Bruce Lee's Big Break

Bewildered and pleasantly surprised Bruce Lee returned to his home in Los Angeles, but almost as soon as his plane had landed he received an offer from Hong Kong film producer Raymond Chow to star in two Chinese martial arts feature films. Chow offered to pay Bruce $15,000 for his commitment to the two films. This along with the rapturous reception Bruce received in Hong Kong convinced Bruce to return to the East and work with Raymond Chow. In July 1971, Bruce arrived in the remote Tai village of Pak Chong for the shooting of his first film for Raymond Chow, "The Big Boss". On meeting Chow for the first time, Bruce shook Chow's hand and told him "I'm going to be the biggest Chinese star in the world". Chow did not doubt him.

Before long Bruce Lee was flown to the remote village of Pak Chong for 6 gruelling weeks of filming. This was to be the set for Bruce Lee's first feature length martial arts film, The Big Boss. Conditions in the cockroach-laden village were barely tolerable. Fresh food was a rarity and Bruce Lee had to rely upon bottle after bottle of vitamin pills to keep his body going for the duration of the filming. There was a string of directors who came and went until eventually Raymond Chow's long time cinematic associate, Lo Wei took over as the film's main director.

Problems soon emerged on the set. There was no proper stunt equipment, and during the first week of filming, Bruce Lee badly sprained his ankle on a mat. On the road to recovery from his injury, he caught a bad case of flu and as the weeks dragged on, it became apparent that Bruce was badly missing Linda and his children, who were still in Los Angeles.

In spite of all these problems, by the time the filming was complete, Bruce Lee had high hopes for The Big Boss. He believed it would stand up as a good martial arts action film and Lee was particularly satisfied with his own performance. The premiere for the film was scheduled for October in Hong Kong.

In the meantime, Bruce Lee was flown back to States by Paramount studios and was commissioned for making a walk-on appearance in an episode of the crime show Longstreet, "The Way of the Intercepting Fist". Paramount offered Bruce Lee $3000 for another three appearances, but Bruce made them pay $6000 plus a technical advisor's fee. There were many others knocking at Bruce Lee's door too! Warner Brothers, who had previously dumped Bruce Lee's film project The Silent Flute, and had given the lead role in Kung Fu to Carradine, wanted to place Bruce Lee under television option for $25,000. Run Run Shaw made weekly overtures to woo Bruce away from Raymond Chow, even sending him a blank cheque and telling him to fill it in for any amount he desired!

With his life bombarded with offers and counter offers, Bruce Lee flew back to Hong Kong with Linda, Brandon and Shannon for the premiere of The Big Boss. A huge billboard of Bruce Lee in fighting pose greeted the audience as they arrived at the cinema. The film began running at midnight and for two hours the audience marvelled at Bruce as he battled against legions of Thai adversaries. The film came to an unusual ending (at least, by the Mandarin standards) with the hero being hauled off in handcuffs by the police. For a moment, the audience was dead silent, then suddenly as the credits began rolling, the entire audience roared into standing applause. To the people of Hong Kong, Bruce Lee was suddenly more than just a film star- he was a symbol of their identity and a real life hero!

By now, Bruce Lee had suddenly become hot property and was subject to a tidal wave of offers from television and film producers. Never-the-less, Bruce Lee was a man of loyalty and despite the rich wooing of others, he decided to fulfil the terms of his contract with Raymond Chow. Their next film, The Fist of Fury, was to be filmed in Hong Kong. Golden Harvest studios temporarily moved Bruce Lee and his family into an apartment in the Waterloo area of Kowloon. Brandon was enrolled at Bruce Lee's former school, The Alma Mater, La Salle Collegue and Shannon was sent to a Chinese nursery.

Throughout the duration, Bruce Lee worked incredibly long hours and was rarely home before three in the morning. There was no proper script and the director, the cigar smoking Lo Wei, seemed uninterested in the project. For example, he was once caught listening to horse racing on the radio when he was supposed to be directing a love scene. In spite of these problems, the film's storyline was strong and was guaranteed to please any Chinese audience.

Fist of Fury smashed box-office records across all of South East Asia. Although some critics noted Lei Wei's sloppy handling of the film, there was universal appraisal of Bruce Lee's dazzling martial arts techniques, which were now augmented in this film by Lee's first ever on screen use of nunchaku (double fighting sticks joined together by a chain). Also singled out was Bruce Lee's acting abilities and, in particular, his ability to effortlessly switch between comedy and tragedy. Bruce Lee was now the hottest cinema property East of Hollywood.