How disrespectful to Bruce Lee was the original 1978 release of Game of Death.

[Cognoscente]

45 minutes ago, BornToDefense said:

Sorry if I'm asking a dumb question about something that's common knowledge but what would the reason be for this? I haven't gotten deep into Bruce Lee personal life lore (I find it kind of confusing).

As reported in various newspapers and even HK magazines, Bruce shot a lot of footage for GOD than what was later released. For example, there was an advertisement for the film during pre-production of the Clouse version which suggested that there was "60 incredible minutes already in the can."



Another thing - there was an issue of Kung Fu Monthly where Wu Ngan (Bruce's butler/filmmaking assistant) claimed that Bruce filmed all of the pagoda fights except for the exterior battles.

Edited February 19, 2023 by Cognoscente

[Omni Dragon]

4 hours ago, Cognoscente said:

As reported in various newspapers and even HK magazines, Bruce shot a lot of footage for GOD than what was later released. For example, there was an advertisement for the film during pre-production of the Clouse version which suggested that there was "60 incredible minutes already in the can."

It's possible those minutes could include multiple takes and bloopers.

[Cognoscente]

Andre Morgan made it sound like Bruce shot more footage but the shots were too sporadic (or the scenes were too incomplete) to put together in a cohesive whole. Referring to two statements in that earlier quote: "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. So, when you try to 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."

[Josh Baker]

12 hours ago, Cognoscente said:

Andre Morgan made it sound like Bruce shot more footage but the shots were too sporadic (or the scenes were too incomplete) to put together in a cohesive whole. Referring to two statements in that earlier quote: "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. So, when you try to 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."

I think its unlikely Bruce shot any dialogue sequences or photos of the filming would've surfaced by now. It is feasible in my mind that scenes with the other actors (James Tien/Chieh Yuan and the two/three other fighters) were filmed but allowed to rot in the GH vault because they didn't have Bruce Lee in them.

[Cognoscente]

Bruce Lee once wrote that he was halfway done with GOD. Perhaps James Tien only agreed to be in the film if he was given a substantial role.

[Killer Meteor]

3 hours ago, Cognoscente said:

Bruce Lee once wrote that he was halfway done with GOD. Perhaps James Tien only agreed to be in the film if he was given a substantial role.

 

I wonder what Tien's standing was at the time within Golden Harvest. They only gave him one leading man role, THE SHAOLIN BOXERS (and maybe SHAOLIN PLOT?), but seemed to like having him support whoever was flavour of the month - Bruce, Jimmy Wang Yu, Tang Tao-liang...

[Josh Baker]

1 hour ago, Killer Meteor said:

 

I wonder what Tien's standing was at the time within Golden Harvest. They only gave him one leading man role, THE SHAOLIN BOXERS (and maybe SHAOLIN PLOT?), but seemed to like having him support whoever was flavour of the month - Bruce, Jimmy Wang Yu, Tang Tao-liang...

They were pushing him to be a leading man in the early Bruce Lee days but, after playing second fiddle to Angela Mao, Jimmy Wang Yu, Dorian Tan etc., seemed to settle into being a character actor by the mid 70s (Iron Fisted Monk etc.) 

He had a very good career by a lot of actors standards but he must've been pissed off his chance at stardom was cockblocked by Bruce Lee, that would be a sorespot for almost anyone, no matter how humble they may be. 

[Shaolivevil]

6 hours ago, Josh Baker said:

They were pushing him to be a leading man in the early Bruce Lee days but, after playing second fiddle to Angela Mao, Jimmy Wang Yu, Dorian Tan etc., seemed to settle into being a character actor by the mid 70s (Iron Fisted Monk etc.) 

He had a very good career by a lot of actors standards but he must've been pissed off his chance at stardom was cockblocked by Bruce Lee, that would be a sorespot for almost anyone, no matter how humble they may be. 

I really wish James Tien would've done an in-depth interview somewhere or wrote a book about his time at Golden Harvest and working with Bruce Lee on The Big Boss, Fist Of Fury, and Game Of Death. There is still so much we could know and learn directly from him. If he's still of sound mind and body these days, he could do it now. There's only but so much time left to do that before it's too late. His perspective is just as important as anyone else who's worked on these films.

Does anyone recall if Tony Liu was to be a part of Game of Death in any way? We all know that he was in all of Bruce's other movies.

[Cognoscente]

On the Temple of the Unknown forum, it was reported that George Tan only interviewed James Tien about The Big Boss.

Tony was going to play Bruce's student who Bruce visited in an asylum. The student lost his sanity after failing to fight Kareem.

Come to think of it, it's kind of odd how things worked out after Bruce's two picture deal came to an end. With Tony being in both WOTD and ETD instead of Tien, you would think that he would have played Tien's role in GOD.

[tomgray2404]

16 hours ago, Shaolivevil said:

I really wish James Tien would've done an in-depth interview somewhere or wrote a book about his time at Golden Harvest and working with Bruce Lee on The Big Boss, Fist Of Fury, and Game Of Death. There is still so much we could know and learn directly from him. If he's still of sound mind and body these days, he could do it now. There's only but so much time left to do that before it's too late. His perspective is just as important as anyone else who's worked on these films.

Does anyone recall if Tony Liu was to be a part of Game of Death in any way? We all know that he was in all of Bruce's other movies.

When I met Andre Morgan last year I asked him about James Tien being so quiet on the Bruce Lee front. His take was that Tien shunned the limelight and had no interest in media commitments of any kind. He just wanted to come to work, do his job, and keep himself to himself.

It's a shame because he would have some incredible anecdotes.

[WangYu]

Chuck Norris should have stepped in to complete the film 😎

Or if you want a Bruce Lee copy they should have hired Sammo Hung. He did an awesome tribute in enter the fat dragon

[Cognoscente]

Speaking of Sammo, Chieh Yuan's next and final film for Golden Harvest was The Private Eyes (released in December 1976). Sammo worked on it as a choreographer, and it has Michael Hui using sausages as a nunchaku.

It's a pity that seemingly no-one at Golden Harvest thought about retaining Chieh's services then and there to complete GOD.

[Coliseum1972]

On 2/16/2023 at 10:41 AM, PandaPawPaw said:

Did Linda or any of his family say anything about GOD or even GOD2 being made/released?

Also why is BL nunchuck white and Dans Headband grey in this pic?

those fotobusta images were hand colored , for ex on Dr No's fotobustas Bonds shirt was colored red despite being blue in the movie , they could do the same on lobby cards too back in the day 

[PandaPawPaw]

1 hour ago, Coliseum1972 said:

those fotobusta images were hand colored , for ex on Dr No's fotobustas Bonds shirt was colored red despite being blue in the movie , they could do the same on lobby cards too back in the day 

WOW thanks for the info. I've never heard of that before.

[DragonClaws]

On 2/18/2023 at 12:18 PM, Killer Meteor said:

Bruce and Lo make the same mistake on all three movies - too many supporting actors who all have to stand in a row like a school play and get in their line or two. WAY mostly focuses on the main waiters played by GH regulars...but then Bruce sticks in Robert Chan and family friend Wu Ngan, who do next-to-nothing in the movie.

 

Many Hong Kong movie suffered from this, even the Shaw Brothers flicks did the same thing. The films were still closer to theatre/opera back then, which had a changed by the late 70's and even more so in the early 80's. What happened to Robert Chan & Wu Ngans characters?, a plothole?, did WAY suffer a similar fate to the The Big Boss, and was later re-worked?.

[DragonClaws]

On 2/19/2023 at 10:34 AM, Cognoscente said:

For example, there was an advertisement for the film during pre-production of the Clouse version which suggested that there was "60 incredible minutes already in the can."

 

Publcity to draw audiences into buying a ticket?, or proof the film was far less incomplete than we were led to believe?.

 

[saltysam]

4 hours ago, DragonClaws said:

 

Publcity to draw audiences into buying a ticket?, or proof the film was far less incomplete than we were led to believe?.

 

the former i'd say.

[Killer Meteor]

6 hours ago, DragonClaws said:

 

 What happened to Robert Chan & Wu Ngans characters?, a plothole?, did WAY suffer a similar fate to the The Big Boss, and was later re-worked?.

No. Bruce make reference to Wu's character taking him to the airport at the end of the movie.

[DragonClaws]

12 hours ago, Killer Meteor said:

No. Bruce make reference to Wu's character taking him to the airport at the end of the movie.

 

I wonder what happened to Robert Chan character?.

 

[Killer Meteor]

1 hour ago, DragonClaws said:

 

I wonder what happened to Robert Chan character?.

 

Nothing, nobody cares. Not even Robert Chan cares!

 

I'm more bothered about whether Thomas died or not.

[ShaOW!linDude]

On 2/16/2023 at 1:35 PM, dionbrother said:

Seriously, Hal Needham should have directed THE BIG BRAWL and THE PROTECTOR.  He got along with Jackie and would have given him plenty of freedom in staging the stunts and action.

Dude!!! That is a great idea.

[DragonClaws]

 

Im not sure if was the directors of The Protector & The Bgi Brawl who held the fight scenes back?. Sure Jackie Chan has said it was the insurance comanies who were working on the movies???, and this was still an issue when he made Rush Hour there in 1998.

[Josh Baker]

7 hours ago, DragonClaws said:

 

Im not sure if was the directors of The Protector & The Bgi Brawl who held the fight scenes back?. Sure Jackie Chan has said it was the insurance comanies who were working on the movies???, and this was still an issue when he made Rush Hour there in 1998.

I'm pretty sure Jackie choreographed the fight with the two Chinese blokes in the middle of Big Brawl but wasn't allowed to pick the camera angles, the rest of the fights were largely choreographed by the gentleman who played the thug in ETD "Its the dough Roper, or we gotta break something!"

AFAIK For The Protector the fights were choreographed by Jackie's guys but again weren't allowed to pick to the camera angles and had to adhere to the style of action James Glickenhaus wanted, but as far as I know there were no American fight choreographers on the set. As we know Jackie was not happy with this neutered choreography and reshot 75% of the end fight with Bill Wallace and the thugs on the shipping containers during pre-production on Police Story. 

[TigerCage1990]

On 3/16/2023 at 8:15 PM, Josh Baker said:

I'm pretty sure Jackie choreographed the fight with the two Chinese blokes in the middle of Big Brawl but wasn't allowed to pick the camera angles, the rest of the fights were largely choreographed by the gentleman who played the thug in ETD "Its the dough Roper, or we gotta break something!"

AFAIK For The Protector the fights were choreographed by Jackie's guys but again weren't allowed to pick to the camera angles and had to adhere to the style of action James Glickenhaus wanted, but as far as I know there were no American fight choreographers on the set. As we know Jackie was not happy with this neutered choreography and reshot 75% of the end fight with Bill Wallace and the thugs on the shipping containers during pre-production on Police Story. 

Pat Johnson was the one who choreographed the fights in Big Brawl, also the ref in Karate Kid 1 & 3.  Also Force Five  with Joe Lewis and Benny the Jet,  Jackie had no say on the editing and the camera work neither in the Glickenhaus verison of The Protector. Somehow Glickenhaus felt it was a good idea for himself to shoot the fights with no experience in that department.

[Coliseum1972]

by all accounts those 2 waiters survived in Way , they were attending the restaurant......maybe the speeding car seen on the german 1sh is Wu Ngans car , lol