Enter the Game of Death

Infobox Film
name = Enter the Game of Death
imdb_id = 0062936
starring = Bruce Le
Bolo Yeung
Cheung Lak
Lam Kum Fu
Lee Hoi San
director = Joseph Valesco
To Lo Po
producer = Robert Jeffery
production company = PT Insantra
distributor = Cinematic (United States)
runtime = 87 min.
language = Cantonese

"Enter the Game of Death", originally released as "Si wang mo ta" and released in North America as "The King of Kung Fu", is a Bruceploitation martial arts film inspired by Bruce Lee's unfinished film "Game of Death". It stars notorious Lee imitator Bruce Le.

Plot

There's a mysterious Chinese document that's hidden in the Tower of Death, and evil Japanese occupiers want to get their hands on it. Meanwhile, a Chinese fighter (Bruce Le) is training in the forest, only to be challenged by several Japanese fighters as well as Bolo Yeung, all of whom he easily defeats. Bruce and Bolo meet again in a wrestling ring, where Bruce once again defeats Bolo.

Bruce's victory impresses the Japanese who want to hire him to go to the Tower of Death. However, Bruce is a Chinese nationalist and refuses. This leads to Bruce being challenged by another group of Japanese fighters in another forest, with Bruce once again reigning victorious. Shortly afterwards, Bruce discovers that a woman he thought was working for the Japanese is actually an undercover Chinese agent. They make a plan to retrieve the document from the Tower of Death.

Like in Bruce Lee's "Game of Death", Bruce Le arrives at the Tower of Death and ascends to the top level, defeating a different kung fu master at each floor. At the top level, he gets the document. From here on, Bruce defeats the Japanese bosses once and for all.

Reaction

Some consider "Enter the Game of Death" to be one of Bruce Le's best movies, because of its abundant fight scenes and surreal touches. An example would be a review by "James" at the website "Bruceploitation":

"The DVD cover states that many consider this to be Bruce Le's best film to date. It's certainly one of the best...This movie is a must for all who love Bruce Le and great martial arts movies." [http://www.geocities.com/many_bruces/]

Of course, there are some people who truly hate this film, including Joe909 at "cityonfire.com":

"This movie proves yet again that Bruce Le sucks, and was the worst "fake Bruce" of them all. Even Dragon Lee had some charm, compared to him. The reason behind Le's loathsomeness is the audacious levels of "action" he and his producers packed into each of his movies; plot, character development, and even dialog were cast aside whenever possible and replaced by unending kung-fu battles. At least Bruce Le was a good martial artist, with some impressive kicks, but the guy just looks too goofy with his overdone "Bruce Lee" expressions and mannerisms." [http://www.cityonfire.com/hkfilms/ef/entergame.html]

Release date confusion

There is much confusion about the date this movie was released. IMDB says that it was released in North America in February 1980, but in Hong Kong on May 7, 1981 (odd that it would be released in America before Hong Kong). Adding to the confusion, many other sources say that it was first released in 1978. It is possible that parts of it were filmed in 1978 and it was finished in 1980, although it is also possible that the sources that list it as a 1978 film confuse it with Golden Harvest's official "Game of Death", which was released that year.

The Korean Film Archive gives a release date of November 1978. It is pretty much definite that the Korean company Tai Chang produced the film but it is unknown whether HK/international distributor PT Insantra actually produced the film or merely acquired it for release afterwards