Scene which has long been the holy grail for fans will feature in a new box set marking the 50th anniversary of the star’s death

Long-lost unseen footage of the celebrated “log fight” scene from the Bruce Lee film Game of Death is to be released in a new box set marking the 50th anniversary of the famed actor and martial artist’s death.

Lee, who shot to fame around the world with the 1973 film Enter the Dragon, died on 20 July 1973 before he could complete shooting on Game of Death, which eventually emerged in 1978, incorporating some of the original footage in a largely reshot and rewritten version.

He made just four films and was crudely stereotyped, but brought Hong Kong-flavoured action to Hollywood and changed the face of Asian cinema for ever

It is not certain that Bruce Lee would have seen a kung fu duel involving sex toys as a fitting tribute to his legacy, but the Oscar triumph of Everything, Everywhere All At Once earlier this year is a reminder, 50 years after his death, of what a trail he has blazed. Lee smashed down the door for Asian representation pretty much single- (and bare-) handedly, even if he died too soon to be a beneficiary of it.

Lee is one of those rare stars who is bigger than his movies. Despite leaving a slim body of work – just four complete films – he practically spawned a whole genre, and wrote the book for Hollywood action to this day. Lee runs through the DNA of global culture: video games, hip-hop and mixed martial arts, not to mention the general rise of the super-fit, zero-body-fat masculine physical ideal. The fact that he died young, in perplexingly banal circumstances (a reaction to a painkiller) only burnishes his myth.