Arrow Video buries 3-hour Bruce Lee documentary with unearthed footage
How to find the missing 'Final Game of Death' on BluRay
Earlier in November, Arrow Video began releasing standalone regular Bluray editions of several Bruce Lee movies that it had previously included in the extensive 10-disc 4K UHD Box Set called Bruce Lee at Golden Harvest, which collected all five of Bruce Lee’s feature films alongside five discs of special features.
In this article, I will critique boutique video label Arrow Video’s Blu-Ray release strategy for the last Bruce Lee-starring movie, Game of Death (1978, dir. Robert Clouse), which entailed cannibalizing its special features and packaging a new 3-hour documentary called The Final Game of Death with another movie. To understand why this is important, I will first discuss the film and its strange revision history.
ContentsGame of Death Before and After
Long before Hollywood would become steeped in controversy for resurrecting dead actors by digitally affixing their faces to the bodies of younger men, Game of Death (1978, dir. Robert Clouse) brought Bruce Lee back to life on-screen through the use of stand-ins, recreated sets, trick editing, and even clips from his real-life funeral.
Up until the last 15 minutes or so, it consistently shows Lee at a distance or finds ways to obscure his face to disguise the fact that it is not really him onscreen. And on the rare occasion we get a closeup, it is done almost exclusively through the incorporation of stock footage from his other movies.
Or, in one instance, a cardboard cutout, as you can see above.
The result was a weird, immersion-breaking, clip show-esque, unintentionally hila-rious, at times tasteless and exploitative, yet endlessly fascinating meta-textual palimpsest film that followed Billy Lo, a man who shares the initials of Bruce Lee as well as his career as a martial arts movie star. In fact, on more than one occasion we see Lo shooting Lee’s real life movies: Death literally opens with Lo ‘filming’ the climax of Way of the Dragon, while the pivotal scene where he is shot in an assassination attempt interweaves material from the final scene of Fist of Fury.
It wasn’t supposed to be like this.
Game of Death was initially slated to be Lee’s sophomore outing as director after Way of the Dragon, and thus a prime opportunity for him to communicate to the audience his philosophy and beliefs about martial arts. The film was about a retired martial artist named Hai Tien, who is forced to go to a mysterious island to retrieve an ancient treasure locked away at the top of a pagoda.
As modern weaponry is not allowed on the island, the protagonist and his allies must face off in hand-to-hand combat against the pagoda’s five guardians, each of whom is a master of a different style of martial arts. Lee’s character would have to adapt to each fighter’s style and techniques, learning to exploit their weaknesses in order to win. Before putting the picture on the backburner to go work on Enter the Dragon (1973), Lee filmed three of the five planned fight sequences. The first was with Dan Inosanto, the second with Ji Han-jae, and the third with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
Sadly, Lee died after finishing his work on Dragon but before the film premiered, leaving Game of Death unfinished. Director Robert Clouse was subsequently hired to shoot a new movie that could incorporate Lee’s fight scenes. Clouse used a measly 11-minute chunk of the total footage Lee had shot, stitching it into the new Billy Lo plot’s climax, where he goes to the restaurant HQ to take revenge on the Crime Syndicate that tried to have him killed.* Unsurprisingly, this generated a great deal of interest for Lee fans and video collectors in the remaining footage.
*11 minutes is the commonly reported number. I’m not certain if it counts, however, a brief snippet of Lee’s footage that was reworked as a flashback earlier into the picture.
Bruce Lee at Golden Harvest
Over the years, there have consequently been multiple versions (or reconstructions) of what a hypothetical “Lee Cut” of the three fights might have looked like. For instance, there was a 30-minute version in the documentary Bruce Lee: A Warrior’s Journey (2000, dir. John Little) and a 40-minute version in Game of Death Revisited, a special feature included on a Platinum Edition DVD from Hong Kong almost 20 years ago.*
* For more information, I recommend reading this in-depth article by Muck47 about the film’s many reconstructions at MovieCensorship.com.
Nonetheless, the promise of more material has always worked as a great selling point for the video releases, as did the fact that the 1978 movie itself circulated in multiple cuts across various territories, including the US, Japan, China, and Hong Kong. This resulted in Game of Death receiving a lot of different ‘special edition’ releases on DVD and Blu-ray from different companies and labels.
In the Summer of 2023, Arrow Video released the Bruce Lee at Golden Harvest 4K Bluray (UHD) collection, an extensive 10-disc limited edition set of all five Bruce Lee movies, which devoted 3 whole discs (specifically numbers 6-8) to Game of Death:
The first (Disc 6 of the collection) contained the feature in both its International and Japanese cuts with English audio.
The second (Disc 7) featured alternate Cantonese and Mandarin cuts.
Finally, the third (Disc 8) had a brand new documentary called The Final Game of Death, which included a new 45-minute reconstruction of the Lee footage and two hours of previously unreleased raw dailies Lee had shot.
All 3 discs also contained additional bonus features but the multiple cuts of the 1978 film and the new documentary with additional footage obviously constitute the main attraction for the fans, video collectors and completists, myself included.
Naturally, the set went quickly out of stock. At the time, I hadn’t procured a copy, so I was happy to discover that Arrow was planning to reissue four of the films from that set in their own standalone limited edition releases, now with a regular 2K Blu-Ray option: The Big Boss, Fist of Fury, Way of the Dragon, and Game of Death.
Unfortunately, Arrow made choices in the release and marketing of the standalone Game of Death that are honestly a slap in the face for their target audience.
Problem #1: The missing Alternate Cuts
A natural expectation is that in order to create a standalone Game of Death set, Arrow would package the film together with its two bonus discs, perhaps in different combinations, such as a two-disc set option with the Feature and the Alternate Cuts disc, and a three-disc option that adds the new Final Game documentary to the mix.
Rather than include either of the movie’s bonus discs in the Game of Death set, however, Arrow has instead chosen to package the feature disc with that of its loosely-connected sequel Game of Death 2, aka Tower of Death (1981).
The front cover of the Game of Death Bluray, however, makes no mention of the fact that the set is actually a two-movie bundle and so does not inform potential buyers that they will be getting a second disc with another tangentially-connected movie rather than additional features related to the picture that actually gets billing.*
*This suggests that Arrow doesn’t even think it’s worth it to give the sequel its own standalone release, even though the Disc itself for the Death 2 is very much designed as a self-contained unit, with its own special features. And sure, it is mentioned on the back cover and in other marketing materials, but the front cover is the one that most will see at first glance.
Given the misleading advertising, it’s not hard to envision some people ordering the Game of Death Blu-ray, expecting to get access to a second disc of rare bonus material only to feel duped, while those actually seeking the sequel by itself might not even realize where to find it. This decision is both confounding and disappointing, espe-cially because Arrow did put out a proper two-disc set of The Big Boss that contained both the feature disc and the bonus disc with its recently unearthed alternate cuts.
If you like this article so far, please consider subscribing to receive new posts and support my work. Problem #2: The Buried Documentary and Footage
What Arrow did with the basic two-disc set of Game of Death comes off even worse, when you consider that they’ve taken the Final Game of Death bonus disc and affixed it to Way of the Dragon. So, if you want to get a whole disc filled with Game of Death bonus materials, you also have to purchase another movie that has nothing to do with Death, aside from starring Lee and being used as a source of stock footage.
Clearly, the idea here is to help bolster the sales of Way by including a substantial supplemental disc. But this comes at the cost of diminishing the value of the Game of Death standalone set and also effectively buries the documentary, alienating the people that are most likely to be interested in procuring it. Because even if you’re a professional collector, your first instinct is to think that supplemental home video material would come in the same set as the movie it was produced for. So, unless you really went looking for it, you wouldn’t even know it was released.*
*I was simply fortunate that somebody mentioned the inclusion of the bonus disc in a comment section on a facebook page, otherwise I would’ve passed on Way.
It is possible Arrow is banking on the idea that anybody who orders at least one of these four new Bruce Lee sets would already want to order all the others. But this goes against the very logic of making standalone releases. Because standalone sets are meant to appeal to those audiences that would only wish to order some of the films and not the others. If you’re going to cannibalize the special features of one movie and package them with another movie, why bother making a standalone release at all?
Why not just release another big box set with all the movies and bonuses?
More likely then, Arrow is doing this deliberately so as to get completists to pay more for the completion. In other words, it wants the Game of Death fans to buy Game of Death 2 and Way of the Dragon on top of Game of Death to maximize revenue.
Quite simply, with its release strategy, Arrow is showing little to no consideration for the interests of the customer. It reminds me of when Paramount began to disperse special features designed for a Star Trek Into Darkness Blu-ray in 2013 across different retailer exclusive editions, forcing fans to go on what Bill Hunt of The Digital Bits described as an “expensive scavenger hunt.”
“Look, I get the occasional exclusive Bonus Disc on catalog titles… But taking fully half or more of the disc-based special features created for a major Blu-ray release and casting them to the winds as retailer exclusives, thus forcing your customers to go on an expensive scavenger hunt – if they even know about the exclusives at all – is, I’m sorry, absolutely outrageous.
It’s a terrible way to treat your consumers, who are sometimes spending $30 or more for a Blu-ray, expecting to get a little genuine value for their money. And no, six different versions of the exact same movie isn’t value. If you’re a serious Blu-ray enthusiast – or for that matter a Star Trek fan of any kind – all you care about when you buy a Blu-ray is getting the movie in pristine quality with lots of extras.”
Source: Bill Hunt, Paramount Has a Blu-Ray Problem, 28 Aug. 2013.
And look, it worked.
I had previously purchased all four of the aforementioned Lee movies on DVD in nice Region 2 Platinum Editions 20 years ago and was initially going to rebuy only The Big Boss and Game of Death, due to the fact that they came loaded with new bonuses and rare Alternate Cuts. I only decided to re-purchase Way because I wanted to get the Final Game of Death doc.* And then, I thought, well, if I’m getting 3 of the 4 Lee films, must as well go for the last one. So, I got Fist of Fury as well.
*In hindsight, I kinda wish I had done more research before ordering it and gotten the (now apparently discontinued) 2017 Shout Factory Collector’s Edition Blu-ray of Game of Death instead, for that release already included the alternate Cantonese and Mandarin cuts.
I’m sure there are others in a similar situation. Which brings us to…
Problem #3: The pre-order mixup
Because of the artificial scarcity (“Limited Edition”) placed on the new Bruce Lee film sets, I decided to preorder them, prior to the November 13 release date. The Discs arrived around November 16, but as this was a very busy time for me, I put them on a shelf, unwrapped. One week later, I received an email from Arrow. It said:
“Due to a manufacturing error, our first batch of The Way of the Dragon Limited Editions contains an incorrect second disc; this affects both the UHD (SKU 14930337 / FCD2472) and Blu-ray (14930338 / FCD2473) releases.
We will have the correct Final Game of Death discs in individual jewel cases ready to ship from week commencing 4th December. This disc is a Blu-ray and is the same across the UHD and Blu-ray editions. There’s nothing further you need to do, the correct disc(s) will be shipped to the address on your original order as soon as possible. Please note, this will not appear as a new order on your account.”
So, on top of everything, it turned out that if you had pre-ordered Way of the Dragon, hoping to get that Final Game of Death bonus disc, you’d have to wait at least an additional 3 weeks to get your money’s worth. This sort of blunder can mess up trust with your customers, who expect you to deliver what they paid for and on time.*
*Lately though, Arrow seems to be having more and more problems delivering on their promises. This year, they’ve repeatedly delayed disc releases due to manufacturing or production problems, as is the case with the recent Blackhat or the upcoming Chucky and Conan film Collections. There’s also the fact that at the last minute they ended up dropping a brand new extensive documentary called The Sleeper Must Awaken from their long-awaited Blu-ray release of David Lynch’s Dune last year.
I assumed that, as typically occurs with manufacturing errors, that the wrong disc was a duplicate of the other one, such as in the case of the Blade Runner 4-disc set.
But when I checked out my Way of the Dragon Blu-ray a few days later, I got a pleasant surprise - the ‘incorrect disc’ that Arrow sent out is actually another bonus disc from the 10-disc collection but one that had been excluded from the standalone reissues!
Namely, it is Disc 10: The Documentaries, which has two feature-length docs - Bruce Lee: The Man & The Legend (1973), and Bruce Lee: The Legend (1984). So, the silver lining of not getting the ‘right’ preorder disc from that first batch of Way of the Dragon is that now one can basically get an extra disc for free.*
*I personally would’ve preferred the Game of Death Alternate Versions disc, but this is better than nothing, especially as I haven’t seen either of these documentaries.
How exactly did this happen? I don’t know.
Maybe at one point the plan was to bundle Way of the Dragon with the Documentaries disc and this first batch was a holdover from that approach? I certainly think this would’ve made more sense than opportunistically cannibalizing the Game of Death bonus features in the manner that Arrow wound up doing. I also find it curious that Arrow’s email never specified that the set included the Documentaries disc at all.
But what this situation really tells me is that Arrow is all but certain to reissue those remaining unreleased discs at a later date. I mean, Arrow has them - the people in charge are just choosing to hold the discs back right now.
Perhaps they’ll bundle the Game of Death Alternate Versions Disc with that of The Documentaries into one set. Or maybe they’ll just reissue Game of Death in a proper 3-disc collection with all of its supplements to motivate further repurchasing.
Who knows? In any case, the unreleased discs are unlikely to stay out of print for too long. Until the next “limited edition” runs out of stock, that is.
Inferences
All in all, I’d say Arrow Video has botched the Game of Death standalone release. I don’t know what the people there were thinking but I doubt that the choices they’ve made will be beneficial in the long term.
Look, I’m not going to tell you to not buy these sets. Heck, I went for it myself. And I know Arrow doesn’t owe us anything. It is a commercial company that wants to maximize profit. But if you ask me, resorting to such crass and manipulative tactics, especially for a boutique label, is disrespectful to your customers.
And Arrow Video deserves to be called out on this. If it plans to continue catering to cinephiles and collectors, then it needs to do better. It needs to be held to a higher standard, especially given its established reputation.
But really, the biggest problem with this is the fact that it’s really diminishing the visibility of the Final Game of Death and with that, the unearthed Bruce Lee footage that absolutely deserves to be seen after being locked in a vault for ages.
Other Notes and Recommended Links
Mr. Jabbar, who portrays the final guardian in Lee’s footage, has his own Substack publication, where he focuses on sports:
There’s an extensive essay about the making of the film from Kung Fu Coffee Break author Nico that briefly discusses some of the differences between the various cuts of the 1978 Game of Death.
The 1997 Playstation videogame Final Fantasy 7 includes a side quest, where one of its characters has to undergo a 5-story Pagoda challenge, fighting a guardian boss on each floor. I’m certain this was inspired by Lee’s film.
There’s a really nice and short video comparison of the some of the different Lee Cut footage restorations on YouTube by user HolyGhostClaw.
You can also watch a Fan Remastered Version of the Warrior’s Journey reconstruction on YouTube by user OldPangYau.
On a final note, I have to wonder if the release strategy for Game of Death, coupled with its other recent issues, is a side effect of parent company Arrow Films getting bought up in March 2021 by the Hut Group, a company that owns online retailer Zaavi? A reddit discussion about the sale from back then suggests that some folks were right to fear this would have a negative impact on Arrow down the line.
But what do you think?
Do you have a favorite Bruce Lee movie? Do you like 'Game of Death'?
Is it completely unethical for its producers to have completed it in the manner that they did? Is Arrow being disrespectful to its customers with their release strategy?
Or am I just exaggerating? Please leave a comment! (Or perhaps a note.) Also, please help this publication get more views by sharing or cross-posting this article! Maybe give it a shoutout on Twitter, Notes, etc.
Fantastic read, I hope you got your replacement disc. I'm still waiting for mine, as I like you was looking forward to watching The Final Game Of Death footage. . 👍