Bruce Lee only made four and a half movies during his peak period, namely "Brother Tangshan", "Fist of Fury", " Enter the Dragon ", " Enter the Dragon ", and "The Game of Death" which only lasted 47 minutes.
However, death is not something he can control. There are more works he wants to shoot, such as "The Deadly Scholar", "Nian Gengyao", "Li Yuanba", etc. He has taken trial makeup photos, but in the end he failed to realize them. .
As a screenwriter, Bruce Lee wrote scripts such as "Warrior" and " Kung Fu " in his early days. He cast stones in Hollywood and looked for opportunities, but because of his yellow face, no one dared to use him. This led to the fact that although "Kung Fu" (1972) was put into production, the protagonist was played by a white man David Carradine. It was obviously a Shaolin story, but it was played by a white man. This was a characteristic of that era when racial discrimination was prevalent. Not to mention yellow people, even black people are performed by white people wearing "blackface".
As for "Warrior", it was not until 2019 that Hollywood put this script on the screen, starring a Japanese-American.
The above two are TV series. As for the movie script, Bruce Lee actually wrote it, and that was "The Silent Flute" (different translations, also called "The Silent Flute"/"The Silent Xiao").
As mentioned above, this script was created by Bruce Lee and his apprentice and friend James Coburn . It was created completely according to Bruce Lee's vision. They were full of confidence and felt that this film would definitely make them a hit. red.
According to Bruce Lee's conception, this is a movie about the process of martial arts training. The whole story takes place in India. It tells the story of a martial arts practitioner who, in order to become the best in the world, wanted to find a martial arts secret book, so he set out to On the road of search. Along the way, you will experience various ups and downs and challenges.
To this end, Bruce Lee and James Cobain also went to India and Nepal to inspect the location. However, Bruce Lee finally gave up on this script, feeling that it was not a good story, and then modified it into "The Game of Death" , and the place where the story took place was also changed from India to South Korea. This is because Bruce Lee was very interested in the tower in the Nepal Palace Square and decided to build the crucial pagoda in "The Game of Death" according to this tower. Later, he happened to have a similar pagoda in South Korea that could be used, so he simply adapted the story to take place in South Korea.
However, while Bruce Lee was filming "Game of Death", he received an olive branch from Hollywood and invited him to Hollywood to film "Enter the Dragon" . As a result, Bruce Lee shelved "Game of Death" and planned to film "Enter the Dragon" first, and then come back to continue filming "Game of Death".
However, Bruce Lee died suddenly before the release of "Enter the Dragon", and his wish could not be fulfilled.
Later, Bruce Lee became an icon and became completely popular all over the world. Too many people want to capitalize on his legacy and get a piece of the pie. According to statistics, there are more than 200 copycat movies under the banner of Bruce Lee on the market at most, and most of them are shoddy and ugly. But the problem is that Bruce Lee is so popular that he can be sold for money. People like Tang Long, Ju Long, Lu Xiaolong, Lu Xiaolong, Heilong, etc. are all cosplaying Bruce Lee, and even Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung, etc. have imitated Bruce Lee.
Regarding Bruce Lee’s true legacy, Jiahe, which owns the copyright, has also begun to explore. In Hong Kong, they re-created the script from the 35 minutes of "Game of Death" (the full 47-minute version was discovered later) and cut it into 11 minutes for use in the film. Death Game 》 (1978) was officially released.
Over in Hollywood, Bruce Lee's abandoned script "The Silent Flute" was dug out and officially filmed. When it was released, the film was titled "The Silent Flute" (Circle of Iron, 1978). The male lead is Jeff Cooper, a complete newcomer with no reputation, and has no named works before or after.But there are several big names hidden in the supporting roles. One is David Carradine, who is also the male protagonist of another "Kung Fu" written by Bruce Lee. Carradine plays the four roles in "The Silent Flute", and there is no one else. He is an invisible boss, and his role is relatively heavy, and the limelight is overshadowed by the male lead.
Because of "Kung Fu", David Carradine also became one of the first generation of Hollywood star representatives. Quentin TarantinoAs a die-hard Bruce Lee fan, he was deeply impressed by David Carradine and specially recruited him to star in his own works. In "Kill Bill" Carradine played Bill. , and also specially cosplayed the appearance of himself holding the flute in "The Silent Flute". However, David Carradine's final death was quite funny. He died of sexual asphyxiation during masturbation in 2009, which made people laugh.
Another actor familiar to Chinese audiences in "The Silent Flute" is Christopher Lee. He is also the actor of the white-robed wizard Salaman in the "Lord of the Rings" series.
In addition, Roddy McDowall (roddy mcdowall) who participated in the starring role is also a senior actor. He has appeared in "Crime Under the Sun", "Spirit Dog Lassie", "Green Mountains and Green Valley" and "The Longest" One Day" and other works.
With such a cast, Hollywood is quite sincere.
However, "The Silent Flute" is still a work that is difficult to describe. After all, this was a script that Bruce Lee gave up. He felt that the story was not grounded enough and a little mystical, so it was better not to film it.
This is actually the case. "The Silent Flute" seems very weird, neither Chinese nor Western, neither Indian nor foreign. It is inexplicable and makes people confused.
As for the story, to put it simply, it is a " Journey to the West " style story format, just like the Journey to the West team traveling all the way to the west, going through ninety-nine and eighty-one difficulties, and finally getting back the true scripture. "The Silent Flute" is also like this. It is a standard road movie. It tells the story of a martial arts runner-up who wants to become a champion, so he decides to find a martial arts secret book. Then, he embarked on the road of search, experiencing a series of events and various tests along the way.
The first level is to pass through a monkey kingdom, and you must defeat the monkey king to continue moving forward. Of course, the special effects of that era were so poor that the monkeys and the Monkey King were all played by humans.
The second level is to meet an ascetic who, in order to abandon sexual desire, trapped himself in a large urn for 10 years just to melt his penis in grease. The middle-aged man in the urn in the film does not look like a practicing monk, but an ordinary middle-aged man, the kind who stays in a big urn all the time. The man in the urn is played by Eli Wallack, the "hideous man" in the western film "The Good, the Bad, and the Bad", who is the winner of the Oscar Lifetime Achievement Award. He is neither embarrassing nor interesting.
The third level is to meet a tribal leader, entertain him warmly, and arrange for a beautiful woman to accompany him. As a result, he woke up the next day and found himself lying in the desert. It turns out that this is also a challenge. The beauty is the most fierce woman in the tribe. Originally, she wanted the fierce woman to drain him and kill him. However, if he wins, then the fierce girl will die.
In the fourth level, the male protagonist returns to the tribe and has to compete with the tribe leader. result. The two fought back and forth for a long time, but it was a draw.
In the fifth level, the male protagonist and the flute holder were pursued by a group of robbers. As a result, the flute player did a series of unbelievable things in front of him. He innocently broke the face of a handsome boy, and then destroyed the only boat crossing the river. He could obviously defeat the robbers, but he went around in circles.
In the end, the male protagonist finally came to the secret book, which was a thick book. When he opened it, he found that there was a mirror on every page. Turning it over and over, the male protagonist could only see himself.
Then, the male protagonist understood and left laughing.
the whole movie is finished.
The problem is that the plot is so confusing that it just seems to follow the same thing. It’s inexplicable. If it weren’t for Bruce Lee, I wouldn’t be able to watch it in its entirety. Even after reading it, I still can’t understand what it is doing. can't imagine that this is actually written by Bruce Lee.
Especially the action scenes. Since it is a Bruce Lee work, the fights must be more exciting. However, all the fighting scenes in the film are just like playing tricks. They are absurd, ridiculous, and childishly ridiculous, so I won’t mention it.
In short, what the hell is "The Silent Flute" about?
As mentioned before, although several of Bruce Lee's movies are action movies, deep down he doesn't really like traditional action movies at all. He just wants to Make the action movies you want to make.
Bruce Lee was a martial arts practitioner, but he was not a simple martial arts practitioner. He is a top student with a diploma from the Department of Philosophy of the University of Washington. His understanding of martial arts is reflected in this script. Even talking about martial arts is also a practice. In the first level, defeating the monkey is actually about restraining your own whims. The second level and the third level are both lust level , which means not to be bound by emotions and to get rid of the interference of desires on oneself. By the fourth level, it is time to abandon hatred and grudges and turn enemies into friends. In the fifth level, the blind man holding the flute played a series of charades. In fact, there were hidden clues. Breaking the pretty boy's face would only drag him down in the hard days of his life. He would not let him destroy the ship. The robbers who were coming later took a boat and actually went to sit on the wall during the battle. The reason was that the people's money was hidden in the wall so that the robbers could not find it. They hid here and there in order to use their strength and look for better opportunities to take action.
In short, "The Silent Flute" is essentially a fable-like story. Each level contains mysteries, just like guessing charades for the audience to understand. The problem is that the puzzle itself must be fun. Your puzzle is so awkward that it makes people embarrassed. Who would be interested in guessing the puzzle again? This Hollywood-produced film has such a problem. It should be that did not understand Bruce Lee's script , or did not understand the implicit literature of the East. The film was shot in a straightforward, cold and dry way, with no meaning at all. There is no hazy beauty either.
Just like "Journey to the West", it was originally a book to persuade people to practice spiritual practice. Books such as "The Three-Star Cave of the Setting Moon", "Zhen Yuanzi", "Shu Xin Yuan", "The Kingdom of Women", etc. are all about learning from the scriptures. On the way (cultivation), you must gradually restrain yourself, strengthen your will, abandon distracting thoughts, desires, unnecessary interference, etc. Later, with the continuous addition of storytellers, the story of seeking scriptures became more and more complex, and it no longer looked like a process of cultivation. It became an out-and-out novel about gods and demons, losing its roots. However, if you read carefully, you can still easily see this trace.
Bruce Lee used an allegorical script to talk about the levels of martial arts practice. But he himself feels that it is not good if it is too allegorical. It is not down to earth and difficult for the audience to understand. Therefore, he changed the script to "The Game of Death" , turning him into a kung fu master who wants to break into a five-story pagoda. There is a secret book on the top floor. The male protagonist needs to defeat a top tower guarding master floor by floor, and in During the fighting process, the mysteries of martial arts are expressed through movements and lines, and difficult philosophy is transformed into a storyline that is understandable at a glance, making it both educational and entertaining. Just like in "Enter the Dragon", when Bruce Lee fought against Sammo Hung, Dong Wei and others, his understanding of martial arts was naturally added to it. People who understand it will suddenly realize that it doesn't matter if they don't understand it. Just think it's fun.
Therefore, "Game of Death" is by no means a simple level-breaking game, but a martial arts training issue that implies Bruce Lee's kung fu philosophy. Just like "Journey to the West", people who cannot see the mystery only watch how Sun Wukong passes the levels and fights monsters. The story is enough, and those who understand it can understand the mystery.
However, Bruce Lee unfortunately passed away after only completing 1/3 of "The Game of Death".And because he was too confident, he did not leave a complete script. This caused all his ideas, all details, and the story framework to disappear with his death, and his true appearance could never be seen again.
Therefore, friends who study Bruce Lee can take a good look at the 47-minute version of the fragment, and then combine it with "The Silent Flute" to comprehensively understand the connotation of Bruce Lee's Kung Fu philosophy. You should be rewarded.
