Hello and welcome to Dragon week! This week has nothing (to my knowledge) to do with Bruce Lee, but I felt I had to celebrate his 75th anniversary in some way before the year is over. So now we take a good hard look at the legendary Bruce Lee, both the man and the martial artist, and remember the way he changed the trade completely in his short life of 32 years. Lets look at his first feature film: Fists of Fury aka, The Big Boss.
A Little Background[]
Before working on The Big Boss, Bruce had been in a few tv series, playing Kato in the original Green Hornet tv show, and appearing regularly in Longstreet. He then realised he was getting nowhere. He then decided that to succeed he had to move back to Hong Kong and make a feature film. He then partnered with Raymond Chow (producer of almost all of Bruce's films, as well as the film adaptation of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Little fun fact there.) On the set of the Green Hornet, they quickly realized that Bruce's moves were too fast be filmed with the cameras of that time to film. His movements didn't even show up at all. He then slowed himself down...to a blur. That's right, he slowed down and appeared as a blur. In his films though, they simply filmed his action scenes at a slightly higher framerate so it was in slight slow motion. This was the most effective, since he didn't really have to fake it and his movements were visible, at least, sometimes. (Bruce Lee stat: Bruce's kicks were so fast, a full head kick takes up only three frames when filmed at 30 frames per second. That means he could kick you in the face in only 1/10 of a second.) Lee wanted to demonstrate martial arts as realistically as possible, which he succeeded in. When showed the best Hong Kong action film that was made before his debut, he said "Is this the best you got? I'll do you one better." not long after, the Big Boss hit the screen and proved him right. Like a boss. A Big Boss. (bad pun counter:1)
The Plot[]
A young man named Cheng moves to a village to find work, staying with his cousins. He has a vow to never fight again for unknown reasons. He has a love interest there, and she is also his cousin. Hey don't judge, its perfectly legal to be involved with a distant cousin. He goes to work with the boys at an ice factory, which is actually a front for a drug smuggling business. A few of his cousins find out about it, and when the refuse to get in on the deal, they are murdered, chopped up, and frozen in ice blocks for later disposal.(FYI this is Bruce's most violent movie) When the others grow suspicious, they are told to go see The Boss about it. They too are murdered. Now only Cheng and two others, as well as his cousin-lover remain. The workers go on strike at the factory demanding that the missing workers be returned. Then a brawl breaks out in the factory between the workers and the Boss's men. Bruce then shows the world his magic, as he takes on all of the Boss's men alone and doesn't even take a single hit. The bad guys run away, and Cheng is promoted to foreman at the factory. But then the Boss and his supporters buy Chengs trust. He ends up sleeping with a random girl that works at the Boss's mansion after he got drunk at a dinner party at said mansion. This angers the workers, and they begin to distrust and dislike Cheng. He tries to get to the bottom of the mystery. He sneaks into the factory at night. He finds the bodies inside the blocks of ice and tries to chisel them out. That is when the Boss's son and his men attack and try to kill him. Cheng then unleashes his rage and kills them all with their own weapons, and beating the Boss's son to death with his bare hands. He then returns home to find his cousins all murdered and his lover kidnapped. He then goes to the mansion for the final battle with the Boss. It's one of his best and most realistic fight scenes. There is knife battling, hand to hand, and in the end he deflects a knife throw back at the Boss. But wait, there's more. He then charges forward and stabs his fingers into the Boss's rib cage. I'll add a video of the final fight at the bottom of the page.(I didn't make the video, i just found it on YouTube). He then starts beating the Boss's corpse in the face until he collapses from exhaustion. The police and Ms. Cousinlover then lead Cheng away as the credits roll. That ended pretty...SERIOUSLEE! (bad pun counter:2)
What I Thought Of It[]
This movie is great. Its the first official martial arts/kung-fu movie ever made, and it is one of the best by far. The characters are a huge part, being relatable, likable, and believable. Bruce really made a name for himself in this movie. Check it out if you haven't already!
Afterword[]
Good movie. 9/10. So, thats one day down and six more to go! I have five more movie reviews to go, and one surprise article on the last day. Even I don't know what I'll be posting! It could be a video, maybe a list of quotes and facts. Those are just two of the many ideas floating around in my head. If my controller gets here in time(ordered it on Ebay a while ago) I might do a video of the Bruce Lee game I have. Anyway, that's all for today. Be water my friends!
