So I pre-ordered the Bruce Lee At Golden Harvest box set from Arrow Video long ago - this one - and began going through it last weekend. While I have of course seen all of these films multiple times, there are versions I had certainly never seen, not to mention some of the extras and the 4k transfers, so I was really looking forward to this set. Arrow Video has no fucking idea how to ship things. My box set arrived in the thinnest possible box that was not too big but significantly bigger enough than the box set itself, and the zero packing materials meant that the box set was pretty beat up upon arrival. Every corner was hammered. Contacting Arrow, they had no answer for this. It was a limited edition, and apparently not only did they not press any damage replacement copies, they also didn’t even have a replacement box - or at least, refused to send me one, stating that as the reason - so guess I’m fucked and get to keep a damaged product. Thanks Arrow!

That being said, the contents of the box were undamaged, so all the individual discs, the book, poster, etc., are all fine. Creating this thread to track my trek through these films.

The Big Boss - As this was the first film of Bruce’s I saw, and his first feature film, I wanted to start with this. Not with the version I remember, but with the most rare version of all - only ever seen in the initial theatrical run up until this edition - the mythical Mandarin cut, which in this set is disc 2 (see product details linked above). It restores into the film around 10 minutes of additional/extended scenes, which I was most anxious to see. Holy shit were they right in cutting what they did. For the first 3/4 of the film, because the inserted footage is sourced from a beat-up print with burned-in subs, you can quite plainly see where some scenes were longer - sometimes by just a second - on the front end or back end, and while it’s interesting, you can see why some things were cut. They didn’t really add much value in the big picture. However, some things - like the extended initial fight sequence with Bruce’s cousin - are great and it’s less evident why the cut. My assumption is that producers wanted this film to be about Bruce, not some other guy fighting, so the first “big” fight sequence not being Bruce might be confusing for the audience? I don’t know. Anyway, all is well and good - picture quality in the main film is fantastic, newly translated subs are very much appreciated, etc. - until the 3/4 mark, where you will undoubtedly come to the same conclusion I did - that they were right in cutting this. If you know the film at all, Bruce returns home to find his entire extended family executed. He then has a brief scene by the river at the end of which he pledges revenge, then runs to the titular big boss to fight. That’s the version you likely remember. In this cut, the scene by the river is much longer as we get an extended internal dialog before he leaps up and shouts revenge to the heavens. Then he begins running through town as you remember…. Until he is in front of the whorehouse he’s previously visited. He looks at the sign, looks down the street, looks back at the sign then shrugs and goes in. Goes upstairs. I’m thinking that he must be looking for the girl he was with previously; he’s going to question her to try to get some answers/details about why, etc., since she seems to know what’s happening. Nope! He walks the room where all the girls are sitting against the wall, eying them all up and down, before selecting one and dragging her to a room. They’re both shown getting naked, with gratuitous scenes of Bruce’s body from the pube-line up. They start kissing, with the obvious implication they fuck as the scene dissolves. Scene returns as Bruce stands up, gets dressed, and leaves to resume his run to the big boss. What?!?! His entire fucking family was murdered, he had a big contemplative discussion with himself by the river before vowing revenge, and on his way to exact it, full of hatred and killing energy, he decides to stop by the brothel to get laid?? Who the fuck thought this was a good idea? I mean, it’s fucking crazy that this was even written in the script, let alone filmed. The film had already checked the obligatory nude scene box, there was no real explanation for this rather long scene. It’s laughably insane. So yeah, I’m glad that someone decided to cut this scene from the version most of us saw growing up.

Outside of that lunacy, the film itself is pretty goddamn amusing. I remembered loving it as a kid, but I hadn’t rewatched it in years. Now, it’s pretty laughable. Very evident that Bruce did not handle fight choreography in this film, as the fight scenes are extremely stilted and telegraphed. Like, very badly. It’s cartoony. There’s a scene where Bruce kicks a guy through the wall, and the guy literally leaves a human-shaped hole in the wall, like a Loony Tunes cartoon. It’s wild. Very clear also that most of the enemies have no formal martial arts skills. Also, the in-film fight logic is all over the place - sometimes, one punch or kick kills a guy, other times guys take a million hits and are only slightly bloodied. Sometimes, hit guys fly through the air like they were hit by a freight train, other times they just fall in place like they fainted. And the jumping - oh the jumping. Jumping was a huge thing in martial arts films of the day, I know that - a cheap way to indicate some larger-than-life action/fight scene - but in this movie, the jumping is super-human. And extremely frequent, sometimes many (oh so many) bionic jumps in one fight. Crazy. And don’t even get me started on the dogs - holy shit, the funniest scene in the film. Bruce gets to the big boss’ compound and has to get past four German shepherds. There’s some chaotic editing and foley work that happens so you know some crazy Tazmanian Devil tumbleweed fight ball thing is happening, but it’s intercut with scenes of the dogs “jumping” at Bruce from all angles, filmed from the same angle as the bionic jumping scenes, where it’s extremely clear - especially with the 4k remastering - that someone is just off-camera hurling stuffed dogs through the shot. So goddamn funny. And it goes on for quite a while.

So yeah, the film has a soft spot in my heart as it was my intro to the man/myth/legend Mr. Lee, but man is it really not a great film. I’m not even sure I understand the in-film logic/plot - some kind of ice shortage with a very loosely thought-out drug smuggling plot that never really explains itself? A kidnapped sister/cousin that somehow frees herself off-screen (it’s never mentioned), only to return with the police (who were allegedly friends with the big boss and should have already been involved)? Very weird. But the fight scenes with Bruce very clearly show someone who was extremely skilled and faster in his moves than anyone had ever seen, and that’s with him slowing himself down enough to a) be filmed, and b) not injure extras who clearly don’t know fighting. Thankfully he begins handling fight choreography after this, and the writing improves. At least that’s what my memory tells me. We shall see.

I’m very interested to watch some of the other included versions of this film now, too. There are multiple different versions of English dubs, multiple different versions of English subs, several different cuts with entirely different music, etc. But for now, this is where I started. Here we go.

Also on this disc is a documentary - really, more of a video essay - about the English dub actors. It’s extremely fascinating, because most of the in-country English speakers worked for the government in some capacity, and it was illegal for them to do any work outside of the government. This is why they are never credited. Many people have done thousands of hours of research to try to name those responsible for these dubs and explain their history, other films they’ve done, the dub process, what happened to them since, etc. Even with all that, some are still only suspected to be a given performer, not confirmed, while others seem to have only done one or two films, making it impossible to ever find out who they were. Really fascinating subject, and I’m thankful that someone did all this work so that these performers can finally get some credit, hopefully their families were eventually compensated in some manner other than the under-the-table cash the performer was handed on the day.

So while Arrow has no fucking idea how to ship things, I’m very grateful to them for putting together this set and spending all the time and money on the extras. This is way more than a simple cash grab - they clearly have deepest respect for Bruce and have done their best to honor his legacy with this set. The only film not included is Enter The Dragon, as it’s still a Warner property I believe, and is getting it’s own 50th anniversary remaster release later this year. So far, if you’re a fan of Bruce at all, I can’t recommend this set enough, just don’t expect it to show up undamaged.