Big Boss (1971)
[director Lo Wei]
Bruce Lee’s first starring role is in this picture. He plays a Chinese laborer who arrives in Thailand to work with other family members and friends in an ice plant. The Big Boss of the ice company is a drug smuggler (and the actor is none other than James Tien, the choreographer responsible for King Hu’s work from Come Drink With Me through A Touch of Zen) who uses and abuses his workers. Bruce takes way too long to survey the situation before he finally decides that the boss and all his men need to be killed. Shrugging off his vow to his mother not to use his fists in violence, Bruce beats, maims, or kills nearly everybody connected with the operation.
The film has all the attributes of exploitation cinema, from the garish violence to the lurid sex and nudity people have tried too hard to make “casual.” But the film also suffers from a dizzy lack of focus. Bruce is great in the fight scenes, but he doesn’t even start fighting until halfway through the movie. It’s a movie with a couple of legendary fight scenes, and absolutely nothing else of value.
-Alan
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