Bruce Lee became a star with this Hong Kong kung fu epic. Like many of them the basic story could have been done as a Western - he's a country hick who moves to Thailand where his family work for an ice factory. It turns out this factory is the front for a drug operation.
Lee doesn't do much in the first bit of this film, being more of a watcher. (The first fight scene he literally just watches as James Tien - who was in Fists of Fury - does the chop socky against the forces of evil.) Story wise he doesn't get roused for a long time - in Fists he was angry from the get go but here he goes through this whole period where he is tempted by the dark side when the boss makes him foreman and plies him with drink and gives him a hooker to sleep with (he has sex with her too; she goes topless which did surprise me for a Bruce Lee movie).
However then his family members start getting knocked off and he fires up and in the second half he really kicks arse and takes part in some top fight scenes (even if the Boss he defeats at the end is kind of whimpy and not worth Lee's skill.)
There's some great music. The scenery isn't that pretty - it doesn't feel much like Thailand. (I'm not sure where it was shot.)
7 comments:
The movie was, in fact, shot in Thailand, despite the rather bland scenery.
What I always find interesting about The Big Boss is that they filmed in Thailand yet might as well have stayed at home. There's none of the acres of travelogue footage of water festivals, and we don't even get any Thai boxing. I believe they just wanted to make sure Bruce was out of reach from the Golden Harvest (studio that made the movie) headmasters.
Another odd thing is, how the only thing pertraining to Thai culture that the producers cared to show was the prostitution, and there are heavy amounts of that. Indeed, there was a whole scene in the orginal movie that happened right before the fight at the Boss's mansion: Bruce Lee's character returned to the brothel so he could enjoy some mattress mambo with another Thai prostitute, presumably as his final act of pleasure; and if that wasn't enough, Bruce was naked in said scene.
Thanks for that Alice. You're right - it could easily have been shot anywhere, even in Hong Kong. And I didn't know Bruce was meant to be so kinky - he clearly cleaned up his act for later movies.
The original pressing of the movie was quite bucthered in all later broadcasts. It contained lots more of gore and nudity, to the point it could be considered a horror movie. It didn't help matters that the movie had no script to speak of; everything was filmed as things went. For instance, the idea of the "second prostitute" scene was from the director, and Bruce simply went along with it.
Director Lo Wei: "The hero of The Big Boss is an energetic young man. When such a man prepares to kill the villain at any cost, he naturally will want to give vent to his desire. So, he goes to the whorehouse and makes love to a prostitute."
http://littledragon.builtfree.org/boss.html
That article makes a better job at explaining the deleted scenes than I do.
Thanks again, Alice. Great article. It's fascinating to see how Lee's persona progressed from this film to later vehicles where he had more control. It remains a highly entertaining film, though.
It just occured to me how this movie comes off as rather racist in regards to the Thai people.
All of the Thai males in the movie are portrayed as mindless, weak henchmen who are incapable of thinking for themselves, and the sexism is also troubling.
For instance, the Chinese women in The Big Boss are the objects of chivalry and protection, while the Thai women are viewed as submissive, silent, and slave-like. Indeed, the native women in the movie are either servants to the Boss, or they are sex slaves in the Pak Chong bordello, and they get rather excited when courted by a Chinese warrior (Cheng). I guess that's the movie's way of saying that Chinese are superior to Thais?
Just an observation I made, and maybe I'm overthinking it.
Fists of Fury is pretty racist when it comes to depicting the Japanese. But certainly no more so than a lot of Western cinema.
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