Films

Cheng fights his way out, killing Hsiao Chiun and many gangsters in the process. He returns home to find that almost all of his family have been murdered, while Chiao Mei has gone missing. Cheng exacts revenge by killing Hsiao Mi in a final fight. Once he knows that Chiao Mei is safe, he surrenders to the Thai police when they arrive at Hsiao Mi's house.

Fist of Fury (精武門, also known as The Chinese Connection and The Iron Hand in the United States), is a 1972 Hong Kong martial arts film directed by Lo Wei, starring Bruce Lee in his second major role after The Big Boss (1971). Lee plays Chen Zhen, a student of Huo Yuanjia, who fights to defend the honor of the Chinese in the face of foreign aggression, and to bring to justice those responsible for his master's death.

Plot

The film is set in the early 20th century in Shanghai. Chen Zhen returns to Jingwu School to marry his fiancée. However tragic news awaits him: his master Huo Yuanjia has died, apparently from illness. Chen is deeply saddened and traumatised by the sudden demise of his teacher. During the funeral, people from a Japanese dojo in Hongkou District show up to insult and taunt the Jingwu students. Wu En, the Japanese dojo's grandmaster Hiroshi Suzuki's translator and adviser, taunts Chen by slapping him on the cheek several times, and dares him to fight him. Then the Japanese students, along with Wu, leave.

Shortly after, Chen goes to the Hongkou dojo alone to engage in a fight. Chen defeats all of them, including the students' master.

Chen takes a stroll to a park after that. He is refused entry into the park by a Sikh guard, since the sign said that no dogs and Chinese were allowed in the park. After the guard allows a foreigner to bring her pet dog into the park, a Japanese man approaches Chen and tells him that if he behaves like a dog, he will be allowed to go in. Chen beats up the man and his friends in anger. After the fight, Chen breaks the sign. The guard blows his whistle to alert the police, meanwhile the citizens that watched the whole fight help Chen to get out of the park entrance quickly.

Meanwhile, the Japanese students and their master retaliate by attacking Jingwu School on the orders of Suzuki. After causing severe damage, the Japanese students leave. Wu, following the Japanese students, warns Jingwu School to hand over Chen. Chen returns and realises that he has caused big trouble. His fellow students are reluctant to hand him over to the Japanese, so they make plans to help him escape from Shanghai.

That night, Chen discovers that Huo has all along been poisoned by Tien, the cook. Chen then sees Tien and Feng Guishi, the caretaker, talking. Chen kills Tien. Feng cowers behind a wall, unsuccessfully sneak attacks Chen, and Chen kills him. Chen hangs Tien and Feng's bodies from a lamp post. Chen's fiancée, Yuan Li'er, finds him hiding near Huo's grave. They share a passionate moment together briefly. At the same time, Suzuki forces the local police inspector, Inspector Lo, to arrest Chen but he eludes them. Then, while Suzuki welcomes his visiting friend Petrov, Chen kills Wu.

The angry Suzuki sends his men to attack Jingwu School and kill everyone inside. On the same night, Chen barges into the dojo to take his revenge, killing the students' master, and then kills Petrov and Suzuki. Chen returns to Jingwu School and finds everyone from Jingwu School and the Hongkou dojo dead. However, few Jingwu students remained. Yuan, Fan Junxia (the eldest student at Jingwu), and Fan Jiaqi were the only ones that survived. Lo was at Jingwu to arrest Chen. Chen agrees to surrender himself to Lo to protect his master's legacy. Lo says to Chen that he can always trust him since he is Chinese. In the final scene, Chen charges and makes a flying kick at a line of armed soldiers. The screen freezes showing Chen at the apex of his flying kick while gunshots ring out presumably killing Chen in his last defiant act of vengeance.

Way of the Dragon (猛龍過江, released in the United States as Return of the Dragon) is a 1972 Hong Kong martial arts action comedy film written, produced and directed by Bruce Lee, who also stars in the lead role. This was Bruce Lee's only completed directorial effort. The film co-stars Nora Miao, Chuck Norris, Robert Wall and Hwang In-Shik. The film was released in Hong Kong on December 30, 1972.

Plot

In Rome, Chen Ching-hua and her uncle Wang experience trouble with their restaurant from a mob boss who wants their property. When Chen refuses to sell, the mob boss sends gangsters to scare away customers. Appealing to an uncle in Hong Kong, Chen receives help in the form of Tang Lung, a martial artist. Disappointed, Chen asks how he can help her, but Tang confidently assures her that he is capable. At the restaurant, Tang learns that the staff have begun to learn karate, much to the annoyance of Quen, an employee who favors Chinese martial arts. Tang tells Quen that he should be open-minded and incorporate any moves that work. Before Tang can demonstrate his style to them, customers arrive, and the staff change clothes.

Before long, gangsters appear at the restaurant and chase off the customers while Tang is in the bathroom. Angered by Tang's poor timing, the staff question his skill and the usefulness of his style. Later, the gangsters return to harass more customers. Before the staff can engage the gangsters, Wang asks all involved to take their fighting outside. The staff engage the thugs, only to be beaten. However, Tang single-handedly defeats the thugs, and the staff abandon their training to study under him. Wang warns them that the gangsters will now seek revenge and that this victory could make the situation worse. Tang vows to protect the restaurant. Chen and Tang grow closer, and she takes him on a tour of Rome, though Tang is unimpressed.

Ho, the mafia boss's consigliere, returns with armed thugs and takes the restaurant staff hostage while they wait for Chen and Tang to return. Ho gives Tang a ticket back to Hong Kong; when his men escort Tang outside, Tang quickly disarms and overpowers them. When reinforcements from the restaurant arrive to subdue him, he defeats them using a pair of nunchaku. Tang warns Ho not to return, and the thugs leave the restaurant. The staff celebrate their victory, though Wang again urges them to focus more on business than fighting. Meanwhile, the mafia boss threatens to send an assassin to kill Tang unless he leaves by Chinese New Year, and Wang urges Chen to convince Tang to leave.

When Tang refuses to abandon the restaurant, the assassin targets him from a nearby rooftop. On edge from nearby fireworks, Chen and Tang survive the attempt, and Tang races off to confront the assassin, whom he tricks into wasting his ammunition. When he returns to the apartment, he finds Chen gone. Assuming that Ho has kidnapped her, Tang arrives at the mafia boss' headquarters and leads the restaurant staff in a battle, which they win. Tang issues a final warning to the mafia boss, which Ho translates. The staff again celebrate, but a telegram for Tang cuts this short when they learn that he has been summoned back to Hong Kong. Tang assures them that he will not leave without seeing the situation resolved.

Ho hires two martial artists to challenge Tang, Japanese and American karate practitioners who initially refuse to work together. When the mafia boss indicates that money is no issue, Ho also recruits the American's sensei, a world-class martial artist named Colt. Ho leads the restaurant staff to an isolated spot under the pretense of a truce, where the two hired martial artists attack them, and Ho lures Tang away to fight Colt at the Colosseum. After they defeat the martial artists, Wang betrays and kills two of the staff, as he wants to sell the restaurant to the mafia boss and return to Hong Kong.

In a brutal fight, Tang injures and then disables Colt. When Colt refuses an offer of mercy, Tang kills him. The mob boss arrives at the original location as Tang and Ho return, and the boss kills both Ho and Wang. The police arrive and arrest him as he attempts to also kill Tang. As Tang leaves for Hong Kong, Quen tells Chen that Tang is a loner who will never settle down.

Enter the Dragon (龍爭虎鬥) is a 1973 Hong Kong martial arts action film directed by Robert Clouse; starring Bruce Lee, John Saxon and Jim Kelly. This was Bruce Lee's final film appearance before his death on July 20, 1973. The film was released on 26 July 1973, six days after Lee's death, in Hong Kong. He was also one of the film's writers.

Enter the Dragon was the first Chinese martial arts film to have been produced by a major Hollywood studio – Warner Bros. and was produced in association with Lee's Concord Production Inc. The film is largely set in Hong Kong.

Among the stuntmen for the film were members of the Seven Little Fortunes, including Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao. This was arguably instrumental in the trio's further association with Golden Harvest studios, which later launched their careers. The portly Hung is shown fighting Lee in the opening sequence of the movie and Chan shows up as a henchman when Lee is discovered inside Han's underground lair.

The finished version of the film was not significantly different from the original screenplay. Bruce Lee did not revise the script. Bruce Lee directed the film's opening Shaolin Monastery fight sequence. Lee wanted to use the film as a vehicle for expressing what he saw as the beauty of his Chinese culture, rather than it being just another action film. The original script contained most of the dialogue in the movie.

Plot

Lee is a Shaolin martial artist from Hong Kong who possesses great philosophical insight into martial arts as well as physical prowess. He receives an invitation to a martial arts competition on an island organised by the mysterious Mr. Han. Lee learns from his Sifu (teacher) that Han was also once a Shaolin student, but had been expelled from their order for abusing their code of conduct.

A British Intelligence agent named Braithwaite approaches Lee and asks for his help in an undercover mission. Han is suspected to be involved in drug trafficking and prostitution. However, since Han's island is only partly in their jurisdiction, they are unable to conduct any formal investigations – Han will not allow firearms on the island, both to impede assassination attempts and to prevent the international authorities from gaining a justification to launch a raid. Han runs a martial arts school to protect his drug operations, as well as holding his tournament every three years to recruit international talent to expand his criminal business. Lee agrees to help Braithwaite, believing his efforts will also redeem the Shaolin honour that Han has tarnished. However, Lee then learns from his father that Han's bodyguard O'Hara had been involved in the death of his sister, Su Lin. Despite feeling ashamed of himself, Lee then finds himself compelled on a mission of revenge as well.

Lee arrives on Han's island and receives a warm reception. Joining him are other competitors including Roper, a down-on-his-luck white American playboy-gambler on the run from the mob, and Williams, an African-American activist on the run after defending himself against two racist white policemen in Los Angeles. Roper and Williams are old friends who also have a betting scam going: one will under-perform until the other can get a bet on the outcome at good odds. Both win their first fights easily.

That night, the competitors are all offered girls of their choice by Han's assistant, Tania. Williams chooses several women, while Roper cunningly chooses Tania (as a mutual attraction is apparent between them). Lee asks for a girl he saw earlier in Han's entourage, who he remembers from Braithwaite's briefing as Mei Ling, an agent whom Braithwaite had placed on the island to gather intelligence: however, she has been unable to escape Han's strict observation. That night, leaving Mei Ling in his bedroom, Lee begins searching the island for evidence and finds a secret entrance to an underground base, where drugs are being manufactured and tested on unwitting prisoners. He runs into Han's guards but manages to take them down and flee before they can identify him. He is seen by Williams, who is outside for some fresh air and practice, despite strict rules against being outside after dark.

The next day, Han warns the competitors about wandering out of their rooms at night. He punishes his guards for failure in their duties by leaving them in the hands of Bolo, his sadistic chief enforcer. Moments later, Lee is called to his first match and his opponent turns out to be O'Hara, who is clearly outclassed and eventually killed when he attacks Lee with broken bottles. Announcing that O'Hara's dishonorable attack has caused him to lose face very badly, Han ends the day's matches. Later, Han summons Williams and accuses him of attacking the guards the previous night. Williams denies this, claiming he wasn't the only one out at night, but changes the subject about leaving the island. As Williams defies him, Han summons his henchmen; Williams takes them out but Han himself is also skilled and beats Williams to death with his cast iron prosthetic left hand.

Later Han takes Roper on a tour of his underground base and invites him to be his representative for his heroin smuggling operations in the United States. Roper is reluctant, but Han shows him the mutilated corpse of Williams and dropping him in an acid pool, hinting that Roper will face the same fate if he refuses to co-operate. The same night, Lee breaks into the underground base and gathers sufficient evidence to warrant Han's arrest, but sets off an alarm while messaging Braithwaite. After fighting with dozens of Han's guards he is eventually lured into a trap and captured.

The next morning, Han asks Roper to fight Lee as a test of his loyalty. Roper refuses, so Han has him fight Bolo instead, but Roper defeats him. The infuriated Han then orders all his men to kill both Lee and Roper. Despite being hopelessly outnumbered, Lee and Roper manage to hold off the enemy until Mei Ling releases the captives in Han's underground prison, who join them in the fight and even the odds. Amidst the chaos, Han attempts to fight his way out, only to have Lee chase him to his museum, where Han retrieves a bladed replacement for his hand. After realising he is outmatched in the museum, Han retreats into a room full of mirrors, which proves disorientating for Lee, until he smashes all the mirrors to foil Han's illusions and allow him to defeat Han, impaling him on his own spear. When Lee returns to Roper, he finds that most of Han's men have been defeated and rounded up, but Roper also finds Tania's lifeless body lying amongst the wreckage. Lee and Roper exchange a weary thumbs-up just as military helicopters arrive in response to the distress call.

The Game of Death (死亡的遊戲) is an incomplete 1972 Hong Kong martial arts film directed, written, produced by and starring Bruce Lee, in his final film attempt. Lee died during the making of the film.

Over 100 minutes of footage was shot prior to his death, some of which was later misplaced in the Golden Harvest archives. The remaining footage has been released with Bruce Lee's original English and Cantonese dialogue, with John Little dubbing Bruce Lee's Hai Tien character as part of the documentary entitled Bruce Lee: A Warrior's Journey. Most of the footage which was shot is from what was to be the centerpiece of the film.

During filming, Lee received an offer to star in Enter the Dragon, the first kung fu film to be produced by a Hollywood studio (Warner Bros.), and with a budget unprecedented for the genre ($850,000). Lee died of cerebral edema before the film's release. At the time of his death, he had already made plans to resume the filming of Game of Death.

After Lee's death, Enter the Dragon director Robert Clouse was enlisted to direct additional scenes featuring two stand-ins which, when pieced together with the original footage as well as other footage from earlier in Lee's career, would form a new film (also entitled Game of Death) which was released in 1978, five years after his death, by Golden Harvest

Original Plot

The original plot involves Lee playing the role of Hai Tien, a retired champion martial artist who was confronted by the Korean underworld gangs. They tell him the story of a pagoda where guns are prohibited, and under heavy guard by highly skilled martial artists who are protecting something (which is not identified at all in any surviving material) held on its top level. The gang boss wants Hai to be a part of a group whose purpose is to retrieve said item.

They would be the second group to try to do so as the first attempt with a previous group had failed. When Hai refuses, his younger sister and brother are kidnapped, forcing him to participate. Hai, as well as four other martial artists (two of which were played by James Tien and Chieh Yuan), then fight their way up a five-level pagoda, encountering a different challenge on each floor. The setting of the pagoda was at Peobjusa temple in Songnisan National Park in South Korea.

The pagoda, called Palsang-jon, is the only remaining wooden pagoda in South Korea. At the base of the pagoda they fight 10 people, all black belts in Karate. While inside the pagoda, they encounter a different opponent on each floor, each more challenging than the last. Although his allies try to help out, they are handily defeated, and Hai must face each of the martial artists in one-on-one combat. He defeats Filipino Eskrima master Dan Inosanto, Korean Hapkido master Ji Han Jae, and finally Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who fights with a free and fluid style mirroring Lee's Jeet Kune Do. Because Abdul-Jabbar's character has great size and strength in addition to a fighting style as potent as Lee's, he can only be defeated once Hai recognizes that an unusually high sensitivity to light is his greatest weakness.

Immediately after defeating the giant guardian, Hai turns around and descends the staircase, heading out of the pagoda. Despite all the talk of something awaiting up top of the (now unguarded) flight of stairs, there is no mention of anyone going up to retrieve it. No surviving material explains how this will affect Hai or his captive siblings.

Although the pagoda was supposed to have five floors, complete scenes were only shot for three of the floors: the "Temple of the Tiger," where Lee faced Inosanto; the "Temple of the Dragon", where he fought Ji Han Jae; and the final floor, where he fought Abdul-Jabbar was the "Temple of the Unknown". Hapkido master Hwang In-Shik was slated to play the guardian of the first floor, a master of a kick-oriented style, while Bruce's long time student and good friend Taky Kimura was asked to play the guardian of the second floor, a stylist of praying mantis kung fu.

The goal of the film's plot was to showcase Lee's beliefs regarding the principles of martial arts. As each martial artist is defeated (including Lee's allies), the flaws in their fighting style are revealed. Some, like Dan Inosanto's character, rely too much on fixed patterns of offensive and defensive techniques, while others lack economy of motion. Lee defeats his opponents by having a fighting style that involves fluid movement, unpredictability, and an eclectic blend of techniques. His dialogue often includes comments on their weaknesses.

Game of Death (死亡遊戲, 1978 Plot)

The 1978 version uses portions of the original footage married to an entirely new plot involving a new character, Billy Lo (盧比利), struggling against a racketeering "syndicate" after gaining international success as a martial arts movie star. When Billy refuses to be intimidated by syndicate henchman Steiner (Hugh O'Brian) and his gangs of thugs, syndicate owner Dr. Land (Dean Jagger) orders his assassination to serve as an example to others.

Disguised as a stuntman, Land's assassin Stick (Mel Novak) sneaks onto the set of Billy's new film, and shoots Billy during filming. Things take a turn for the worse, as whilst filming his final scene in a movie (cue the fly-kick from Fist of Fury at the end) he is shot and presumed dead. A fragment of the bullet passes through Billy's face, leaving him alive but in need of plastic surgery which alters his facial features. Miraculously he escapes death. A public funeral takes place to convince the world that he has passed away, with no-one but Jim and his surgeon doctor the wiser. Footage from Bruce Lee’s actual Hong Kong funeral is shown. After having surgery, faking his death certificate/passport and donning a beard with black shades, he sets off on his quest to find those responsible for his misery and rage.

Billy takes the opportunity to fake his death and disguise himself, exacting revenge against those who wronged him one at a time. Trailing Dr.Land from Hong Kong to Macau in a boat he hires, Billy follows Dr.Land and his entourage to his mansion. As soon as Dr.Land is alone, Billy attempts to kill him but he is interfere by Dr.Land's henchmen and takes them on instead. When the syndicate threatens and kidnaps his fiancée, Ann Morris (Colleen Camp), Billy is forced to come out of hiding to save her.

In the revised film, Bruce Lee's fight scenes inside the pagoda are assumed to take place in the upper floors of the Red Pepper restaurant, where Dr. Land and his thugs have laid an ambush. In the end Billy survives the ambush, rescues Ann, and destroys each of the main mobsters one-by-one.