THE BIG BOSS (1971)
AKA FISTS OF FURY
Films of Fury #1
Label: Umbrella Entertainment
Region Code: Region-Free
Rating: M
Duration: 100 Minutes
Audio: Mandarin DTS-HD MA 5.1, Mandarin Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono, Cantonese Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono, English DTS-HD MA 5.1, English Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (2.35:1)
Director: Wei Lo & Chia-Hsiang Wu
Cast: Bruce Lee, Maria Yi, James Tien, Marilyn Bautista, Ying-Chieh Han, Tony Liu, Kun Li, Nora Miao, Shan Chin, Chia-Chen Tu, Chih Chen
Notable for being the feature-film lead role of the legendary Bruce Lee The Big Boss (1971) AKA Fists of Fury stars the kung-fu king as Cheng Chao-an, a young Chinese man who has traveled to Thailand to work with his cousins at an ice factory. The factory owner, Hsiao Mi (Ying-Chieh Han, Fist of Fury), is known as a affluent figure but is secretly an underground drug kingpin operating a huge heroin operation from his seeming legit icehouse business, freezing bags of heroin into the blocks if ice and shipping them around the country.
We learn that before leaving home Cheng, who apparently had a violent past that is never fully explained, swore to his mother that he would leave his life of violence behind, and now wears a jade amulet around his neck she gave him as a reminder of his vow. However, when several of his cousins, including Hsu Chien (James Tien, The Shaolin Boxer), disappears without a trace after questioning the factory managers and owner about the shady operations Cheng hand is forced, and he reneges on his promise to his mother, and avenges the deaths of his family and friends.
When tensions rise at the factory Cheng whips a lot of ass, including the current foreman, and afterward the factory manager appoints him as the new foreman. We get a semi-interesting interesting sub-plot about Cheng temporarily
being seduced by the corruptive influence of the the factory managers who get him drunk, as well as being seduced by kind-hearted prostitute Sun Wu Man (Marilyn Bautista, Deathstone), but then discovering that hired henchmen working for the factory have killed nearly all his cousins, even a little kid, and kidnapped his only girl cousin.
While the first half of The Big Boss is pretty deliberately paced, and Lee doesn't have a whole lot to do except watch the growing conflict while sticking to his vow not to fight, but it sets up the conflict between the bosses and the workers who are increasingly irate about their missing friends and the bosses inaction on the matter. When Lee's character starts kicking some serious butt around the factory and then working his way up to "The Big Boss" Hsiao Mi things get exciting real quick and the slow build up pays off. As soon as Lee gets the chance to shine he leaps off the screen, his sinewy body a fine-tuned martial arts weapon, his style is not as refined as in later films but his star-making abilities dazzle just the same.
The violence on-screen is surprising bloody, there's are blades slashing open torsos, bodies been sawn in half and frozen in blocks of ice, and a penultimate face-off wherein fingers are plunged like daggers into the torso of the antagonist, its delightfully gruesome at time, and of course the killing of a small child!
Audio/Video: The Big Boss (1971) arrives on Blu-ray from Umbrella Entertainment as the initial offering from their brand new Films of Fury sub-label. Its presented in 1080p HD widescreen (2.35:1). It offers a solid looking scan of the film with pleasing grain, texture and fine detail throughout. Colors are we rendered and occasionally offer vibrant primaries by way of clothing and blood, black levels are not the best, sometimes leaning green or slightly anemic, but overall I thought it was serviceable, if not exactly reference.
Audio comes by way of Mandarin DTS-HD MA 5.1, Mandarin Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono, Cantonese Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono, English DTS-HD MA 5.1 and English Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono with optional English subtitles. Aside from language differences the audio options are quite dissimilar in depth and fidelity, with none sounding fantastic. Sadly both uncompressed tracks are flat and stifled, with alternate soundtracks and sweetened special effects that don't always compliment the presentation. If I had to choose a preference I would go with the lossy English Dolby Digital track, it sounding the more robust with a funky re-score by Peter Thomas.
Extras include the feature-length doc Bruce Lee the Man, the Legend (86 min) HD, the 2-min Bruce Lee vs Peter Thomas featurette, and a 3-min Interview with Tung Wai . Also included are 2-min Rare Scene Extensions, 5-min of Alternate Openings, a 1-min Alternate Ending, plus a Stills Gallery and 12-min of Trailers.
The single-disc release arrives in a clear keepcase with a 2-sided sleeve of artwork and a limited edition slipcover with presentable artwork on both the front and back, both the sleeve and slipcover are numbered with the Film of Fury branding. Inside you will find a limited edition collector’s postcard-sized art card, based on the original theatrical poster for the film.
Special Features:
- Feature Documentary: Bruce Lee the Man, the Legend (86 min)
- Bruce Lee vs Peter Thomas ( 2 min)
- Interview with Tung Wai (3 min)
- Rare Scene Extension (2 min)
- Alternate Openings (5 min)
- Alternate Ending (1 min)
- Stills Gallery (5 min)
- Re-edit 4K Trailer (3 min)
- English Trailer (MA Verify Version) (3 min)
- Mandarin Trailer (4 min)
- Cantonese Trailer (2 min)
The Big Boss (1971) is a but clunky in it's execution, not all the acting and dubbing is great, but is still a pretty enjoyable king-fu flick, plus it's Lee's breakout role and once his character gets around to kicking some ass the action is bad-ass and non-stop. Umbrella do solid work with their initial Films of Fury sub-label, starting off with Lee's breakout films is as good as any place to start, and they're following it up with Fist of Fury (1972) which is super-cool!
Screenshots from the Umbrella Entertainment Blu-ray:
