Tang Lung

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(Bruce Lee)</B></I></div> <div> After completion of Bruce's contracted two pictures for Golden Harvest under the direction of Lo Wei, Bruce considered doing a third entitled Yellow-Faced Tiger with the same director.  This film was infact made starring Jimmy Wang Yu and released as 'A Man called Tiger'.  But after complaining of inadequate and poor script details Bruce bowed out.   Bruce's real ambition was to do multi-level films where the audience he was trying to communicate with could look at the surface or find a lot of hidden and meaningful depths.   </div> <div> <I><B>"As an actor I am frustrated between business and art with the hope that through harmonious reconciliation of these I can then come out expressing myself and truthfully communicating." (Bruce Lee)</B></I></div> <div> Forming his own film company 'Concord Productions' with Raymond Chow gave Bruce the opportunity to pursue his dreams.  He wanted to create a new character to communicate what life is like for a real martial artist. In 'The Big Boss' he is arrested at the end and in 'Fist of Fury' his character is killed at Bruce's own decision.  So for his third picture he started to develop ideas for a new character where the ending sets up the character to return in a sequel.  Bruce had admired the trilogy of Spaghetti Westerns that made Clint Eastwood famous and wanted to do a similar project with a real character.  This new character had to have a certain mystery to him and also be based around Bruce's own life and experiences as a martial artist or how else would he be able to honestly communicate and express his own truth.   But Bruce still had problems with Raymond Chow over these multi-level films as Chow and most others in the film-making business are only interested in making money or rather the highest amount of profit.  Artistic expression and experimentation was not at the top of their agendas.  They would of liked Bruce to have done another dozen 'Fist of Fury' revenge type roles for guaranteed success but Bruce wanted to communicate truth, higher values and deeper meaning within his films.  But he had problems and especially in the higher vision he definitely wanted to create and present for his own and fourth picture 'The Game of Death'.  </div> <div> <I><B>"We have to try and produce films with universal appeal if we are to gain international recognition.  This is what I intend to achieve in my future films.  The Way of the Dragon is only the beginning." (Bruce Lee)</B></I></div> <div> Eventually for his third picture which was entitled 'The Way of the Dragon' Bruce created the character of `Tang Lung aka Chinese Dragon'.  His role of `Tang Lung' is significant and shows that Bruce wanted a character with a much deeper and personal meaning.  `Tang Lung' was very much based on Bruce's own life and experiences.  The English translation of `Tang Lung' was Bruce's own nickname `Chinese Dragon'.  The opening credits of `The Way of the Dragon' shows a Dragon traveling by boat overseas to a new land.  This is relevant to Bruce's own experience of traveling to America (the land of his birth) at the age of 18 by boat.  On arrival to this new land, he then helps out in a Chinese restaurant, similar to Bruce's own life where he was living and working part-time at Ruby Chow's restaurant in Seattle.  His wife, Linda, has explained that Bruce in `The Way of the Dragon' is very much like the Bruce in real life.  This film shows a real and honest human being with a whole range of expressions.  In the film, Bruce is soon known as a great `Chinese Boxer' or `Gung Fu' expert.  When Bruce arrived in America he was quickly known as an expert in `Gung Fu' or more precisely in the art of `Wing Chun'.  In the film Bruce wins over friends with his stunning performance of martial arts.  They now want to learn his art and not Karate as they had been doing.  A similar thing happened in Bruce's own life.  Once he performed superb demos of `Gung Fu' in America, people then wanted to learn his art from him.  </div> <div> In `The Way of the Dragon' Bruce is forced to fight to protect his Chinese countrymen.  He never went looking to fight, he only wanted to protect his friends, his art and moral principles.  His friends are being forced to sell their restaurant by being bullied and being victims of violence then finally Bruce steps in.  They eventually kidnap Bruce's cousin played by Nora Miao.  Bruce is forced to take action.  Bruce's most famous real fight was with a Gung Fu expert called `Wong Jack Man'.  He never went looking for that fight but was forced to protect his beliefs in his art and his family.  </div> <div> `Tang Lung' is dressed in a traditional `Gung Fu' suit as he did in all of his completed films.  The only film that featured Bruce in a different outfit was the ill-fated `Game of Death'.  Also, in Bruce's own life he changed from traditional outfit to normal clothing.  In Longstreet where Bruce is playing himself as a teacher or pointer of the truth he is wearing not a traditional outfit but a modern tracksuit.  `The Game of Death' features Bruce wearing a modern outfit or a kind of tracksuit.  Was Bruce using this 'Tang Lung' character as a reference to his own life and evolvement in martial arts?  `The Game of Death' was adapting to ever-changing circumstances as in Bruce's own art of `Jeet Kune Do'.  In `The Game of Death' Bruce is again forced to fight as in `The Way of the Dragon'.   So are the two films linked in anyway?  Well for one they are films that were both written and directed by Bruce Lee.  They were films being made by Bruce for his own film company.  Bruce said to his wife Linda that he was going to take a break from film work after the completion of `The Way of the Dragon' to spend more time with her and the children Brandon and Shannon.  But he didn't to Linda's disappointment and started work straight away on `The Game of Death'. </div> <div> <I><B>"The script is the most important thing!" (Bruce Lee in August 1972)</B></I></div> <div> Many say that Bruce never had a proper script details for `The Game of Death'.  This is contrary to everything about the real man - the perfectionist.  One of the reasons that Bruce set up his own film company was because he was sick of amateurish work on film.  No proper script details such as the background of characters but just a rough outline.  Bruce said to an interviewer that you will be amazed how much of `The Big Boss' that he had to write and rewrite.  Bruce turned down a third feature for `Golden Harvest' mainly because of no proper script.  Therefore, would Bruce who had complained about all these things to the public contradict himself and do `The Game of Death' without any proper details.  Well, if that is the case, why didn't he film `The Silent Flute', a film that he had a proper script completed. From my research, I am certain Bruce Lee had proper script details for what he was filming for 'Game'.  He even commented in late 1971 that he was going to be shooting scenes for a film in South Korea  (a good 10 months prior to filming his pagoda scenes with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar).  Also, please note around the same time Bruce asked Sammo Hung to appear in the film.  Bruce wouldn't  complain to the public about turning down film roles because of poor scripts and then contradict himself and do exactly the same!  Bruce even told the opening scene to an interviewer in August 1972 as follows :-</div> <div> <I><B>"As the film opens, the audience sees a wide expanse of snow. Then the camera closes in on a clump of trees while the sounds of a strong gale fill the screen. There is a huge tree in the centre of the screen and it is all covered with thick snow. Suddenly there is a loud snap and a huge branch of the tree falls to the ground. It cannot yield to the force of the snow so it breaks. Then the camera moves to a willow tree which is bending with the wind. Because it adapts itself to the environment, the willow survives."</B></I><B>  </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >This sets up the message of the inability to adapt will bring destruction!</FONT></div> <div> Just recently in the year 2000, John Little produced a documentary entitled `Bruce Lee - A Warrior's Journey' where he claims to have Bruce's script for `The Game of Death'.  But none of the notes that he possessed had this opening scene.  The one scene that Bruce Lee told the public that was going to be in the film.  To me this is a major flaw and lacks proper research.  John Little writes in his 'Warrior's Journey' book that with the approval of Linda Lee, he went to Hong Kong in March 1994 to meet with Golden Harvest's studio senior executives in order to locate the footage Bruce shot for 'The Game of Death.'  But Golden Harvest were in no way enthusiastic about assisting Little in finding the footage.  Golden Harvest had sold its interest in Bruce's films and to whom - they would not even reveal.  Finally in the summer of 1999 (5 years later) one of his contacts informed him that 95 mins of footage had been discovered.  These were infact discovered 3 years earlier by Bey Logan in 1996 at Media Asia who at that time owned the rights to Bruce's films.  All of this just adds more mystery and secrecy surrounding the footage that Bruce shot for the film.  Golden Harvest used footage of the start of Dan Inosanto's floor in the official and embarrassing 'Game of Death' (1978) and showed outdoor footage in their 1983 release of 'Bruce Lee - The Legend' documentary but these footages were not found by Bey Logan.  So this asks the questions - Did Golden Harvest keep some of their Bruce Lee footage privately?  Or who did they give this footage too?  </div> <div> It is easy for anyone to take a few of Bruce's rough notes and ideas and to say this was Bruce's real vision for `The Game of Death' when this project by John Little was clearly flawed and lacked any kind of proper research.  I for one have seen writings on GAME by Bruce that has a totally different plot scenario to John Little's so only through proper research can we get closer to the truth.  Bruce himself said to a reporter that he was keeping `The Game of Death' script secret as many producers would steal his ideas to use in other films.  This film was very important to Bruce and related to his own truth in martial arts and life.  Bruce wanted this film to be authentic so real martial artists were chosen to appear in this film.  And many of his friends such as Dan Inosanto, Wong Shun Leung, Ji Han Jae, Hwang In-Shik, Bob Baker, Taky Kimura, Bolo Yeung amongst others.  All of these people he knew personally from martial arts in his own life.  Bruce wanted this film to be in both physical and philosophical a ground-breaking achievement and therefore wanted his script details kept secret.  Freedom and Authenticity  were very important to Bruce and his 'Game' project.   </div> <div> <I><B>"I just couldn't keep up with him, he never stopped.  In both rehearsals and during shooting he was the most intensive worker I've ever seen." (Dan Inosanto)</B></I></div> <div> Bruce had his own film camera and filmed the footage himself of Dan Inosanto and Wu Ngan outdoors.  Russell Cawthorne commented that Bruce was the type of person who did three films at once and they had a lot of gems of unseen footage at their vaults at Golden Harvest.  Unfortunately this was said back in the early 80s just prior to their 'Bruce Lee The Legend' documentary.  If Bruce got an idea for a fight or film scene he would just do it whether it was for his current project or a future one.  It didn't matter to Bruce as he was always testing and filming with his own camera whether to test camera angles,  actors, fight scenes or techniques or whatever.  </div> <div> <B>"Directing, I feel, is more creative.  You really get a chance to produce the result you want.  One must always strive to be better.  The sky's the limit." (Bruce Lee)</B></div> <div> Did Bruce even want his true 'Game' intentions to be revealed to Raymond Chow as he knew this man was not really interested in these new philosophical type films. Chow wanted the biggest profit for himself which is one of the big problems the two men had prior to his untimely death.   Bruce possibly infuriated by Chow and the likes commented probably in distaste that the Chinese people might not understand so I will have to educate them.  This may have been in retaliation to the problems he was still facing in doing a new multi-level type of film which he wanted to present with 'The Game of Death'.  He had a lot of reasons to keep the truth secret.  Did Bruce want `The Way of the Dragon' and `The Game of Death' to be the first two films of a possible trilogy for the character of `Tang Lung aka Chinese Dragon'?  On that more research is needed but the character of Tang Lung is a mystery.  He ends up coming over to Rome to help his cousin and she doesn't know anything about him or even that he was arriving.  She even asks him if he comes from the city, and at the end of the film, the last line is 'Wherever Tang Lung goes, he will be admired by all.'  This sets up a sequel and I believe Bruce planned this to be true - that Tang Lung or Chinese Dragon would return once again in a Bruce Lee film! The following is written by Jesse Glover in his widely-aclaimed book 'Bruce Lee Between Wing Chun and Jeet Kune Do' :- "The first Gung Fu movie that I saw with Bruce was about a Gung Fu man who was like the Lone Ranger.  He travelled all over righting wrongs that were done to the common man.  After a long drawnout fight scene, the movie ended with the hero defeating the villian and converting him to follow the right path.  The last scene of the movie showed the hero walking off in to the sunset to right some more wrongs.  This led me to believe that he too would have been happy to have spent the rest of his life doing the same kind of thing." </div> <div> Was he honestly expressing himself in these films as Linda commented about Bruce as 'Tang Lung' being exactly like the real person and husband she knew!  What is true is that 'The Game of Death' character is based around the real Bruce Lee and the completed film would certainly of been authentic, creative, mysterious, exciting, multi-level and indeed ground-breaking!</div> <bR> <div> <B>by Nick Clarke (2003) (Sources - A Warrior's Journey & Words of the Dragon by John Little, Kung Fu Monthly Mags)</B></div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <A HREF="id54.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Mysterious GAME"><U><B><U>Click Here</U></B></U></A><B> for more GAME Investigation Leads!!</B></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id58.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Special Event"><U><B><U>Cl</U></B></U></A><A HREF="id58.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Special Event"><U><B><U>ick Here - Index Page</U></B></U></A></div> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>