You Lose Carl Miller!: Game Of Death (1978)

Usually it takes a lot for me to excuse a film for not being good, either it has to have an endearing quality about it so much so that I can look past its general awful nature and see the heart of a director and cast attempting with all earnest to pull something off, but failing in the end.  I am also willing to let a film slide a bit if it is the first of its kind to undertake a narrative, or in other cases revive a genre through a considerable revision, a prime example of this being the far from perfect The Blair Witch Project, that, nonetheless, garners unquestioned praise on my part for its reinvigoration of a then flailing horror industry.  The third situation where I am able to provide some leeway to a film is when tragedy results in a severe change to the production, but a product still manages to emerge.  A prime example of this being The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus, which met tragedy when its star Heath Ledger died mid-shoot, fortunately, a set of well-respected actors stepped in an made it a viable and decidedly watchable work.  It is this third scenario where a film like The Game of Death fits, because its star, the master of martial arts, Bruce Lee died from a traumatic head injury and was never able to complete the film, as such what exists is a series of fight  sequences including the late star and a film centering around revenge by a martial arts movie star for attempts at his death.  I mention that I find myself quite forgiving of this film, because so much of the first hour and fifteen minutes clearly reflects a sporadic and wild attempt at salvaging something worth delivering to audiences, but in its frantic execution it often comes off as dull or completely fabricated, never delivering the instant accessibility like Enter the Dragon.  It does not help that the replacement actors are clearly not Bruce Lee, nor does the awful dubbing lend to engaging cinema, often dropping lines completely or becoming so mumbled as to be inaudible.  However, those are the parts that do not contain the late Lee.  His portion of the film, the last twenty minutes are probably some of the best in all the genre, whether it be his fighting Kareem-Abdul Jabbar or chasing an old man on the rooftops of Hong Kong, it is indicative of action cinema at its finest, indeed, if Game of Death were just this as a short film, I would not be surprised if it were not considered to be one of the highlights of the genre, while also contending fairly well as one of the great short films of all time.  Unfortunately, what exists as Game of Death is a tacked on story that drags on, ultimately leaving viewers a bit unenthusiastic by the time real action does emerge on the screen.

The Game of Death clearly evokes the Bond espionage style right from the opening credits which include music by John Barry and credits design that could easily have been the product of Maurice Binder.  Nonetheless, the film begins by focusing on Billy Lou (Bruce Lee, Kim Tai-Jong, Yuen Biao) a martial arts star who has come under threat by a group of racketeers who think his success is a means to attack his wealth.  Refusing to pay the money demanded by the mobsters, Billy is shot on set by one of the lackeys in the syndicate, leading to what is assumedly his death.  However, it is revealed that while the bullet did do a considerable amount of damage to Billy, he has survived and can go on surviving if he agrees to getting plastic surgery, as it will help to hide him from the still working syndicate.  Reluctantly agreeing to do so, Billy gets the plastic surgery and while the scars are beginning to heal he plans his revenge upon the syndicate, while attempting to hide from his former girlfriend who has also taken it upon herself to exact revenge against the mobsters.  Realizing that he will have to move through the ranks in order to find out who ordered the hit on him, he begins by tailing various leaders through the docks of China, discovering that many of the henchmen are fighting within the Chinese martial arts circuit, specifically Carl Miller (Robert Wall) a rambunctious fighter who Billy confronts in his locker room after a fight, quickly destroying him with skill and power, much to the suprise of Miller's fans and the media present.  This fight does afford Billy with the information necessary to track down the syndicate boss Dr. Land (Dean Jaeger) whose slippery ways have placed him on the top floor of a pagoda, in which each level is protected by a kung fu expert.  Billy knowing that the only way to get his revenge is to move through the various encounters, some of which require him to wield weapons, while others require him to grapple more than strike.  Billy proves adept in each fight, often making quick work of his opponent, only ever seeming challenged by Hakim (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar), which is almost entirely a result of height differences.  Billy eventually makes it to Dr. Land's floor but the crime boss flees to the roof and while attempting to escape via a latter slips and falls to his death.  Billy has exacted his revenge in a theoretical sense, but as the closing shots suggest, frustration emerges in the knowledge that the death was not technically of his own doing.

The plot probably seems very straightforward and rather bare bones and that really is not the case, because there is assumedly a lot going on between the opening movie sparring between Billy and another martial artist, played by Chuck Norris, and what happens in the closing moments.  However, it is not worth considering, because in my book, and from what it seems others as well, Game of Death only matters for what Bruce Lee brings to the table, which in the case of Game of Death are martial arts skills so varied and realized as to be completely baffling.  As such, it is necessary only to consider what elements relate specifically to Bruce Lee's presence on screen, while he rocks his iconic yellow jump suit.  I will note that while the jump suit is bad ass, I am more a fan of the rad Adidas he wears., but I digress.  Were I to be a mad man in charge of film programming, I would do a double feature of Game of Death and Harold Lloyd's silent comedy Safety Last, which may not seem like an obvious connection since one is a hackneyed kung fu flick and the other is an early icon of slapstick comedy, but one could contest that in the cases of both films, it is entirely what happens in the last act that make the film memorable.  Furthermore, another obvious connection arises when one considers that both these closing acts concern trouble figures ascending from points of nothingness, for Lloyd's character it is from economic impoverishment, whereas, for Billy it is more of a Phoenix rising from the ashes, or as the film clearly suggest him to be, a christ figure.  The two are also expected to engage in this climbing by proving themselves worthy of extraordinary feats of strength and poise, while being challenged with a variety of absurd or insurmountable obstacles and often times it is a combination of both.  The films also manage to leave the result of the ascension rather ambiguous, particularly in the case of Game of Death where, given available archival footage, there were not many scenes to pull from for Lee, meaning that his staring off into the camera has nothing to move on to, which adds an eerie layer of regret to an otherwise action pact moment.  I know it is a stretch to pair the two, but the struggle for upward mobility metaphor is rampant in cinema, yet, these two films deal with the issue in a way so literal, as though to be mocking, yet both suggest that the endeavor is both valid and worthwhile, even if it seems daunting at the onset.

Key Scene:  As noted the last twenty minutes are glorious cinema.

This is available on Hulu, but the quality is horrendous.  To be honest, I would just suggest finding the last section online, it is much more worth watching than sitting through all the nonsense prior.

Never Take Your Eyes Of Your Opponent...Even When Bowing: Enter The Dragon (1973)

So as August roles around I find myself dreading the prospect of school, not because I hate being a graduate student, on the contrary I enjoy it very much.  Instead, it is more of a hesitation, because for the first time in quite awhile I am genuinely busy and finding productivity rather rewarding, notably with one certain publication and at least two highly probable ones in the works, school and study is starting to finally shape into something meaningful. I dread school, because I know my desire to achieve will lead to a series of existential crises rooted in a misguided assumption that everything I do will be short of perfection.  Nonetheless, I hope that this forward momentum I have gained in the past months moves with me through August and onward.  As such, I knew that a welcome way to afford some comfort and ease with the upcoming stresses of school would be to do yet another film marathon, deciding to fill in a cinematic blind spot, this time kung fu/martial arts films.  Hell, I even made a hashtag to chronicle the entire event on Twitter, which is afforded the absurd name of #kungfubacktoschool.  I decided upon this particular film, first because next to Bollywood it is easily my most unseen category and fixing this has long been a plan.  Secondly, I have some bizarre belief that if I watch enough of these zen heavy films, along with some of the more post-modern comedic takes on the genre I will come to possess a world view that will allow me to deal with the stresses of wild self-expectations in the upcoming school year.  I know it is wild, but there is a surprising amount of earnestness in this particular endeavor, not that I do not like my other marathons, this one just seems too perfect to pass up.  I will, however, be engaging in a few previously planned blog-a-thons throughout so when a review of Spellbound or The Blob sneaks in do not be off put.  I might even read a book or two on the genre just to make myself well-rounded on the topic.  At the very least I will come to better understand the world of bad dubbing and Wu-Tang Clan samples, and I figured there was no better place to start this marathon than with the granddaddy of all kung fu flicks, Enter the Dragon.

Enter the Dragon, is a set of stories within one larger narrative, although it is clear that the narratives focal point is placed on Lee (Bruce Lee) an experienced and zen-infused Shaolin fighter whose skills lead to his being hired by what appears to be the British government to enter a fighting tournament in an unspecified Pacific island, where he is to take down the infamous Mr. Han (Kien Shih) a mob boss and martial arts expert who is assumedly engaged in some large scale sex trafficking.  Yet, the tournament attracts far more than Lee, indeed drawing the attentions of urban kung fu expert Williams (Jim Kelly) who appears to be entering the tournament to remove himself from the racially heated climate of America, where he as a black man could be attacked purely on those grounds alone.  Along for the voyage to the island is Roper (John Saxon) a compulsive gambler who sees victory in this tournament as a way to pay of his ever growing debts.  Needless to say, their arrival is met with less than ideal results as it becomes clear that the tournament created by Mr. Han is far from orthodox, instead featuring a series of his henchmen, including the bulky and impenetrable Bolo (Bolo Yeung) and the maniacal O'Hara (Robert Wall).  Lee, Roper and Williams, however, all prove quite adept as fighters displaying considerably different styles, while quickly destroying their opponents in their various bouts, all the while Lee endeavors to find out what Mr. Han is doing on the island, while also avenging the loss of his sister Su Lin (Angela Mao) in the process.  This espionage leads to paranoia on the part of Mr. Han who initially suspects Williams to be the operative, thus having him killed, using his dead corpse as an attempt to convince Roper to join his army.  Roper refuses and instead begins aiding Lee in the process of taking down Mr. Han's army, which includes Bolo and thousands of trained fighters.  Eventually, Lee chases Mr. Han into the underworld of his island, where the two duel it out, Han changing his weapons throughout due to missing a hand, which he replaces with various claws.   Ending in a wild fight in a hall of mirrors, Lee remembers a piece of sage advice from his sensei that affords him a technique to kill Mr. Han, thus returning to help Roper quell the last of the lackeys.  Both completely their desired requests, Lee's vengeance affirmed and Roper's escaping of debt almost certain.

Enter the Dragon, in most of its structure is a far from subtle film, particularly when it wants to consider issues of oppression and power in the way of economic privilege.  Indeed, Mr. Han is a person of insane wealth, having far more in common with a Bond villain than with his fellow martial artists.  This decadence is noted by Williams when he suggest the absurdity of an island dojo, when he can see people in the harbors of China barely scraping by, again obvious but certainly an enjoyable theoretical framework for such genre film.  However, it is in Mr. Han's being similar to a Bond villain that I cannot help but think of this movie as being heavily invested in issues of body politics, primarily how and who occupies the space of the film.  Sure one cannot help but acknowledge the physique of everyone involved, from Bruce Lee's insanely taut slenderness, to Williams' wild abdomen it is a film that rejoices perfection, at least in the physical sense, because it is clear that only a portion of this relates to moral validity.  Considering that figures like Bolo are bursting out of their bodies so jacked that it appears inconceivable, reflects not just their villainess nature, but their mental fragility as well.  The narrative seems inclined to suggest that Bolo is physically threatening, but far from mentally competent.  Similarly, the female bodies that occupy the film are dealt with intriguingly, not void of problems, but far more aware of the politics surrounding the feminine than many texts from the same era.  It is worth considering why Su Lin commits harakiri at the end of her scene, considering that she has fought valiantly and is not to be ashamed.  The reason it appears for her death is to avoid the shame of sexual being sexually defiled, by Ohara.  This takes on issues of intersectionality to varying degrees, but fails to attack them in regards to the larger narrative.  Finally, one must consider the figure of Mr. Han whose amputated hand serves as a metaphor for his otherness and is suggested as a reason for his insanity, but it is this missing body part that seems to drive him to his wildest actions, never really explaining why he is a villain who consumes, other than very vague suggestions that such actions fill a void in his lacking.  Sure this takes on phallic symbolism and sure it helps to make him have a cool weapon for the final fight scene, but it also allows viewers to create a villain by noting his deformity, one that he seems perfectly willing to exact upon others. If one then adds the final mirror sequence to the analysis, it becomes a full on moment of body, self-identity and the manner in which fracturing that can help transcend a moment, or avoid, to extend the metaphor, a depression or loss of self-worth. Again, it is not dealt with deeply, but Enter the Dragon does look at various forms of disability, each earning their own space, although they all bow to the perfect bodied figure in the end.  Problematic sure, but it is far more engaging a text than most and daring in its depictions for the era.

Key Scene:  The mirror room fight is a classic moment and has to be one of the greatest shot and choreographed fights in all of cinema.

This bluray is a must own, although there appear to be multiple versions.  I would say go for the cheapest option, but that is often a bad method of approach.  Also, somebody buy me this movie's soundtrack.