The Big Boss

"Fists of Fury" redirects here. For the 1972 film, see Fist of Fury.
This article is about the film starring Bruce Lee. For other uses, see Big Boss (disambiguation).

The Big Boss
Hong Kong film poster
Traditional Chinese唐山大兄
Simplified Chinese唐山大兄
Literal meaningChinese Elder Brother
Hanyu PinyinTángshān dàxiōng
JyutpingTong4 Saan1 Daai6 Hing1
Directed byLo Wei
Wu Chia-hsiang
Written byLo Wei
Produced byRaymond Chow
StarringBruce Lee
Maria Yi
James Tien
Han Ying-chieh
CinematographyChen Ching-chu
Edited bySung Ming
Music byWang Fu-ling
Peter Thomas (alternative score)
Production
company
Distributed byGolden Harvest
Release date
  • 23 October 1971 (1971 -10-23) (Hong Kong)
Running time
100 minutes
CountryHong Kong
LanguagesCantonese
Mandarin
Thai
BudgetUS$100,000[1]
Box officeUS$50 million[2]

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, 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.[3] 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 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).

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference Polly2018 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference Polly2019 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Ewins, Michael (4 July 2012). "In Review: The Big Boss on JVJ". New Empress Magazine. Archived from the original on 8 December 2015.