The Big Boss [唐山大兄] (1971)
AKA Fists of Fury
Starring Bruce Lee, Maria Yi Yi, James Tin Jun, Nora Miao, Lee Kwan, Han Ying-Chieh, Lau Wing, Gam Saan, Chan Chue, Ma La Lene
Directed by Lo Wei
Expectations: I’m so excited.
In case you’ve forgotten: Bruce Lee is badass. I’ve been eagerly awaiting re-watching this film for review, and it didn’t disappoint. It’s always been a favorite of mine, and seeing it within the context of the Shaw films released around it gave it a whole new spin. Maybe it’s not the best martial arts film if you hold it up against later genre entries, but Bruce’s charisma is more than enough to entertain and for its era this is pretty great stuff.
Like watching the later, Lo Wei-directed Jackie Chan films, watching The Big Boss after having seen Lo’s Shaw Brothers films was a new experience. I’ve always thought the film was somewhat slow, especially in its first hour, but now I know this is par for the Lo Wei course. He’s much more about metered plotting than blasting out action, and The Big Boss is a great example of this. And honestly, it’s a very well-paced film during this section if you relax a bit from your Bruce Lee bloodlust. He’s gonna kick the shit out of plenty of dudes, just hold your horses.
The first hour skillfully sets the stage for those ass-handings by focusing on James Tien instead of Bruce Lee. It always feels like Lee is the main character (and perhaps that’s just a product of me knowing he’s the main character), but Lo Wei, knowing the audience’s desire to see Lee kick ass, purposefully writes in a story conceit to make him abstain from fighting for the first hour. Bruce looks on with a cocky, disinterested look while James Tien does his best “movie kung fu” fueled by mid-range Shaw Brothers-style choreography (from ex-Shaw actor/choreographer Han Ying-Chieh, who also plays the big boss). Within just a few moments, it becomes clear that Bruce is the best fighter on-screen and he hasn’t even moved a muscle. And when a couple of henchmen stumble by and he knocks them out with a couple of quick, nonchalant strikes, even the blind members of the audience clearly know his power.
This creates something of an interesting dynamic between Bruce’s realistic kung fu style and the more melodramatic, arms-flailing style of old-school choreography. As real martial artists were still generally a rare thing in the martial arts films of 1971, you could easily view the first hour of The Big Boss as not just a slow build-up to the film’s story, or to Bruce Lee’s first fight, but also to the awakening of the Hong Kong moviegoing audience. By the time Bruce is about to throw his first kick of the film, we’re hungry and salivating for it. Even though we haven’t seen him fight yet, he’s been built up so much that this moment must be incredible to live up to it.
And even though I’ve seen this movie before, the first kick thrown by Bruce Lee blew me away. With that kick, Lee threw down the gauntlet to the Hong Kong film industry. After you’ve seen a real martial artist display his skill, you cannot easily go back to the traditional Shaw Brothers way of doing things. (Of course, I have to and will do so willingly, but you get the point.) Bruce’s first kicks are impressive and realistic and in stark contrast to every other fighter in the film. At that point in The Big Boss, perhaps 100 kicks had been thrown collectively by everyone but Bruce Lee, but in two quick kicks Bruce Lee became the world’s biggest martial arts star. The Big Boss became the highest grossing Hong Kong film of all time up to that point; its record standing tall until the release of Lee’s second film, Fist of Fury.
That all being said, there are tons of things about The Big Boss that are done in virtually the same way they’d have been done if this was a Shaw film. The fights feature many instances of the trampoline jumps common to Shaw films. The violence is brutal and doesn’t shy away from copious amounts of flowing, candy apple red blood (although the Golden Harvest blood formula does look more real than the Shaw’s). There’s a distinct focus on long knives, as well, which feels like a direct influence from the Chang Cheh film The Duel.
And while The Duel is definitely a better and more consistently entertaining martial arts film, The Big Boss has one major thing over The Duel (in addition to Bruce Lee): location shooting. The film is set in Thailand and was actually shot there. By not staging the battles and the drama on fabricated sets, it instantly elevates the film to a more realistic place and makes it a more marketable film outside of Hong Kong. I love the Shaw sets, but even a huge fan like me must acknowledge that they do kind of hold them back from being more widely popular. After realistic films set amidst real locations, it’s a little hard to buy back into the Shaw format, especially for the Western audience who was never bought in to begin with. I honestly think this is a huge reason why the film became such a huge success globally. Besides, of course, the whole Bruce Lee thing.
While The Big Boss was a groundbreaking genre achievement, I can’t ignore that the film is too long. It’s only 99 minutes, but a good portion of that can be summed up with “Workers go missing and the rest of the workers ask questions, only to be placated by the management with ‘We called the police. We’ll let you know when we hear something.'” There’s only so much of that that is believable, but even this can’t hold down the film for me. But it’s a definite flaw, I can’t deny that.
They also hold back pretty well on the Bruce Lee action. This is fine, there’s more than enough action for the story, but after Bruce is revealed as the consummate badass, it just makes it that much harder to sit through the slower paced scenes that Lo Wei is especially fond of. But “slower paced” doesn’t necessarily mean bad, and when these scenes eventually break away to reveal the film’s final 30 minutes, your wait is most definitely rewarded. The ice house fight is full of great moments, but it’s all about the finale at the big boss’s mansion. When Bruce Lee walks into a fight eating chips, and then eats a few more in between kicks to dudes’ faces, you know you’re in for a good fight.
The Big Boss introduced Bruce Lee to the Hong Kong film industry in stunning fashion. Had he signed with Shaw Brothers as he initially was courted to, I don’t know that he would’ve set the world on fire in quite the same way. It took a special convergence of events and people, and The Big Boss is definitely that. Does it live up to the bar set by later films? Of course not, but it shouldn’t be judged as such. As Bruce’s debut martial arts film, it’s an excellent piece of work. It’s also one of Lo Wei’s best looking films, filled with beautiful widescreen cinematography. I’m sure most of you have already seen it, but if not, what are you waiting for?
Next up in this chronological jaunt through the Shaw Brothers Martial Arts catalog: we’re back to the Shaw Brothers for Chor Yuen’s first film with the studio, Duel for Gold! See ya next week!
This is a good movie, but the biggest drawback is they wait too long to unleash Bruce’s skills. It seems like his talents are somewhat wasted. He should have been kicking ass from start to finish.
I think that’s most people’s complaint with this one, but I thought it was fine. The build-up to Bruce’s fight creates a great anticipation, and seeing a lot of “movie kung fu” prior to Bruce doing anything helps him stand out even more from the crowd.
This film was absolutely incredible, not only for Bruce’s fighting but the tension of the build up to the finale and the incredible location shooting. The minute that Bruce landed his first kick on the bad guy’s face led to an instant deep satisfaction in me. The end fight against the Big Boss was just superb and Bruce’s KO move against him (right in between the ribs!) remains an all time classic.
I just wonder if Bruce Lee had signed up with the Shaw Bros then would he still have become the super star he actually became? I’ve heard that Run Run Shaw himself said that his biggest mistake was rejecting Bruce because of a dispute over salary, Run Run felt Bruce was not worth the price that Bruce had asked for, so the latter left for Golden Harvest. At the time, Shaw Bros had plenty of stars of their own (Lo Lieh in particular) that could do a good martial arts movie and of course with directors the quality of Chang Cheh they were perhaps still snobbishly confident over their upstart rivals Golden Harvest. Looking back in time, the Big Boss probably had some influence on King Boxer which was released one year after, and it’s just fun to speculate how Bruce Lee would have fitted into roles if he was at Shaw Bros. Just imagine how Chang Cheh would have used him!
I completely agree. Lots of people say this movie is boring, but I’ve always enjoyed the slow pace and the building of tension. And like you say that first kick to the face is an incredible release of that tension.
This one definitely influenced King Boxer, I think, if not most martial arts films following Bruce’s emergence on the Hong Kong film industry. I also wonder what would’ve been if Bruce had been with the Shaw Brothers. I have a feeling his athleticism would have shined through, but I also wonder if he would’ve been somewhat restrained to share his personal style like how Jackie Chan was in his initial films.
Have you seen the photos of Bruce testing out costumes at the Shaw Studio while they were negotiating with him? There’s a bunch and they definitely show a bit of what might have been. I’ll have to look for them when I get back to my computer and I’ll link them.
Here’s all the photos of Bruce Lee at Shaw that I’ve seen over the years:
http://silveremulsion.tumblr.com/post/115145425262/gutsanduppercuts-bruce-lee
http://silveremulsion.tumblr.com/post/20588379902/evileaub-bruce-lee-shaw-brothers-test-photos
http://silveremulsion.tumblr.com/post/25702951616/evileaub-bruce-lee-more-shaw-brother-screen
http://silveremulsion.tumblr.com/post/26248559301/evileaub-bruce-lee-another-shaw-brothers-test
Thanks! Golden Harvest prided themselves on allowing more creative work to be done than Shaw Bros (at least that’s what they thought!), so I’m kind of glad that he went with GH and not SB, because there was just the slim chance that he would be stifled somewhat when he’s competing against the likes of Lo Lieh, David Chang or Ti Lung. Granted, none of them have the martial prowess of Bruce but Shaw Bros does give me the impression of just wanting to crank out as many films as possible within a specified period of time (though admittedly nearly all of them are well worth watching) while Golden Harvest being just an upstart studio at the time needed that big charismatic star and luckily the Little Dragon was happy and capable of obliging.
Golden Harvest was definitely more open to different ideas. No matter the director at the Shaw Brothers there was always an overarching Shaw style that’s visible in all their films. Golden Harvest films feel more reflective of each filmmaker. And yeah, I get the feeling too that Shaw was more interested on cranking out movies than true creativity. But there are directors in that system that still managed to further their artistic pursuits like Chang Cheh. He was always trying to push the genre forward.
Thanks for the fine review of the film, and those great pics of Bruce from the Shaw Bros. Looking at those pics, I am really glad Bruce went with Golden Harvest. It is funny, though I believe Bruce’s first two films are period pieces, but because of their budgets, they come off much more as modern films, this also may have helped in their success, especially in other parts of the world, including in the USA. I do not have a copy of his first three films anymore, but will be picking them up again, but in my memory I seem to recall in one of the shots in the Big Boss finale, there was a car driving by in the background, behind the trees. Again I cannot confirm this, just a memory, and it is not a knock on the film, just a trait of low budget.
As far as holding Bruce back, I think this is fine in the film, they did that to some extant for the follow up film, the scene at the wake, where the translator is taunting the students, it come close to breaking out into violence, close to releasing us, the viewers into seeing some justice dealt out, but refrains from it, only to have Bruce repay their kindness showing up at their school and release his anger, and give us out joy. Anticipation is the name of the game to good story telling, especially if one can deliver the goods, it makes it all that much more satisfying.
Overall I think Bruce’s first two films are really well done for a small company forging into new territory, even if some of it is accidental, like folks forgetting the stories are set in the past, but they definitely work on an emotional level. So I think the writing producing, and directing all come together nicely, with Bruce being the amazing presence that keeps are eyes glued to the screen.
Again, thanks for the fine, and fair review, now really looking forward to seeing this film again, soon.
Thanks so much!
I’m glad he went with Golden Harvest as well. As much as I would like more Bruce Lee films, I don’t think he’d have been as successful or free to create within the Shaw studio system. Fist of Fury is definitely set in the past during the early Republic era, but I don’t know that I’ve ever really thought about the setting of The Big Boss. I agree with you that it does feel like it’s set in the past, but yet still modern. I think you’re right about that car driving during the final fight. I haven’t seen it in a few years, but that sounds right.
Golden Harvest was able to make these kinds of high-quality films because it was founded by veteran producers Raymond Chow and Leonard Ho, who both left Shaw Brothers after working there since the late ’50s. They specifically wanted to get away from the studio-bound Shaw style, so their movies feature a lot of location shooting that make them feel “more real” than the average Shaw movie. This is really evident on The Big Boss, and it gives it a real edge over the Shaw movies of its time. So yeah, they were a small upstart at the time, but the talent working there was already very experienced. Lo Wei was one of the Shaw’s biggest directors at the time he left to work with Golden Harvest.