The Best of Bruce Lee

Arrow Video’s definitive Bruce Lee collection – the stunning 10-disc UHD & Blu-ray box set Bruce Lee at Golden Harvest – features exclusive 4K restorations, hours of brand new bonus features and previously unreleased footage. We thought we should run through some of the movies in the great box set and bring you clips of Lee’s most amazing martial arts scenes.

The breathtaking box set is the ultimate tribute to Bruce Lee’s enduring legacy and fruitful collaboration with the legendary Golden Harvest studio. The set includes the extended Mandarin Cut of The Big Boss, now ten minutes longer than any version ever released on video worldwide and the never-before-seen ‘log fight’ from the original Game of Death shoot.

When former child actor and Hollywood TV sidekick Bruce Lee returned to his native Hong Kong in 1971 to star in two films for fledgling company Golden Harvest, movie history was made thanks to one of the most iconic partnerships between star and studio that cinema has ever seen. In only a handful of films, Lee high-kicked his way into audiences’ imaginations forever, thanks to his blistering screen presence and his masterful ‘Jeet Kune Do’ fighting technique.

The first two starring vehicles for Lee, The Big Boss and Fist of Fury (both directed by Lo Wei), smashed all box office records in Hong Kong and made him the most famous face on the continent. Lee asserted his artistic independence by directing, writing and starring in The Way of the Dragon, arguably his most thrilling and personal film. Tragically, on the cusp of achieving the international stardom he had long strived for, Bruce Lee died suddenly in 1973, aged only 32. Not to be outdone by the tidal wave of ‘Bruceploitation’ films that followed, Golden Harvest completed two posthumous films using unreleased footage, 1978’s Game of Death and its 1981 sequel, as well as two official documentaries, the first of which hit cinemas only three months after Lee’s death. Today, five decades since his passing, Bruce Lee continues to be the most beloved and influential martial artist in the world.

Enough talk lets run down some of Bruce Lee’s greatest cinematic moments along with the amazing extras on this 10-disc UHD & Blu-ray box set Bruce Lee at Golden Harvest.

Game of Death
Released five years after Bruce Lee’s death, this eccentrically entertaining kung-fu curio combines footage from an unfinished project directed by and starring Lee with original material shot by Enter the Dragon director Robert Clouse to create an entirely new work that testifies to the actor’s enduring place in the pop-culture imagination. Using stand-ins, doubles, and archival footage to compensate for Lee’s absence, Game of Death follows a martial-arts movie star who, when he is threatened by a cutthroat crime syndicate intent on controlling his career, must take his skills from the soundstage to the streets. It all builds to an exhilarating climax that is pure Lee: a tour de force of martial-arts mastery in which the legend himself, clad in an iconic yellow jumpsuit, fights his way up a multilevel pagoda, with the towering Kareem Abdul-Jabbar among his formidable opponents.

GAME OF DEATH (4K ULTRA HD BLU-RAY)

• 4K (2160p) UHD Blu-ray presentations in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible), newly restored by Arrow Films from original film elements, of the international cut and the Japanese cut via seamless branching
• Original newly restored English mono audio on both cuts
• English subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing
• Brand new feature commentary by Brandon Bentley & Mike Leeder
• The Song I’m Singing Tomorrow, a newly filmed interview with star Colleen Camp
• Deleted and extended scenes from the Chinese-language versions of the film, including two alternate endings (contains some standard-definition material)
• Archive interviews with co-stars Dan Inosanto and Bob Wall
• Behind-the-scenes footage as featured in Bruce Lee: The Legend
• Rare pre-production sales featurette from 1976 with new commentary by Michael Worth and producer Andre Morgan
• Fight scene dailies directed by Sammo Hung
• Locations featurette from 2013
• Trailer gallery, including Bruceploitation and ‘Robert Clouse at Golden Harvest’ trailer reels
• Image gallery

GAME OF DEATH: ALTERNATE VERSIONS (BLU-RAY)

• High Definition (1080p) Blu-ray presentation of the Chinese version of the film
• Original lossless Mandarin and Cantonese mono audio
• Newly translated optional English subtitles
• Archive interview with Casanova Wong from 2001 on his relationship with Sammo Hung, and Lee’s influence on him
• Two alternate Cantonese and Mandarin versions of the film in High Definition via seamless branching, with different credits, ending and reinstated Ji Han-jae fight (contains some standard-definition material)
• Archive featurettes on Lee’s life and impact: The Hong Kong Connection, Bruce Lee Remembered, Legacy of the Dragon, Dragon Rising and The Grandmaster & The Dragon, featuring interviews with Hung, Donnie Yen, William Cheung and many others
• Archive interviews with Robert Lee, Phoebe Lee, Pat Johnson, George Lee, Gene LeBell, Van Williams, Joe Torrenueva, Jeff Imada, Linda Palmer, Fred Weintraub, Tom Kuhn, Paul Heller and James Lew

GAME OF DEATH: BONUS DISC (BLU-RAY)

• The Final Game of Death, a brand new three-hour video essay by Arrow Films that incorporates a new 2K restoration of all two hours of Lee’s original dailies from a recently-discovered interpositive
• Game of Death: Revisited, an earlier attempt to reconstruct Lee’s original vision from 2001
• Super 8 footage from 1974 of Dan Inosanto demonstrating the nunchaku
• Brief archival interview with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar from 1976
• Image gallery

Its fight night for Lee below:

The Big Boss
Enter a legend. Bruce Lee’s return to the Hong Kong film industry after a decade in America proved to be his big breakthrough, launching him to superstardom and setting a new standard for kung-fu heroics. In The Big Boss, he commands the screen with his gravitas and explosive physicality in the role of a Chinese immigrant working at a Thai ice factory and sworn to an oath of nonviolence. When he discovers that the factory’s ruthless higher-ups are running a secret heroin ring and offing their own workers, his commitment to pacifism is put to the test. With his undeniable charisma and fluid, lightning-fast martial-arts style, Lee is a revelation, streaking across the screen with a speed and power the likes of which had never been seen before.

THE BIG BOSS (4K ULTRA HD BLU-RAY)

• 4K (2160p) UHD Blu-ray presentation in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible) of the 99-minute 1983 version of The Big Boss, newly restored by Arrow Films from the original negative
• Original newly restored lossless Mandarin, English and Cantonese mono audio
• Two English mono options, the standard mix and a Japanese mix with alternate score
• Newly translated English subtitles, plus optional subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing for the English dubs
• Two brand new feature commentaries, one by David Desser and one by Brandon Bentley
• Return to Thailand, a new documentary produced and presented by Matt Routledge exploring the original filming locations
• Newly uncovered deleted and extended scenes, with optional commentary by Bentley
• The Not-Quite-Biggest Boss, a video essay by Bentley investigating the scenes still lost, such as the ‘saw-in-the-head’ scene
• Archive interviews with co-star Lau Wing and stuntman Tung Wai
• Bruce Lee Vs. Peter Thomas, a short video essay about the music for the English version
• Alternate credits sequences
• Trailer gallery, including a ‘Before The Big Boss’ reel and the trailer for lost sequel The Big Boss Part II
• Image gallery

THE BIG BOSS: THE MANDARIN CUT (4K ULTRA HD BLU-RAY)

• 4K (2160p) UHD Blu-ray presentation in HDR10 of three alternate versions of The Big Boss with lossless mono audio, newly restored by Arrow Films: the 110-min Mandarin Cut, with restored Mandarin mono; the 100-min English Export Cut, featuring a rare alternate English dub track (some scenes in Mandarin); and the 100-min US Theatrical Cut
• Newly restored English subtitles for the Mandarin Cut
• Subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing on both English cuts
• Axis of English, a brand new video essay by Will Offutt profiling the English dubbing actors for The Big Boss, Fist of Fury and The Way of the Dragon
• Unrestored raw scan of the Mandarin Cut (1080p only)

Wanna fight? Bruce Lee does:

Fist of Fury
Set in 1910s Shanghai, Fist of Fury casts Lee as a martial-arts student who, after his revered master is murdered by a rival dojo of Japanese imperialists, sets out to defend the honor of both his school and the Chinese people, with his fatal fists as his weapon of choice. Elevating Lee to a hero of near folkloric proportions, this historical revenge fantasy blends its stunning action set pieces with a strong anticolonialist statement and a potent dose of the fierce cultural pride that the actor embodied.

FIST OF FURY (4K ULTRA HD BLU-RAY)

• 4K (2160p) UHD Blu-ray presentation in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible), newly restored by Arrow Films from the original negative
• Alternate ‘English Export Cut’ viewing option with different opening and closing credits via seamless branching
• Original newly restored Mandarin, English and Cantonese mono audio
• Two English mono options, the standard mix and a Japanese mix with alternate music
• Newly translated English subtitles, plus optional subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing on the English dubs
• Two brand new feature commentaries, one by Jonathan Clements and one by Brandon Bentley
• Legend of the Dragon, a newly filmed 80-minute overview of Lee’s life and career by film critic and historian Tony Rayns
• Visions of Fury, a new featurette on Bruce Lee’s collaboration with Golden Harvest and Lo Wei, featuring interviews with co-producer Andre Morgan and martial arts experts Michael Worth, Frank Djeng, John Kreng, Andy Cheng and Bruce Willow
• Archive interviews with co-stars Nora Miao, Riki Hashimoto, Jun Katsumura and Yuen Wah
• Alternate credits sequence
• Trailer gallery, including a Chen Zhen trailer reel
• Image gallery

Watch Lee take down a team of enemies in this One against Many clip:

The Way of the Dragon
Tang Lung (Lee) is a nai?ve country boy from Hong Kong who is shipped off to sunny Rome in order to assist a family friend whose Chinese restaurant is under threat from a local gangster. Training the waiters in self-defence while taking on Italian thugs single-handedly, the gangster decides to retaliate by flying in some of the best fighters from America (including Colt, played by Chuck Norris) and Japan to take Tang down. Soon the columns of the Colosseum will rumble with the sound of Tang Lung’s fury!

HE WAY OF THE DRAGON (4K ULTRA HD BLU-RAY)

• 4K (2160p) UHD Blu-ray presentations in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible), newly restored by Arrow Films from original film elements, of the Hong Kong Theatrical Cut and the Japanese Cut via seamless branching
• Original newly restored lossless Mandarin, English and Cantonese mono audio on the Hong Kong Theatrical Cut
• Alternate lossless English mono audio on the Japanese Cut
• Optional newly translated English subtitles
• Subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing on both English audio options
• Two brand new feature commentaries, one by Frank Djeng & Michael Worth and one by Brandon Bentley
• The Way of the Camera, a new documentary looking at Lee’s filmmaking and fighting method in his directorial debut, featuring interviews with Golden Harvest producer Andre Morgan, martial arts experts Michael Worth, Jon Kreng, Andy Cheng, Frank Djeng, David Yeung, film historian Courtney Joyner and actors Piet (Peter) Schweer, Jon Benn and John Saxon
• Meet the Italian Beauty, a newly filmed interview with star Malisa Longo
• The Scottish Soldier Meets the Dragon, a newly filmed interview with on-set observer John Young
• Newly recorded select scene commentary by ‘thug’ actor Piet Schweer
• Archive interviews with co-stars Jon Benn, Bob Wall and Hwang In-shik and production managers Chaplin Chang and Louis Sit
• Trailer gallery, including a Bruceploitation trailer reel
• Image gallery

Check out the classic Nunchuck Showdown below:

Bruce Lee trailer

BRUCE LEE AT GOLDEN HARVEST is the definitive collection, featuring exclusive 4K restorations by Arrow Video, hours of brand new bonus features and previously unreleased footage – including the extended Mandarin Cut of The Big Boss, now ten minutes longer than any version ever released on video worldwide, and the never-before-seen ‘log fight’ from the original Game of Death shoot – is the ultimate tribute to Bruce Lee’s enduring legacy and fruitful collaboration with Golden Harvest.

Grab your copy now.