listened to all the stories about how great Bruce was with some skepticism. On his first day back in Hong Kong from location shooting, Sammo visited the studio offices.
“I walked around the corner, and there he was,” Sammo told me. “I said ‘You’re Bruce Lee ?’ He said, ‘You’re Sammo Hung . Wanna fight?’ I said, ‘Sure!’ So we set up right there in the hall. We’re getting into position, then suddenly he relaxes, leans over, and asks, ‘Ready?’ I said “Yeah!’ … and the next thing I know, I’m flat on my back, staring up at the ceiling. Bruce leans over and asks, ‘How was that?’ I gave him a big thumb’s up and said, ‘Great!’ And we were friends ever since … until….”
The “until” was that Enter the Dragon prologue. “I was working in Thailand , I think, and I hear from Bruce,” Sammo recalled. “He was wondering if I could do him a favor. So I fly all the way back to Hong Kong, and do the fight scene with him.” Sammo played Lee’s adversary in the sequence. But, with the scene over, Bruce, according to Sammo, drove him back to the airport. “And there he hands me around two hundred (Hong Kong) dollars [the equivalent of about twenty-five bucks],” Sammo said. “I said ‘What’s this? I was doing you a favor. Why are you treating me like this?’” Sammo rejected the token payment and returned to his set, bewildered. It was his first sign that Bruce Lee was changing. “We didn’t really talk after that,” Sammo admitted.
Bruce, meanwhile, returned to Hong Kong to a tumultuous reception. It was months before Enter the Dragon would premiere, but just the very fact that he had starred in an international film after having attained star status from his first three movies put him in superstar category. After years of being ignored and diminished, his every word and deed in Hong Kong was being received with devoted worship. It would seem that Bruce Lee had the last laugh. Weintraub and he were already discussing a second American movie, for which he would receive a million dollars. He supposedly was on the verge of signing a contract with the Shaw Brothers studio to do a period piece; photos to that effect were taken.
But first he wanted to do a project he called Game of Death . Lee had been planning it for some time. He had copious notes and already secured much of the cast. Initially it seemed to be a sequel to Way of the Dragon . In the company of two friends, Tang Lung is forced to travel to Korea, where he must secure a treasure at the top of a pagoda, guarded by a different type of martial artist on each level. Under grueling, non-air-conditioned, conditions in the dog days of a Hong Kong summer, Bruce filmed three fight scenes — one with Daniel Inosanto , one with Chi Hon Joi (a hapkido fighter), and one with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar .
Lee looked very lean, even wan, in the footage, and rumors circulated about his exhausting schedule and arduous training (including one exercise where he strapped electrodes to a band on his forehead and tried punching in the time between two electric shocks). Tales of his blinding, debilitating migraines were rampant (as were stories about various ways he tried to relieve them). Nevertheless, he soldiered on. More than an hour of nearly finished footage was completed on Game of Death , and it was looking like a magnum opus of Bruce’s kung fu — smart, humorous, effective, exciting, fascinating, and even deep.
But on July 20, 1973, Bruce Lee died. After he was late to a dinner with Raymond Chow and George Lazenby to discuss making a film with the Australian actor who had resigned the role of James Bond during On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969), he was found in the apartment of actress Betty Ting Pei . His death was attributed to a cerebral hemorrhage, or brain aneurism. None of his fans could believe it, and the hysteria that followed was equally hard to believe.
Some said that he was murdered by envious kung fu masters
“I walked around the corner, and there he was,” Sammo told me. “I said ‘You’re Bruce Lee ?’ He said, ‘You’re Sammo Hung . Wanna fight?’ I said, ‘Sure!’ So we set up right there in the hall. We’re getting into position, then suddenly he relaxes, leans over, and asks, ‘Ready?’ I said “Yeah!’ … and the next thing I know, I’m flat on my back, staring up at the ceiling. Bruce leans over and asks, ‘How was that?’ I gave him a big thumb’s up and said, ‘Great!’ And we were friends ever since … until….”
The “until” was that Enter the Dragon prologue. “I was working in Thailand , I think, and I hear from Bruce,” Sammo recalled. “He was wondering if I could do him a favor. So I fly all the way back to Hong Kong, and do the fight scene with him.” Sammo played Lee’s adversary in the sequence. But, with the scene over, Bruce, according to Sammo, drove him back to the airport. “And there he hands me around two hundred (Hong Kong) dollars [the equivalent of about twenty-five bucks],” Sammo said. “I said ‘What’s this? I was doing you a favor. Why are you treating me like this?’” Sammo rejected the token payment and returned to his set, bewildered. It was his first sign that Bruce Lee was changing. “We didn’t really talk after that,” Sammo admitted.
Bruce, meanwhile, returned to Hong Kong to a tumultuous reception. It was months before Enter the Dragon would premiere, but just the very fact that he had starred in an international film after having attained star status from his first three movies put him in superstar category. After years of being ignored and diminished, his every word and deed in Hong Kong was being received with devoted worship. It would seem that Bruce Lee had the last laugh. Weintraub and he were already discussing a second American movie, for which he would receive a million dollars. He supposedly was on the verge of signing a contract with the Shaw Brothers studio to do a period piece; photos to that effect were taken.
But first he wanted to do a project he called Game of Death . Lee had been planning it for some time. He had copious notes and already secured much of the cast. Initially it seemed to be a sequel to Way of the Dragon . In the company of two friends, Tang Lung is forced to travel to Korea, where he must secure a treasure at the top of a pagoda, guarded by a different type of martial artist on each level. Under grueling, non-air-conditioned, conditions in the dog days of a Hong Kong summer, Bruce filmed three fight scenes — one with Daniel Inosanto , one with Chi Hon Joi (a hapkido fighter), and one with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar .
Lee looked very lean, even wan, in the footage, and rumors circulated about his exhausting schedule and arduous training (including one exercise where he strapped electrodes to a band on his forehead and tried punching in the time between two electric shocks). Tales of his blinding, debilitating migraines were rampant (as were stories about various ways he tried to relieve them). Nevertheless, he soldiered on. More than an hour of nearly finished footage was completed on Game of Death , and it was looking like a magnum opus of Bruce’s kung fu — smart, humorous, effective, exciting, fascinating, and even deep.
But on July 20, 1973, Bruce Lee died. After he was late to a dinner with Raymond Chow and George Lazenby to discuss making a film with the Australian actor who had resigned the role of James Bond during On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969), he was found in the apartment of actress Betty Ting Pei . His death was attributed to a cerebral hemorrhage, or brain aneurism. None of his fans could believe it, and the hysteria that followed was equally hard to believe.
Some said that he was murdered by envious kung fu masters
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