Joseph P. Ulibas
The Big Boss (1971) was Bruce Lee's big return to Hong Kong after starting out his career as a child actor, acting in twenty films before studying aboard overseas in the United States. Wanting to become a big star,Lee honed his skills as an actor by appearing in bit roles in Hollywood but being of Asian descent was a handicap due to the industry's glass ceiling. Already a celebrity due to his appearance on the television series Batman and his legendary fighting prowess, Bruce Lee was on the cusp of being a megastar. All he needed was one film to launch him into the stratosphere.Bruce Lee stars as country boy Cheng Chao-an who is sent to Thailand to live with his cousins due to some trouble in Hong Kong. During his stay, his relatives help him find work at a local ice factory. Unfortunately, the place is just a front for drugs and those who don't join in the festivities become permanent residents in the ice house. When his cousins start to disappear one by one, Chao-an decides to investigate and realizes there's more to it than meets the eye.What could have and should of been a regular action film has become one of the most innovating Kung-Fu flicks of the early seventies. Bruce Lee's physical acting and charisma are on full display here. But he's slightly handicapped by director's Lo Wei's hamfisted/cartoonish direction and action choreographer's Han Ying-Cheh's stiff style. Despite this, Lee's performance shines very brightly setting himself up for a fast track career to immortality.
lanimag
Bruce Lee movie which has some crudeness of production, but overall effect is great. There are some technical misgivings to overcome. I MYSELF, PERSONALLY, appreciate image and sound quality a lot, however am compelled to value movies as stories primarily. The STORY is very Nuanced and Sociological. THis is not an oversimplified action movie. I have heard some people listen to the music and watch the action and deem it a good action movie. My OPINION is that the action submits itself to this story. In LEE's later but perhaps more popular movie ENTER the DRAGON, the Story is very simple, and the action dominates the movie.The acting of Bruce Lee and his regular actors is quite good, some of the bad guy side acting is lacking a bit. The Fighting scenes are SOMEWHAT sparingly done, but all very poignant. The choreography of action is best in the popular world in my opinion. The realisticness of the hits, drama of fighting is fabulous. WHile the general cinematography is decent in this movie, the fight scene camera work, angles, editing, seems to be a science which few have perfected like Bruce Lee to this day. This spectacularness, along with well choreographed moves, sit on a foundation of a well developed story.T H A N K S F O R R E A D I N G ! ! ! !
dworldeater
Bruce Lee explodes on the screen in his excellent debut in The Big Boss. Bruce is Chen, who moves to Bangkok to create a new life for himself and is under a vow to never fight again and is left with a green medallion from his mother as a reminder. He almost gets into a fight at his arrival with some local thugs, but abstains. Chen stays in a house with his cousins and they get him a job at the local ice factory. The ice factory is a front for drug trafficking and once a block of ice is cracked open, two workers discover their employer's nefarious packages and are never seen again. Events then escalate and a large brawl breaks out. Chen finds his green medallion shattered and Chen fights like mad. The violence then escalates throughout the rest of the film leaving Chen little choice on his mission of justice. The Big Boss is a cheap production, even for HK films of its era. However, Bruce carries the film easily with his eclectic, intense presence, flawless physique and super human fighting skills. Of Bruce's films The Big Boss is also the bloodiest. Audiences never saw anything like Bruce Lee before and the film was a huge hit. Bruce became an instant cultural icon on par with The Beatles in Hong Kong. Great debut and an essential martial arts classic!
S Ali
I am a massive fan of Bruce Lee, this film is not better than Enter the Dragon or Fist of Fury but the story is good, the fight scenes are OK but look silly, we all know that it's old fashion.I never buy video or DVD to watch this film but I recorded it on channel 4 in early 1997 and I still got the video tape. I think the Chinese language is mandarin, not cantonese, I might be wrong but it doesn't sound like cantonese. And the fight scene, Bruce killed the 'Big boss' with his bare hands and another scene, Bruce went to hotel to find out where the big boss is, both did actually show on TV, there might be more but I can't remember. While I copied the video to a new tape, I cut up the TV adverts and some unnecessary scenes because it was too long. I believe that some scenes were still exists that no-one have seen it before, I didn't realise and I should keep the whole version.
AD
