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Game of Death (1978)

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• New Zealand theatrical and videotape versions were originally cut to remove the entire nunchaku battle between Bruce Lee and Dan Inosanto, although the censors later allowed this sequence to appear intact in the documentaries Curse of the Dragon (1993) and Bruce Lee: A Warrior's Journey (2000) (V). In 2005 the cut was also waived for the Region 4 DVD release of "Game of Death".
  
  
• Chinese print credits Bruce Lee with scriptwriting and martial arts choreography and Sammo Hung Kam - Bo as director and martial arts choreographer. U.S print credits 'Jan Spears' as scriptwriter and just 'Robert Clouse' as the director. Sammo Hung gets sole fight choreographer credit in this version (as Hung Kim Po)
  
  
• Original UK cinema and video versions were cut by the BBFC to remove all footage of nunchaku (including shots of early Bruce Lee films during the closing credits) and a back-break from the pagoda fight. The cuts were fully restored for the 2001 Medusa release though the 2005 Universal DVD featured the heavily cut video version.
  
  
• Roy Chiao appears only in the English language version and Casanova Wong appears only in the Chinese language version.
  
  
• Asian DVD version missing second fight toward the end of the film
  
  
• The Platinum Edition DVD from Hong Kong Legends includes a feature length documentary on the life of Bruce Lee on its second disc. One of the major parts of this DVD is a meticulous recutting and rearanging of "Game of Death", said to be the closet version to the "Game of Death" movie Bruce originally intended to be made. It has a completely different plot, as the plot of the most typical verson was created after Bruce's death.
  
  
• New Zealand videotape version is missing the entire nunchaku fight with Dan Inosanto, although the censors later allowed this sequence to remain intact in the documentaries Curse of the Dragon (1993) and _Bruce Lee: A Warrior's Journey (2000)_ .
  
  
• An unofficial DVD release circling the Internet entitled "Game of Death: Integral" features a 127 min cut of the film featuring:
  • A large majority of Bruce Lee's original footage not used in the official release. This is most notable in the final three fights as there is now dialog between Billy Lo and Pasqual as well as with Hakim. The final three fights added up to only 10 minutes in the 1978 release, but the combined length of the fights in this cut is 25 minutes.
  • The greenhouse fight in the Hong Kong version is also in this cut along with an extended scene before the fight in which Billy Lo is training on his outdoor balcony as he hears banging noises from the other room. This is actually footage from Meng Long Guojiang with new sound effects added. Also, when Billy comes back to his apartment after the fight, he finds a note reading "Have you two made out your wills?" along with a phone call from Dr. Land in which all he says is "You bastard!" with a follow up villainous laugh.
  • The opening theme is replaced with an updated version of the Game of Death theme originally created for the Japanese film Bruce Lee in G.O.D.
  • The infamous "cardboard cutout head" shot shown in all other versions has been replaced with a close up shot of Bruce Lee from Jing Wu Men.
  • The even more infamous shot of the real corpse of Bruce Lee from his actual funeral has been replaced with a horizontally flipped shot of the outside of the funeral parlor with all of the fans standing outside.
  • All of the fake Bruce Lee yells have been replaced with real yells from stock audio.
  • The film's ending is an extension of the Hong Kong ending in which Billy Lo is arrested. However, the scene inter-cuts with Billy Lo (from the original Bruce Lee footage) walking back down the stairways of the Red Pepper Restaurant complex ending with him yelling out to the police in Cantonese "Help me!" One officer looks up and replies "Hurry down!" The scene ends with Billy Lo being taken away by the police, then fading to a tracking shot revealing the yellow and black tracksuit laying over top of a chair in an editing room and a narrator reading from Lee's Tao of Jeet Kune Do discussing "The Void".
  • The film also ends with a large number of bloopers and outtakes from Bruce Lee's original Game of Death footage.
  
  
  

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