Review: Enter the Game of Death

Set pre-WWII with Chinese and Japanese relations rather hostile, our hero Mr. Ang (Bruce Le) attempts to retrieve an important Chinese document before evil Japanese occupiers like Kawasaki (Dong-ryong Park) get their imperialist hands on it. The document is secured in a tower with each floor of the tower guarded by differing fighters ready to fight to protect the document. Bolo Yeung plays a Japanese henchman our hero grapples with a few times throughout.

 

Here’s an odd one. Wikipedia states that this 1978 ‘Brucesploitation’ film is from South Korea and solely directed by Lee Tso-nam of “The Tattoo Connection”. IMDb says it’s a Hong Kong/US film co-directed by Joseph Velasco (“Enter Three Dragons”, “The Clones of Bruce Lee”) and Kuo-hsiang Lin (more prolific as a cinematographer), and both sources have slightly different cast lists. IMDb doesn’t even credit Park Dong Yong (AKA Dong-ryong Park) as the very prominent character Kawasaki, so that’s definitely wrong. The IMDb page is nonetheless linked on the Wiki page. So yeah, take some of the names mentioned in this review with a gigantic pinch of salt, it’s a confusing mess to untangle. Perhaps there’s several different versions/dubs that alter the cast names and even some of the plot, but that doesn’t explain the different directors, screenwriters, and countries supposedly involved. Ordinarily I’d trust IMDb over Wikipedia any day of the week (though both can be edited by any lay person), but here I’d go with the Wiki solely because Dong-ryong Park is definitely in it and he’s definitely South Korean. Don’t hold me to it, though.

 

I wasn’t expecting much from this knockoff. In fact, at the outset I was already figuring this would be cheap crap. The title is a silly amalgamation of two of Bruce Lee’s best-known films, and star ‘Bruce Le’ is actually rather fraudulently billed on screen as ‘Bruce Lee’. However, it didn’t take long for this film to win me over as the fun bootleg that it is, and it gets even better as it goes along. The opening credits martial arts training montage is silly fun, and the great Bolo Yeung pops up early. He’s so ripped in this that it almost seems pointless for him to be brandishing a sword at one point. We very quickly see Bolo in a martial arts contest twisting a guy’s head and proving me right. Bolo don’t need no sword. An immediate scene-stealer here playing a Japanese guy, Bolo gets a damn good showing for about 15 minutes or so in the first act. He hangs around for a good chunk don’t get me wrong, but after that opening he’s generally on the losing end of fights. Still, ample screen time is pretty rare for Bolo in these things so I’ll take it.

 

The film is wall-to-wall action which is for the best because the plotting is awkward and a touch repetitive. Scripted by Kwon Yong (no other IMDb credits curiously, and Wikipedia lists a screenwriter who can’t even be found on IMDb at all), narrative flow isn’t its strong suit, but action sure is. The action is also varied, even including some stick-fighting which is nice. And a long-haired guy who just hurls a room full of poisonous snakes - cobras included – at our hero before also incorporating them into his kung-fu move set. Yeah, it’s got that too. It’s outlandish fun, I’ve never seen anything like that set piece. Seriously, at one point the snake guy bites a snake’s head off, sucks what I assume is poison, and spits it back at Mr. Le. What the actual? Who thinks this stuff up? The action-heavy nature of the film also helps our leading man, who in terms of charisma…well, despite his on-screen credit he’s no Bruce Lee let’s just say that. He’s damn solid in flight and fight though, even employing some grappling against our man Bolo. I also enjoyed South Korean actor Dong-ryong Park playing a Japanese villain named Kawasaki. He also turned up in the terrible cheapie “The Black Dragon”, but is in a much better showing here. Kung Fu Joe himself Steve James is apparently here as ‘Black Fighter’ but there’s several ‘black fighters’ here and although one wears a headband like James has in several films, I can’t say any of these guys for certain was James. But he’s apparently in there so one of them…might be him. I doubt it, though. Look out for the very obvious Kareem Abdul Jabbar substitute at one point, hilariously shameless.

 

Although the storytelling is clunky, this action-heavy martial arts film delivers the goods for what is basically counterfeit Bruce Lee. Rip-off or not, I was entertained from start to finish. Twice as much fun as Bruce Lee’s “Game of Death”, if slightly clunkier.  

 

Rating: B