this year. There’s fake blood on the back of the guys head which makes it seem like the real thing, but I’ve never seen Bruce with two hands on the saw.

Great thread btw. The Big Boss has always been my favorite BL movie mainly because the mystery of all of the deleted scenes always fascinated me. I remember a couple of years ago somebody on this forum who was appearntly very highly regarded in the trading scene claimed to have the saw scene. I remember him posting an extremely blurry pic but I don’t think anything came of it. Some posters were convinced that it was a fake and the guy with the saw scene stopped posting. Even if it was fake, I wish he would have posted the whole thing since he claimed that it was from a beta tape which means it predates photoshop and the like. I’m still convinced it could have been the real thing somehow lol but who knows.

Anyway, any new Big Boss pics or info are always interesting!

I think you might've seen it already, but there is a BB appreciation thread where you can post your thoughts in the movie in more detail. Either way, welcome to the forums! Glad you enjoyed the content that we shared thus far.

[DragonClaws]

On 7/7/2018 at 3:16 AM, Panteri said:

On 6/21/2018 at 8:28 PM, DragonClaws said:

 

Is this actually from the saw scene or just an outtake?

 

Tough one, does Lee apply more pressure with his hands, and split the guys head further?. Or is he and the stunt guy, simply trying to make the low budget pratical special effects work?. Some fans think they saw scene was not removed becuae of how violent it was, but simply becuase it looked poorly done. Maybe early audiences laughed at the effect, much like the sequence from ETD, where one of the corrupt cops harrassing Williams, gets bitten by a dog.

Edited July 8, 2018 by DragonClaws

[Panteri]

5 hours ago, DragonClaws said:

 

Tough one, does Lee apply more pressure with his hands, and split the guys head further?. Or is he and the stunt guy, simply trying to make the low budget pratical special effects work?. Some fans think they saw scene was not removed becuae of how violent it was, but imply becuase it looked poorly done. Maybe early audiences laughed the effect, much like the sequence from ETD, where one of the corrupt cops harrassing Williams, gets bitten by a dog.

It seems like a fairly high quality photo too. If the saw scene still exists in the hands of collectors, do you think it would still look as good as it does in that photo?

[DragonClaws]

23 hours ago, Panteri said:

It seems like a fairly high quality photo too. If the saw scene still exists in the hands of collectors, do you think it would still look as good as it does in that photo?

 

The photo has been enhanced, digitally cleaned up etc, so the actual footage wont look that good. Unless someone's paid to have it cleaned up, and then taken captures from it?.

Edited July 8, 2018 by DragonClaws

[De Ming Li]

What are the known films that Bruce was scheduled to complete had he lived on? Game of Death and A Man called Tiger, any more?

[DragonClaws]

4 hours ago, De Ming Li said:

What are the known films that Bruce was scheduled to complete had he lived on? Game of Death and A Man called Tiger, any more?

 

The truth is, we cant really say for sure, what he would have gone on to do after his death. He had many movie plans by 1973, many debate if he would have completed Game of Death or not. Sorry to give such a vague answer, LJF, when he still posted on the BL lLive public forum, made some great posts about his un-made/possible projects.

We know Dragon of Jade, the Shaw Brothers/Concrn co-production, was a possibility, he also had a picture with Sonny Chiba in mind. Which is why Chiba was present in H.K, when BL passed away. Sophia Loren's director husband Carlo Pinto, was sending him telegrams about wanting to work together. Hanna Barbera was even courting him over a possible animated series.

[DragonClaws]

Anyone know, how I go about adding new images to the existing article I've written???. Like I mentioned in an older post, I hope to extend the article before the end of the summer. Just got other stuff to work/focus on at the moment.

Ok, so I dont own/have any missing Big Boss images that havent already been widely available online. However, this cropped image might be from a trimmed scene?, hard to say when so much of the image has been chopped off, before being posted online. Maybe Lee's just having some blood effcts applied between take?.

Here's the picture Im talking about.

 

Edited July 10, 2018 by DragonClaws

[fabhui]

1 hour ago, DragonClaws said:

Anyone know, how I go about adding new images to the existing article I've written???. Like I mentioned in an older post, I hope to extend the article before the end of the summer. Just got other stuff to work/focus on at the moment.

Ok, so I dont own/have any missing Big Boss images that havent already been widely available online. However, this cropped image might be from a trimmed scene?, hard to say when so much of the image has been chopped off, before being posted online. Maybe Lee's just having some blood effcts applied between take?.

Here's the picture Im talking about.

 

 That scene is in the regular print of the movie. The scene takes place just prior to Bruce ripping the remainder of his shirt sleeve off.

[DragonClaws]

8 minutes ago, fabhui said:

That scene is in the regular print of the movie. The scene takes place just prior to Bruce ripping the remainder of his shirt sleeve off.

 

Well spotted eagle eyes, just a screen capture from the film then.

[DragonClaws]

Here's a question for @Fist of the Heavenly Sky and @fabhui

Of the burning carts scene images I've viewed online over the year's,  I've never seen the Thai thugs, or the fiery cart in any of them. Sure some will turn up in the future?. I wonder if this scene was filmed in Thailand?, which would make sense, if it featured the same Thai actors?, from the early post casino scene scuffle. Or did they film it back in Hong Kong, as a later after thought?.

[Fist of the Heavenly Sky]

2 hours ago, DragonClaws said:

Here's a question for @Fist of the Heavenly Sky and @fabhui

Of the burning carts scene images I've viewed online over the year's,  I've never seen the Thai thugs, or the fiery cart in any of them. Sure some will turn up in the future?. I wonder if this scene was filmed in Thailand?, which would make sense, if it featured the same Thai actors?, from the early post casino scene scuffle. Or did they film it back in Hong Kong, as a later after thought?.

I got back to Jason's article on the topic, and unfortunately it does not specify if the scene in question was filmed in Thailand or Hong Kong. Going by an educated guess, I would say it was filmed in the former, based on Bruce's haircut alone. I'd imagine that only the hands and arms of the thugs were shown, to give the scene a sense of sudden suspense.

Here is the following quote from the article:
 

Quote

The first instance of missing footage occurs just after the fight near the gambling den. In today's 'usual' versions of the film, after the four defeated thugs have run off, Cheng Chao-An and Hsiu Chien share a joke about Cheng's promise not to fight, and the scene then cuts to the following morning, with Chiao Mei looking at the sunrise. However, what we should have seen was Cheng and Hsiu continue their journey along the road. They reach a T-junction and turn into a narrow alleyway, where they are once again set upon by the thugs from the gambling den, who push a flaming cart towards them. To avoid it, the pair grab hands and leap backwards onto a wall, with barbed-wire behind them. (Bruce Lee and James Tien were filmed jumping off the wall and this was then played in reverse.) When the danger has passed, Hsiu says to Cheng, "Some people will do anything to get revenge." When they arrive back home, it's late, and the other cousins are in their pyjamas ready for bed. Hsiu Chien eagerly describes the fight to them (a smiling Cheng stays silent), and while demonstrating one particular move he used against one of the thugs, makes a motion of grabbing the chubby uncle by the genitals. A shocked uncle tells him, "Watch it! I might have use for those!" The fun ends with Chiao Mei entering, and telling them all to get to bed. Next we see her looking at the sunrise. Or is she? Notice when she wakes the cousins for work she is carrying a tray with two empty glasses, and that Cheng is not in the sleeping quarters. Also, if you listen carefully to the original Mandarin soundtrack found on some VideoCDs and DVDs from the Far East, there is an abrupt jump in the music at this point, indicating another cut and yet more missing footage, in which Chiao Mei gives Cheng and his third uncle a drink on the balcony outside before they leave for the ferry dock. I believe she is actually looking at them as they leave the house, rather than the sunrise.

 

[Panteri]

I managed to find the screenshot that from that thread I mentioned above. I remember the link for the picture not working for a while so I went ahead and saved it.

Seems like it could have been real to me. Not sure how somebody could go about faking that bottom picture, unless it's from another movie or something like that. Any thoughts?

[DragonClaws]

On 7/10/2018 at 11:31 PM, Panteri said:

Seems like it could have been real to me. Not sure how somebody could go about faking that bottom picture, unless it's from another movie or something like that. Any thoughts?

 

The top image looks like a freezed shot of Lee swinging the saw in the movie, before it cuts away. The second shot could be taken from any film, you can barely make out what could be a blade splitting someone's head.

 

On 7/10/2018 at 10:44 PM, Fist of the Heavenly Sky said:

I got back to Jason's article on the topic, and unfortunately it does not specify if the scene in question was filmed in Thailand or Hong Kong. Going by an educated guess, I would say it was filmed in the former, based on Bruce's haircut alone. I'd imagine that only the hands and arms of the thugs were shown, to give the scene a sense of sudden suspense.

 

Good points, and who is it say they didnt wear mask to cover their faces, a popular ploy in old school KF movies. With just a quick shot of them setting the cart off down the hill, in flames. If it was a Thai location, I doubt anyone knows where it was filmed?.

Edited July 12, 2018 by DragonClaws

[fabhui]

On 7/10/2018 at 8:28 PM, DragonClaws said:

Here's a question for @Fist of the Heavenly Sky and @fabhui

Of the burning carts scene images I've viewed online over the year's,  I've never seen the Thai thugs, or the fiery cart in any of them. Sure some will turn up in the future?. I wonder if this scene was filmed in Thailand?, which would make sense, if it featured the same Thai actors?, from the early post casino scene scuffle. Or did they film it back in Hong Kong, as a later after thought?.

I've also never seen any stills of the scene featuring the burning cart or any of the Thai thugs.

I did see a 35mm print of the film many years ago that featured some of the missing scenes but not all of them, unfortunately I didn't contain the burning cart scene.

A while after I saw the print I was talking about it to a fella I only knew as Mike who was from Singapore. He also said he'd seen a longer print of the movie and that it contained a scene where Maria Yi's character serves tea to Bruce and the Uncle before he leaves on the ferry.

I'd never heard anyone mention this scene before and didn't know if it was true or not.  Years later I mentioned it on a Bruce Lee forum only for Steve Kerridge to then post stills from the scene!

[DragonClaws]

14 minutes ago, fabhui said:

I'd never heard anyone mention this scene before and didn't know if it was true or not.  Years later I mentioned it on a Bruce Lee forum only for Steve Kerridge to then post stills from the scene!

 

The first I heard of this, was via Jason Hart's much talked about artcle. He thinks the shot of Maria Yi looking at the sunrise, in an early scene. Is actually watching her watching Cheng and his uncle leave.

 

16 minutes ago, fabhui said:

I did see a 35mm print of the film many years ago that featured some of the missing scenes but not all of them, unfortunately I didn't contain the burning cart scene.

 

People who attended the often talked about London 79 screening of TBB, state that the saw in the head scene was absent. Despite the print being screened, featuring many extra scenes.