Touches You

As Good As It Gets

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

After trying to make a big name in the US with the TV series "The Green Hornet" which was a mixed bag, legendary actor and martial artist Bruce Lee traveled back to Hong Kong where he was very popular as a child actor in the past. He met producer Raymond Chow who allowed him to star in a martial arts film. "Tang Shan Da Xiong", or "The Big Boss" (U.S. Title: "Fists of Fury") was the film he starred in and was the result of the beginning of Bruce Lee's legendary martial arts film career.The film's original director was Ng Kar-seung. He choose James Tien to have the starring role. However, after only 1 week into production, Ng Kar-seung left the project and Lo Wei became the director. When he became the director Bruce Lee and James Tien's roles got switched. Bruce Lee got the starring role while James Tien was the co-star. "The Big Boss" is about a young Chinese man named Cheng Chao-an (Bruce Lee) travels from China to Pak Chong, Thailand in search of a job. He goes to live with his distant cousins. They offer him a job at the ice factory. He works there and develops a good relationship with cousin Hsu Chien (James Tien) and a huge affection for Chiao Mei (Maria Yi). Cheng is a skilled fighter. However, he swore to his mother an oath of non-violence, keeping him out of fights and trouble. However, things get messy when his cousins start to disappear and the true dark secret of the ice factory is revealed. Cheng will now have to break his oath and fight Hsiao Mi (Han Ying-chieh).Directed by Lo Wei (1918-1996), the film was a turning point in martial arts cinema as it showed a flawed protagonist in a new setting. Before "The Big Boss", most martial arts films were bashers. Basher films were martial arts films where the fighting was just the waving of the hands and feet. There was no real style to it. Bruce Lee changed the martial arts world with this film because his fight scenes had style and charisma. This film, written by Lo Wei and Bruce Lee, has a ton of suspense and action. It is very different from most martial arts film as Bruce Lee's character doesn't fight until half way through the movie. This film not only made Bruce Lee an overnight sensation across Asia, but it inspired his later film making skills and changed the way martial arts films have been done ever since the premiere of The Big Boss on October 23, 1971 in Hong Kong. The Big Boss was produced on a small budget of $100,000. The film grossed $3,197,417. The Big Boss was the highest grossing film of all-time in Hong Kong, only being beaten by Bruce Lee's Fist of Fury (AKA "The Chinese Connection") the following year in 1972. The film even beat The Sound of Music (1965). The Big Boss is the highest grossing film of 1971 in Hong Kong. Lo Wei, as a film director, has a very mixed reception with his films. The Big Boss (1971), however, is definitely one of his best films. However, Lo Wei, at times, would watch horse racing instead of actually directing the film that he is supposed to. Lo Wei was much more interested with being entertained with himself than with production of the film. Bruce Lee became incensed by this and only worked with Wei on one last film - Fist of Fury (1972). Bruce Lee was an amazing martial artist and actor. He perfectly plays his role in The Big Boss and delivers the best performance of the whole cast in the film. James Tien, Maria Yi, Malelene, Lee Kwan, Tony Liu, and Han Ying-chieh are also great. Nora Miao (Credited as Miao Ke-hsiu) makes a special guest appearance as a drinkstand owner. Granted, there are a few flaws to this film. It is somewhat outdated and many (not me though) will not like the fact that Lee doesn't fight for half of the movie, but I think that this makes the film even better. The reason why? We get to see Bruce Lee act a lot more (his facial expressions, personality, thoughts, fears, etc.). Despite the films flaws, "The Big Boss" (1971) is a classic and deserves a 9/10 in my book. Highly recommended.

"The Big Boss" was the first starring role for Bruce Lee after years of struggling to promote his own kind of Martial Arts onto the medium of cinema. Admittedly, the film is rather amateurish in the way it was made. Poor dubbing and poor sound in general really hamper the film. In addition, the lack of direction from Lo Wei is clearly in evidence. He and Bruce Lee weren't destined to get along and from the start, the atmosphere between them was fraught with tension. To be fair to Lee, Wei hardly took an interest in his own movie and didn't give much instruction to his actors. In spite of all these problems, "The Big Boss" is remembered for one thing: Bruce Lee. Even whilst not engaged in fight scenes, he still oozes charisma and not all stars in Martial Arts movies have that ability. When Lee springs into action, you are rooted to your seat. The speed of his hands in particular is a sight to behold. His kind of Martial Arts on film was a completely different kind to Asian audiences back in 1971 when the film came out. It is true that some of the violence is occasionally a bit comic strip but Lee isn't to blame for this as he wasn't the fight choreographer for the movie. The story is about as wafer thin as it gets but it serves its purpose. The climatic fight scene between Bruce and the chief villain is explicit but like poetry in motion. The blending of the different styles of Kung Fu is seamless. The movie broke box office records when released and Bruce Lee had finally arrived. Future Hong Kong stars like Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung and Jet Li would all be influenced to a certain extent.

Saw this in a theatre in 1971 and just revisited it 45 years later.Conclusion: As a film, it suffers badly from the massive improvements in choreography, skill, and staging that MA films have enjoyed in the interim. What seemed sort of "OK" in a dark theatre in 1971 becomes, after several decades, almost a slow dance of awkward fighting moves, with off-sync sound effects and blows that never seem to connect with anything.In this instance it is not fair to judge the old by the new ... so, no rating.And then there is the topic of Mr. Lee.History tells us that Bruce Lee exploded into Asian cinema on this film and anyone can see why. IT IS AS IF HE IS OPERATING AT A FAST CAMERA SPEED AND THE REST OF THE CAST AT A SLOW CAMERA FEED. Of course, the speed of the camera is the same throughout, it is the speed of the actors that differed.The cast were the usual bunch that made many dozens of these films in a year. They looked slow and awkward because they actually were slow and awkward.Mr. Lee on the other hand lived (and ultimately died) for his craft. His whole life was MA and even today the debate continues as where he would have ranked against the best fighters of all time. At the top is my guess.In essence, this is almost an audition tape for Mr. Lee and not much else. But it is a piece of history and deserves great respect.

Bruce Lee is one of my favorite action stars and martial artists. He was another one of the inspirations/factors next to Jackie Chan whom has inspired me to be a martial artist. And if it wasn't for him the martial arts even action genre and martial arts world wouldn't be where it is now.This film of course was his starting point, and I thought it was a solid start for him. I'm just going to get two bad points from the film out first. I really didn't like the fight scenes with James Tian's character, the actor I think is a martial artist but it clearly looked like he needed more training in the chirography because it looked like an amateur was fighting. You could say those scenes sereve a purpose where I was thinking, "Who the hell is this guy, I don't want him I want Bruce Lee." Also it takes a while for things to get going as Bruce throughout some of the first half doesn't get to do anything.Now those are out of the way, lets get to business. The plot line is pretty basic as it's simply about Bruce having to thwart a drug smuggling operation. But really the plot's not that important, by it's nature it's a clothes line for the action.And that's what were in this film for the action and of course Bruce Lee. Bruce has some presence, emotion as well as quiet charisma, like those little moments where some jerk then tears and shatters that necklace from his mom, which of course was the vow that kept him from fighting (as if that's ever going to last) and of coruse when that happens we just see him explode. In a way it was kinda sweet relief for him and us because at that moment we know he's springing to action and there is no stopping him. Or even other moments like kicking a few guys while chomping on a few Fredos, which I just thought was a fun touch sort of touch, yeah no one ruins his meal.The music is solid the mandarin track is the best since that is the authentic track and it just fits the film better.And of coruse the fight scenes with Bruce are just excellent, the chirography is just spot on. As usual with Bruce there is so much grace, fluency and power to his moves. From the first fight however it's really the fight at the final half of the film that I love. From that fight at the ice factory at night which is one of my favorite battles of all time, it was just great seeing Bruce do all kinds of things, that factory in a way was like his playground.From seeing him throw a flashlight at someone and breaking the guy's skull, may'be Bruce's character should try out for the majors. Or seeing Bruce kick some guy though a wall which was I'll admit cartoonish as we saw the guys body outline, but I didn't mind because it showed Bruce had power to his moves. Using an ice pick and stabling the hell out of some baddies, even liked some of the blood effect.And of course the final battle another favorite battle of mine in the open field where he is kicking and using two knives at some baddies also armed with knives. I really loved seeing him do a combo of crescent kicks against one baddie and knock him down the pool.Then it leads to one of my favorite one on ones of all time, where we see Bruce fight against the Big Boss and it doesn't disappoint. As we see both go at it in both unarmed and armed combat.Overall, this was a solid marital arts film. If you're into Bruce Lee or are just discovering him this would be a pretty good starting point, hence the fact it was his. "The Big Boss" is a knockout.Rating: 3 stars