Goodbye Bruce Lee

Starring:Bruce Li, Robert Kerver, Ronald Brown (IV), Johnny Floyd, Mung Ping, Lung Fei, Moo San, Kuslai, Sandus, Ging Ping Wong, Mao Shan
Director: Pin Lin, Harold B. Swartz
Studio: Anchor Bay
Product Type: DVD

Average customer rating:

He's the King of Kung Fu
ABSOLOUTELY...Not!!!
Finally a Properly Re-Mastered Bruce Li DVD!!!
NOT REALLY BRUCE LEE

Goodbye Bruce Lee
Starring: Bruce Li , Robert Kerver , Ronald Brown (IV) , Johnny Floyd , and Mung Ping
Director: Pin Lin , and Harold B. Swartz
Manufacturer: Starz / Anchor Bay
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Similar Items:

The Real Bruce Lee 2
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ASIN: B0001US6E6
Release Date: 2004-07-27

Customer Reviews:

He's the King of Kung Fu.......2007-05-12

Atlas International's (a German production company) Goodbye, Bruce Lee His Last Game of Death would neither be the last Bruceplotation on Bruce Lee's unfinished movie (Game of Death, Tower of Death) and neither the worst (the horrible dross that is known as Game of Death.) Not that it means that this is a good film - it is not. It just shows how much Hong Kong and Taiwan filmmakers wanted to reproduce the inimitable magic of Bruce Lee. The most famous of the Lee imitators was Bruce Li (James Ho Chung Tao who earlier starred in the awful Bruce Lee: A Dragon's Story and later starred in many more Lee wannabe films) a part-time movie actor and Taiwanese high-school physical education teacher, who does not like to be called Bruce Li -- a name given to him by Jimmy Shaw.

The film starts with Bruce Li and his stunt double performing gymnastics quite atrociously. Later, after he films a fight scene he is asked by producers Mr. Lin and Mr. Cho if he would consider completing an unfinished work by Bruce Lee. They then show him the film. It is funny that the film within a film appears to be complete as well as stars the same actor who is asked to portray Bruce Lee in the film (sounds like something Luis Bunuel would do.) They probably added the superfluous scenes to give the film extra time so it would not be 83 minutes instead of about 70.

The film within a film starts with Mr. Lee, as he is walking home, coming upon a gruesome fight of a Gweilo stabbing a man. Lee beats him easily (at least he beats them up in this film instead of getting beat up constantly ala Game of Death) and the supposedly dying man gives him a purse to give to his wife and get a package to give to his son. He gives the purse to the grieving supposed widow who gives him a package to give to his son. As he is going to deliver the package he is accosted by a Kareem Abdul-Jabbar imitation that is easily disposed by the fighting skills of Mr. Lee. Even when Lee clearly misses his opponents they react to the powerful wind of his fists of fury. After this fight he suspects that something is up so he heads home. He gives the package, which is full of money, to his brother to give to the police - a big mistake.

Warning, spoilers ahead (for those who care):

This package is the target of two separate triads, the Far East Export Company led by Fei Lung (don't call me Betty, who looks groovy in his red turtleneck) and the boss of his fiancé Lu Ping. For some unknown reason they get together, kidnap Lu Ping and take her to the top of the Tower of Death. This is actually the Chung Hsing Tower in exterior scenes and one horribly decorated room that a high school production of Hamlet could put to shame was used for each of the 7 towers.

Now the fighting in this film is a bit flaccid with the exception of one fight scene. It takes place in a concrete playground and must have been directed by a separate person. It is actually good. The rest of the fight scenes, not counting the seven towers scenes, are rather nasty to look at. The seven tower martial art fights differ in quality. Lee puts on the famous yellow and black striped jump suit before he attacks the tower, but it seems to have been made for someone larger. The first level is two kung fu artists who are easily beat by Lee. The second level scenes are weird. He fights a samurai (Lee Keung who has played a Japanese before but does not even look close to being Japanese) and wins by transporting his body behind him over and over again while the samurai goes crazy swinging his sword and you can still hear him as he enters the third level. This is supposed to be a Korean fighter named Mr. Kim but the style of fighting is Karate with a linear attack. The fourth level he fights a wrestler with no muscle content whatsoever. The fifth level is semi-interesting with an Indian fighter (I think) who bounces around in a cross-legged position until he uses nunchucks (he is horrible with them) and, of course, Lee gets a hold of them (he is slightly better with them) and wins that fight. The sixth level he fights a boxer in the Muhammad Ali mode, though with semi-flabby physique (this was included because of the rumor that Ali was going to be in Game of Death) who is no match for the speed that is Lee (slower than Bruce Lee, faster than Bruce Willis). The seventh level is a let-down fight with Lung Fei (equipped with whip and tacky 70's clothing) who phoned in his performance for this film.

Now is there any reason to watch this film? If you are interested in every bad Bruceplotation film then yeah you could enjoy this. It is definitely better than Bruce Lee: A Dragon's Story and Bruce Li has a better presence than Bruce Le. Li is actually a decent actor with decent martial art skills. It was unfortunate that he kept getting put into these roles where he was not comfortable being in (nor should anyone since Bruce Lee was an iconoclast that was irreplaceable.) Unfortunately the second biggest problem with this film is that it is slow, pedantic and uninteresting. The worst part of the film is the song "King of Kung Fu" by Candy which is played ad nauseum with repeated refrain "He's the King of Kung Fu." It makes me ill thinking about the late nights that song has insinuated itself into my conscious.

DVD Info: Tai Seng has a full-frame version called The New Game of Death. The best version is the dubbed Anchor Bay version that is fully remastered (though it would have been nice to have a Mandarin or Cantonese voice track) and is presented in a 2:35:1 ratio. I am not sure why they did it; but in a bizarre sick twisted way I am glad they did it. I just would not want to push my masochistic tendencies of bad entertainment on others though.

ABSOLOUTELY...Not!!!.......2004-09-07

Sigh...all I can say behind purchasing this film is that this is a fine example of BRUCEploitation at it's WORST! I'd recently purchased Chinese Connection 2 and Bruce Li blew my socks off(he was being HIMSELF), so I bought Goodbye Bruce Lee, having decided to give him the benefit of the doubt. Having watched the film for the first time in over 20 years, all I can say is SAVE YOUR MONEY,FOLKS. The only reason I was able to give this film ONE star was because it attempted to stay true to Lee's vision for G.O.Death(Death Tower, fighters from all over the world), however, from start to finish I had to endure an attempt to pass Bruce Li off as the "Bruce Lee the 2nd," terrible fight scenes, mediocre martial arts displays, and poor choreography. All in all, what we have here is another low-budget Wannabee Lee flick that leaves devoted Bruce Lee fans(and fans of Bruce Li's better works) wishing that the real Bruce were still here. If you're into Bruce Li...I recommend Chinese Connection 2 and Exit the Dragon,Enter the Tiger...period.

Finally a Properly Re-Mastered Bruce Li DVD!!!.......2004-09-06

This is not a very good movie, but I take my hat off to Anchor Bay for finally producing a clean, remastered and letterboxed Bruce Li DVD. Those of us who have come to love Bruce Li (aka Ho Chung Tao), the king of Bruce-Lee-A-Likes, have had to suffer through terrible VHS and DVD treatments of his films in the past. Most of his movies are available only in fullscreen versions with tons of scratches and out of frame action. This GOODBYE BRUCE LEE DVD looks beautiful. The film itself, unfortunately, is not one of Bruce Li's best. The story is passable, a Bruce Lee look-a-like is asked to complete Bruce Lee's final unfinished film. The film is a pretty unskilled production with plenty of poor directing, editing and a cast filled with unthreatening-looking henchmen. Bruce Li, himself, is doubled in some corny gymnastic scenes at the beginning of the film which shouldn't fool anyone. He also, for some reason, appears to be wearing a bad looking wig throughout the film, and the almost mandatory yellow track suit he wears later on looks baggy. Some lofty reviewer might say this is because he's not a big enough personality to fill the vacancy left by the real Bruce Lee, but I will just place the blame on a sloppy make-up and costume designer. Bruce Li is competent in all of the fight scenes, but none of them here are very complex, and as I mentioned before many of his opponents are laughably unskilled both as fighters and actors (dig that man-boobed boxer, that 70's shorts-wearing wrestler, and that clean-shaven caucasian who looks like he's about to laugh everytime he throws a punch!). I also love the film's pagoda interior set with it's fake blue sky which appears over and over again from different angles to make it look like different rooms on the various levels. I hope, at least, that Anchor Bay and others will continue to give this kind of treatment to other Bruce Li and lesser budgeted kung fu flicks. Sure some of them stink, but quite a few of them are pretty good, and either way it's nice to see them without having to strain your eyes. Oh, and apart from Bruce Li's capable acting and martial arts delivery in this particular film, the theme song IS very catchy indeed! "He' the King of Kung Fu!" It'd make a great addition to anybody's kung fu fighting songs collection.

NOT REALLY BRUCE LEE.......2004-05-08

I saw this film when it was released in 1977, and wrote my master's thesis on films like this. This "Game of Death" is a somewhat entertaining, yet low budget rip off of the REAL Bruce Lee's game of death. made at a time when Bruce's film was still unreleased, it offered unsuspecting movie goers an ooportunity to see what they had not seen: Bruce Lee's last film. Alas, this is BRUCE LI, the best Bruce lee look-alike, suited up in Bruce Lee's yellow and black tracksuit. Li does a decent job, and it is actually better than the original, pasted together, disgraceful "real" Bruce Lee version released in '79 because it doesn't attempt to fool you or embarrass the filmmakers by using poorly edited cutaways to the real Bruce Lee, and b grade half dead American actors (Sorry Dean Jagger). The great theme song "He's the king of kung fu" is a brilliant tie in that was never fully exploited. So, don't believe the hype. This ain't the REAL BRUCE, But if you like an entertaining fight film filled with the same ridiculous crap we all love in kung fu movies, it's a good time. Two fists up!

Average customer rating:

Goodbye Bruce Lee
Starring: Lee , Abdul-Jabbar , Li , and Kerver
Manufacturer: Legacy Entertainment
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B0009X57RE
Release Date: 2005-03-01

Masters of Kung Fu, Vol. 1: Dragon Fist/Goodbye Bruce Lee

Average customer rating:

Masters of Kung Fu, Vol. 1: Dragon Fist/Goodbye Bruce Lee
Starring: Masters of Kung Fu
Manufacturer: Legacy Entertainment
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B0009X57ZG
Release Date: 2005-03-02

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