The Big Boss

The Big Boss

Hong Kong movie poster
Traditional 唐山大兄
Simplified 唐山大兄
Mandarin Táng Shān Dà Xiōng
Cantonese Tong4 Saan1 Daai6 Hing1
Directed by Lo Wei
Produced by Raymond Chow
Written by Bruce Lee
Lo Wei
Starring Bruce Lee
Maria Yi
James Tien
Yin-chieh Han
Tony Liu
Music by Wang Fu-ling (original Mandarin version)
Peter Thomas (English dub version)
Joseph Koo (re-issued Cantonese version)
Distributed by Golden Harvest
Release date(s) Hong Kong:
October 3, 1971 (1971-10-03)
Running time 110 minutes
Country Hong Kong
Language Mandarin
Cantonese
Gross revenue HK $3,197,417

The Big Boss (Chinese: 唐山大兄, also known as Fists Of Fury) is a 1971 Hong Kong martial arts action drama thriller film written and directed by Lo Wei, and also written by Bruce Lee, and starring Lee, Maria Yi, James Tien and Tony Liu. This was Bruce Lee's first major film, it was written to star James Tien; however, Lee's strong performance relegated Tien, already a star in Hong Kong, to second billing. The film made Bruce Lee a major star across Asia.

Contents

Plot

Cheng is a Chinese man from Guangdong who has moved to Thailand to live with his uncle. He works in an ice factory with his cousins. When a block of ice is accidentally broken, a bag of white powder falls out. Cheng's cousins are asked to stay to see the manager, who tells them there are better jobs for them. The factory is really a front for a drug smuggling ring led by the Big Boss, Hsiao Mi. When the cousins refuse to cooperate, they are killed and their bodies disposed of.

Two more of Cheng's cousins, Hsu Chien and Ah Pei, go to Hsiao Mi's house to ask about their brothers. They realize he is acting suspicious and decide to inform the police. Hsiao Mi has them also killed, but not before Hsu kills two of their attackers. The Big Boss makes Cheng foreman, treating him with alcohol and prostitutes. One of the prostitutes reveals the truth to Cheng, who breaks into the factory at night and discovers his cousins' bodies. He is discovered by gangsters led by Hsiao Mi's son, Hsiao Chiun.

Cheng fights his way out, killing Hsiao Chiun and others. He returns home to find that his entire family has been murdered. He exacts revenge by killing Hsiao Mi in the final fight. He then surrenders to the Thai police, who arrive just after he has disposed of the Big Boss.

Cast

Shooting style

Bey Logan noted the main difference between Yin-Chieh Han and Bruce Lee:

Original Mandarin cut

When the movie was first released in 1971 in Hong Kong, the film featured multiple scenes that have since been removed from all mainstream cuts of the film. It is thought this is a result of the "1972 Hong Kong movie censorship crackdown", when Hong Kong martial arts films became censored for extreme violence. The The Big Boss originally included scenes of a body being cut in half with a circular saw, an artery cut with a knife causing blood to spew from a character's forehead, and most infamously a villain killed by "vertical partial cranial laceration" with a hand saw.

When these cuts were asked to be made, the editors also cut out full sequences, presumably to hasten the pace of the film. These scenes were cut:

  1. The first confirmed missing scene takes place after Cheng Chao-an and Hsiu Chien have beaten the six men from the casino. As they are walking down an alley, one of the remaining men appears, lights a cart of coal on fire and attempts to run them over with it. However, Hsiu grabs Cheng and they leap onto the side of a wall to avoid it.
    • A large number of photos from this missing scene were featured as an easter egg on the original "Hong Kong Legends" DVD.
  2. The next missing scene took place soon after the first. Cheng and Hsiu have returned home, and Hsiu doesn't hesitate to tell the other cousins all about what happened, right down to acting out a dramatization of the fight using Ah Kun as an example. The scene ends with Chiao Mei entering, presumably telling everyone that they need to get to bed.
    • Footage of Hsiu giving his example has appears in the original Mandarin trailer, and a still exists of the part in which Mei enters.
  3. The third takes place right after the stock footage sunrise shot. Cheng and his uncle get ready to leave for the ferry, Chiao Mei seeing them off with two small glasses of tea. They have their drinks, say their goodbyes and leave. The scene ends with Chiao Mei looking off as they leave.
    • The final shot, of Chiao Mei looking off after Cheng and his uncle as they leave, is present in the mainstream cuts. The deletion of Cheng and his uncle's departure makes it seem like she's simply watching the sunrise. In the mainstream cuts, when Mei knocks on the front door to wake everyone up, she can be seen her holding a tray with two empty glasses on it. A still of this scene exists as well.
  4. The next scene somehow involves Cheng and the girl who owns the drinkstand, played by Nora Miao.
    • This is one of three deleted scenes from the film that appear in the Mandarin trailer, but no one exactly remembers what took place in the full scene.
  5. The next cut is this first one involving violence, in which the first two cousins, Chen and Wong, are killed. In the mainstream cuts, the scene starts with Chen being killed with a hatchet to the head and Wong being killed with a knife to the stomach. Their bodies are taken to the circular saws, Wong's being the first to be cut. The mainstream versions end with the saw just reaching Wong's back, and then jump cuts to the ice containers being lowered into the freezer. It's been said that the original version shows Wong being cut completely in half with the saw, as well as various shots of the Thai foremen placing the severed limbs of Chen and Wong into the ice containers.
    • While no visible proof has been presented to substantiate these claims, in the edited Mandarin versions a jump cut in the music can clearly be heard where the cuts most likely took place.
  6. The next cut, which is a very short one, is when Hsiu's forehead is cut by Hsiao Chiun's knife. In the mainstream versions, the scene plays out with Hsiao Chiun leaping over Hsiu with his knife and then cuts to a shot of Chiun standing up, still holding the knife. However, in the uncut print, after Chiun has leapt over Hsiu, Hsiu's wound is clearly visible as he stumbles back with a gush of blood literally pouring from the top of his forehead.
    • This shot was previously only visible in a rare Spanish trailer for the film, which was only likely to be possessed by the most ardent collectors of Bruce Lee footage. However, the new Hong Kong Legends Platinum Edition DVD features a slightly better quality and full 2.35 widescreen version of the shot (as pictured).
  7. The next cut, and most recently acknowledged one, takes place during the banquet when Cheng Chao-an becomes drunk. In the regular prints, he sees Wu Mang (the prostitute), his vision blurs, and then he hallucinates, seeing Chiao Mei standing where Wu Mang was. However, according to the audio commentary on the Hong Kong Legends platinum edition DVD of the film, before he sees Chiao Mei, he first hallucinates and sees Wu Mang standing there topless. However, there is currently no visible proof in backing up this claim, only another eyewitness report.
  8. The next cut is from the scene in which Cheng investigates in the icehouse at night. While we see him discover a severed hand and a disembodied head, as well as the remains of Hsiu, apparently the scene was longer. One shot included a deformed face, caused by some type of trauma.
    • This shot was included in the aforementioned Spanish trailer as well.
  9. The next cut is the most widely known: the infamous "saw-in-the-head" shot. Despite the popularity of this shot, there are two interesting factors. First, many people believe that the shot itself was probably only 3–6 seconds. Also, many people have concluded that the scene only existed in the premiere print (as stated by co-star Maria Yi in a rare interview), and was never used in any of the releases after the premiere. According to the interview with Yi, apparently the shot was made up of a crudely put together animation and just did not look good. However, many people believe it was "reverse animation" in which a prop handsaw was created with a gap to put on the stuntman's head, and then Lee would quickly pull the prop off. Then, in post production it would be reversed to create the illusion of the saw going into his head.
    • While print of the shot is said to no longer exist, two completely different images of the shot do. One is a forty-five degree angled shot while the other (and more gruesome) one is a side shot (as pictured). The latter was most widely seen in the Bruce Lee documentary, Curse of the Dragon.
  10. The next cut takes place when Cheng arrives back home, only to find his remaining cousins murdered. The only shot that known to be missing is an extended shot of Ah Shan's dead body covered in blood.
    • The mainstream cuts simply cut away once Cheng has lifted Shan's mosquito net, but a jump cut in the music can be heard where the cut takes place.
  11. The next cut takes place when Cheng is sitting by the creek, involving superimposed shots of his dead cousins as Cheng looks into the creek. While the mainstream version shows a "group photo" style shot of the cousins, supposedly extra shots explicitly show their dead bodies. No full details have ever been released on what the images looked like.
  12. The next takes place during the same scene as the above, right after Cheng throws his possessions into the water. In the mainstream cuts, he simply looks up at the sky, then Cheng is shown running away. However, in the original print, Cheng raises his fist into proclaiming that he will get revenge.
    • In the mainstream cuts, just before Cheng runs off, we see his fist raised out of nowhere.
  13. The next cut is another entirely deleted scene, and another popular one alongside of the "saw-in-the-head" scene. After Cheng runs down the road from the creek, rather than cutting to him arriving at Hsiao Mi's mansion like the mainstream cuts, he returns to the brothel for a third time. Here, he picks up the prostitute in a red sweater-type dress (seen in the background the second time Cheng visits the brothel). Cheng and the prostitute go to her room, Cheng pushes her onto the bed, and the two begin to strip. Cheng stands in front of the bed, completely nude, but also completely emotionless. The shot apparently ends either fading or blurring out and back in to show Cheng putting his final article of clothing back on while the prostitute lies asleep. Cheng then takes out all of his money and lays it by the prostitute, which is apparently much more than he needs to pay. As he's about to leave, he grabs a bag of prawn crackers, which he is seen carrying when he finally arrives at the mansion later on.
    • The above scene is described in eyewitness reports and corroborated by a short amount of footage in the rare Mandarin trailer. In the mainstream cut, when listening to the Mandarin mono track (at least on the Universe Video CD version), a distinct jump cut in the music can be heard when Cheng arrives at the mansion, where the music plays for an extra second or two longer than it should, and then suddenly cuts off.
  14. Supposedly, there is at least one more cut in the finale after Hsiao Mi slashes Cheng's stomach. As with the fight with Hsiao Chiun, Cheng tastes his own blood. However, there's been little proof to back this deleted shot.

Allegedly, a print shown in London in 1979 as part of a Bruce Lee film festival did include all of these scenes, except for the "saw-in-the-head" shot. Also, rumors have spread about a Thai "live dub" version less than a decade ago in an alternate cut of the film which featured some of the above scenes but deleted some of the "regular" scenes; it was shown with live voice actors dubbing over the movie in Thai, as was formerly done in rural village open air showings. In 2004, a version was announced to be released on DVD by budget DVD company Video Asia titled 'The Big Boss: The Version You've Never Seen!'. The only unseen media on the disc that has been confirmed is the original rejected English dub, which used British voice actors as made famous by the English dubs of the Golden Harvest and Shaw Brothers films of the 1970. However, this dub is said to have been created in synch with the extended Mandarin print, as a rare export trailer of the film features the footage from the Mandarin trailer, but with English voice actors. Also, this dub features the original score by Wang Fu Ling rather than the regular English dub score by Peter Thomas. Due to copyright issues, this "Version You've Never Seen" still has not been seen by the mainstream public, and is currently only in the hands of a select few collectors. However, a two-minute clip of the opening from this version is on YouTube (see external links).

Alternate title confusion

When The Big Boss was being prepared for American distribution, it was going to be retitled as The Chinese Connection, as a play on the popular The French Connection, seeing as how both films dealt with drug trafficking. Meanwhile, Bruce Lee's second film, Fist of Fury, was going to be virtually identical in terms of its title, with the only difference being that it would be Fists of Fury rather than Fist of Fury. However, somewhere between being exported from Golden Harvest studios to being imported to US independent film company National General Pictures, the titles ended up being switched. As a result, The Big Boss became Fists of Fury and Fist of Fury became The Chinese Connection. To this day, there is still confusion among the titles, yet film purists refer to the two films under their original titles. Recent American TV showings and the recent official US DVD release, originally available in The Bruce Lee Ultimate Collection box set, from Twentieth Century-Fox have restored the original titles of all the Bruce Lee films that were renamed; as of 2004 this film is now officially called The Big Boss in the United States. The current DVD version also has a subtitle that says "A.K.A. Fists of Fury" when "The Big Boss" title appears on screen since the source material is the Fortune Star digital remasters.

Alternate music scores

Unlike other Bruce Lee films, The Big Boss is unique in that there are not only two, but three completely different music scores. Fist of Fury, Way of the Dragon, Enter the Dragon, and Game of Death all only feature one score, albeit possibly with minor alterations.

The first music score for the film was composed by Shaw Brothers veteran composer Wang Fu-ling, who worked on films such as The Chinese Boxer and One-Armed Swordsman. This score was made intentionally for the Mandarin language version, as well as the first version of the English dub. The score has a sound to it very similar to other martial arts movie scores at the time, especially the Shaw Brothers films. While Wang was the only one to receive credit, it is also believed that fellow Shaw Brothers veteran composer Chen Yung-yu assisted with the score. Reason for this speculation is that a few of the music cues in the film echo those from the Shaw Brothers film The Duel, also composed by Chen. This is most evident when comparing the music from the scene in The Big Boss in which Cheng looks desperately for Chiao Mei with the music from the very last shot in The Duel. They sound nearly identical, with the music from The Duel sounding slightly slower. It should also be of interest to note that Wang Fu-ling is credited in every version of the film as music composer, even if his music isn't used. It is believed that the French theatrical release of the film featured this score, as the French theatrical trailer features only Wang Fu-ling's score.

The second, and most popular, of the music scores was composed by German composer Peter Thomas. His work on the film did not become widely known until 2005, when most of the music he composed for the film appeared on iTunes in a Big Boss collection. The story behind Thomas's involvement stems from the complete reworking of the English dub of the film. As mentioned above, there was an earlier English dub which was rejected. This earlier version of the dub featured the classic British voice actors who worked on virtually every Shaw Brothers film, and also used Wang Fu-ling's score. However, while unknown as to who made this decision (many believe National General Pictures, the company who released the film in America), the choice was made to scrap this dub to make a new English dub that would stand out in comparison to the other martial arts films at the time. New voice actors were brought in to re-dub the film in English, and with this, Peter Thomas (composer) was called in to re-score the film, completely abandoning Wang Fu-ling's original score. As mentioned earlier, most of his work on the film appeared on an iTunes compilation entitled The Big Boss/Die Todesfaust Des Cheng Li. However, the compilation is missing a few tracks:

  1. "Moontown"
    • This track is available on the library album Orion 2000, released on LP, and is very hard to find. It is also found on the re-release of the 'Raumpatrouille' LP as a bonus track, on Bungalow Records. This music cue was used in two parts of the English dub of The Big Boss. The first is when Hsiu Chien and Ah Pei try to leave Hsiao Mi's mansion. The second is when Cheng Chao-an returns to the brothel to see Wu Mang.
  2. "Communication in Hyperspace"
  3. "EKG"
    • This track is also available on Warp Back to Earth, and was used in the scene when Chiao Mei cries about Cheng and the others not finding Hsiu Chien.

There are others missing, but they may be library tracks never officially released to the public. Aside from this, while the mainstream English dub of the film features the Peter Thomas score, it is also believed that the German dubbed version features his score, especially with the reference to the German title of the film on the iTunes compilation. Thomas's score was expanded upon for the Italian version of the film, strangely enough, a couple of Wang Fu-ling's music cues having "snuck into" this version alongside.

The third score is the 1983 Cantonese release score, which primarily features music from Golden Harvest composer Joseph Koo. However, a good portion of Joseph Koo's music in the Cantonese version was originally created in 1974 for the Japanese theatrical release of The Big Boss, which was half Koo's music and half Peter Thomas'. Golden Harvest simply took Koo's music from the Japanese version and added it to the Cantonese version. Aside from this, this version is most infamous for its use of the Pink Floyd music cues "Time" and "Obscured by Clouds", as well as King Crimson's "Larks' Tongues In Aspic, Part Two." At one point, Pink Floyd's "Time" as well as their track "The Grand Vizier's Garden Party (Entertainment)" are mixed together to create a more sinister tone when Hsiu Chien and Ah Pei leave "The Boss"'s mansion. It is uncertain as to whether or not any music was actually created specifically for this version, or if it is all stock and unlicensed music. As mentioned earlier, Wang Fu-ling is given credit for the music in this version despite having nothing to do with it. In addition, the one country that had used the appropriate imported title was Australia.

Other actors as Bruce Lee playing Cheng Chao-an

Various Bruce Lee biopics have been filmed over the years, with the two most famous being Bruce Lee: The Man, The Myth and Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story and The Rising Dragon. Both of these films feature their respective actors, Bruce Li and Jason Scott Lee, at one point acting as Lee on the set of The Big Boss. Both films feature a variation of the rumor that Lee was challenged on the set by a Thai boxer. In Myth, Lee was challenged on set and was caught in the middle of an ambush later on off the set. In Dragon, Lee is challenged during an actual take during filming of The Big Boss, wearing the trademark rolled up long sleeve white t-shirt, white sash, and black pants. Both of these are highly exaggerated accounts (not to mention that Dragon makes the mistake of saying that filming for The Big Boss began in July 1970 rather than in July 1971), as the story told is that Lee merely discusses martial arts with a Thai fighter on the set. Besides these two examples, a third Bruce Lee biopic, The Legend of Bruce Lee, this time with Danny Chan Kwok Kwan as Lee and filmed in mini-series form, will be shown in Hong Kong in 2008 as part of China's hosting of the summer Olympics. Once again, this biopic will have Lee encountering a Thai boxer on the set of The Big Boss, this time with the challenger being played by martial arts film veteran Mark Dacascos. Photos and behind-the-scenes video of this scene have appeared on various websites, including Dacascos's official site.

Trivia

VHS releases

4 Front United Kingdom)

4 Front(United Kingdom)

20th Century Fox (America)

DVD releases

Universe (Hong Kong)

Mega Star (Hong Kong)

Fortune Star - Bruce Lee Ultimate DVD Collection (Hong Kong)

Fox (America)

Fox - Bruce Lee Ultimate Collection (America)

Hong Kong Legends - Special Collector's Edition (United Kingdom)

Hong Kong Legends - Platinum Edition (United Kingdom)

Blu-ray Disc release

Kam & Ronson (Hong Kong)

References

  1. ^ The Big Boss, Bey Logan Audio Commentary (DVD featurette) (DVD). Hong Kong Legends, UK. 1971 (film), 2001 (DVD). 

External links

Main articles
Films
Golden Gate Girl (1941) · The Kid (1950) · Marlowe (1969) · The Big Boss (1971) · Fist of Fury (1972) · Way of the Dragon (1972) · Enter the Dragon (1973) · Game of Death (1978)
TV dramas
The Green Hornet (1966–1967) · Batman (1966–1967) · Ironside (1967) · Blondie (1969) · Here Come the Brides (1969) · Longstreet (1971)
Books
Video games
Bruce Lee (1984) · Bruce Lee Lives (1989) · Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story (1993) · Bruce Lee: Quest of the Dragon (2002) · Bruce Lee: Return of the Legend (2003) · Bruce Lee: Iron Fist 3D (2008)
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