King of Hong Kong

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contract with Golden Harvest entitled, 'The Big Boss.'  The cast and crew returned back to Kai Tak Airport in Hong Kong on September 3rd, 1971 to a mass group of reporters.  Apparently they had been reports that Director Lo Wei and Bruce had been arguing a lot on the set but they both explained that they were friends and it was only over artistic differences for the good of the picture.  In private Bruce didn't like Lo and after his two film contract was over, he wouldn't work with Lo again.  On the 7th Bruce returned back to the U.S. to complete his final three appearances for Longstreet.   While Bruce was in Thailand, Paramount had been sending faxes through to Golden Harvest for Bruce.  "It's funny," Bruce laughed later, "but when Paramount sent telegrams for me, the Hong Kong producers thought i was an important star.  My prestige must have increased three times."  'The Big Boss' even surprised Bruce's own expectations when it smashed all existing records in Hong Kong and Bruce started work on his second film, 'Fist of Fury.'  When filming finished in December 1971, Bruce was anxiously waiting for an answer from Warner Bros. about a series to be called 'The Warrior.'  Bruce had helped develop the story which later became a world wide hit TV show called 'Kung Fu' which starred David Carradine.  On December 7th, 1971 Warners informed Bruce that he was not chosen to appear in the new series.  Bruce then decided that same month to form his own film company with partner Raymond Chow, this was 'Concord Productions.'  Lo Wei wanted to direct Bruce in a third film entitled, 'Yellow-Faced Tiger' but after Lo's no proper script details, Bruce decided that he would write and direct his own picture.  He spent a lot of time reading all types of film making books and by April 1972 had a script ready entitled, 'The Way of the Dragon.'  His friend and former student, Chuck Norris was to appear as the main bad guy in the film and their finale in the Rome Colosseum has been widely accepted as the greatest on-screen martial arts fight of all time.   The Hong Kong crew flew out to Rome on May 4th and within two weeks they were flying back.   Bruce worked tirelessly on this film and seemed to be in happy spirits and in my opinion this is the best film that Bruce Lee ever done.  He looks like he's floating a few inches above the ground in these fight scenes which have yet to be surpassed even 30 years after his untimely passing.</div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B>Bruce as 'Tang Lung' in The Way of the Dragon</B></div> <div> <B><IMG SRC="18976590.jpg" border=0 width="118" height="89" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"><IMG SRC="18c755a0.jpg" border=0 width="117" height="90" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"><IMG SRC="18b78590.jpg" border=0 width="120" height="89" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></div> <div> "Fist of Fury' opened on March 22nd, 1972 and went on to smash the record set by 'The Big Boss.'  In the Philippines, it ran for over six months with full capacity, until the government had to pull it as to protect their domestic producers.  Bruce was now the 'King of Hong Kong' and was receiving offers from everywhere.  He was given cheques by total strangers for thousands of dollars.  When Bruce asked why, they would just say it's a gift.  Bruce did destroy the cheques but he became suspicious of old pals and didn't know who to trust.  Bruce said, "I was in a period when i didn't know who was trying to take advantage of me."  In August as he had completed the dubbing for 'The Way of the Dragon,' he helped his friend Unicorn Chan with the fight arranging for his new film, 'Unicorn Palm' (aka Fists of Unicorn).  Also this same month he started on his idea for his second Concord film that was eventually entitled, 'The Game of Death.'  The film was eventually released in 1978 and only showing around 12 minutes of the original footage.   Bruce Lee shot many hours of footage which sadly still remains mostly unseen to this day.   Bruce shot scenes with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Dan Inosanto in September and Hapkido Grandmaster Ji Han Jae in October 1972.  The same month he finalized his new film contract in the U.S.  This was to be 'Enter the Dragon.'  In December 1972 Master Yip Man (Bruce's Wing Chun teacher) died and Bruce made a late night visit to pay his respects.  On the 31st, 'The Way of the Dragon' opened and smashed the record set by 'Fist of Fury.'  The Warners crew arrived in Hong Kong in January, 1973 and Bruce finally started filming 'Enter the Dragon' on Feb 1st and therefore temporarily stopped filming  'The Game of Death' which was only half-finished.  In April after completion, Bruce returned to 'The Game of Death' filming but tragedy struck on May 10th.  While Bruce was dubbing his voice for 'Enter the Dragon' he went to a rest room and promptly collapsed.  A Golden Harvest employee found him on the floor searching for his glasses and when they brought him back to the dubbing room he collapsed again and went into convulsions.  Raymond Chow was informed and he was sent to the hospital.  He was prescribed Manitol and after a couple of hours returned back to normal.  The doctors said he was very close to death.  Bruce went to the U.S. for a thorough examination and the doctors said he had the body of a 18 year old.  He did a series of costume sessions for 'Shaw Bros.' for a film he was considering to do and was getting offers from everywhere.  One contract which interested Bruce was to do another film for 'Warners' and on completion he or any member of his family would receive US$100,000 every year until they died.  In an article in 'The China Mail' on June 28th, Bruce commented, "It gives me security in the years ahead and makes taxation much easier.  Besides, it doesn't bar me from working with any other studio."  On July 10th Bruce had a run in with Director Lo Wei and the police were called to the Golden Harvest studios.  On HK TV that same night he was quizzed about the incident and demonstrated a simple shoulder power move on the presenter.  The presenter went flying and the next day, the press rounded up on Bruce and called him a big bully.  Unfortunately Bruce died ten days later on July 20th, 1973 at the apartment of Betty Ting Pei at 67 Beacon Hill Road, Kowloon.  He was only 32 years old!!</div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <A HREF="id58.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Special Event"><U><B><U>Click Here - Index Page</U></B></U></A></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>