Hall of the Unknown - The Game Of Death Appreciation Thread

[DragonClaws]

 

 

Edited October 30, 2019 by DragonClaws

[Drunksnake]

4 hours ago, DragonClaws said:

 

 

Hi @Drunksnake, you want to read the thread below, if you havent done already?.

 

 

 

Thanks for this Dragonclaws! Was an interesting read, I’m gonna try those links tomorrow when I’m on a better device! Top man

[DragonClaws]

 

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18/ There were rumours that Bruce filmed the first floor fight against Whang-In-Sikh (aka Hwang In-Shik) but why are there no pictures of it ? Did you see any pictures of it ?

DT: This is strange and according to Dan Inosanto, they did film more things and remebers Sikh flying in to do work, but who really knows. There is a search going on right now by a certain someone I know who is searching for other GOD footage. Lets hope and see. Bruce also sent some really rare pictures to Taky and Inosanto from the filming of GOD in where his is fighting Kareem, etc. The reason for this was, Bruce wanted to show Inosanto and Taky what he was doing before they came and shot their own scenes. Some of the pix are strange though and very rare. I am trying to piece it together, but I will say that a lot of those pix had some New Territories stuff going on.

Source- https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/bruceleelivestributeforum/q-a-with-david-tadman-dt-t705.html

 

When David Tadman refer's to Dan Inosanto recalling Whang In-Shik flying in. For the making of the Game of Death in 1972. I guess he's talking about the exterior shoot  featuring the Korean kicking sensation?.

 

 

Whang In-Shik with an unknown Hong Kong stuntman,  filming exterior footage in the New Territories for  Game of Death-1972.

 

Edited November 1, 2019 by DragonClaws

[DragonClaws]

 

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Edited December 16, 2020 by DragonClaws

[DragonClaws]

 

Some great pictures of the un-used G.O.D Temple location in Korea. Thanks to actor Andrew Koji for sharing these online.

 

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Edited May 30, 2021 by DragonClaws

[DragonClaws]

 

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Edited December 16, 2020 by DragonClaws

[DragonClaws]

 

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Edited May 15, 2021 by DragonClaws

[DragonClaws]

 

 

 

 

Edited December 14, 2019 by DragonClaws

[DragonClaws]

 

This vintage promotional movie was filmed sometime during 1972. The very same year Grandmaster Ji Han-Jae was working on Game of Death, Hap Ki Do and Unicorn Fist. He would later appear as Master Sheng, in the 1975 John Woo Directed/Scripted Dragon Tamer's.

 

 

 

[DragonClaws]

 

Can anyone I-D the artist behind the following poster?.

 

Edited December 23, 2019 by DragonClaws

[DragonClaws]

 

 

Fiaz Rafiq: There is some footage of Dan Inosanto fighting outside of the pogoda - among other outtakes - can you shed some light on this intriguing footage that never originally made to the film, which was eventually completed some year's after Bruce’s death?.

 

Andre Morgan: Yeah, I knew very much about this because I ultimately ended up producing the final version of what became Game of Death. The problem was very simple: We didn’t have enough footage with Bruce Lee in it that would allow us to tie those scenes together. And after talking to the distributors and exhibitors around the world, we gave those distributors the option of releasing the footage in the form of a documentary or in the form of a re-worked story using the footage that existed. The collective wisdom back then, 30 years ago, was that the audience of the world would prefer to see the footage that existed in the context of a story and not see it as documentary footage.

Now in fairness to the distributors and exhibitors of the 1970's, I don't think anybody at that time realized what a cult figure Bruce Lee was destined to become. these were the early days immediately after his death, and before he managed to become part of the youth culture around the world. It was over a period of twenty years since his death in 1973, that all the myths and stories that grew up about him that allowed people to look back and wonder whether we made the decision at the time. I can assure you as one of the people involved in the decision-making process, that the consensus from the theatrical distributors at the time was: please try and complete this as a full-length film feature film and not part of a documentary footage. So, when you try and construct a story and you don’t have the leading man available to tie the story together, you have to make some choices on which footage you can use and which you can’t use.

 

 

Edited January 9, 2020 by DragonClaws

[sym8]

1 hour ago, DragonClaws said:

 

 

Fiaz Rafiq: There is some footage of Dan Inosanto fighting outside of the pogoda - among other outtakes - can you shed some light on this intriguing footage that never originally made to the film, which was eventually completed some year's after Bruce’s death?.

 

Andre Morgan: Yeah, I knew very much about this because I ultimately ended up producing the final version of what became Game of Death. The problem was very simple: We didn’t have enough footage with Bruce Lee in it that would allow us to tie those scenes together. And after talking to the distributors and exhibitors around the world, we gave those distributors the option of releasing the footage in the form of a documentary or in the form of a re-worked story using the footage that existed. The collective wisdom back then, 30 years ago, was that the audience of the world would prefer to see the footage that existed in the context of a story ad not see it as documentary footage.

Now in fairness to the distributors and exhibitors of the 1970's, I don't think anybody at that time realized what a cult figure Bruce Lee was destined to become. these were the early days immediately after his death, and before he managed to become part of the youth culture around the world. It was over a period of twenty years since his death in 1973, that all the myths and stories that grew up about him that allowed people to look back and wonder whether we made the decision at the time. I can assure you as one of the people involved in the decision-making process, that the consensus from the theatrical distributors at the time as: please try and complete this as a full-length film feature fil and not part of a documentary footage. So, when you try and construct a story and you don’t have the leading man available to tie the story together, you have to make some choices on which footage you can use and which you can’t use.

 

Love to see all this outdoor footage even though Bruce may or may not be in it.I think I read somewhere that Dan Inosanto had some of it in his own private collection along with the log scene but this is becoming like the holy grail that the pagoda footage once was.

[DragonClaws]

 

Quote

Love to see all this outdoor footage even though Bruce may or may not be in it.I think I read somewhere that Dan Inosanto had some of it in his own private collection along with the log scene but this is becoming like the holy grail that the pagoda footage once was. - @sym8

 

It wouldnt be a suprise if Mr Insoanto owns copies of the exterior film, at least his appearances. The production team clearly thought the pogoda footage was the easiest to sell, and perhaps most importantly the easiest to place into a new story. Fan's had also seen many images of BL in the now well known black and yellow get up.  The exterior photo shoots were still often being passed off as miscellaneous images. Did G.O.D 2 originally get cooked up to sell the the remaining footage?, in a new movie?. Golden Harvest appeared to put a line under Bruce Lee, once the G.O.D 2 had finished its run. It would be almost twenty years before John Little attempted to release the extended pogoda footage. I did hear that Raymond Chow offered the footage to Warner Brothers in 1993, for use in their Curse of The Dragon ducuemntary. Only they didnt have enough money in the budget to cover his asking fee?.

 

Edited January 4, 2020 by DragonClaws

[DragonClaws]

 

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I cut footage from Game of Death to a 1978 UK Radio spot to magically create a mini-trailer for all you Bruce Lee die-hards out there. A companion piece to the Fist of Fury/Way of the Dragon Double Bill Trailer. - Josh Baker

 

 

[DragonClaws]

 

A big thanks to @DT-Nice1988 for sharing this on his YouTube channel.

 

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Edited May 30, 2021 by DragonClaws

[DragonClaws]

 

Edited January 19, 2020 by DragonClaws

[ShawAngela]

In the bonuses on the DVD of Fist of fury, there is an interview of Dan Inosanto, and I almost missed a  scene that was shown in a wink, showing Bruce Lee directing a fight between James Tien and another actor in the pagoda, and then stopping it and discussing and laughing with them. It was so short that I thought that I was mistaken.

I didn't read this whole thread, so, sorry if it has already been discussed, but was James Tien supposed to play in Game of death ?

[DragonClaws]

On 1/26/2020 at 1:56 PM, ShawAngela said:

but was James Tien supposed to play in Game of death ?

 

When Bruce Lee began filming in 1972, James Tien was among the cast. He was part of the team, who accompany Hai Tien(Bruce Lee) to the Korean Island. Some of his fight with Kareem Abdul Jabbar, was later spliced into the 1978 version put together by Robert Clouse. I'm guessing this is when the directorg got majority of his FORCE: Five story?.

Edited March 9, 2020 by DragonClaws

[DragonClaws]

 

Beopjusa: The temple that almost starred in a Bruce Lee film

Link- https://travellearnwrite.wordpress.com/2015/12/02/beopjusa-the-temple-that-almost-starred-in-a-bruce-lee-film/

 

Quote

As the title of this post says, Beopjusa was almost the setting of a Bruce Lee film, but he unfortunately died before the filming was completed in 1973. Lee’s last film, Game of Death, was never finished, but in 1978, director Robert Clouse made a new Game of Death with a different screenplay and only some original footage, and no scences from Beopjusa were used.

Beopjusa was built during the Silla kingdom in 553. Like most temples and historical buildings in Korea, it was burnt down during the Japanese invasion in the 1500’s. However, it was rebuilt in 1624 and the 5 story pagoda dates from that year. Most of the other wooden pagodas and several other temples in Korea were not rebuilt after that war, so Beopjusa’s Palsangjeon pagoda is left as the only Korean wooden pagoda.

 

 

 

Hai Tien(Bruce Lee) calls out to the people in the Pogoda ground's.

Edited February 2, 2020 by DragonClaws

[DragonClaws]

 

 

[ShawAngela]

On 1/19/2020 at 4:20 PM, DragonClaws said:

A big thanks to @DT-Nice1988 for sharing this on his YouTube channel.

What a pity that this isn't allowed in my country : the video has been deleted because containing some Fortune Star elements in it...!!

I would have loved to see the Mandarin version !!

[ShawAngela]

I just watched (again!!) Game of death because I got the double dvd release from Hong Kong Legends.

In the bonus disc, there is a 39mn40s section showing the fights in the pagoda, with Bruce Lee, James Tien and a third actor.

From what I understood, the three of them were "paired" to climb in the pagoda and get something (in another section of the dvd, it is said that they had to find a treasure hidden in the pagoda).

Well...I enjoyed A LOT these 39mn40s, almost much more than the movie itself !!

First, because the fights are extended and more explicit than in the movie : the opponents speak to each other, and there is even some humor in the fights. I think that Bruce had a very strong sense of humor and the he showed it sometimes in his fights (or not) in his different movies.

Second, James Tien and the other actor has more fights and from what I understood while watching this short feature, although they were paired together, James Tien seemed to want to win for himself, and it's only when he is fighting with Kareem Abdul Jabbar that he asks for help, but Bruce is too busy with his own fight...

At the end of the sequence, Bruce shouts to the people outside the pagoda that " the game is over " but someone answers that it isn't. He doesn't climb to the last floor of the pagoda and on the contrary, he goes down, and shouts to the people outside what they want more and, if I heard well (the sound was very thin, since the other people were at the foot of the pagoda), someone answered " the game will be over when you'll die ", but I'm not sure, and unfortunately, that's all what is shown, but it's already a great thing to have been able to see that !!

Thanks to our friend gwailosforever to have provided me this release of the movie !!

[DragonClaws]

19 hours ago, ShawAngela said:

From what I understood, the three of them were "paired" to climb in the pagoda and get something (in another section of the dvd, it is said that they had to find a treasure hidden in the pagoda).

 

Part of the original idea was to have a team of five people, to raid a Korean Island. One of the team was going to be a lock-smith/non Martial Art's character, played by actor Lee Kwan. He was among the team, to help them break into the pogoda itself?. He may have been one of the characters waiting for Hai Tien(Bruce Lee), outside the pogoda.

 

[Mechagoji75]

Well, as this is related to Game of Death, I had my time on March 14th, starting attempt to work on a screenplay of The Game of Death, I was going through my research, that looks flat-broke, but although decent to go through when it was a good time to work on the screenplay on spec. It's a first draft. I think it’s the right time to work on it, I had previous attempts and none were that good, it rot into failure. But here are page samples, what I have been working on. Though after the first draft, I have possibilities of working on the second draft that I would look carefully from what I had not included in the first draft.  But as of now, I'm having a wonderful time to work on this script. I was almost to work on a seventh draft screenplay based on Lee's life, but it didn't quite work so well. But with this, I knew I had want to form a story that would seem interesting to write...

Sincerely -- Tue D. Nguyen (Mechagoji75)

[Memorex]

On 2/15/2019 at 10:10 PM, DragonClaws said:

 

 

Used to own this vhs! "The traces lead to a gruesome place - The tower of death. A place no-one has managed to leave alive, not untill now.."