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122-464: The Big Boss ( Chinese : 唐山大兄 ; originally titled as Fists of Fury in the United States) is a 1971 Hong Kong martial arts film directed by Lo Wei (who also wrote the film) and Wu Chi-hsiang. Bruce Lee stars in his first major film in a lead role, and his first Hong Kong film since 1960 . The film co-stars Maria Yi , James Tien , Tony Liu , and Nora Miao . Originally written for Tien,

244-666: A martial arts tournament and being hired to play Kato in The Green Hornet series. The movie shows the fictionalized shooting of the first episode, where the cast and crew are impressed by Lee's martial arts skills. Van Williams plays the director of the episode. Kevin Smith and Ralph Garman are co-writers of a Batman and Green Hornet team-up titled Batman '66 Meets the Green Hornet . The issues were drawn by artist Ty Templeton , with covers by Alex Ross . The six-issue miniseries

366-528: A Bruce Lee film festival in Kilburn, London, was organised by Kung-Fu Monthly poster magazine; a Mandarin print—from Golden Harvest's London office—was screened for over 1,700 fans and was complete with the exception of the censored "saw in the head" shot. In 2023, Arrow Films announced the release of a set titled Bruce Lee at Golden Harvest, whose contents include a Mandarin version of The Big Boss which includes ten minutes of additional footage. When The Big Boss

488-438: A billboard advertising the fictitious product Kissin' Candy Mint (with the slogan "How sweet they are") designed to separate down the middle and rejoin. The Black Beauty, which carried rear license plate number V194, could fire explosive charges from tubes hidden behind retractable panels below the headlights, which were said to be rockets with explosive warheads; it had concealed-when-not-in-use, drop-down knock-out gas nozzle in

610-503: A certain extent in South Korea , remain virtually identical to traditional characters, with variations between the two forms largely stylistic. There has historically been a debate on traditional and simplified Chinese characters . Because the simplifications are fairly systematic, it is possible to convert computer-encoded characters between the two sets, with the main issue being ambiguities in simplified representations resulting from

732-425: A contact who knew the owner of the factory, and arranged for Golden Harvest to film there for a few days. One night, filming of the big fight in the ice house had to be stopped for an hour as Bruce had lost a contact lens, and dozens of people were on their hands and knees looking for it amongst thousands of ice chips. Eventually Bruce found it himself, leading Lo Wei to wonder if he had it in his pocket all along, and

854-503: A fee, that presumed-dead racketeer Glen Connors is still alive. Shortly later, Nat is found floating dead in the harbor from a possible boating accident. Reid thinks otherwise and has a special interest in proving Pyle was murdered because it was Connors who had framed Reid's father, leading to the father's imprisonment and death. Organized crime's "Protection" Boss Duke Slate decides it's time to acquire "the city's Chinatown district" and uses Low Sing's tong to handle his influence. Low Sing,

976-544: A few of the Thai stuntmen (one of whom was a former Muay Thai bantamweight champion), and exchanged info and skills with them between takes. Bruce reportedly though seemed unimpressed and called their kicks "telegraphed", while the Hong Kong stunt team (Lam Ching-Ying, Billy Chan and his brother Peter Chan Lung) were initially unimpressed with Bruce, and doubted his abilities. Their opinion of him soon changed when Lam challenged Bruce in

1098-579: A few seemingly innocuous scenes. Featured only in some trailers from the early 1970s, a different head is visible in the block of ice when Cheng is investigating the ice house; it's not known if it was in any print. Rumoured edits include reductions to the gruesome sequence in which the body of cousin Ah Wong is cut apart by the electric saw; at the dinner scene, a drunken Cheng approaches the prostitute Wu Man (Malarin Boonak) and imagines her topless. In December 1979,

1220-422: A fierce fight by deflecting the knife Mi throws at him with his shoe. Once he knows that Chow Mei is safe (as she came running along with the police division), he surrenders to the police when they arrive at the mansion. He is detained and taken to the police vehicle to leave the mansion. The four years following the cancellation of The Green Hornet was a difficult and frustrating time for Bruce Lee. In 1970, he

1342-431: A fight. She gave her son a jade necklace symbolising peace, protection and good fortune, as a reminder to avoid trouble. It was not unusual in Hong Kong cinema for the director to amend the script during filming, and The Big Boss was no exception. When Lo Wei replaced the original director in late July 1971, he was unhappy with the script and re-wrote it, without Bruce's knowledge. Lo later recalled, "I wouldn't tell him I

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1464-569: A friend and make a few phone calls. Bruce stayed in Bangkok for five nights, and it was here that he met most of the cast and crew and also Raymond Chow for the first time. Filming commenced on 22 July in Pak Chong , a small town situated some 90 miles (140 km) northeast of Bangkok, on the northern edge of the Khao Yai National Park , Thailand's oldest reserve; it also serves as the gateway to

1586-405: A knife at her heart from behind. Cheng breaks into the factory and first finds the drugs before discovering a hand, the head of Sun, and the head of Hsu Chien in the ice blocks. Cheng is surrounded by Hsiao Chiun and a group of his men. Cheng fights his way out, killing Hsiao Chiun and his gang in the process. He returns home to find that his remaining family members have been murdered, while Chow Mei

1708-410: A local phenomenon in Hong Kong a couple of years ago. The two I've just seen, Fists of Fury (a.k.a. The Big Boss ) and Deep Thrust (a.k.a. Lady Whirlwind ), make the worst Italian Westerns look like the most solemn and noble achievements of the early Soviet cinema." Variety stated, "Despite the silly plot, dreadful supporting cast and prim morality (or perhaps because of them), Fists of Fury

1830-448: A long-term contract but only US$ 2,000 per film, which Bruce declined. Another offer appeared unexpectedly from Raymond Chow , a film producer who had in 1970 left Shaw Brothers to form a new company, Golden Harvest. Chow, aware of the rejected offer from Shaw Brothers, had been impressed by Bruce's interviews on Hong Kong television and radio, and also by his confidence during a long-distance phone call. During that phone call, Lee determined

1952-488: A man through a wooden wall, leaving a cartoonish outline in the wood. Bruce was also hesitant to go along with Lo Wei's ideas of filming risqué scenes of his character getting in bed with Thai ladies portraying prostitutes, although he eventually agreed to do them as Lo insisted it would add to his character's newfound image as a revenge-driven warrior. The final scene filmed in Pak Chong was the climactic fight between Bruce and

2074-403: A martial arts professional, instructs his craft to his gang using the actions of a caged Praying Mantis, analogizing its intricate moves to proper Kung-Fu application. After a kidnapping that Low Sing engineers, a challenge between Low Sing and Kato is inevitable. When a wax museum's figure of The Scarf, an infamous strangler from 20 years ago, is replaced in the center display spot by effigies of

2196-450: A new and improved offer. A film producer from Taiwan told Bruce to rip up his contract and promised to take care of any lawsuit. Bruce, a man of his word, had no intention of considering the offers, although it did add some extra tension on the film set. Shooting did not go smoothly at first. After just a few days, the "uncertain" original director, Wu Chia Hsiang, was replaced by Lo Wei (the husband of associate producer Liu Liang-Hua). Bruce

2318-400: A now legendary midnight screening. Linda recalled in her 1975 book Bruce Lee: The Man Only I Knew : "Every dream that Bruce had ever possessed came true that night. The audience rose to its feet, yelling, clapping, cheering. It was almost impossible to leave the theatre; we were absolutely mobbed." The Lees also attended the official gala premiere on 3 November, which was a charity screening for

2440-490: A ranged attack he could use to counter enemies both at a distance and in hand-to-hand combat. The impression Bruce Lee made at the time is demonstrated by Kato's Revenge Featuring the Green Hornet , a TV series tie-in coloring book produced by Watkins & Strathmore. Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov 's orchestral interlude, " Flight of the Bumblebee ", used for the radio series, was so strongly identified with The Green Hornet that

2562-462: A secret control panel behind a tool wall would sequentially set the lights to green, attach clamps to the bumpers of Reid's personal car, rotate the floor of the garage – hiding Reid's car (a Chrysler 300 convertible), and bringing up the Black Beauty – finally unclamping the Black Beauty's bumpers. The Black Beauty would then exit the garage through a hidden rear door, and enter the street from behind

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2684-458: A short film for them called Bruce Lee and Jeet Kune Do , which would run for approximately 15 minutes and be narrated by actress Nora Miao. According to Hong Kong press reports, Golden Harvest had originally planned for the short film to accompany the release of another upcoming film of theirs called The Hurricane (a.k.a. Gold Cyclone Whirlwind ), starring Nora and written and directed by Lo Wei. This would promote Nora and introduce Lee's skills to

2806-577: A similar, jazz-styled theme modeled after the Rimsky-Korsakov piece was used for the series, arranged by Billy May , who also composed the background scores, and conducted by Lionel Newman , with trumpet solo performed by Al Hirt . Hirt recorded a longer, stereo version of the theme with a somewhat different arrangement for his album "The Horn Meets The Hornet". A similar recording titled "The Green Bee" recorded by trombonist Urbie Green that appears on Green's 21 Trombones album has also been considered as

2928-647: A stand-off interrupted by the police. In this episode, Batman, Robin, and the police consider the Green Hornet & Kato criminals, though Batman & Robin were cordial to the duo in the earlier window appearance. In the December 9, 1966 The Green Hornet episode "The Secret Of The Sally Bell" the Batmobile is seen on a television receiver, turning around inside the Batcave . In the February 3, 1967, Green Hornet episode "Ace in

3050-601: A standard set of Chinese character forms used to write Chinese languages . In Taiwan , the set of traditional characters is regulated by the Ministry of Education and standardized in the Standard Form of National Characters . These forms were predominant in written Chinese until the middle of the 20th century, when various countries that use Chinese characters began standardizing simplified sets of characters, often with characters that existed before as well-known variants of

3172-608: A surprise hit in Beirut ( Lebanon ) in 1972 that they began to take notice. Suddenly buyers from all over the world were arriving in Hong Kong to buy the film, which was soon opening in new markets for Chinese films such as South America, Africa and southern Europe. The film became a major box office hit in Europe between 1972 and early 1973. In the UK, however, the release of the English-dubbed version

3294-513: A tight budget of US$ 100,000 , the film grossed nearly US$ 50 million worldwide (equivalent to approximately $ 380 million adjusted for inflation), earning nearly 500 times its budget. When the film was released in the United States, the death of Hsiao Mi, "The Boss", was cut down to him simply being stabbed in the chest with a knife in order to receive an " R " rating. The original version of his death, which not only shows an explicit close-up of

3416-493: A tight budget of $ 100,000, approximately 500 times its original investment. It was the highest-grossing Hong Kong film up until Lee's next film, Fist of Fury (1972). Cheng Chao-an is a Chinese mainlander who moves to Pak Chong, Thailand to live with his extended family and to work in an ice factory. He accidentally meets his cousin Hsu Chien and Hsu's younger brother when Hsu stands up to local street thugs who refuse to pay for

3538-475: A total revenue of $ 16.2 million in the United States (equivalent to $ 88.3 million adjusted for inflation in 2020), where it sold approximately 9.418 million tickets and was one of the top 20 films released in 1973. In France, the film became one of the top ten highest-grossing films of 1973, with 2,519,063 ticket sales. In Spain, the film sold 2,211,383 tickets. Upon its October 1973 release in South Korea,

3660-552: A visit to Hong Kong with his young son Brandon . Unbeknownst to Bruce, he had become famous there due to reruns of The Green Hornet on TV, and the enthusiastic reception he received took him by surprise. He was invited to appear on popular HKTVB chat show Enjoy Yourself Tonight , where he was interviewed and gave a board-breaking demonstration. Encouraged by the interest in Hong Kong, Bruce asked his childhood friend Unicorn Chan to pass on his CV to Shaw Brothers , Hong Kong's largest film production company. They offered Bruce

3782-798: Is 産 (also the accepted form in Japan and Korea), while in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan the accepted form is 產 (also the accepted form in Vietnamese chữ Nôm ). The PRC tends to print material intended for people in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, and overseas Chinese in traditional characters. For example, versions of the People's Daily are printed in traditional characters, and both People's Daily and Xinhua have traditional character versions of their website available, using Big5 encoding. Mainland companies selling products in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan use traditional characters in order to communicate with consumers;

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3904-467: Is District Attorney Frank P. Scanlon (played by Walter Brooke). This character was changed from the original's police commissioner because the Batman TV series was already using Commissioner Jim Gordon (played by Neil Hamilton ) as the hero's official contact, and William Dozier , the executive producer of both programs, wanted to downplay comparisons between the two shows. Michael Axford (Lloyd Gough),

4026-563: Is also mention of The Green Hornet TV series on the Batman two-part episode "The Impractical Joker", transmitted on November 16, 1966, as Alfred , Dick Grayson , and Bruce Wayne are watching television, and Bruce Wayne says, "It's time to watch The Green Hornet! " Later that same season, the Green Hornet & Kato appeared in the two-part second-season episodes "A Piece of the Action" and "Batman's Satisfaction", which aired on March 1–2, 1967. In

4148-646: Is giving the American audiences what they apparently want now: a hero. Lee is Rex Allen, Lash Larue, Tom Mix, Roy Rogers and Gene Autry all rolled into one ... The characters are certainly simple: these are just plain Chinese country folk whose little disagreements develop overnight into Oriental rumbles equivalent to the Sharks and Jets in West Side Story ." Vincent Canby of The New York Times wrote, " Kung fu movies began as

4270-434: Is growing arrogant and spending more time reveling in his new position and having dinner with the boss than helping to look for their brothers. They resent him, except Chow Mei, his cousin, who stands up for him. Later, Sun Wu Man warns Cheng that his life is in danger and reveals that Hsiao Mi is running a drug trafficking operation. Immediately after Cheng leaves, Hsiao's son, Hsiao Chiun, sneaks in and kills Sun by throwing

4392-484: Is killed in the Daily Sentinel's eighth-floor city room by a leopard, Britt Reid finds a transmitter in a cigarette box. Later, D.A. Scanlon informs Britt of the discovery of a perfect diamond on Allen's desk. Digging around, Reid suspects that the gemologist had been working on producing synthetic diamonds, and the Green Hornet takes an interest in him. Private investigator Nat Pyle informs Britt that he has proof, for

4514-399: Is missing. Mourning his loss by a river, Cheng vows to exact his revenge at all costs, even if he dies. Cheng subsequently storms Hsiao Mi's mansion to fight him and his men. One of Hsiao Mi's disgruntled slaves frees Chow Mei, who was being held hostage by Hsiao Mi in a cramped room used as a prison cell. Chow Mei runs away to get help from the Thai police. Cheng finally kills Hsiao Mi after

4636-479: Is shot at a funeral with 20 witnesses present, and not a shot is heard, not even by the Green Hornet's friend, District Attorney Frank P. Scanlon, who was also attending. A messenger from a Brokerage House, carrying $ 5000 in negotiable bonds, is the Silent Gun's second victim. The Green Hornet & Kato respond in the famous Black Beauty and hit the streets to track down the villainous culprit. After reporter Pat Allen

4758-403: Is sometimes entertaining, with most of the credit due to Lee." On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes , the film holds a score of 69% based on 16 reviews, with an average rating of 6.1/10. The Big Boss has quite a long and complicated history of censorship and editing, with many scenes being trimmed or removed completely for various reasons and for different markets. The notorious "handsaw in

4880-464: Is the owner and publisher of the Daily Sentinel newspaper but, as the masked vigilante Green Hornet, he fights crime with the assistance of his martial arts expert partner, Kato , and his weapons-enhanced car, a custom Chrysler Imperial called the "Black Beauty". On police records, the Green Hornet is a wanted criminal, but, in reality, the Green Hornet is masquerading as a criminal so that he can infiltrate and battle criminal gangs, leaving them and

5002-483: The Chinese Commercial News , World News , and United Daily News all use traditional characters, as do some Hong Kong–based magazines such as Yazhou Zhoukan . The Philippine Chinese Daily uses simplified characters. DVDs are usually subtitled using traditional characters, influenced by media from Taiwan as well as by the two countries sharing the same DVD region , 3. With most having immigrated to

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5124-541: The Chao Phraya River in Phra Pradaeng District , including the opening scene in the film where Bruce and his uncle step off the ferry boat and walk through the busy pier. An old teak house in the east side of Phra Pradaeng district was used as the family home, while Nora Miao's scenes (and part of the opening fight sequence) were filmed on the quieter west side, which resembled rural Pak Chong. At times filming

5246-457: The Kensiu language . The Green Hornet (TV series) The single-season series premiered September 9, 1966, and ran through March 17, 1967, lasting 26 episodes; ABC repeated the series after its cancellation by the network, until July 14, 1967, when The Green Hornet had its last broadcast on network television. With the later success of Lee as a premiere star of the martial arts film genre,

5368-622: The Shanghainese -language character U+20C8E 𠲎 CJK UNIFIED IDEOGRAPH-20C8E —a composition of 伐 with the ⼝   'MOUTH' radical—used instead of the Standard Chinese 嗎 ; 吗 . Typefaces often use the initialism TC to signify the use of traditional Chinese characters, as well as SC for simplified Chinese characters . In addition, the Noto, Italy family of typefaces, for example, also provides separate fonts for

5490-493: The American public saw true martial arts fighting and this led to its increasing popularity. Indeed, Van Williams took lessons from Lee so that he could do some of the increasingly popular moves as well. The Green Hornet & Kato also appear in three episodes of Batman ; "The Spell of Tut" (as a brief cameo) and "A Piece of the Action"/"Batman's Satisfaction", with Reid mentioning that he and Bruce Wayne had been acquaintances and rivals since childhood. Though other characters in

5612-516: The Green Hornet and Kato, the waxen form of the Scarf seemingly comes to life and starts attacking people. Using the museum researcher's manuscript about the Scarf, the Green Hornet and Kato attempt to snare the killer before he claims any more victims. As a surprise birthday party begins for Britt, a handgun given as a present to Britt seemingly discharges itself, fatally shooting ex-employee Eddie Rech. In reverse of his usual situation, Britt Reid hides from

5734-503: The Green Hornet of the radio series. In this series, Reid owned a television station as well. There were visual differences as well. Promotional artwork for the radio program and the comic books of the day depicted the Hornet wearing a mask that covered all of his face below the eyes (the two Universal Studios Saturday matinee serials contained a full face mask with eye holes) while Kato wore goggles. Here, both men wear masks that cover only

5856-568: The Green Hornet's car, The Black Beauty, a 1966 Imperial Crown sedan customized by Dean Jeffries at a cost of US$ 13,000. Two cars were built for the show and both exist today. Black Beauty 1 is located in the Petersen Automotive Museum collection and Black Beauty 2 has been fully restored and is located in a private collection in South Carolina. The Black Beauty was stored underneath Britt Reid's garage. A set of switches on

5978-568: The Hole", which was transmitted between the September 1966 and March 1967 Batman appearances (mentioned above), an unidentified episode of Batman is seen playing on a television set, showing Batman and Robin climbing a building. One other appearance of The Green Hornet, Kato, and Batman was broadcast in the Autumn of 1966 on a Milton Berle Hollywood Palace television variety show. The TV series featured

6100-573: The Hong Kong censors, for the film's general release at the end of October. On 22 October, Bruce and Robert Baker appeared on Enjoy Yourself Tonight to promote the film. While in Thailand, Bruce wrote to Linda regularly, telling her he missed her and the children, and was looking forward to seeing them in Hong Kong once filming had been completed. In return for their air fare (from their home in Los Angeles to Hong Kong), Golden Harvest wanted Bruce to make

6222-498: The Hong Kong public prior to the release of The Big Boss . Nora, who was already in Thailand on vacation, joined the film crew in Bangkok in late August 1971, but the short film was not made, presumably because there was not enough time; she did, however, film a few brief scenes for The Big Boss in a cameo role as a roadside refreshment vendor. On 23 October 1971, the film premiered at the Queen's Theatre in Hong Kong's Central district for

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6344-460: The James Bond calibre." Conversely, a negative review by Edgar Koh had appeared in another Singapore newspaper, New Nation, a few days earlier: "Bruce Lee is certainly skilled in his job, not as an actor but as an exponent of his particular brand of fighting with fists and legs ... There are the stereotype good and bad, and the by now redundant theme of revenge. On top of this, it doesn't flow smoothly;

6466-629: The Lees' financial worries and permitted Linda to quit her job. With the contract signed, Chow hastily arranged a meeting with his Golden Harvest executives and an old friend called Ma Thien-Ek (Fatty Ma), a Thai businessman, film distributor and cinema owner. They knew that Shaw Brothers were making a Muay Thai boxing film in Thailand ( Duel of Fists ), and wanted to make their new film there, which would also help to keep costs down. Fatty Ma, an expert in Thai affairs, offered to help with locations and expenses. Veteran Chinese novelist and screenwriter Ni Kuang

6588-735: The Legend (1984), Game of Death , Way of the Dragon and Fist of Fury . In the United Kingdom, the film was watched by 300,000 viewers on Channel 5 in 2008, making it the year's most-watched foreign-language film on Channel 5. On July 14, 2020, The Criterion Collection released a Blu-ray box set featuring The Big Boss, Fist of Fury, The Way of the Dragon, Enter the Dragon, Game of Death, and Game of Death II titled Bruce Lee: His Greatest Hits. The Big Boss received mixed reviews from critics upon release. The South China Morning Post during

6710-577: The Malaysian capital city of Kuala Lumpur . During its initial run, the film grossed more than US$ 5 million in Southeast Asia alone and US$ 12,000,000 (equivalent to $ 90,000,000 in 2023) across Asia. Despite the enormous success of The Big Boss in the Far East, overseas distributors were initially reluctant as they did not think it had potential outside Asia. It was only when the film suddenly became

6832-653: The North American box office in May 1973, above two other Hong Kong martial arts films in the second and third spots, Lady Whirlwind ( Deep Thrust ) and King Boxer ( Five Fingers of Death ). Its success was surprising given that the film was only originally intended for the Mandarin circuit. The film earned $ 2,800,000 (equivalent to $ 19,000,000 in 2023) in distributor rentals at the American and Canadian box office during its initial run in 1973. The Big Boss went on to gross

6954-547: The People's Republic of China, traditional Chinese characters are standardised according to the Table of Comparison between Standard, Traditional and Variant Chinese Characters . Dictionaries published in mainland China generally show both simplified and their traditional counterparts. There are differences between the accepted traditional forms in mainland China and elsewhere, for example the accepted traditional form of 产 in mainland China

7076-502: The Scout Association of Hong Kong. The film was an instant success, taking just 3 days to reach HK$ 1 million, and a week to reach HK$ 2 million . By the end of its relatively brief run (ending on 18 November), The Big Boss had made HK$ 3.2 million , breaking the previous record held by The Sound of Music by more than HK$ 800,000. An estimated 1.2 million people in Hong Kong, out of a population of four million, had paid to watch

7198-475: The TV series theme. Each episode begins with the following monologue, narrated by producer William Dozier Another challenge for the Green Hornet, his aide Kato, and their rolling arsenal, the Black Beauty. On police records a wanted criminal, the Green Hornet is really Britt Reid, owner-publisher of the Daily Sentinel ; his dual identity is known only to his secretary, and to the district attorney. And now, to protect

7320-465: The United States during the second half of the 19th century, Chinese Americans have long used traditional characters. When not providing both, US public notices and signs in Chinese are generally written in traditional characters, more often than in simplified characters. In the past, traditional Chinese was most often encoded on computers using the Big5 standard, which favored traditional characters. However,

7442-446: The authorities. Hsiao sets his gang on the duo as a result, and after a brutal battle, they are both killed as well, and their bodies are hidden. When the Chinese workers at the ice factory learn that Hsu is missing as well, they refuse to work and start a riot against the Thai management, who are joined by a group of hired thugs. During the chaos, one of the thugs accidentally rips off and breaks Cheng's amulet. Enraged, Cheng jumps into

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7564-412: The bedrooms in the brothel being smelly and unhygienic. The prostitutes charged only fifteen Baht in Thai money per client, but the film crew paid them one to two hundred Baht each to appear as extras in the film. Perhaps the most iconic location seen in the film is the titular big boss's mansion and gardens, which was a Buddhist temple situated on the main road called Wat Siri Samphan, built in 1963. Like

7686-464: The best action movie playing in Hong Kong and assured Chow that he could do much better. In June 1971, Chow sent one of his producers, Liu Liang-Hua (the wife of director Lo Wei) to Los Angeles to meet and negotiate with Bruce, who signed a contract to make two films for Golden Harvest for US$ 15,000 ($ 10,000 for The Big Boss and $ 5,000 on completion of a second film tentatively titled King of Chinese Boxers and which became Fist of Fury ). This eased

7808-399: The bodyguard turned reporter of the radio series, is now solely a police reporter for The Daily Sentinel , the newspaper owned by Britt Reid/the Green Hornet. The first episode, "The Silent Gun", provides a connection between the radio and the TV series, as Axford reminds Reid of the "old days" when he lived in the same apartment with Reid's father, which hints that Reid's father may have been

7930-410: The boss (played by Han Ying Chieh, who also served as the fight choreographer), which proved to be problematic: Bruce endured "two days of hell" when he sprained his ankle from a high jump on a slipped mattress, and had to be driven to Bangkok to see a doctor, where he caught a virus in the hot and stuffy conditions. Close-ups were used to finish the fight, as Bruce struggled and had to drag his leg, which

8052-429: The brawl and beats some thugs, causing them to flee. To reduce tensions, the ice factory manager makes Cheng a foreman, inviting him to a dinner that night to meet the boss. Everyone is happy that Cheng is the new foreman. The family goes home, and everyone is satisfied except Chow Mei who starts crying because the others have forgotten Hsu and Pei are missing. Cheng promises to find out what he can about them. Cheng goes to

8174-514: The center of the front grille, and the vehicle could launch a small flying video/audio surveillance device (referred to as the scanner) through a small rectangular panel in the middle of the trunk lid. It was a foreshadowing of today's small helicopter-like drones . Working rockets and gas nozzles were incorporated into the trunk lid as well. The 1993 American semi-fictionalized film biography of Bruce Lee depicts Lee ( Jason Scott Lee ) meeting fictional producer Bill Krieger ( Robert Wagner ) after

8296-508: The central characters and developed the core formats of both radio shows, Britt Reid shares the same family name as the Lone Ranger , as Britt's father had been the Lone Ranger's nephew Dan Reid. Despite character co-creator George W. Trendle 's failed efforts to generate interest in a Green Hornet TV series in 1951 and 1958, it was not until the success of ABC 's 1960s Batman series that

8418-426: The dumplings from his brother. Cheng refrains from getting involved despite being tempted to. He swore to his mother never to participate in any fighting and wears a jade amulet around his neck as a reassurance of his pledge. Cheng begins his work at the ice factory. When an ice block is accidentally broken, a bag of white powder—obviously illegal drugs—falls out. Two of Cheng's cousins pick up the bag and are told to see

8540-517: The emotional mood, shallow though it is, is sometimes left out on a limb." Reviews were also mixed when the film was released (as Fists of Fury ) in the U.S. in spring 1973. J. Oliver Prescott of the Tampa Bay Times wrote, "Bruce Lee is the fastest foot in the East ... Now back in Hong Kong, he has become the hottest international movie star since Clint Eastwood . Unlike Eastwood's anti-hero, Bruce Lee

8662-447: The factory and gets the men back to work. He tells the workers that he will speak to the boss and go to the police to find out about the investigation into the missing brothers and cousins. Cheng arrives at the dinner. The manager tells him that the boss cannot make it due to a meeting with visitors from out of town. Several women arrive at the dinner table, sit next to Cheng, and fill their glasses with cognac. Cheng gets drunk and spends

8784-497: The film had to be delayed for 45 minutes. It went on general release on 8 December, and by the end of its run on 21 January 1972, it had broken box office records with just over S$ 700,000, about S$ 240,000 more than previous record-holder The Ten Commandments . The film also played to packed cinemas in Malaysia , the third territory to show the film. By September 1972, it had grossed US$ 370,000 (equivalent to $ 2,800,000 in 2023) in

8906-475: The film on time. Since he was employed by Shaw Bros at the time, his involvement was kept secret, and he was uncredited. Bruce returned to Hong Kong on 16 October with his family plus friend Robert Baker. They were greeted at Kai Tak Airport by several friends, news reporters and a large group of scouts from the Scout Association of Hong Kong. The next day, a private screening was held at Golden Harvest for cinema owners. Sung Ming then made further edits to appease

9028-493: The film sold 209,551 tickets in the capital city of Seoul . In Lebanon , the film had a packed six-week first run in Beirut and then a second run that outperformed The Godfather (1972). The UK and Japan were among the last countries to release the film, in April 1974. In Japan, it was the year's seventh-highest-grossing film, with ¥ 600,000,000 (equivalent to ¥1,300,000,000 in 2019) in distributor rental earnings. Against

9150-440: The film's original Hong Kong run said that "This is probably the biggest thing to hit the Mandarin film business since the invention of fake blood ... Every cinema showing this film is packed to the fire exits." In a positive review for Singapore newspaper The Straits Times , Arthur Richards wrote, "It is a delightful study of Chinese martial arts mixed with karate and lightning kicks, Western-style ... An acceptable thriller of

9272-573: The film. It became the highest-grossing film of all time in Hong Kong until Lee's second film, Fist of Fury , was released in March 1972. Shortly after the Hong Kong run, The Big Boss was released in Singapore , and enjoyed similar success there, where it played for a total of 45 days at five theatres. There was chaos at a midnight preview screening (27 November 1971) at Cathay's Jurong Drive-in cinema; police were called as hundreds of cars caused huge jams, and

9394-418: The hotel, and Bruce sidekicked him across the room. After an eventful, and at times chaotic, first few days' filming in Pak Chong, by early August the filming had picked up speed and was progressing well. Bruce and Lo Wei were collaborating, but they still clashed over a few of the scenes, in particular the use of trampolines and mattresses to propel people through the air, and also the scene where Bruce punches

9516-440: The ice factory, it is still in Pak Chong today and remains largely unchanged, much to the delight of the dedicated fans who have made the pilgrimage to Thailand to view the filming locations. There has been some speculation that Bruce was involved in a real fight on the set of The Big Boss , as depicted in the 1993 biopic Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story . Although no such fight actually took place, Bruce did interact extensively with

9638-567: The incriminating evidence for police arrival. Beyond Kato, Britt's dual identity is known only to his secretary Lenore "Casey" Case and District Attorney Frank P. Scanlon. Britt's motive for fighting crime was explained on-screen: His father had died in prison after having been framed for a crime he did not commit. The character had originated as the star of a radio series (1930s to 1950s), and it had previously been adapted to movie serials , comic books , and other media. Owing in part to George W. Trendle and Fran Striker having created all

9760-493: The inverse is equally true as well. In digital media, many cultural phenomena imported from Hong Kong and Taiwan into mainland China, such as music videos, karaoke videos, subtitled movies, and subtitled dramas, use traditional Chinese characters. In Hong Kong and Macau , traditional characters were retained during the colonial period, while the mainland adopted simplified characters. Simplified characters are contemporaneously used to accommodate immigrants and tourists, often from

9882-578: The knife in his chest but Cheng Chao-an's fingers piercing his rib cage and blood flowing from under his shirt, would have given the film an " X " rating. The first time this scene was shown in the U.S. was when it played on cable channel AMC in July 2004. Columbia Pictures released the film as a re-issue in 1978 and again re-issued it with Fist of Fury as a studio sanctioned double feature in February 1981. Miramax distributed The Big Boss on television & streaming (Hulu & Netflix) along with Bruce Lee,

10004-496: The leading role was given to Lee instead when the film's original director, Ng Kar-seung, was replaced by Lo Wei. The film was a critical success and excelled at the box office. Lee's strong performance overshadowed Tien, already a star in Hong Kong, and made Bruce Lee famous in Asia and eventually the world. The film went on to gross nearly US$ 50 million worldwide (equivalent to approximately $ 400 million adjusted for inflation), against

10126-725: The mainland. The increasing use of simplified characters has led to concern among residents regarding protecting what they see as their local heritage. Taiwan has never adopted simplified characters. The use of simplified characters in government documents and educational settings is discouraged by the government of Taiwan. Nevertheless, with sufficient context simplified characters are likely to be successfully read by those used to traditional characters, especially given some previous exposure. Many simplified characters were previously variants that had long been in some use, with systematic stroke simplifications used in folk handwriting since antiquity. Traditional characters were recognized as

10248-682: The majority of Chinese text in mainland China are simplified characters , there is no legislation prohibiting the use of traditional Chinese characters, and often traditional Chinese characters remain in use for stylistic and commercial purposes, such as in shopfront displays and advertising. Traditional Chinese characters remain ubiquitous on buildings that predate the promulgation of the current simplification scheme, such as former government buildings, religious buildings, educational institutions, and historical monuments. Traditional Chinese characters continue to be used for ceremonial, cultural, scholarly/academic research, and artistic/decorative purposes. In

10370-522: The manager later that night. The factory is a front for a drug smuggling ring led by Hsiao Mi (a.k.a. the Big Boss). When Cheng's cousins (Wong and Chan) refuse to join them, the manager sends his thugs to kill them and dispose of their bodies, thereby preserving the secret. Hsu Chien and Ah Pei, another of Cheng's cousins, go to Hsiao Mi's mansion to find out what happened to the two cousins. Hsu doubts Hsiao's claims that he knows nothing and threatens to go to

10492-975: The merging of previously distinct character forms. Many Chinese online newspapers allow users to switch between these character sets. Traditional characters are known by different names throughout the Chinese-speaking world. The government of Taiwan officially refers to traditional Chinese characters as 正體字 ; 正体字 ; zhèngtǐzì ; 'orthodox characters'. This term is also used outside Taiwan to distinguish standard characters, including both simplified, and traditional, from other variants and idiomatic characters . Users of traditional characters elsewhere, as well as those using simplified characters, call traditional characters 繁體字 ; 繁体字 ; fántǐzì ; 'complex characters', 老字 ; lǎozì ; 'old characters', or 全體字 ; 全体字 ; quántǐzì ; 'full characters' to distinguish them from simplified characters. Some argue that since traditional characters are often

10614-411: The network decided to adapt the venerable radio and movie-serial character. The task was taken on by William Dozier who produced and narrated the series. The series stars Van Williams as the Green Hornet and introduced martial artist Bruce Lee to American television audiences as his partner, Kato. Unlike the campy and humorous Batman series, The Green Hornet was played straight. Though it

10736-425: The night with Sun Wu Man, a prostitute who attended the dinner. Chow Mei is walking by as he leaves the brothel in the morning. Cheng is embarrassed. Because Cheng attended the dinner and got drunk, he did not follow up on his promise to speak to the police about the missing brothers. He tells his family when he returns home that he forgot. This causes much unease for Cheng's family and friends, who believe that Cheng

10858-432: The noise on set; mosquitoes and cockroaches were everywhere, and the tap water in the hotel was yellow. Bruce asked the hotel staff to put his mattress on the floor, as sleeping on the bed was uncomfortable due to his ongoing back problem. He also needed lots of rest after a fight scene. When Bruce arrived in Pak Chong, rival film companies tried desperately to poach him away from Golden Harvest, including Shaw Brothers, with

10980-583: The northeast ( Isan ) of Thailand from the Bangkok Metropolitan Region . Pak Chong would be Bruce's home for about four weeks, and he made no secret of his dislike for it in letters to wife Linda, describing it as a lawless, impoverished and undeveloped village. Due to the lack of fresh food, Bruce was losing weight due to a lack of proper diet, having to eat canned meat and supplement his diet with vitamins, which he had thankfully brought along. He occasionally lost his voice through trying to shout above

11102-507: The official U.S. DVD release from 20th Century Fox in 2005 have restored the original titles of all Bruce Lee films, though the descriptions do not match in some cases. Unlike other Lee films, The Big Boss is unique in having not only two, but three completely different music scores. Fist of Fury , Way of the Dragon , Enter the Dragon , and Game of Death all only feature one score with minor alterations. Traditional Chinese characters Traditional Chinese characters are

11224-665: The official script in Singapore until 1969, when the government officially adopted Simplified characters. Traditional characters still are widely used in contexts such as in baby and corporation names, advertisements, decorations, official documents and in newspapers. The Chinese Filipino community continues to be one of the most conservative in Southeast Asia regarding simplification. Although major public universities teach in simplified characters, many well-established Chinese schools still use traditional characters. Publications such as

11346-700: The original standard forms, they should not be called 'complex'. Conversely, there is a common objection to the description of traditional characters as 'standard', due to them not being used by a large population of Chinese speakers. Additionally, as the process of Chinese character creation often made many characters more elaborate over time, there is sometimes a hesitation to characterize them as 'traditional'. Some people refer to traditional characters as 'proper characters' ( 正字 ; zhèngzì or 正寫 ; zhèngxiě ) and to simplified characters as 簡筆字 ; 简笔字 ; jiǎnbǐzì ; 'simplified-stroke characters' or 減筆字 ; 减笔字 ; jiǎnbǐzì ; 'reduced-stroke characters', as

11468-503: The police by becoming the Green Hornet. There were several comparisons and crossovers from Batman to Green Hornet, both on TV and in movies. Van Williams & Bruce Lee make a cameo appearance as the Green Hornet & Kato in " window cameos " while Batman & Robin were climbing a building. This was in part one of a two-part second-season episode of the Batman TV series: "The Spell of Tut", which aired on September 28, 1966. There

11590-825: The predominant forms. Simplified characters as codified by the People's Republic of China are predominantly used in mainland China , Malaysia, and Singapore. "Traditional" as such is a retronym applied to non-simplified character sets in the wake of widespread use of simplified characters. Traditional characters are commonly used in Taiwan , Hong Kong , and Macau , as well as in most overseas Chinese communities outside of Southeast Asia. As for non-Chinese languages written using Chinese characters, Japanese kanji include many simplified characters known as shinjitai standardized after World War II, sometimes distinct from their simplified Chinese counterparts . Korean hanja , still used to

11712-484: The rights and lives of decent citizens, rides The Green Hornet! Years later, the version of the theme from "The Horn Meets The Hornet" was featured in the 2003 film Kill Bill, Vol. 1 , in which director Quentin Tarantino paid tribute to Kato by featuring the dozens of sword-fighting members of "The Crazy 88" wearing Kato-style masks during one of the film's fight sequences. In this premiere episode, Dave Bannister

11834-530: The series has become a cult favorite . The Van Williams–Bruce Lee The Green Hornet remains unavailable for home video because of licensing issues. 20th Century-Fox has always had the broadcast rights, so the series can be shown today on broadcast and cable television. The non-television rights were controlled by the owner of the character, George W. Trendle (as licensing agent The Green Hornet, Inc.); this entity survived Trendle's death in 1972 and still functions today. Playboy bachelor and media mogul Britt Reid

11956-525: The split head" shot was cut by the censors in Hong Kong shortly before the film was released there in October 1971. It was only shown in a private screening at Golden Harvest for the press, cinema owners, and prospective buyers on 17 October, but has not been seen since; all that survives are a few stills. Further scenes were cut for the first overseas prints released in some territories in late 1971 and early 1972. The nudity and bloodshed were toned down, along with

12078-410: The story are all led to believe wrongly that the Green Hornet & Kato are villains, as on The Green Hornet , Roger C. Carmel played the real villain, who called himself Colonel Gumm. As with the later years of the radio version, secretary Lenore "Casey" Case (played by Wende Wagner) is again aware of Reid's secret, and the Hornet also has a confidant within the law enforcement community, but now he

12200-627: The traditional character set used in Taiwan ( TC ) and the set used in Hong Kong ( HK ). Most Chinese-language webpages now use Unicode for their text. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) recommends the use of the language tag zh-Hant to specify webpage content written with traditional characters. In the Japanese writing system , kyujitai are traditional forms, which were simplified to create shinjitai for standardized Japanese use following World War II. Kyūjitai are mostly congruent with

12322-970: The traditional characters in Chinese, save for minor stylistic variation. Characters that are not included in the jōyō kanji list are generally recommended to be printed in their traditional forms, with a few exceptions. Additionally, there are kokuji , which are kanji wholly created in Japan, rather than originally being borrowed from China. In the Korean writing system , hanja —replaced almost entirely by hangul in South Korea and totally replaced in North Korea —are mostly identical with their traditional counterparts, save minor stylistic variations. As with Japanese, there are autochthonous hanja, known as gukja . Traditional Chinese characters are also used by non-Chinese ethnic groups. The Maniq people living in Thailand and Malaysia use Chinese characters to write

12444-466: The two episodes, the Green Hornet & Kato are in Gotham City to bust a counterfeit stamp ring run by Colonel Gumm (portrayed by Roger C. Carmel ). "Batman's Satisfaction" leads up to a mixed fight, with both Batman & Robin and The Green Hornet & Kato fighting Colonel Gumm and his gang. Once Gumm's crew is defeated, Batman & Robin square off against The Green Hornet & Kato, resulting in

12566-509: The ubiquitous Unicode standard gives equal weight to simplified and traditional Chinese characters, and has become by far the most popular encoding for Chinese-language text. There are various input method editors (IMEs) available for the input of Chinese characters . Many characters, often dialectical variants, are encoded in Unicode but cannot be inputted using certain IMEs, with one example being

12688-407: The upper portions of their faces. These masks initially had a stylized angularity that soon proved problematic: neither man could see much. They were soon replaced with masks molded to the performers' faces. In a technological update, the Hornet carried a telescoping device called the Hornet's Sting, which projected ultrasonic soundwaves . He most frequently used it to open locked doors, although he

12810-571: The words for simplified and reduced are homophonous in Standard Chinese , both pronounced as jiǎn . The modern shapes of traditional Chinese characters first appeared with the emergence of the clerical script during the Han dynasty c.  200 BCE , with the sets of forms and norms more or less stable since the Southern and Northern dynasties period c.  the 5th century . Although

12932-516: Was also seen using it to set things on fire (presumably by vibrating them and causing heat through friction ) and to threaten criminals to get information. In the episode "The Secret of the Sally Bell", the Hornet used it to explode the thug's gun, causing the thug to fall and suffer a concussion , resulting in the criminal's being hospitalized. He also had a Hornet knockout gas gun. In the television version, Kato used green "sleeve darts" to give him

13054-496: Was being prepared for American distribution, the U.S. release was to be re-titled The Chinese Connection , a play on the popular The French Connection , since both dealt with drug trafficking. The U.S. title of Lee's second film, Fist of Fury , was to be kept nearly the same, except using the plural Fists . However, the titles were accidentally reversed. The Big Boss was released as Fists of Fury and Fist of Fury became The Chinese Connection . Recent American TV showings and

13176-477: Was canceled after one season, Lee became a major star of martial arts movies . Lee's popularity in Hong Kong , where he was raised, was such that the show was marketed there as The Kato Show . It was Lee's insistence that Kato be played as a martial artist—rather than an American-style fisticuffs fighter—that pushed the directors to rethink the character's portrayal. The Green Hornet was the first time broad swaths of

13298-503: Was co-produced by DC Comics (publishers of Batman ) and Dynamite Entertainment (current publishers of the Green Hornet titles). The overall story is a sequel to the above-mentioned Batman/Green Hornet two-part TV crossover episodes, reuniting Hornet & Kato with Batman & Robin, and pitting both teams against the now "General Gumm" and his new criminal cohort, the Joker . The series

13420-436: Was commissioned to create a script based loosely on Cheng Chi-Yong , a prominent Chinese figure in Thai society in the early 20th century. Ni Kuang changed the name of the character to Cheng Chao-an, after Chao'an county in eastern China, the home of Cheng Chi-Yong's ancestors. He also developed the idea of Cheng being sent by his mother to live and work with fellow Chinese migrants in Thailand, after his father had been killed in

13542-582: Was covered up with, and contributed to, his character's worn out, exhausted appearance. The cast and crew spent the last twelve days in August filming further scenes in Bangkok, where Bruce enjoyed breakfast in bed at the Thai Hotel, a luxury he never had in Pak Chong. The dinner party scene was filmed in the back room of the Poonsin Chinese Restaurant, close to the Thai Hotel. A few scenes were filmed at

13664-627: Was delayed as distributors Crest Films withdrew their application for a BBFC certificate, while they waited for the current storm surrounding film censorship in Britain to pass (the Mandarin version was shown in Chinese cinema clubs in Britain in June 1972). There was also a delay in the US, as distributors National General Pictures disliked the dubbing, and spent a lot of money on a new soundtrack featuring new music and rewritten, redubbed English dialogue. This new version

13786-650: Was delayed by heavy rain. The Big Boss film crew returned to Hong Kong on 3 September, where there would be a further day of filming for insert shots including close-ups of Bruce avoiding the dogs and the "leg-grappling" scene during the fight with the boss (these were filmed at the Royal Hong Kong Golf Club). The final scene filmed was the now deleted "pushcart attack" in the alleyway, at Wader Studio in Hong Kong, as Golden Harvest had not as yet moved into their famous studios on Hammer Hill Road. Bruce viewed over three hours of unedited footage on 5 September, and

13908-642: Was deliberately being disruptive. Aside from the factory, other locations in Pak Chong used for filming include the Lam Ta Khong river (a tributary of the Mun River ), and a local brothel (the Mitsumphun Hotel), which has since burnt down. The actual bedroom scenes however were filmed in a riverside bungalow owned by the nearby New Wan Chai Hotel (now the Rimtarninn), where the film crew stayed during filming, due to

14030-515: Was dramatized in an episode of Smith's Fatman on Batman podcast (episode #66), and the remaining five as episodes of Hollywood Babble-On , co-hosted by Garman and Smith, as special "Hollywood Babble-On Comic-Con Theater" episodes (episodes 175, 180, 184, 188 & 193). The 2019 film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood has a scene in which stuntman Cliff Booth ( Brad Pitt ) has a confrontation with Bruce Lee (played by Mike Moh in full Kato gear) on

14152-571: Was eventually released in the U.S. in April 1973 with the title Fists of Fury , about 18 months after the Hong Kong premiere and after Fist of Fury (retitled The Chinese Connection in the US), Lee's second major role, had a limited run in New York. It was an instant hit, with opening day earnings of US$ 50,000 (equivalent to $ 340,000 in 2023) from 53 theaters in the New Jersey and New York areas. It topped

14274-423: Was incapacitated for several months after damaging a sacral nerve in his lower back while weightlifting. Money became tight as roles in Hollywood proved hard to come by, and wife Linda had to work evenings at an answering service to help pay the bills. Bruce was still keen to develop film and TV projects in Hollywood, but Warner Bros. was reluctant to accept a TV script project he had developed (the plotline of which

14396-489: Was initially sceptical of Lo, describing him in letters to Linda as a "fame lover" and "another so-so one with an almost unbearable air of superiority". Bruce badly cut his right hand while washing a thin glass, the wound requiring ten stitches and a large plaster, which is very noticeable throughout the movie, especially the scenes filmed at the Thamrongthai ice factory, the first filming location used in Pak Chong. Fatty Ma had

14518-466: Was pleased with the results. The next day, he flew to the U.S. to see his family and film further episodes of Longstreet . While Bruce was in the US, the footage was sent for processing and editing. The editing was initially done by Golden Harvest editor Sung Ming, but because they were behind schedule, the renowned award-winning editor Chiang Hsing-Lung was also brought in to help. A veteran of over 170 movies, Chiang worked very quickly, and helped deliver

14640-413: Was published both in physical comic book form and in an extended 12-part digital format, splitting each regular issue's material into two digital issues. The full series has since been published in a collected volume, both in hardcover and "trade paperback" editions. Garman and Smith have performed dramatized readings of all 6 issues on podcast episodes hosted on Smith's SModcast webpage. The first issue

14762-558: Was re-writing the script for fear of affecting his morale. In my hotel room, he would often discuss the script with me which would leave me tongue-tied, so I would tell him I needed to rest, and as soon as he left I would be burning the midnight oil in order to get the script ready for the next day's filming." Bruce Lee flew from Los Angeles to Bangkok via Hong Kong on 12 July 1971. Raymond Chow, concerned about renewed interest from Shaw Brothers, had wanted him to fly directly to Bangkok, but Bruce refused, stopping in Hong Kong briefly to greet

14884-417: Was similar to, but not the same as, Kung Fu ), and production on The Silent Flute had to be suspended indefinitely after a three-week trip to India with James Coburn and Stirling Silliphant to scout locations for the movie proved unproductive. In light of these recent events, Coburn suggested to Bruce that he try his luck in the increasingly growing Hong Kong film industry. In spring 1970, Bruce paid

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