Hey folks, Harry here... Seems that that an old rumor has come to pass and according to at least one Japanese viewer, the world should be warned about the latest thing with BRUCE LEE's name on it. Apparently it is 'dreadful'. Read and weep...
Dear World,
I live in Japan. I don't know if the film that has compelled me to write to you has been, is, or ever will be on general release in the western world. However, if ONE AICN reader anywhere avoids it because of what I have written here, then my time at this keyboard will not have been wasted.
The film is G.O.D., an examination of Bruce Lee's "Game of Death".
It is perhaps the most appalling travesty of the filmmaker's art that I have ever had the misfortune to witness. The acting is dreadful. The writing is well below par. The camerawork is unremarkable. The "modern" sections of the movie force in some horribly ill-fitting martial arts cliches. The forty minutes of footage (a lot of it previously unseen) from the original film are a slight improvement but to be honest I thought the original worked much better with them cut, even if it was further from Bruce Lee's original vision because of it.
Good points? Hmm. There IS previously unseen Bruce Lee footage here, including a lengthy nunchaku scene and an alternative end to the pagoda sequence. This will excite some die-hard fans. There is also an insight, no matter how clumsily presented, into Lee's intentions in making the film, which again will be of interest to those who follow his work. But really, this is a third-rate documentary couched in some abysmal dramatic fluff and then released as a movie.
I like martial arts films. I like Bruce Lee films. But this was an aberration.
When I saw G.O.D., shortly after its release here, there were eight people in the cinema. Twenty-five percent of them had left before the film was half over. This in a country where cinema tickets cost 1800 yen (about 18 dollars, I think). I can think of no more appropriate note on which to close this review.
-Reaperman
