Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		4.0
Audio		3.0
Extras		3.5
Overall		2.5

The Big Boss Blu-ray Movie Review

A big letdown?

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman October 10, 2013

Note: This film is currently only available as part of Bruce Lee: The Legacy Collection.

For hordes of baby boomers, Bruce Lee will probably forever be Kato. In the wake of the insanely popular Adam West Batman series, ABC greenlit another superhero in the hopes of lightning striking twice, but The Green Hornet had neither Batman’s campy sense of humor nor, ultimately, its popularity (though truth be told, by the time The Green Hornet aired, Batman was probably already at its all time peak in popularity and was soon to begin losing its audience, ultimately following its sibling into the purgatory of cancellation and endless reruns via syndication). Bruce Lee made such an impression as Van Williams’ sidekick in The Green Hornet that the series was actually known colloquially in many international markets as The Kato Show. Many Westerners at least were unaware that Lee had toiled in film for years as a child actor before his breakout role in American television. Though The Green Hornet was not in itself a success, it raised Lee’s profile to the point where he at least could find occasional work as a guest star in other American television series, but perhaps surprisingly it took a few more years until Lee’s tragically brief adult film career finally took hold. Over the course of a mere two or so years, Lee made only five films, but he established himself as the leading martial arts star of his generation and due perhaps at least somewhat to his untimely death at the age of 32 in 1973, Lee rather quickly became even more legendary, part of that cadre of stars who, rather like James Dean, experienced a post-mortem reassessment of their contributions that only grew with the passing years. The international market has seen several Blu-ray releases of Lee’s first films over the years, both singly and in deluxe boxed sets, but fans were overjoyed to hear of this new Shout! Factory set, which includes four of Lee’s five films (Enter the Dragon is a Warner property and has been released on Blu-ray by that studio). Joy turned to shock, however, when early recipients of this extravagantly packaged set started complaining that Fortune Star, who had provided the masters to Shout! for this release, had “cheated” viewers by supplying upscaled standard definition transfers rather than native high definition properties.

. . .and now, for the rest of the story. Paul Harvey used to tease his radio audiences with that famous introductory phrase, and it’s more or less perfect for “what happened next”. After comments from consumers who received early versions of the first release, and (if I might be less than perfectly humble for a moment) the original Blu-ray.com review, Shout! realized there was something wrong with the release. While they remained a bit circumspect on what was happening, with original reports seeming to focus only on the mislabeled discs I had identified in my original review, Shout! ultimately evidently uncovered newer high definition masters for three of the films and went back to the drawing board to recreate and reissue the set. There have been a lot of accusations flying around the internet (what else is new?) alleging all kinds of nefarious behavior, but I for one find this neither helpful nor ultimately of much importance. What matters is that Shout! has tried to address concerns and has probably gone to considerable expense to recall the first set and reissue this “new, improved” one. Their official statement detailing the differences in this new set reads:

Correct pairing of disc label art and media for discs 10 and 11, which had inadvertently been swapped on the original release.

New Blu-rays for The Big Boss, Fist of Fury, Way of the Dragon. Contrary to speculation circulating on the internet, the original set did contain hi-def masters of the first three feature films. However, after comments from fans who had received early copies of our set, we discovered that our sources were not the recently restored transfers used for the Blu-rays in Hong Kong and Japan, but rather the original masters done a few years ago in Canada. We therefore acquired the improved masters (the master for Game of Death was no appreciably different), and have included them on this new set, for a truly definitive Bruce Lee collection.

Some fans have thrown brickbats at Shout! for supposedly not “coming clean” about whether the first set contained upscales or not, and to them I’d simply ask two questions, the first of which is: what difference does it make, now that Shout! has corrected the problem? The second, perhaps tangential, question is whether this is simply a matter of terminology. As lovers of FUNimation anime releases are well aware, that label regularly lists releases as HD native when what they really mean is that they have been provided (pre-existing) upscaled HD masters of native SD content. That may in fact be what has happened here, but again, I find the brouhaha a relatively moot point, now that corrected masters have been provided.

Truth be told, The Big Boss was not an especially auspicious debut for the adult Bruce Lee. It’s almost as if neither Lee nor the creative crew behind the film really new exactly how to deal with the nascent star. Lee himself is not totally at ease in front of the camera, and rather surprisingly, the film is well past the half hour mark before the first set piece involving Lee’s trademark martial arts mastery is ever put on display. Instead, a sort of grimy scenario plays out where Lee’s character of Cheng Chao-en takes on a nefarious drug lord named Hsiao Mi (Han Ying-Chieh) after Mi and his henchmen take out some of Chen’s relatives.

The avoidance of fighting is “explained” via a conceit where Cheng had long ago agreed to his mother’s request that he not engage in battles, a promise that his so-called “Third Uncle” now insists he continue to honor. While this is an understandable gimmick from a purely dramatic standpoint, it hobbles the film for nearly half of its already brief running time, and it will be especially frustrating to Lee fans who come to the film expecting a nonstop (or nearly nonstop) display of his martial arts prowess.

Things do pick up at around the 45 minute mark, as Lee is finally allowed to fight and the film gets to its meat and bones, as Lee’s character engages on a battle for vengeance. But The Big Boss is often rather surprisingly inept in its staging and editing, as if neither Lee nor the crew had quite mastered the best way to do things. The Big Boss is probably best enjoyed now as a curio, an early window into a future star developing his style, but perhaps stumbling a bit as he struggled to get there.

The Big Boss Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Note: Screencaps 1-10 are taken from this new release. Screencaps 11-20 are from the original recalled release. I have included at least a couple of "similar" frames for comparison as well as other moments from the film for a general overview of the changes.

The Big Boss is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Shout! Factory with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.35:1 (you'll note that the original release was in 2.34:1, and if you compare screenshots, there's a very slight but noticeable anamorphic "stretching" in this release). This was (in my estimation) one of the better looking outings in the original set (upscale or not), and that continues with this new version. Colors are quite nicely saturated and generally very accurate looking. Shout! had stated that the first release had undergone color correction, and it's notable therefore that this new release has quite a noticeably different palette than the first release. Toggling back and forth between the screenshots taken from similar frames reveals what to me looks like a red tint on the original release that is not present in the newer release. The ringing artifacts that hobbled the first release are largely absent now. The transfer boasts decent if not overwhelming sharpness and acceptable levels of fine detail in close-ups, but one has to keep in mind the source elements and relatively paltry budget of this effort. The one thing that may bother some videophiles is the relative paucity of grain. The grain here is quite natural looking, but it's extremely fine, noticeable mostly in darker sections of the frame. I won't go so far as to say DNR was utilized, but this is easily the least grainy presentation of the films in this set.

The Big Boss Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Shout! Factory has included several different audio options, but their menu listings either don't always match what's actually present or fail to disclose whether the tracks are lossless or not. The following list offers the menu listings followed by actual audio specs in parentheses, if those differ from the menu listing or if further clarification is needed:

• Original Mandarin Mono (Dolby Digital 2.0)
• Mandarin DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
• English DTS Mono (Dolby Digital 2.0)
• English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
• Cantonese Mono (Dolby Digital 2.0)
• Rare Original English Dub Never Heard Before (Dolby Digital 2.0)

Shout! Factory is to be commended for offering so many choices on this film, though of course some audiophiles will be disappointed at the lossy offerings. If we set aside the three Dolby Digital mixes (a couple of comments on them will follow), that leaves a choice between the English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and the Mandarin DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1. By far the better choice here is the Mandarin. For some reason, the effects and some omnipresent hiss almost completely overpower the dialogue at times in the English mix, while in the Mandarin version, dialogue is noticeably more forward and much easier to hear. As in all of the repurposed surround mixes on this set, The Big Boss tends to limit its surround activity to occasional ambient environment effects, foley effects and the film's score. Fidelity never rises to truly excellent levels, but this film does not sport much of the distortion that afflicts some of the other releases in this set.

There are a couple of interesting things about the various lossy mixes. It's not hard to see why the original English dub was jettisoned—the voices are almost all comically low and growly. Interestingly, there's different music in the Cantonese mono mix

The Big Boss Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailers (1080p; 17:27)


• U.S. TV Spots (1080p; 1:15)


• Alternate Title Sequence (1080p; 4:45)


• Alternate Finale (1080p; 00:43)


• Return to Pak Chong: The Big Boss Revisited (1080i; 9:26) features actor and martial artist Daniel Whyte talking about the film and his visits to some of the film's locations.


• Bruce Lee: The Early Years (1080i; 13:51) is an interesting piece with Gene Lebell, a former martial artist and stuntman.


• Interview with Tung Wai (1080i; 2:37)


• Rare Scene Extensions (1080p; 2:22)


• Bruce Lee vs. Peter Thomas (1080p; 2:27) profiles composer Peter Thomas.


• Still Gallery (1080p; 4:30)


• Audio Commentary by Hong Kong Film Expert Mike Leeder. Leeder may not have Bey Logan's touch, but he provides a lot of great information here. Unfortunately, it sounds like Leeder literally phoned this in, on Skype no less, as there is rampant phasing that makes it really hard to listen to after a while.

The Big Boss Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Big Boss simply isn't prime Bruce Lee, but there are some fitful pleasures to be had here, including a couple of exciting fight sequences, though even these are hobbled by some unsure direction and editing. This revised release offers substantially better looking video, though grain seems rather minimal. The audio options here are quite lengthy, though again high definition purists will complain about the lossy mixes. The supplements are quite extensive and feature a well done commentary, though that, too, has its own audio issues.