The Big Boss (Tang Shan da Xiong): Special Collectors Edition (1971)

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General		Extras
Category	Martial Arts	Menu Animation & Audio Audio Commentary-Bey Logan (Hong Kong Cinema Expert) Gallery-Photo Biographies-Cast-Bruce Lee - Animated Biography Showcase Theatrical Trailer-3 Trailer-Hong Kong Legends
Rating
Year Of Production	1971
Running Time	95:27
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (74:08)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Wei Lo Wu Chia Hsiang
Studio Distributor	Fortune Star Universal Pictures Home Video	Starring	Bruce Lee Maria Yi James Tien Yin-Chieh Han Malalene Tony Liu Quin Lee Nora Miao San Chin Chao Chen Chia Ching Tu Tso Chen
Case	?
RPI	$29.95	Music	Peter Thomas Fu-ling Wang

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	Auto Pan & Scan Encoded	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) Cantonese Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Bruce Lee, probably the most famous and renowned martial artist ever, only completed four films as an adult star. All of them were made with the involvement of Raymond Chow who produced this film. This was Bruce's first adult starring role, made in 1971, after Bruce's return to live in Hong Kong. He was 31 at the time and by 1973 he would be dead. In between this film being made and his death he turned Hong Kong martial arts cinema on its head and made it into an international phenomenon. After his death many other people made martial arts films with some of them going on to international stardom such as Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung, Jet Li, Chow Yun Fat and others. None of this would have been possible without Bruce Lee.

    The Big Boss was set and filmed in Thailand on a very low budget. It is also known as Tang shan da xiong (literally Big Brother from China) and was released as Fists of Fury in the USA after the title was mixed up with Bruce Lee's next film, The Chinese Connection (which actually should have been called Fists of Fury). The story involves a young man, Cheng Chao An (Bruce Lee), moving to Thailand to live and work with his relatives including Hsiu Chien (James Tien), Chiao Mei (Maria Yi) and a number of other young men. They arrange for Cheng to get work with them at a local ice factory. The factory is owned by a local crime boss (Han Yin-Chieh), who uses it as a front for his drug distribution business. The boss's son is played by Tony Liu, a long term friend and co-star of Bruce Lee. As Hsiu Chien's friends start disappearing, Cheng decides to get involved despite his promise to his mother not to fight. This inevitably leads to him crossing the boss and being attacked by many thugs. Bruce Lee's most regular leading lady, Nora Miao, also appears in a small role as a girl running a drink stand.

    This is certainly the most blood-thirsty of Bruce Lee's films and it is the only one to be censored in Hong Kong. Unlike his later films which focus more on straight martial arts fighting, this one includes more swords, knives and other sharp instruments such as saws and ice picks. There are many exciting fights scenes and Bruce's famous intensity and skill shines through despite this being his first major film role. It also contains the immortal line, later taken off in Police Academy - 'Want to fight? Fight me'. This version is promoted as being completely uncut, however it should be noted that there are many different versions of this film, some supposedly running up to 115 minutes, whereas this version runs 95:27. This version does seem to contain all scenes which are available at this time. Other scenes were shot originally and were possibly shown in Hong Kong, however they have been lost. Some of them appear in one of the trailers on this disc.

   The Big Boss has previously been released in Region 4 under the title Fists of Fury by Avenue One. I am unlucky enough to own this disc and it is truly one of the worst DVD productions I have ever seen. It would be an insult to this new edition to even compare them. Suffice it to say that the other version should be avoided at all costs unless you like blurry, grainy, badly coloured, hacked, cropped and pan & scanned DVDs which are virtually unwatchable. This new version is in a different class entirely.

    If you are a fan of martial arts or action cinema this film should be in your collection.

Video

    Taking into account the age and budget of this film, and the diabolical previous Region 4 release, this version is very good indeed. Despite this it is not the best version available globally as there are some issues with the colour.

    The feature is presented in a 2.35:1 aspect ratio 16x9 enhanced which is the original aspect ratio.

    The picture was generally clear and sharp throughout, with some minor evidence of low level noise. The shadow detail was quite good considering the age and budget of the film. The sharpness was affected by some grain, however it is significantly better that the previous Region 4 version.

    The colour was nothing special despite being better than the previous version. Generally, speaking the colour just did not seem quite natural, especially faces which were quite pale. It was not terrible but quite noticeable especially when compared to the Region 3 Fortune Star version of this film. Sometimes the blacks were variable including some shades closer to blue or dark green. An excellent comparison can be viewed via this link. In addition to this there were a few colour artefacts including some coloured lines across the print at 92:10. Frankly, this really is not too bad - it only really pales when compared to the version mentioned above.

    There were a few artefacts of various sorts including some quite noticeable telecine wobble at 62:22, and some aliasing such as at 18:30, 30:17, 33:10, 37:15 and worst at 47:42. There was also some intermittent edge enhancement such as at 8:00. There were also some specks here and there and a jump at 51:30. Overall, considering the source, artefacts were certainly not a major issue.

    There are subtitles in English which were clear and easy to read, however they contained quite a few grammar and spelling issues.

    The layer change occurs at 74:08 causing a slight pause.
    

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The audio quality is quite good.

    This DVD contains two audio options, a Cantonese Dolby Digital 2.0 mono soundtrack encoded at 192 Kb/s, and the same in English. It should be noted that all languages were dubbed after shooting for this film, however, Mandarin is considered to be the original language. There is no Mandarin track present here, but personally I did not find this a major issue. The English dub is not too bad in the grand scheme of dubbed Hong Kong cinema. Personally, I would choose the Cantonese track with subtitles.

    Both soundtracks came across quite well and were clear and easy to listen to, with no major issues. The comparison linked above in the video section indicates that the Cantonese track here is much better than that found on the Fortune Star release. The music used was fairly ordinary.

    The surround speakers and subwoofer were not used.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    A decent selection of extras is included, however they are not as copious as most of the other Hong Kong Legends releases.

Menu

    The menu included music, motion, scenes from the film and the ability to select scenes and languages.

Commentary - Bey Logan (Hong Kong Film Expert)

    Another excellent commentary track from Bey Logan full of great details, trivia, anecdotes and information. He discusses the meaning of the title and the problems with its title in the US, plot, character back story, Bruce's career, production info, how Bruce got involved, languages, the differences between scenes directed by Lo Wei and those where the action was directed by Bruce, cuts and lost scenes and much much more. One of the best!

Production Photo Gallery

    A selection of about 20 stills from the production.

Animated Biography Showcase (21:13)

    This is slightly odd but informative. What you get is a text biography for Bruce Lee, which scrolls by as someone reads it. It runs for over 20 minutes. The biography is split into a number of sections including Theatrical Beginnings, Birth of a Warrior, Building a Foundation, Breaking the Mold, The Wilderness Years, Creating a Legend, Taking Control, The Cruel Hand of Fate & The Legend Lives On.

Trailers

    This section contains three trailers: a UK Promotional trailer for the DVD (1:28), the original theatrical trailer (4:07) which contains small scenes which are not actually included in the cut of the film included here and a Hong Kong Promotional Trailer (2:49). The original theatrical trailer also includes text notes explaining what is included here that is not in the film.

Easter Egg

    There is an Easter egg on (SPOILER ALERT: highlight with mouse to read) the first text screen about the Original Theatrical Trailer. If you click on the image of Bruce on this screen, you will gain access to an extra photo gallery.

Trailers for other films

    This menu contains trailers for five other titles in the HKL collection including Fist of Fury, Project A, Way of the Dragon, Mr Vampire and Young Master.

    There is censorship information available for this title. Click here to read it (a new window will open). WARNING: Often these entries contain MAJOR plot spoilers.

    There have been many releases of this film globally of widely varying quality. The best two versions are this one and the Region 3 Fortune Star release as compared in the review linked to in the video section above. The Fortune Star has the best video, however in all other respects this version is probably the pick. On balance, I would still recommend this version, however if video quality is your primary concern, try to find the Fortune Star version although I believe that it is only available as part of a box set.

    The video quality is very good but has some colour issues.

    The audio quality is good.

    The set has a small collection of extras, highlighted by an excellent Bey Logan commentary.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall