Plot Details: This opinion reveals minor details about the movie's plot.

Game of Death (1978) Directed by Robert Clouse

Dr Land: [referring to Ann's calling Land and Steiner murderers after Billy's death] Rude b*tch.
Steiner: One rebel begets another. It's the Billy Lo syndrome.
Dr Land: A venereal disease. Often terminal.

How could this be?  Bruce Lee died on July 20, 1973.  So how did a brand new movie starring the Martial Arts legend emerge five years later?

Well, Bruce had started work on his fourth Hong Kong extravaganza when the offer to make Enter the Dragon was made.  Bruce died shortly before the movie opened, and never got back to the abandoned project.  There were thirty minutes of footage with Bruce in the now Iconic Yellow Body Suit.  That was all.  But there was money to be made, and they were going to find a way to make it, if they had to rob the grave of the master.

And that is what they did.  Using Tai Chung Kim and Biao Yuen as body doubles, hiding their faces behind really big sunglasses, in shadows, and by keeping their backs to the camera, they manage to cobble together a weak plot line about a syndicate that enjoys forcing performers to sign contracts with them with very favorable terms.  Billy Lo (Lee's character) is a martial arts movie star.  He is dating a singer, Ann Morris.  They syndicate wants her to sign up with them as well.  The Syndicate hires a number of thugs, five of which wear matching body suits in various colours.  They ride motorcycles.  They know Kung Fu, but not as much as Billy Lo.

But they are relentless, and after Billy is shot in the face, (oh, plastic surgery, you say?) he fakes his death.  Now he is free to go after the hoodlums.

The movie intersperses footage from the first three movies; it includes the end of the famous Bruce Lee / Chuck Norris fight in the Coliseum.  Billy Lo is the star of that film, and a heavy light barely misses him right after filming stops.  That is the first warning from the Syndicate.  Chuck Norris was so disgusted he sued the film makers for INCLUDING him in the credits.

There are various battles.  Shots of Bruce's face are interspersed. At least they matched the back grounds of the sets to match the stock footage.  But at one point, they actually use a cardboard cutout of the Master!

It is not until the final scenes that we see the real Lee.  He enters the back rooms of a restaurant, which suspiciously resemble a pagoda, and has to fight his way up through four masters.  Okay, three, and a cane carrying Mafioso.

James Tien, Han Jae Ji, and Karim Abdul-Jabbar are the martial artists.  Their battles with Lee are wonderful, gripping, and full of drama, viciousness, and humor.  Karim was in point of fact a student of Lee's.  So was Dan Inosanto, the only other person to complete any footage in this movie before Bruce Lee's death.  And you will notice, they are the only people I give any acknowledgement.

Given the restrictions; they can't show the hero's face, they have to piece in single face shots to maintain the illusion of continuity, they have to give undue time to the villains just to fill time, and they manage to cobble together a martial arts movie that is at least mediocre.

However, they never stopped to ask themselves if they should.

And while it is great to see Lee in action, with Karim's dirty foot print reaching from clavicle to solar plexus on that yellow suit, overall, the movie is an abomination.  It cheapens Lee's legacy, for mere money.

There is a commonality with Brandon Lee's last film as well.  It was necessary to alter the story slightly and to digitally alter one scene, and use a body double for another.  But The Crow is still the movie of Brandon's life.  Enter the Dragon was his father's.  They should have left it thus.

This review, like Bruce, is Lean-N-Mean.  Lee would have approved of the style, which eliminates extraneous material, much like his Martial Art Jeet Kun Do does.  This Kata has 666 moves.  Needless to say, it is a part of my Everbody Was Kung Fu Fighting! Write Off.

Recommended: No

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: None of the Above
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older