The Big Boss (1971)

 

No, this is not the best Bruce Lee-film there is. No, it is not the best martial arts film out there. But if there is one thing apparent in this one, it's that the late mr Lee simply oozed charisma and on screen presence and this does have two highly exhilarating fight scenes in it. 

That's not a lot, but you get your money's worth eventually. 

Lee plays Cheng Chao-an, a young man looking for a job. He has also promised his mom back home that he would stay out of trouble and not get into fights. He restrains himself early on, but you know this will not always be the case. He gets a job in an ice factory, where they cut up and distribute massive blocks of ice for coolers around town. But there is something amiss, as several workers go missing and the boss (and the big boss as well) remain rather dismissive of it all. No one really goes too far into detail about it until Hsiu Chien goes missing, as he was a very loyal and honest man. It soon transpires that drugs are being transported in the ice and Chao-an finds out his friends have been killed by the big boss and his henchmen. So it's on, leading up to an epic fight in the ice factory and at the very end, a fairly insane showdown with the big boss. 

You have to be in the mood for these types of films. You know the dubbing will be pretty awful, so it's highly recommended to watch in the Cantonese version, even if the dubbing is also a little off. At least it's not as cringeworthy as the English dubs of these types of movies, when they actually didn't care if it at least matched a little. Moreover, 'The Big Boss' is a fairly slow build. Yes, there's a little scuffle at the beginning, then another one about halfway through, but after that it's really REALLY slow until you get the epic showdown you were waiting for, where Bruce Lee fully displays why he is still revered as one of the most memorable martial artists ever. 

There's no denying that he steals the show every scene he's in. He is trying to bring some weight to his role, but behind the scenes, things weren't as peachy, because the director and producers weren't all that interested in the film to begin with. Heck, there wasn't even a script and they mostly just made it up as they went along (and it does show at times). But when Lee gets to asswhooping, that's where the film is at its best. It's fast paced, intense and you get those classic sounds to boot. This film is also surprisingly gory at times. 

Oh, and there is one absolutely stupid gag in the factory fight, which I won't spoil. Bruce Lee hated it, but the director thought it would be funny. It isn't, because it clashes too much with the serious nature of everything else up to that point. 

This feels like an unfinished and unpolished film, because it is. Bruce Lee fared far better in 'Fists of Fury' and most definitely 'Enter the Dragon', but that is also because those films were made by directors who wanted to make a decent film with a story. This one is slapdash and shoddy, so you can just watch the fight scenes and skip everything else.