The Big Boss, The Way Of The Dragon, Game Of Death & Game Of Death II Movie Reviews

Been wanting to see more Bruce Lee films since watching & loving Enter The Dragon. I later saw Fist Of Fury, which I liked, but none of the others were on any services. Until now. So I binged the below four in July… 🙂

I’ll review them in the order I watched them…

The Way Of The Dragon (1972) (Chinese: 猛龍過江)

Directed & Written by Bruce Lee

Starring: Bruce Lee, Nora Miao, Paul Wei, Huang Chung-hsin, Tony Liu, Unicorn Chan, Chuck Norris, Malisa Longo, Robert Wall, Hwang In-shik, Jon T. Benn

Plot Synopsis: (via IMDb)
A man visits his relatives at their restaurant in Italy and has to help them defend against brutal gangsters harassing them.

My Opinion:

This was fun but so cheesy. Certainly not up to the standards of Enter The Dragon or Fist Of Fury. Guess it’s rated highly because people were excited by the fact that Chuck Norris is in it at the end. Yes, it was cool seeing Lee & Norris together. Kind of like De Niro & Pacino in Heat!

The movie was a bit underwhelming up until that part, though. Not enough fighting overall. And not enough blood! The one I watched after this had blood flying all over the place, which I quite frankly want from this type of movie. Squirt! And what was with the random naked woman? And why did Bruce Lee keep needing to go to the bathroom all the time?? Cheesy movie but that’s okay – I love ‘70s cheese. I still enjoyed this.

My Rating: 7/10

The Big Boss (1971) (Chinese: 唐山大兄)

Directed by Lo Wei & Wu Chia Hsiang

Starring: Bruce Lee, Maria Yi, James Tien, Han Ying-chieh

Plot Synopsis: (via IMDb)
A young man sworn to an oath of non-violence works with his cousins in an ice factory where they mysteriously begin to disappear.

My Opinion:

Okay, the version I saw of this had bits of Pink Floyd’s Dark Side Of The Moon playing throughout it, which was weird but kind of cool. I watched this just after The Way Of The Dragon. I preferred this one, which wasn’t as cheesy. It had a more serious story & loads of fighting & lots of squirty blood. Squirt squirt! Bit depressing, though, what with all the murdering going on. So many evil henchmen in all these Bruce Lee films…

My Rating: 7/10

Game Of Death (1978) (Chinese: 死亡的遊戲)

Directed by Robert Clouse & Bruce Lee & Sammo Hung

Starring: Bruce Lee, Gig Young, Dean Jagger, Colleen Camp, Kim Tai-jong, Yuen Biao, Robert Wall, Hugh O’Brian, Dan Inosanto, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Mel Novak, Sammo Hung, Ji Han-jae, Casanova Wong

Plot Synopsis: (via IMDb)
A martial arts movie star must fake his death to find the people who are trying to kill him.

My Opinion:

This was a cobbled together nightmare. Which is understandable, of course, as they had to finish it after Lee’s death. Well, they didn’t HAVE to but I suppose they needed to make money. It feels so exploitative. But, damn, once it got to the end and it used the actual footage Lee filmed, it was pretty f*^king awesome.

The story cobbled together before Lee’s bit, involving a faked death & mafia bosses or some shit, was pretty pathetic. But the end involves Lee’s original idea of him having to ascend a five-story pagoda where he has to defeat different martial artists on each level. That was great! What a brilliant idea. Is that where The Raid got that idea?! Had no clue it was Lee who had inspired so many movies & video games with that concept.

And, of course, this is the film with the iconic yellow jumpsuit so I had to see it just for that. I loved all that actual Bruce Lee footage at the end of this film, especially his fight with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Absolutely fantastic. So I have to give this movie two ratings: one for the overall film & one for Lee’s footage, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Up until the end, the movie is pretty bloody awful and it’s also sad as hell to see the way they inserted shots of Lee from previous films of his. So distracting & feels disrespectful.

My Rating: 6.5/10 (Overall film – I like the Colleen Camp Wayne’s World connection) & 8/10 (Bruce Lee’s footage)

Game Of Death II (1981) (Chinese: 死亡塔)

Directed by Ng See-yuen

Starring: Bruce Lee (not really), Tong Lung, Huong Cheng Li, Roy Chiao, To Wai Wo, Hoi Sang Lee

Plot Synopsis: (via IMDb)
After Billy Lo is killed while seeking the murderers of his friend, his brother Bobby goes all out to bring the perpetrators to justice.

My Opinion:

Using old footage of Bruce Lee to make this film years after his death felt weird & icky. It got better when they stopped using old footage to try to insert Lee into this movie & instead moved onto focusing on a different character.

*Cute Monkey*

Overall, it’s a better story than what they cobbled together for the start of Game Of Death (which appears to be in no way related to Game Of Death II other than the same character name). This one has better sets, a funky score, the fights are fun & there’s a cute monkey. But it’s not a Bruce Lee film. While this one feels like a stronger film overall, the final part of the first Game Of Death with Bruce Lee’s footage is so much better than anything from this weird “sequel”.

My Rating: 6.5/10