Si wang ta

Bruce Lee's posthumous Game of Death was a confusing mishmash. But then comes a sequel with even less Bruce Lee in it. Can it be any good? Yes, the story is actually better, and even though the lead acting is done by a completely different guy the action is still very good. Overall the movie is more crazy and over the top than the actual Bruce Lee films. But I like it for what it is. There's a lot of fighting with exploding punch sounds, crazy characters, interesting locations, and the length of the movie is perfectly brief for this kind of thing. If you expect a serious film, this is not it. But if you like cheesy non-stop action where anything can happen, then you must see it!

There are so many stupid moments in 'Tower of Death'/'Game of Death 2' that you really wonder if it's a spoof. At times, it felt like I was watching a sequel to Kung Pow rather than a Bruce Lee film.

To be honest, this film has bugger all to do with 'Game of Death'. If anything, it's more a sequel/remake of 'Enter the Dragon', incorporating many elements of that film - particularly the actual footage. Bruce Lee's character Billy Lo (apparently) investigates the sudden death of his friend and encounters a piece of film that was left with the man's daughter. When the body is stolen during the funeral (!), Billy is also killed and it's up to his wayward brother to avenge both men's deaths.

Tong Long stars as brother Bobby Lo and doesn't really have the sort of charisma to carry the film. His fighting abilities are very good however. Bruce Lee obviously turns up thanks to (no longer) deleted footage simply to cash-in on the legacy. Saying that, on the whole, the footage is actually edited-in better than in 'Game of Death' but it doesn't stop the film from being a mess.

OK, so the fights are actually very entertaining (dare I say mind-blowing) and make the film at least watchable. But there are so many daft elements to this film that it really tests your patience. First off, there's the supposed villain who lives on his palatial estate... or is that mental institution? Seriously, the nutter eats raw venison, drinks deer's blood, carries a monkey on his shoulder and owns some peacocks and lions (?!). This attempt to make him look tough and intelligent just makes you feel sorry for him - you half expect someone to escort him back to his room.

In fact, this middle section is awful and when the scene involving a naked hooker and a lion suit arrived I turned it off. However, I did finish the film and was kind of glad I did because the fight scene towards the end (much like 'GOD') was the whole reason for watching. While the story is an embarrassment, the action is very good and contains excellent choreography.

But even the finale disappoints if the premise was anything to go by. What we were told was that the 'Tower of Death' was a pagoda that was upside down and underground. This sounded great, like a twist on Bruce Lee's original idea with different styles of fighting on each level. Could this be the 'Game of Death' that was originally planned? No! The film should have been named "Generator Room of Death" because thats as far as the tower goes. Of yes, there were indeed one or two 'different' styles... there were foil clad grunts, leopard-skinned henchman and stupid monk. It's as though Enter the Dragon had never been made, with the plot being a poor imitation.

Worth watching once for the fast paced fight scenes, but so stupid sometimes that it hurts. If this was intended, then fine. Thumbs up, however, for recreating that projector room scene from 'Enter The Dragon'.

A truly surreal piece of classic exploitation that's just so insane you feel you have to love it, a slice ‘n' dice treatment made on real Lee footage jumbled together to create yet another new `Bruce Lee movie', much in the same vein as its non-related predecessor, however this one's a lot more fun. Bruce Lee returns, so they say, as Billy Lo, eager to discover the reasoning behind his master's sudden death, which sure enough leads to his own end. Enter Billy's brother Bobby (Kim Tai Chong, or rather Lee-alike ‘Tong Lung') and the second half of this crazy charade begins, with Bobby continuing the investigations into both the deaths. When the Lee footage runs out (by ludicrously killing off the character halfway using the classic ‘fall from the under carriage of a moving helicopter' trick), the movie is left to Kim who in actual fact does quite well with it, given the circumstance: events consist of visiting the palace of crazy fighter Horan, battling a man in a tarzan outfit in some underground sci-fi laboratory, before beautifully laying waste to a random monk (Lee Hoi San) and Hwang Jang Lee. It's complete madness, but like a cute family puppy it's just too difficult to put down. A shameful exercise that's just unashamedly entertaining.

Game of Death II was Golden Harvest's second attempt to cash in on Bruce Lee's name, but this sequel tries to do its own thing...eventually.

The first half of the film is pretty disrespectful. Footage of Bruce Lee is clumsily shoehorned in simply to get his name in the credits but it's so badly done that it's cringeworthy. For a start, the footage is clearly from Enter The Dragon, and it looks like they didn't even bother to match the film type as you can tell it's from totally different stocks when it cuts between the archive footage and the real film. They didn't even bother to get the make up and the outfit colour to match for the scenes with the Abbot. Add to the fact that Kim Tai-chung doubles for Bruce Lee PLUS plays his brother is totally obvious. They shoot Kim from behind most of the time in a really obvious way, but on a few occasions you see a full front shot of his face and can tell it's not Bruce.

All this is doubly sad because this is actually an incredible kung-fu film! The fight choreography by Yuen Woo Ping and Sammo Hung is superb, and if you disregard the Bruce Lee cash in it's actually a decent story as well (for this type of film) Having no less than three directors is a plus point and all are known names. Ng See Yuen and Corey Yuen later went on to make the martial arts triumph 'No Retreat No Surrender' and of course Sammo hung is a legend in the kung fu world.

I'm actually surprised that Raymond Chow, who was supposedly a family friend of the Lees, allowed such a foul cash grab to be made. Fair enough, the first Game Of Death had an excuse as they were finishing his work (even though they changed everything), but this really was a cheap effort to make money off the dead.

Regardless, if you can stomach the first half -hour of the film and it's really shameless flogging of Bruce Lee footage, then you are in for a treat!

The last hour is where it dumps the use of Bruce footage and becomes it's own film - and it's a damn good one too! The end fight is one of the very best in kung-fu history and that's saying something.

Kim Tai-Chung is a solid action star, and he can handle comedy too. He could have genuinely been the new face of Golden Harvest had they given him more projects of his own. However, he made only two more (non GH) films before retiring, and Jackie Chan become the new main star of Golden Harvest productions in the early 1980s.

If this film had been it's own thing then it would certainly be a classic, but most people won't watch past the first 30 minutes of shameless Brucesploitation to get to the good stuff.

NOTE: This review covers the Fortune Star Digitally Remastered version of Si Wang Ta (a.k.a. Game of Death II/Tower of Death).

This is another disgrace to the name Bruce Lee. Not only is it another butcher job using never-before-seen Bruce Lee footage and some thrown in shots from his other movies, the plot is loose (if there is one) and just plain doesn't make sense. The fight sequences are great, however, since the fight choreographer is none other than Yuen Woo Ping...but that's all that really makes this movie even remotely interesting. I picked this up for $8, and I would consider $3 of it wasted (this wasn't bargain binned, but should be). Only die-hard martial arts movie fans should bother to watch this, and really only for the fight sequences and to be that much more complete in titles...otherwise steer clear of this title.

Also, for "extras", we are "treated" to the original trailer and the "new" trailer which is nothing special at all.