For Bruce Lee fans 2023 marks two anniversaries; both his untimely death and the release of Enter the Dragon, which would have catapulted him to worldwide superstar status had he lived to enjoy it. But Lee had been working on another project prior to his passing, surviving only in video fragments and notes. The version of “The Game of Death” released in 1978 exhibited little, if any, of Lee’s original vision.
Joining our own grandmaster Nathan Evans and returning champion Kevin (YouTube’s StoryDive) on this episode of the Popzara Podcast is James Flower, writer, editor, and director behind The Final Game of Death, a mammoth 223 minute analysis of both the surviving footage and the philosophical methodology behind Bruce Lee’s final film as part of Arrow Film’s exquisite Bruce Lee at Golden Harvest Limited Edition, which also includes beautifully remastered 4K editions of The Big Boss, Way of the Dragon, Enter the Dragon, commentaries, interviews and so much more.
Nate, Kevin and James gather on the field of (podcast) battle to chat about what it’s like to undertake such a project, the love/hate relationship fans have with Clouse’s original “The Game of Death”, how Lee’s film would revolutionize and influence martial art films and videogames, shameless “Bruceploitation” clones, “sanitizing” Asian content for Western audiences, physical media vs. streaming, the importance of proper film restoration, and the timeless appeal Bruce Lee still commands around the world.
