GOODBYE BRUCE LEE: HIS LAST GAME OF DEATH is a fun and fast-paced Bruceploitation film that comes across as a blatant rip-off of the movie featured in the title, GAME OF DEATH. It sees Bruce Li (always my favourite Bruce Lee imitator) playing an ordinary guy who gets involved with gangsters and has to go up a crime syndicate when his girlfriend is kidnapped.
The film opens on a strong note with Bruce beating up a pack of thugs in his local park before moving into a surprisingly densely-plotted storyline with lots of sub-plots that don't really go anywhere but make the film watchable nonetheless. Li is an energetic presence as the lead and the dubbed-in noises when he fights make this a classic slice of Bruceploitation. GOODBYE BRUCE LEE is also a highly funky movie in which Bruce shows off his sharp sartorial style throughout and a recurring theme tune ('King of Kung Fu') keeps popping up. There's a playground fight later borrowed by Jackie in POLICE STORY 2 and the whole thing feels surprisingly bright and colourful.
Around the halfway mark the main plot is done away with when Bruce enters yet another 'tower of death', strips to his yellow jump suit, and tackles different fighters on every level. It's cheap and cheerful stuff, with opponents including Japanese and Korean fighters, an Indian nunchuck expert, a Russian wrestler, and a black boxer from America. Weapon play includes the aforementioned nunchucks as well as whip and sword fights. Some of the jump cut editing is quite annoying but not enough to spoil the flow of action overall. This film goes hand in hand with ENTER THE GAME OF DEATH as an entertaining rip-off of Bruce's GAME OF DEATH, and is occasionally more fun than the original film.
The film opens on a strong note with Bruce beating up a pack of thugs in his local park before moving into a surprisingly densely-plotted storyline with lots of sub-plots that don't really go anywhere but make the film watchable nonetheless. Li is an energetic presence as the lead and the dubbed-in noises when he fights make this a classic slice of Bruceploitation. GOODBYE BRUCE LEE is also a highly funky movie in which Bruce shows off his sharp sartorial style throughout and a recurring theme tune ('King of Kung Fu') keeps popping up. There's a playground fight later borrowed by Jackie in POLICE STORY 2 and the whole thing feels surprisingly bright and colourful.
Around the halfway mark the main plot is done away with when Bruce enters yet another 'tower of death', strips to his yellow jump suit, and tackles different fighters on every level. It's cheap and cheerful stuff, with opponents including Japanese and Korean fighters, an Indian nunchuck expert, a Russian wrestler, and a black boxer from America. Weapon play includes the aforementioned nunchucks as well as whip and sword fights. Some of the jump cut editing is quite annoying but not enough to spoil the flow of action overall. This film goes hand in hand with ENTER THE GAME OF DEATH as an entertaining rip-off of Bruce's GAME OF DEATH, and is occasionally more fun than the original film.