A shabby knock-off about smack-smuggling in rural Thailand, The Big Boss is almost entirely rescued by then-newcomer Bruce Lee’s gleaming charisma. For early ‘70s Hong Kong audiences mollified by a production line of chop-socky chewing-gum, he must have felt beamed in from another dimension. While all around flap and flounce like limbering drama students, his athleticism feels studied and surgical; crushing kicks, shuddering punches (“His forearms were like steel!” dribbles a Warners exec on one of the interviews).
DVD Extras:
Shame, then, that for such a completist-friendly film (Lee’s action debut, plenty of scenes originally cut for comic ultraviolence) we’re stuck with the usual photo galleries, cheap’n’cheesy docs, and chunks of rolling info text. In a rubbish font. The sharp commentary from a couple of Lee historians is a boost, but there’s still an Ultimate Collector’s Extra-Special Diamond Bullion Edition in here somewhere.
