The Big Boss (1971)
aka Fists
of Fury
Chinese Title: 唐山大兄
Translation: Tangshan Brother
Cast: Bruce Lee, Maria Yi, Hang
Ying-Chieh, James Tien, Lee Kwan, Lam Ching-Ying, Billy Chan, Lau Wing
Director: Lo Wei
Action Director: Han Ying-Chieh,
Bruce Lee
For a film that was as successful worldwide as it was—grossing about 50 million dollars on a budget of about 100,00 USD—and for as many releases on VHS and DVD that the film has had over the years, I’m sure enough people have seen it that a detailed plot summary is unnecessary. Bruce Lee plays Cheng Chao’an, a Chinese[2] transplant to Thailand who goes to work with his cousins and other Chinese immigrants at the local ice factory. The factory is run by Hsiao Mi (Han Ying-Chieh, who also pulled action direction duties), and is a front for his dope smuggling business. Two of the Chinese workers discover this during an accident, and are susequently snuffed to guarantee their silence. When Sheng Shu (James Tien, who looked like he was being groomed at the time to become Golden Harvest’s answer to David Chiang), sort of the lead Chinese employee, pressures Hsiao Mi about their disappearance, he gets offed, too. Tensions between the Chinese employees at the factory and their Thai overseers reach the boiling point and Bruce Lee soon finds himself standing up for his countrymen.
There isn’t much in the story that one might call “layered” or “profound.” It’s probably the earliest example of a martial arts film in which our hero fights drug dealers, but it wouldn’t be the first action movie that does so. The end has our hero fighting for revenge more than for justice, but by 1971, it was far from being the first martial arts film do that. One may try to pry into the story and extract a tale about the plight of the Chinese immigrant in other Asian countries, but despite the fact that the factory foreman is a grade-A prick, it’s not really explicit that the Thais are mistreating the Chinese except for when they get too nosy. Moreover, the fact that the villain is Chinese himself suggests once again that any animosity from the Thai factory workers toward the Chinese arises more from caution, then from any overt racism on their part.
The film was released on October 31st, 1971, about three weeks after the release of the Shaw Brothers production Duel of Fists, another film set in Thailand. I wonder if the films’ setting is a case of convergent evolution, but considering that Ni Kuang wrote Duel of Fists and the original script for The Big Boss, it might’ve been the case of the writer just having Thailand on his mind at the time. Interestingly enough, this is one of the few Chinese films I’ve seen set in Thailand—or any non-Thai film set in Thailand—that doesn’t feature muay thai in any form. There’s a brief moment during a brawl at the ice factory where it looks like the foreman is clinching and kneeing someone, but that’s about it.
Speaking of brawls, it’s obvious that Bruce Lee and his fighting is the only reason this film is really remembered today. The credited action director is Han Ying-Chieh, whose career we have previousy discussed in Come Drink With Me (1966) and Dragon Inn (1967). Had he been the only action director, however, I’m sure this film would quickly forgotten. The fights during the first half of the movie, which center around co-star James Tien, are very much early 70s “basher” fighting of the lowest pedigree: swingy-arm punches with no power behind them; kicks that struggle to reach belt level; arms flailing wildly whenever someone throws a kick, as opposed to keeping them in a defensive posture. The fact that most of the fighting goes to James Tien goes to show how much Raymond Chow was banking on him going on to bigger things. The choreography during the first factory skirmish is equally sloppy in its execution, despite there being some future kung fu stars present, such as a young Lam Ching-Ying.
And then Bruce Lee steps up to the plate during the aforementioned factory melee, and immediately you understand why he was so important to martial arts cinema during the 70s. His kicks are high, fast and crisply executed. His punches are powerful. His entire persona is one of intensity once he gets into fighting posture. He’s a fighting machine and was light years ahead of what David Chiang, Ti Lung and Jimmy Wang Yu were doing at the same time. Bruce gets three fights: a short one at the end of the factory riot (look for a young Peter Chan pulling a knife on Bruce Lee at one point), a longer one at the factory before the climax, and the final showdown between Bruce and Han Ying-Chieh at the mansion. The two go at it with fists and kicks, and Han Ying looks more like Bruce’s equal than some of his other opponents, like Shek Kin and Riki Hashimoto. Moreover, their fight actually feels like an actual exchange of punches, blocks and counterattacks, which doesn’t always happen in a Bruce film because his characters are too powerful. Halfway through the fight, Han Ying whips out a pair of knives and things get really bloody, with a slight hint of absurdity to top things off.
The inclusion of knives, in addition to sticks, hatchets and chains, in the fighting is an example of the film wearing its predecessors’ influence—namely Vengeance!; The Duel; and The Chinese Boxer—on its sleeve. I assume that producers weren’t completely convinced of Bruce’s overall appeal at this stage, so the filmmakers stuck with more established tropes in the action. Notice that his trademark nunchaku skills do not show up in this freshman effort of his. It also seems that Bruce Lee’s patented kiai, or screams, are also toned down in this film. Of Bruce Lee’s five films, The Big Boss feels the less “Bruce-iest” of the lot. Nonetheless, this film’s mammoth success guaranteed Bruce that he’d be given a lot more elbow room for his next films.
[1] - Amusingly enough, they’re
watching the English dub, which probably wouldn’t have existed at the time.
Would it have been so hard for a multi-million-dollar Hollywood production to
find the Chinese version on film?
[2] - Dialog from his uncle suggests
that they came from a farming community, so I wonder if they were from the
Guangdong province and not from Hong Kong.
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