The film that relaunched Bruce Lee’s career in Hong Kong (he had been a child star in films of the 1950s before emigrating to the US) cast him as an improbably naïve and innocent country boy who takes a job in an ice-packing plant in Thailand to send money back to his frail old mother in the New Territories. The plot turns on the usual themes of victimisation and fortitude (Lee’s character is duped by his boss, who is a big-time heroin smuggler), but story is secondary to the breathtaking revelation of Lee’s real-life martial skills and action choreographer Han Yingjie’s witty elaboration of the fight scenes in terms of cartoon violence. Known as Fists of Fury in the US, The Big Boss was a sensational best-seller for Golden Harvest in the Cannes market in 1972 and it gave both Lee and Raymond Chow their first real tastes of international success. Tony Rayns
