Game of Death
Short description
Billy Lo is a martial arts star whose fame brings him to the attention of a crime syndicate that controls Hong Kong's entertainment industry. Its leader, Dr. Land, wants Billy under his control and expects a share of his earnings. When Billy refuses, threats give way to an attempt on his life, and he responds by staging his own death in order to hunt down the people responsible.
The film was directed by Robert Clouse, his second feature after Enter the Dragon and the second of the four titles listed for him, from a screenplay he wrote with Bruce Lee. Lee stars as Billy Lo alongside Gig Young, Dean Jagger, Hugh O'Brian, Colleen Camp and Robert Wall, among a credited cast of 32. Clouse completed the film several years after Lee's death, using footage Lee had shot himself, with a double standing in for him elsewhere. Robert Clouse and Bruce Lee are both credited as directors, and Lee and Raymond Chow Man-Wai as producers.
Released in March 1978, the film took about 50 million dollars worldwide. On IMDb it holds 5.9 from roughly 24,000 votes, while on TMDB it stands at 6.4 from around 762 votes. A critics' rating of 4.7 from 13 reviews places it below both audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- Steve McQueen, James Coburn, and Muhammad Ali declined to participate in the filming, stating that it was simply capitalizing on Bruce Lee's death. The fact that they were offered meager fees for filming likely played a role in their decision.
- Initially, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was involved in the film, but after the break, he refused to return to the project and was replaced by a stunt double.
- Bruce Lee died before filming was completed, so much of the film was finished using his stunt doubles, and the film was edited and released only 5 years after Lee's death.
- The screenplay written by Bruce Lee for the film differed significantly from the final cut. According to the master's vision, the main character, Hoi Tien, a martial arts champion, has his sister and nephew kidnapped by a Korean gang to force him to complete a task – to retrieve treasures from a pagoda, navigating its five floors with four gang members and defeating a martial arts master on each level. In the final version of the film, the main character 'transformed' from a martial arts master into a film actor and 'changed' his name to 'Billy Lo'.
- The full version of the film has a runtime of 125 minutes.
- Due to a production hiatus, filming took place in two stages: from September to November 1972 and from September 17, 1977, to December 1977. The break, during which Bruce Lee died, was made to work on the film *Enter the Dragon*.
- Real footage from Bruce Lee's funeral was used during Billy Lo's funeral.
- Sammo Hung also appeared on screen. When Bruce Lee personally asked him to do so, Hung agreed, but waited eight months, received nothing, and began his own projects with filming in Korea and Thailand. Then he flew to China to film this movie, but only after he was firmly promised that filming his scenes would take only a few days.
- The yellow and black suit used during the filming of this movie was later used by Quentin Tarantino during the filming of "Kill Bill".
- Bruce Lee filmed nearly 30 minutes of fight scenes for this film when the project was put on hold and Lee began filming with Robert Clouse in the action film "Enter the Dragon" (1973). He did not live to see the resumption of filming on this film, however. Clouse took the footage with Lee, assembled a cast, and found two stunt doubles to replace Lee (their faces are either hidden behind sunglasses or in shadow), after which he put this film together. He used close-ups of Lee's face and photographs as well.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
