The Big Boss (5 Stars)

The main reason that I haven't watched this film since 2014 is that the quality of my DVD is poor. The picture is fuzzy throughout, which is typical for the early releases of old films. Yesterday I received a parcel in the post, the Bruce Lee Master Collection on Blu-ray. It contains all five of Bruce Lee's martial arts films, all remastered. With the exception of a few daylight scenes that are blurred at the edges, the picture in "The Big Boss" is crisp and sharp-edged, up to the quality of any modern film. This is the way the film should look.

As I pointed out in my last review, the film's big star was James Tien, which explains why we don't see Bruce Lee in action until halfway through the film. It wasn't until after the film's release that Bruce Lee's fame eclipsed that of all other Chinese movie stars.

Bruce Lee plays Zheng Chao An, a Chinese man who moves to Thailand to live with a community of Chinese immigrants. He moves in with his cousins, who live in poor conditions, five men sleeping in one room. They work in a factory that sells blocks of ice, and Zheng is also given a job.

As we soon discover, the ice factory is the cover for a drug smuggling operation. Packets of heroin are hidden in the blocks of ice. Two workers who discover this fact by accident are killed. When Zheng's cousin Xu An (James Tien) tries to investigate their disappearance, he's killed as well. Zheng tries to investigate, but he's distracted by promotion, alcohol and sex. It takes him a few days to realise that he has to do something.

This is the Big Boss himself. Don't you think that walking round with a bird cage makes him look like a Bond villain?

But when he takes his glasses off he looks like a Bruce Lee villain. No self-respecting Bond villain would be caught wielding knives.

It's not just about fists. In this film Bruce Lee also uses knives.

Xu An and Zheng Chao An. I couldn't publish this post without at least one picture of the film's original lead actor, James Tien.

You have to admit, there's something intense about Bruce Lee.

And even moreso when he's stripped for action.

But this picture shows that he can also be calm.

This is the moment when Zheng first meets his cousin Qiao Mei. Let me give him some advice, as a man of the world. Staring at a pretty woman makes you look impolite, but staring at a woman with your mouth open makes you look stupid.

But who am I fooling? I would have stared as well. What a smile!

And those pigtails! Qiao Mei would have won my heart immediately. The actress Maria Yi is so beautiful. It's difficult to believe that her acting career only lasted five years, from 1971 to 1976.

In case you're wondering how old she is, she was 18 when the film was made.

If Zheng is impolite for staring at his cousin, what about me? Posting four photos of her in a row must make me obsessive.

And five photos? I can't help it. Maria's smile makes me melt.

When the light catches her at the right angle she looks like a little girl.

She's 66 now. I haven't been able to find any recent photos, but I'm betting that she's just as beautiful as she was when she was 18.

There's no actual love scene between the two, but the attraction between the two cousins is unmistakable. If anything, their budding romance is all the more tender by being underplayed.

In my last review I complained that the music was awful, especially the melody played every time Zheng looks at his pendant. That confused me. Today I found the music acceptable, and there was no melody when he looked at the pendant. Then I realised what's happened. My DVD is dubbed into English, but the Blu-ray I watched today is the original Cantonese with subtitles. It also contains the dubbed version, so I compared the two versions, and to my amazement I found that the music in the dubbed version is different from the original version. The music in the dubbed version is louder and gaudier, sometimes Chinese, sometimes western. And there's the annoying jingle every time Zheng looks at his pendant. Ugh! What happened? Why was the music changed? I can (just about) accept the dubbing, but the new music ruins the film. I checked Wikipedia, and it's stated that the film has been released with three different musical scores.

The Blu-ray version is seven minutes longer than the DVD version, but it's still not complete. Supposedly, there's only one known print of the uncut version, and it's in the hands of a private collector who doesn't want to share it. That's a disgrace! The original film had a few scenes with bare breasts, something unusual for 1970's Chinese films. I remember being surprised by the topless scenes when I saw "The Big Boss" in the cinema, but my DVD has no nudity. The Blu-ray has one topless scene, but I'm sure there were two topless scenes when I saw the film in the cinema.

It's an excellent film. The remastered Blu-ray is the best version that you can buy, so far.

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