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Si wang ta (1981)

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20 comments in total

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7 out of 8 people found the following comment useful :-
Shambolic - the most entertaining film in existence, 10 gennaio 2004
Author: Anthony Good (BorisSlashSal) da London, England

I'll just say that the film is constructed so poorly that it is outrageously funny. I watched it with friends, and I recommend everyone does the same. If you have even half of a sense of humour, you'll be laughing for literally 80% of the film.

Everything about the film is wrong: trying to resurrect Bruce Lee with scraps of footage and a guy that "kinda" looks like him; having a man dress up as a lion and go toe to toe with the lead character; having sets that belong in a star trek episode; having jesus play the bad duy. The best/worst parts are the "twists," which are so inconsequential they needn't have bothered. The makers could not have made a funnier film had they tried. Any film that includes the line: "I may be a jung-fu master, but I need cash!" must be essential viewing.

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5 out of 6 people found the following comment useful :-
A truly surreal piece of classic exploitation..., 29 aprile 2002
Author: abentenjo da Swindon, UK

A truly surreal piece of classic exploitation that's just so insane you feel you have to love it, a slice ‘n' dice treatment made on real Lee footage jumbled together to create yet another new `Bruce Lee movie', much in the same vein as its non-related predecessor, however this one's a lot more fun. Bruce Lee returns, so they say, as Billy Lo, eager to discover the reasoning behind his master's sudden death, which sure enough leads to his own end. Enter Billy's brother Bobby (Kim Tai Chong, or rather Lee-alike ‘Tong Lung') and the second half of this crazy charade begins, with Bobby continuing the investigations into both the deaths. When the Lee footage runs out (by ludicrously killing off the character halfway using the classic ‘fall from the under carriage of a moving helicopter' trick), the movie is left to Kim who in actual fact does quite well with it, given the circumstance: events consist of visiting the palace of crazy fighter Horan, battling a man in a tarzan outfit in some underground sci-fi laboratory, before beautifully laying waste to a random monk (Lee Hoi San) and Hwang Jang Lee. It's complete madness, but like a cute family puppy it's just too difficult to put down. A shameful exercise that's just unashamedly entertaining.

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3 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :-
Beware of the Killer Peacocks!, 14 giugno 2006

Author: Shawn McKenna (srmckenna@hotmail.com) da Modesto, California

Game of Death II (aka Tower of Death) is a dichotomy of a film. It is a Bruceploitation film (though it is one of the better ones) and it is an exiting revenge flick. Raymond Chow had apparently not made enough money off of the insipid Game of Death and was slowly leaking "newly found" footage of Bruce so it was bound that he would create another film with spliced in footage, redubbed dialog and, of course, Bruce's namesake. A lot of people were using Lee's name to promote their own productions, but Golden Harvest (who Bruce worked for; though technically this was a Seasonal production) was the worst of these offenders.

The first act of the movie is the least interesting and worst part of the film. Bruce Lee stars (posthumously edited in) as Billy Lo (Bruce Lee) who visits his friend Chin Ku (Hwang Jang Lee) who is currently beating up an under-classed challenger. After an reestablishment of friendship between the two (never a good sign in a Kung Fu film), he visits an abbot (Roy Chiao revisiting his role from Enter the Dragon so they can reuse and redub footage) to discuss about his contumacious brother Bobby Lo (Tong Lung who also starred in Game of Death).

Of course, the scenes that compromise the first act are not only exploitative of Bruce Lee they are also poorly done. The most obvious is that the backgrounds do not match between Bruce's footage and the new footage. Also check out the sculpted back muscles of Bruce and compare them to his double. It is not even close. The fight scenes with Bruce (and his double) do not flow well. However, anytime you see a fight scene and that Bruce (or his double) does a difficult move such as a flip you will notice that it is the incomparable Yuen Biao (he even has a small role toward the beginning.) Bruce later visits the funeral of his friend Chin Ku and he is prevented from examining the body (this must mean something to the plot.) When the ceremony takes place a helicopter comes by and snags the coffin. For some strange reason, well to dispose of the fake Bruce character, he jumps on the coffin as it is flying away and is hit with a dart and falls to his death. This is absolutely absurd. Though this is not as bad as the 70s clothes at the funeral or the tacky real funeral footage of Bruce Lee that would come next.

Now the movie gets more interesting and less exploitative. Bobby learns of his brother's death from his father who tells him to meet Sherman Lan. Sherman tells him to go to the Palace of Death. Now this is an interesting place. It is owned by Lewis, played by Roy Horan who has been an executive at Seasonal, an actor who also acted in Snake in the Eagle's Shadow, a student of Hwang Jang Lee and currently a lecturer at HK Polytechnic University; obviously his life is more interesting than this film. Bobby suspects Lewis as the culprit behind his brother's death. Lewis likes to eat raw meat, is surrounded by lions (who are fed the fighters that he defeats), Killer Peacocks and a one-armed valet (oh my). The one-armed assistant, a monk from the Fan Yu temple, does not seem that he could be of great use to Lewis, but Lewis says that he is faithful and he has known him for a long time (do not dwell on this fact because the absurdity of what happens later is quite hilarious). I really do not trust one-armed people in Hong Kong films unless they are played by Jimmy Wang Yu.

Lewis tells Bobby of a tower built by abbot Hung Kuang. However, it cannot be found above ground. The abbot had it built underground (this is a nice twist until you see how much they spent on the set design and how many levels there actually are). Obviously there is going to be a show down there with Bobby fighting however is behind all of this madness. I will not give it away (or tell what happens at the Palace of Death) but it is fairly obvious who it will be.

The final act of the film leads to some good fighting scenes, obviously with the help of action director Yuen Wo-Ping, as Bobby makes his way down the tower (try to see how many times Yuen Biao is used as a stunt double; hint check every other move Bobby makes). Most of the film is entertaining (not counting the irritating and unnecessary flashbacks). There is always going to be tackiness involved anytime you invoke Bruce Lee's inimitable name; but once the movie gets past that it is fun to watch. In fact it is the best Bruceploitation film out there -- though that does not necessarily mean that much.

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3 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :-
Awesome kung-fu, who cares about the plot?, 17 novembre 2004

Author: Jin Ryusaki da Montreal, Canada

I picked up this movie for less than ten bucks Canadian, and damn, it was worth every penny. After watching Game Of Death, whose weak plot and bad fight scenes left a bad taste in my mouth, I decided to give Tower Of Death/Game Of Death II a try. I wasn't disappointed. The fight scenes are amazing, very close to the ones Bruce himself would do. The Lee lookalikes, Kim Tai Chung (who also plays Bobby Lo) and Yuen Biao, do a great job, and were wise choices for the role. The movie's plot is pretty basic and weak, even silly at times (Horan's Lewis character is an example of that), but like I keep saying, it's the fight scenes that make this movie good. Hwang Jang Lee, Casanova Wong, Roy Horan, his valet and the two guy he beats all do some great kung-fu (and other styles) fights, wonderfully choreographed by Yuen Wo-Ping, famous for his work on The Matrix. While I didn't mind the Lee footage reuse as much as I did with Game Of Death, it's still a problem. Luckily, Lee's character dies rather early on, and after that, Kim Tai Chung shines as Billy Lo's younger brother out for revenge. Another problem is Bobby Lo's fight with the Tower Of Death's monk. While the fighting itself was good, the monk (Hoi San Lee) looked silly. I don't know if he was intended to be a joke or what, but his facial expressions were too exaggerated, as if trying to get the audience to laugh at him while he gets hit... Kind of bothersome.

In closing, if you're looking for a deep plot or a Bruce Lee movie, this isn't the movie for you. However, if you're looking for some of the best fighting scenes ever done, Tower Of Death/Game Of Death II is the movie for you. And at the DVD's cheap price, it's money very well spent.

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7 out of 11 people found the following comment useful :-
Er......fancy seeing a movie with a lot of Kung Fu?, 21 ottobre 2001
Author: davideo-2 da Birmingham,England

STAR RATING:*****Unmissable****Very Good***Okay**You Could Go Out For A Meal Instead*Avoid At All Costs ..........well,if you come across this movie in the video shop or on TV,please don't miss it.There's not just lots and lots of it,but it's also incredibly entertaining ,especially the end showdown,which does however get a bit tiresome as it stretches out a fair bit.Also,this is the most convincing attempt at dubbing in a Lee movie,with you being practically unable to notice that the words aren't coming out the character's mouths properly as they speak.If only similar praise could be given to the plot and the acting which are,unfortunately,exceptionally bad in this film.Still,if you were expecting it to win a 1981 Academy Award (R) for either of these things,you don't really know your martial arts action films that well.***

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3 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
A solid martial arts film from the early 80s..., 1 novembre 2006

Author: Jimmy Green da Ipswich, UK

...just forget about it being a Bruce Lee film! Honestly, it's pretty good. I don't know why people slate this film, it's no better or worse than something like Shaolin Iron Claws (also starring Hwang Jang Lee), or many other martial arts films from the late 70a and early 80s.

Unfortunately, as this was planned as a 'tribute to' (read 'another way to get money out of the image of') Bruce Lee, it's what it's mainly remembered as. I would argue that there are some rather good sequences in this film - Roy Haron's fight scenes, for example, or the end sequence (which is pretty enjoyable in a James Bond type of way).

And, to be honest, the footage is interpolated a HELL of a lot better than that P.O.S. 'Game Of Death' film that came first, which is just laughable. Damn, that film was bad. This film, in comparison, is reasonably good natured, and at least moves on from the Bruce Lee footage (none of which features any original Bruce Lee fighting at all!) quite early, leaving the audience to get on with a 'proper film', rather than playing spot the edits with the original Bruce Lee footage and the stand in.

I must apologise for all the 'inverted commas' in this review! Anyway, it's better than the first Game Of Death, Hwang Jang Lee is well worth watching (as always) and Roy Haron is wicked.

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3 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
kung-fu-trash that'll have you laughing for days, 22 aprile 1999

Author: jerry veneman (tangov@rendo.dekooi.nl) da Meppel, Holland

Of all the trashy kung-fu flicks made in the late seventies, I'd have to say this is my favourite. Not because it's so good, but because it's so bad. The story is similar to hundreds of other karate-movies: A man is killed by a drugs-syndicate and his brother takes revenge by kicking them all to kingdom come.

What makes this movie so terribly bad, is the use of old footage of Bruce Lee (who "plays" the part of the older brother). It includes scenes cut from his movies (some of which were made when he was still a kid) and even parts of his funeral. To cover up the use of old footage (as if we didn't know that already) they chose to use a stand-in in some of the scenes. Add to that the dreadful acting, directing, music (also stolen from other movies) and camera-work and you've got an instant kung-fu-trash classic. The result has to be seen to be believed. It had me laughing for days.

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3 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :-
tower of death, 12 novembre 2002
Author: robert L.decker jr. (longhairhomie@excite.com) da ny,usa

i first seen this unique flick in 1988 and was impressed especially with the final fight scene with bobby lo and the evil chin ku.they're rivalry transferred into kung fu action made it one of the most impressive fight scenes that i've ever seen.i've seen many kung fu flicks.all of vann damme's,chuck norris'es,and practically all of everybody else's.oh yeah,all of bruce lee's flix at least 10 times apiece.but like i was saying,of all that i've watched,this one has some extreme groundbreaking stuff.i could hardly believe my eyes when i first saw it and upon purchasing it last year i was eager to let my guests check it out for themselves.everyone else that's seen it has been equally impressed,especially with the final fight scene.

the rest of the movie has it's flaws but they actually ironically contridict themselves into some genuine classic unintentional 70's style kung fu humor.(i know the flix from 1981 by the way)

aside from the flaws in acting and plot,this nevertheless stands firm as at least a well done project in the action fighting sense of the term project.yeah.i guess that basically sums it up.it's a bit more of a unique project of action fighting more than it is a genuine action flick.

in conclusion of my point,i give the flick a 10/10in the fighting action department,a 7/10 for it's unintentional humor,and a 3/10 for storyline,acting and plot.that would probably amount to an overall rating of a 6.5/10,i'd say.which means it just barely passes overall.

but once again i emphasize,the fighting mastery is unforgettable and leaves a lasting impact on martial art's enthusiast's and practitioners alike.

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3 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :-
An amusing film, 21 agosto 1999
Author: pacmann da Miami, FL

This movie is not as bad as people say, the fight scenes are believable, and the music is pretty good. The stand-ins are ridiculous, but hey they where typical of post- Bruce Lee movies. There's even a little nudity in this one for skin fans, but overall a decent film, not better than any of Bruce's though.

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4 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :-
Bruce Lee stock footage plus intentionally bad movie equals fun!, 17 gennaio 2004

Author: Joseph P. Ulibas (sirjosephu@aol.com) da Sacramento, CA

The Game of Death II (1981) "stars" Bruce Lee, Lee stumbles onto something big, real big! After a meeting with his spiritual adviser and staving off a couple of assaults, the dragon learns that his best friend is dead. With the help of plenty of stock footage and a couple of doubles (Biao Yuen being the lead faux Bruce) Bruce Lee once again graces the silver screen.

Sadly once the last of the footage runs out so does his life, Bruce is dead!! Oh no! Just like real life! All this happens in the first 20 or so minutes into the movie. It's up to little brother to find out what big brother stumbled onto (It's real big I tell ya!!) What happens next is like nothing you could ever imagine. Krazy kung-fu action (directed by Yuen Woo-ping), copious amounts of blood letting and vengeance abound! Is it bad, hell yes! Is it worth watching? You bet your sweet bippy!

Strongly recommended for fans of cheesy action films. This was the last official Bruce Lee movie. What a way to go out, as a pile of stock footage in a B-movie.

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