The Big Boss (1971)

The Big Boss (Chinese: 唐山大兄, lit. “The Big Brother from Tangshan”; originally titled Fists of Fury in America) is a 1971 Hong Kong action martial arts film produced by Raymond Chow and starring Bruce Lee in his first major film in a lead role. The film also stars Maria Yi, James Tien, Tony Liu, and Nora Miao. Originally written for Tien, the leading role was given to Lee instead when the film’s original director, Ng Kar-seung, was replaced by Lo. The film was a critical success and excelled at the box office.[3] Lee’s strong performance overshadowed Tien, already a star in Hong Kong, and made Bruce Lee famous in Asia and eventually the world. The film went on to gross nearly US$50 million worldwide (equivalent to approximately $300 million adjusted for inflation), against a tight budget of $100,000, approximately 500 times its original investment. It was the highest-grossing Hong Kong film up until Lee’s next film, Fist of Fury (1972).

Plot.

Cheng Chao-an is a Chinese man who moves to Pak Chong, Thailand, to live with his adopted family and to work in an ice factory. He meets his cousin Hsu Chie and Hsu’s younger brother by accident when Hsu stands up to local street thugs who steal dumplings from his brother. Cheng refrains from getting involved despite being tempted to, as he swore to his mother to never participate in any fighting and wears a jade amulet around his neck as a reassurance of his pledge. Cheng begins his work at the ice factory. When an ice block is accidentally broken, a bag of white powdery drugs falls out. Two of Cheng’s cousins pick up the bag and are told to see the manager later that night. The factory is actually a front for a drug smuggling ring led by Hsiao Mi (a.k.a. the Big Boss). When Cheng’s cousins refuse to join them, the manager sends his thugs to kill them and dispose of their bodies, thereby preserving the secret. Hsu Chien and Ah Pei, another one of Cheng’s cousins, go to Hsiao Mi’s Mansion to find out what happened to the two cousins. Hsu doubts Hsiao’s claims that he doesn’t know anything and threatens to go to the authorities.

Hsiao sets his gang on the duo as a result, and after a brutal battle, they are both killed as well and their bodies hidden. When the Chinese workers at the ice factory learn that Hsu is missing as well, they refuse to work, and start a riot against the Thai management, who are joined by a group of hired thugs. During the chaos, one of the thugs accidentally rips off and breaks Cheng’s amulet. Enraged, Cheng jumps into the brawl and beats some of the thugs, causing them to flee. To reduce tensions, the ice factory manager makes Cheng a foreman, inviting him to a dinner that night. This later causes much unease for Cheng’s family and friends, who believe that Cheng is growing arrogant and spending more time reveling in his new position than helping to look for their brothers. They grow to resent him, all except Chiao Mei, his sister, who stands up for him.

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Writing.

Veteran Chinese novelist and screenwriter Ni Kuang was commissioned to create a script based loosely on Cheng Chi-Yong, a prominent Chinese figure in Thai society in the early 20th century. Ni Kuang changed the name of the character to Cheng Chao-an, after Chao’an county in eastern China, the home of Cheng Chi-Yong’s ancestors. He also developed the idea of Cheng being sent by his mother to live and work with fellow Chinese migrants in Thailand, after his father had been killed in a fight. She gave her son a jade necklace symbolising peace, protection and good fortune, as a reminder to avoid trouble. It was not unusual in Hong Kong cinema for the director to amend the script during filming, and The Big Boss was no exception. When Lo Wei replaced the original director in late July 1971, he was unhappy with the script and re-wrote it, without Bruce’s knowledge. Lo later recalled, “I wouldn’t tell him I was re-writing the script for fear of affecting his morale. In my hotel room, he would often discuss the script with me which would leave me tongue-tied, so I would tell him I needed to rest, and as soon as he left I would be burning the midnight oil in order to get the script ready for the next day’s filming.”

Filming.

Bruce Lee flew from Los Angeles to Bangkok via Hong Kong on 12 July 1971. Raymond Chow, concerned about renewed interest from Shaw Brothers, had wanted him to fly directly to Bangkok, but Bruce refused, stopping in Hong Kong briefly to greet a friend and make a few phone calls. Bruce stayed in Bangkok for five nights, and it was here that he met most of the cast and crew and also Raymond Chow for the first time. Filming commenced on 22 July in Pak Chong, a small town situated some 90 miles (150 km) northeast of Bangkok, on the northern edge of the Khao Yai National Park, Thailand’s oldest reserve; it also serves as the gateway to the northeast (Isan) of Thailand from the Bangkok Metropolitan Region. Pak Chong would be Bruce’s home for about four weeks, and he made no secret of his dislike for it in letters to wife Linda, describing it as a lawless, impoverished and undeveloped village.

Due to the lack of fresh food, Bruce was losing weight due to a lack of proper diet, having to eat canned meat and supplement his diet with vitamins, which he had thankfully brought along. He occasionally lost his voice through trying to shout above the noise on set; mosquitoes and cockroaches were everywhere, and the tap water in the hotel was yellow. Bruce asked the hotel staff to put his mattress on the floor, as sleeping on the bed was uncomfortable due to his ongoing back problem. He also needed lots of rest after a fight scene. When Bruce arrived in Pak Chong, rival film companies tried desperately to poach him away from Golden Harvest, including Shaw Brothers, with a new and improved offer. A film producer from Taiwan told Bruce to rip up his contract and promised to take care of any lawsuit. Bruce, a man of his word, had no intention of considering the offers, although it did add some extra tension on the film set.

Shooting did not go smoothly at first. After just a few days, the “uncertain” original director, Wu Chia Hsiang, was replaced by Lo Wei (the husband of associate producer Liu Liang-Hua). Bruce was initially sceptical of Lo, describing him in letters to Linda as a “fame lover” and “another so-so one with an almost unbearable air of superiority”. Bruce badly cut his right hand while washing a thin glass, the wound requiring ten stitches and a large plaster, which is very noticeable throughout the movie, especially the scenes filmed at the Thamrongthai ice factory, the first filming location used in Pak Chong. Fatty Ma had a contact who knew the owner of the factory, and arranged for Golden Harvest to film there for a few days. One night, filming of the big fight in the ice house had to be stopped for an hour as Bruce had lost a contact lens, and dozens of people were on their hands and knees looking for it amongst thousands of ice chips. Eventually Bruce found it himself, leading Lo Wei to wonder if he had it in his pocket all along, and was deliberately being disruptive.

Box office.

On 23 October 1971, the film premiered at the Queen’s Theatre in Hong Kong’s Central district for a now legendary midnight screening. Linda recalled in her 1975 book Bruce Lee: The Man Only I Knew: “Every dream that Bruce had ever possessed came true that night. The audience rose to its feet, yelling, clapping, cheering. It was almost impossible to leave the theatre; we were absolutely mobbed.” The Lees also attended the official gala premiere on 3 November, which was a charity screening for the Scout Association of Hong Kong. The film was an instant success, taking just 3 days to reach HK$1 million, and a week to reach HK$2 million. By the end of its relatively brief run (ending on 18 November), The Big Boss had made HK$3.2 million, shattering the previous record held by The Sound of Music by more than HK$800,000. An estimated 1.2 million people in Hong Kong, out of a population of four million, had paid to watch the film. It remained the highest-grossing film of all time in Hong Kong until Lee’s second film, Fist of Fury, was released in March 1972. Shortly after the Hong Kong run, The Big Boss was released in Singapore, and enjoyed similar success there,

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where it played for a total of 45 days at five theatres. There was chaos at a midnight preview screening (27 November 1971) at Cathay’s Jurong Drive-in cinema; police were called as hundreds of cars caused huge jams, and the film had to be delayed for 45 minutes. It went on general release on 8 December, and by the end of its run on 21 January 1972, it had broken box office records with just over S$700,000, about S$240,000 more than previous record-holder The Ten Commandments. The film also played to packed cinemas in Malaysia, the third territory to show the film. By September 1972, it had grossed US$370,000 (equivalent to $2,500,000 in 2021) in the Malaysian capital city of Kuala Lumpur. During its initial run, the film grossed more than US$5 million in Southeast Asia alone and US$12,000,000 (equivalent to $80,000,000 in 2021) across Asia. Against a tight budget of US$100,000, the film grossed nearly US$50 million worldwide (equivalent to approximately $330 million adjusted for inflation), earning nearly 500 times its budget.

Re-releases.

When the film was released in the United States, the death of Hsiao Mi, “The Boss”, was cut down to him simply being stabbed in the chest with a knife in order to receive an “R” rating. The original version of his death, which not only shows an explicit close-up of the knife in his chest but Cheng Chao-an’s fingers piercing his rib cage and blood flowing from under his shirt, would have given the film an “X” rating. The first time this scene was shown in the US was when it played on cable channel AMC in July 2004.

Cast:

Bruce Lee as Cheng Chao-an
Maria Yi as Chow Mei
James Tien (a.k.a. Paul Tien) as Hsu Chien
Nora Miao as a local cold drinks vendor (guest star)
Lee Quinn as Ah Kun
Rhoma Irama as Xin Chang
Han Ying-chieh as Hsiao Mi
Lau Wing as Hsiao Chiun
Kam San as Cousin Ah Shan
Ricky Chik as Cousin Ah Chen (also assistant director)
Li Hua Sze as Cousin Ah Wong
Marilyn Bautista as Miss Sun Wu Man, a prostitute
Chan Chue as the ice factory manager (also assistant director)
Chom as the ice factory foreman
Billy Chan Wui-ngai as Cousin Ah Pei
Lam Ching-ying as Cousin Ah Yen
Tu Chia-Cheng as Uncle Liu
Peter Chan Lung as Hsiao Mi’s

The Big Boss (1971) Biography, Plot, Filming, Box office, Trailer.