Game of Death II

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.

...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.

NOTE: This review covers the Fortune Star Digitally Remastered version of Si Wang Ta (a.k.a. Game of Death II/Tower of Death).

This is another disgrace to the name Bruce Lee. Not only is it another butcher job using never-before-seen Bruce Lee footage and some thrown in shots from his other movies, the plot is loose (if there is one) and just plain doesn't make sense. The fight sequences are great, however, since the fight choreographer is none other than Yuen Woo Ping...but that's all that really makes this movie even remotely interesting. I picked this up for $8, and I would consider $3 of it wasted (this wasn't bargain binned, but should be). Only die-hard martial arts movie fans should bother to watch this, and really only for the fight sequences and to be that much more complete in titles...otherwise steer clear of this title.

Also, for "extras", we are "treated" to the original trailer and the "new" trailer which is nothing special at all.

Game of Death 2 ... I see. Well I saw - I guess you know where I'm going with this joke. Now I think it's unfortunate that this went and tried to profit off of Bruce Lees name and death. Because the story and the action choreography especially could have worked - the latter does work, but the movie is sort of diminished by the blatant and obvious placement of either a Bruce Lee double or insertion of scenes of Lee from other movies.

Having said that and as stated above the movie has some very fine fight scenes. So if you are able to watch this without thinking too much about Bruce Lee there is entertainment to be had here ... just don't expect a masterpiece (especially in the dubbed version I saw)

Game of Death II was Golden Harvest's second attempt to cash in on Bruce Lee's name, but this sequel tries to do its own thing...eventually.

The first half of the film is pretty disrespectful. Footage of Bruce Lee is clumsily shoehorned in simply to get his name in the credits but it's so badly done that it's cringeworthy. For a start, the footage is clearly from Enter The Dragon, and it looks like they didn't even bother to match the film type as you can tell it's from totally different stocks when it cuts between the archive footage and the real film. They didn't even bother to get the make up and the outfit colour to match for the scenes with the Abbot. Add to the fact that Kim Tai-chung doubles for Bruce Lee PLUS plays his brother is totally obvious. They shoot Kim from behind most of the time in a really obvious way, but on a few occasions you see a full front shot of his face and can tell it's not Bruce.

All this is doubly sad because this is actually an incredible kung-fu film! The fight choreography by Yuen Woo Ping and Sammo Hung is superb, and if you disregard the Bruce Lee cash in it's actually a decent story as well (for this type of film) Having no less than three directors is a plus point and all are known names. Ng See Yuen and Corey Yuen later went on to make the martial arts triumph 'No Retreat No Surrender' and of course Sammo hung is a legend in the kung fu world.

I'm actually surprised that Raymond Chow, who was supposedly a family friend of the Lees, allowed such a foul cash grab to be made. Fair enough, the first Game Of Death had an excuse as they were finishing his work (even though they changed everything), but this really was a cheap effort to make money off the dead.

Regardless, if you can stomach the first half -hour of the film and it's really shameless flogging of Bruce Lee footage, then you are in for a treat!

The last hour is where it dumps the use of Bruce footage and becomes it's own film - and it's a damn good one too! The end fight is one of the very best in kung-fu history and that's saying something.

Kim Tai-Chung is a solid action star, and he can handle comedy too. He could have genuinely been the new face of Golden Harvest had they given him more projects of his own. However, he made only two more (non GH) films before retiring, and Jackie Chan become the new main star of Golden Harvest productions in the early 1980s.

If this film had been it's own thing then it would certainly be a classic, but most people won't watch past the first 30 minutes of shameless Brucesploitation to get to the good stuff.