|
|
|
The Big Boss
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray ALL - Australia - Umbrella Entertainment Review written by and copyright: James-Masaki Ryan (12th February 2022). |
|
The Film
 "The Big Boss" 唐山大兄 (1971) Cheng Chao-an (played by Bruce Lee) arrives in Pak Chong, Thailand for a job at an ice factory where his cousin Hsu Chien (played by James Tien) also works. The conditions at the factory are very poor, as the Thai group leaders treat the immigrant Chinese workers as slaves, constantly abusing them verbally and physically. Hsu does have fighting skills, and comes to the rescue of his coworkers as well as his family members if things get out of hand, but Cheng remembers the promise he made to his mother that he would never fight again, as reminded with an amulet he wears as a necklace. But this is no ordinary ice factory, but is in fact a drug smuggling operation led by their big boss Hsiao Mi (played by Han Ying-chieh), who is even more brutal than his underlings. Bruce Lee tried to establish a name for himself in Hollywood, but times were tough as the film and television industry were not ready to give an Asian performer a lead role. He had a supporting role in "The Green Hornet" which ran for a season on TV, but subsequent turndowns of his proposals by studios and his rejection of offered roles for being derogatory led to work being dry. Unable to support his family without any consistent work, he was advised to return to Hong Kong to find better options. When he arrived, he was mobbed by producers as well as fans, as "The Green Hornet" was a massively successful show in Hong Kong, and that is where he decided to sign a contract with the up and coming Golden Harvest Studios, which executive Raymond Chow offered US$15,000 for two films, a much better deal than what Shaw Brothers Studios offered him with US$2,000. The contract with Golden Harvest was signed in June 1971 and production started immediately with "The Big Boss", to be set and shot in Thailand. Shooting was not smooth. Original director Wu Chia Hsiang was immediately replaced with director Lo Wei, who then started making changes to the script. While the original story had the character of Hsu Chien as the main character and Cheng Chao-an as a supporter, things were rewritten as having Hsu killed off and Cheng seeking revenge, giving Lee a more prominent amount of screentime. As the rewrites were happening during production, there were subplots that suddenly made little sense such as the gambling den with the Chinese workers scene going nowhere in particular, or the relationships with the female characters not being deep or convincing. The backstory of why Cheng is not allowed to fight and why he carries the amulet around is never gone into full detail. All in all, the plot is incredibly thin with the finished script. But being a kung fu movie, the martial arts is where the film shined the most, and that's what "The Big Boss" is remembered for - as the first leading Bruce Lee film. As the founder of Jeet Kune Do, the hybrid martial arts and establishing himself as a man of speed, strength, and incredible force even with a fairly small body, Lee easily proved his capabilities off screen for some time in Hollywood as a martial arts instructor and stunt coordinator. On screen in "The Big Boss" it might be a surprise that the first 45 minutes has Lee's character NOT fighting at all, instead having to supress his physical abilities with the reminder of his amulet. The fight scenes are essentially led by James Tien, who was in a dozen or so productions at Shaw Brothers studios in both supporting and starring roles until his move to Golden Harvest, in which "The Big Boss" was his second film for the new studio. A very capable martial artist and playing a righteous character looking out for his family and coworkers, he was able to use his skills wisely in the choreographed fight sequences well, but there's no denying that once the character of Cheng's amulet is suddenly broken in a brawl that Lee's agility, grace, and skills were immediately a different thing altogether. From thereon, the film completely changes at the halfway point, with the gaze on Lee and his moves being the centerpoint, wondering how he would take down the henchmen and villains in the story. Of course there are subplots that continue, such as he relationship with Chow Mei (played by Maria Yi), his female cousin that is also working at the plant, his drugged seduction scene which features some skin from Thai actress Marilyn Bautista, but they seem trivial in comparison with the revenge action that audiences were waiting for. It might seem odd to have the main character to suddenly come to full form halfway into the film, but it somehow works. The fights may not have sheer polish in the choreography and some fights are more on the comical side, such as the infamous moment of Cheng kicking a man so hard he flies through a wooden wall, leaving an outline of the body through the wood like an old Looney Tunes cartoon. Lee did clash with director Lo Wei on the scene, as Lee looked for the fight scenes to have reality rather than cartoonish silliness, but in the end the director won the argument. But not all fights are silly. There is a whole lot of blood in "Big Boss" with knife wounds and nasty punches that leave trails of red everywhere. In effect, the amount of violence led to various censor cuts around the world, in addition to some of the topless nudity also being cut in certain markets. The film was produced for an international market in mind, and with all Chinese productions of the time, the dialogue and sound would not be recorded on set but instead all being post synchronized. In effect, this meant actors would speak their native tongue on set while the dubbing would be uniform to a single language. Lee spoke Cantonese on set while Tien spoke Mandarin, and the Thai henchmen spoke Thai. For the main Mandarin dub that would play in most Chinese speaking territories, Lee would unfortunately be dubbed by a voice actor, but that didn't stop audiences from flocking to the cinemas to see him in action. The film premiered in Hong Kong on October 23rd, 1971 in which audiences cheered screamingly at the screen. The word of mouth led to "The Big Boss" becoming the highest grossing movie of all time in the city with HK$3.2 million, compared to the previous record holder "The Sound of Music" by more than $800,000. It's been said that with more than a million tickets sold, it was equivalent to a quarter of Hong Kong's population seeing the movie. Malaysia, Singapore also followed in the huge financial success, leading to Golden Harvest making international sales towards Europe and America as well. US distributor National General Pictures acquired the American rights, but they were not satisfied with the in house English dub that was done by Golden Harvest, including the music originally composed by Wang Fu-ling. They used the European version's score by German composer Peter Thomas who made new compositions inspired by jazz and funk while also incorporating previously used library cues for the new dub track, in addition to America retitling the film as "Fists of Fury". The premieres in the United States, the United Kingdom, South Korea, and much of Europe were in 1973, when Lee's Hong Kong career was fully established as a major star, and their box office runs were incredibly profitable. The film cost only US$100,000 to produce went on to gross $50 million around the world, and was easily the highest grossing Hong Kong production of all time. But that record would only hold for a few months, as Golden Harvest and Lee's next production "Fist of Fury" was released only a few months later and would break new records. "The Big Boss" may be a hugely entertaining martial arts film, but it is sometimes sloppy, inconsistent, and rough around the edges. It doesn't have the beautifully choreographed performances or lavish set environments found in many Shaw Brothers productions as seen for decades, and that is what made the film so different. It became a time for raw, gritty, and original works, and even if "The Big Boss" lacked the polish, it made up for it in entertainment value highly. And without Bruce Lee, it just would not have had the same impact. Note this is a region ALL Blu-ray
Video
Umbrella Entertainment presents the film the original 2.35:1 aspect ratio in 1080p AVC MPEG-4. The transfer comes from rightsholder Fortune Star. Now, Fortune Star has made controversial decisions in the remastering of films ever since the DVD era. Added sound effects with remixed soundtracks, digital edge enhancements, colors lacking depth... the list goes on. Thankfully, their transfer here is much better, with pleasing results for the eyes. Damage marks have been eliminated, leaving a very clean looking picture while still leaving a healthy amount of grain for a natural look. Colors have been balanced, though there is a slightly bluish hue that it leans toward. Some of the black levels are not completely black, such as night scenes not being as dark as they could be. But for the most part colors look fairly good. Overall a very good transfer from Umbrella Entertainment. Note that this is a transfer with a copyright date of 2010. Fortune Star went back and remastered their Bruce Lee films in 4K in 2016 which has been released in various countries on Blu-ray as well as 4K UHD, but unfortunately the Umbrella Entertainment release does not use the newer transfer. Thankfully the transfer is fairly good overall. The film's runtime is 100:14.
Audio
Mandarin DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 Mandarin Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono Cantonese Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 English Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono The Mandarin Dolby Digital 2.0 mono track has a balanced mix of dialogue, music and effects, though fidelity is an issue due to the elements. It may be lossy but this certainly sounds the most ideal as it represents how the film was originally screened in Chinese language markets. Note that the entire film was post synchronized in studio rather than using on set audio, so the synchronization is slightly off by not matching lips, but that is the case with every audio track available here. But on the plus side, the track is fairly on the clean side with no major issues of hiss, pops, or crackle. The Mandarin DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track features the original Mandarin theatrical track but with some additional newly created sound effects added in fight scenes and other scenes, while spreading the music out to the other speakers - the unfortunate norm for Fortune Star remasters. While the original dialogue and music cues sound a bit flat, it is a bit jarring to suddenly hear some modern punches and hits and unwanted echoes, and is not mixed very well. The Cantonese Dolby Digital 2.0 mono track is actually not an original track but one created for reissue. A new score was created including unauthorized use of Pink Floyd and King Crimson songs (although here their songs are not included and are replaced with generic library cues instead), and some additional sound effects are added. The most noticeable is a music box melody that plays whenever Cheng looks at his amulet. In addition, whenever Lee makes his fighting moves, the sounds of "Ah-cho!" and other high pitched sounds that Lee made his trademark in later films were spliced and edited into this audio track. As this track was made after Lee's passing, the voice is not of Lee's even though the lips match better than the Mandarin audio options. The English Dolby Digital 2.0 mono track has the rescore by Peter Thomas as well as some library cues, sounding quite different from the original Mandarin or reissued Cantonese tracks, giving a funkier flow in many of the scenes. The voices sound much clearer than on the Mandarin track, but obviously don't sound as natural and has the issue of bad dubbing at times. Again the remastered track is good, with a balanced sound with the dialogue, music and effects with little damage to speak of. The English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track may be lossless, the track is a bit of a mess. The vocals are from the same English dub as above, but it actually sounds flatter than the lossy track. So do the sound effects and music, although they are spread out a little wider within the 5.1 soundscape. There are also added sound effects like in the Mandarin 5.1 track, sounding quite unnatural in comparison to the rest of the audio track. In addition there are some added cues, such as the music box cue for the amulet from the Cantonese soundtrack here. It's an odd hybrid track that shows that "lossless" doesn't always mean "better". There are optional Chinese (Simplified), English subtitles in a white font. The English subtitles are clear and easy to read, but it seems like the timing was for the Cantonese audio track rather than the Mandarin. For the most part this is not an issue, but there are portions such as the opening dock scene in which the characters start speaking earlier in the Cantonese track compared to the Mandarin track, so the subtitles appear sooner than the audio spoken is watched in Mandarin. This is also the case with the Chinese (Simplified) subtitles, being timed along with the Cantonese track rather than the Mandarin track.
Extras
"Bruce Lee: The Man, the Legend" 1973 documentary (85:51) "Bruce Lee: The Man, the Legend" is a documentary on the life and death of Bruce Lee, produced by Golden Harvest and released only three months after his death. Featuring footage of Lee's funeral including his mourning family and thousands of fans, it certainly feels like a major invasion of privacy as the cameras go through the soon to be vacated Lee home in Hong Kong as the English narrator in a monotone voice displays zero affection for the star. There are also clips of his films, including the up coming "Enter the Dragon" and incomplete "Game of Death" as well as his earlier roles as a child actor. There are also clips with people that knew him but the interviews are very slim. It can be assumed that no one wanted to have a seat to discuss Lee's life so quickly after his sudden passing. The documentary has been remastered and looks quite excellent. The documentary footage is clean and without damage, and is framed in the correct aspect ratio. The sound on the other hand does have issues. It should be in mono, but the 2.0 track here folds out to stereo, and does have a bit of distortion in the narration track. In addition, there are a few portions in Cantonese in which Lee discusses some scenes in "The Way of the Dragon", but Umbrella has not included subtitles for these sequences. in 1080p AVC MPEG-4, in 2.35:1, in English/Cantonese Dolby Digital 2.0 without subtitles "Bruce Lee vs. Peter Thomas" featurette (2:27) In this all too brief featurette from an article written by Gerd Naumann and read by Brandon Bentley, it showcases how Thomas was hired to rescore the soundtrack to "The Big Boss" for the international release. in 1080p AVC MPEG-4, in 1.78:1, in English Dolby Digital 2.0 without subtitles Interview with Tung Wai (2:37) A very short interview with actor and filmmaker Stephen Tung Wai who recalls meeting Lee after the completion of "The Big Boss" and how impressed he was with his skills. Wei would later work with Lee on “Enter the Dragon” in 1973. The interview, lasting less than three minutes, is much too short, and in addition to that, the image is stretched out, most likely originally being in 1.33:1. in 1080i60 AVC MPEG-4, in 1.78:1, in Cantonese Dolby Digital 2.0 with burned-in English subtitles Rare Scene Extension (2:22) Rare that just one scene, here are a selection of multiple scenes with additional dialogue footage found in an English language print. The additional footage is noticeable as the picture quality goes from good to suddenly scratchy and faded. Unfortunately this comes from a standard definition master and upscaled, and with a lot of cropping on the sides of the frame. in 1080p AVC MPEG-4, in 1.90:1, in English Dolby Digital 2.0 without subtitles Alternate Openings (4:45) Here are a few alternate opening credits for the film, all coming from standard definition sources upscaled. The first is the American opening sequence from National General Pictures under the “Fists of Fury” title, though it is missing the text credits entirely. The second is the US Columbia Pictures reissue version, which also goes by the “Fists of Fury” title and has the text credits intact. The last is another reissue title sequence, but with the original "The Big Boss" title, with English text credits. All use the Peter Thomas opening title score rather than the original version. The first two are framed at 2.35:1 while the third is framed at 1.78:1. in 1080p AVC MPEG-4, in 2.35:1/1.78:1, Dolby Digital 2.0 Alternate Ending (0:43) Obviously spoilers ahead, but in this shortened ending to the climactic fight scene, the killing of Hsiao Mi by Cheng is much less violent in this version, with the chest stabbing by fingers shot is removed entirely, as well as the true ending of Cheng being arrested. in 1080p AVC MPEG-4, in 2.35:1. In Dolby Digital 2.0 Stills Gallery (4:26) An automated silent slideshow of behind the scenes photos and theatrical posters. in 1080p AVC MPEG-4 Trailers A series of four trailers for the film. Re-edit 4K Trailer (3:13) A reconstruction of the Hong Kong trailer using the 4K restoration of the film with the Cantonese audio track. The trailer has been embedded below, courtesy of Fortune Star. in 1080p AVC MPEG-4, in 2.35:1, in Cantonese Dolby Digital 2.0 with Chinese text English Trailer (MA Vertify Version) (2:51) This vintage English language trailer uses "The Big Boss" title, and is quite faded and scratchy. Not sure what “MA Vertify” is but that is what is labeled on the menu screen. It does have some typos burned in, such as “He shines in this flim debut”, and "Human and fill of charcter". in 1080p AVC MPEG-4, in 2.35:1, in English Dolby Digital 2.0 with English text Mandarin Trailer (3:46) This vintage Mandarin language trailer is mostly the same as the above trailer, but has some additional footage, as well as burned-in Chinese and English text on the screen. Some of the English text does have typos as well, but interestingly they are sometimes differing typos. in 1080p AVC MPEG-4, in 2.35:1, in Mandarin Dolby Digital 2.0 with Chinese and English text Cantonese Trailer (2:25) This vintage Cantonese trailer is similar to the 4K restoration trailer above, but slightly shorter in length and having much more damage, color, and sound issues.There are burned-in Chinese and English text, though the Chinese is burned into the original film while the English text is burned-in electronically. in 1080p AVC MPEG-4, in 2.35:1, in Cantonese Dolby Digital 2.0 with Chinese and English text Re-edit 4K Trailer There have been a large number of editions of "The Big Boss" on home video over the years, with each format and each country receiving multiple editions with differing transfers, audio options, and extras over the years. By looking at the DVD, Blu-ray, and 4K UHD pages on our site, it's not easy to say which edition of "The Big Boss" is definitive as each offers something different. The Australian release from Umbrella Entertainment has a good selection of extras, though note nothing is particularly exclusive to this release.
Packaging
This is #1 in Umbrella's new "Films of Fury" series, which includes a slipcase as well as a collector's card inside, having poster artwork similar to the slipcover. The inlay, both inside and out have alternate theatrical poster artwork. The packaging mistakenly states region B only, as this is a region ALL Blu-ray. It also states that the mono audio tracks are DTS-HD Master Audio, but they are in fact Dolby Digital.
Overall
"The Big Boss" is certainly not the best martial arts film or close to it. But the gritty low budget nature and the introduction of martial artist Bruce Lee to the cinematic world in his first leading role is an important turning point for action films worldwide with a career and stardom that was cut far too short. Umbrella Entertainment's Blu-ray release has a great transfer for video, multiple audio options as well as a good selection of extras included. Very recommended.
|
|||||
|