Finishing the Game
I’ve done a pretty good job of abusing the membership to the Museum of the Moving Image that my wife got me last year for Christmas, which gives me free access to nearly all of their screenings. Fortunately they’ve really done an amazing job with the programming. One of my favorite programs has to the monthly Fist and Sword series that Warrington Hudlin curates, a series devoted to martial arts flicks of all types. Last month I experienced 13 Assassins for the first time (I know!) there, and had a helluva time seeing it on the big screen. Blu-ray is one thing, but that’s one film that deserves to be seen on the big screen with a crowd stuffed with Miike fans.
Today as part of the series they screened Finishing The Game: The Search for a New Bruce Lee, the mockumentary by Justin Lin (Fast Five). I mostly liked it. The idea is simple enough- it’s based on what could have happened when the producers of The Game of Death were trying to find replacement for Bruce Lee to finish up the flick.
For those unaware- Bruce Lee was in the middle of shooting Game of Death in 1972 when Warner Bros. came by and threw a truckfull of money of him to star in Enter the Dragon, a Chinese-American production that boasted the largest budget ever for the genre. Bruce Lee put his passion project on hold in the hopes that this would elevate his career, but it was not to be. Soon after shooting the film he died of cerebral edema at the age of 32, with most reports pointing to asprin as the culprit (really). To finish the film director Robert Clouse took the 11 minutes of footage that Lee had finished and mashed it up with a mixture of unlicensed footage from his from older films (First of Fury, etc.) along with newly shot footage that utilized stand-ins and stunt doubles, and a horrible story about Lee faking his death and getting facial reconstructive surgery.
Finishing the Game is both a spoof and a satire, a critical look at both how Asian Americans are portrayed on film and how they let themselves be portrayed. There’s a wide array of people competing for the part of Bruce Lee and they all have their own reasons for it. The film is unfortunately played very tongue in cheek- the film could easily have been played straight like a Christopher Guest film and been even funnier. But instead we have silly stuff like a white guy (with a Chinese mother!) complaining how everyone calls him railroad worker. It’s too on the nose and not as clever as it wants to be. The interviews simply don’t feel like intereviews either- they feel like monologues that the actors are delivering, and as such the fake documentary trappings come off as false.
That’s not to say the film isn’t funny- it definitely is. There are some great jokes here, including a hysterical moment as a police officer overshares information about a film star’s death. But by the second act of the film the gimmick starts to get old, the film sags, and never really recovers.
Still, on the whole a fun flick that makes a lot of interesting (although mostly obvious) points about Asians in Hollywood.
Next month as part of the Fist and Sword screening the Museum is screening Woo-ping Yuen’s True Legend. Can’t wait.
