When the Chinese workers at the factory learn that Hsu and Ah Pi are missing, they refuse to work and start a riot against the Thai management, who are joined by a group of hired thugs.

[4] Money became tight as roles in Hollywood proved hard to come by, and wife Linda had to work evenings at an answering service to help pay the bills.

[5] Chow, aware of the rejected offer from Shaw Brothers, had been impressed by Bruce's interviews on Hong Kong television and radio, and also by his confidence during a long-distance phone call.

Raymond Chow, concerned about renewed interest from Shaw Brothers, had wanted him to fly directly to Bangkok, but Bruce refused, stopping in Hong Kong briefly to greet a friend and make a few phone calls.

Pak Chong would be Bruce's home for about four weeks, and he made no secret of his dislike for it in letters to wife Linda, describing it as a lawless, impoverished and undeveloped village.

[5] When Bruce arrived in Pak Chong, rival film companies tried desperately to poach him away from Golden Harvest, including Shaw Brothers, with a new and improved offer.

After just a few days, the "uncertain" original director, Wu Chia Hsiang, was replaced by Lo Wei (the husband of associate producer Liu Liang-Hua).

[7] Perhaps the most iconic location seen in the film is the titular big boss's mansion[10] and gardens, which was a Buddhist temple situated on the main road called Wat Siri Samphan, built in 1963.

[7] Like the ice factory, it is still in Pak Chong today and remains largely unchanged, much to the delight of the dedicated fans who have made the pilgrimage to Thailand to view the filming locations.

The final scene filmed in Pak Chong was the climactic fight between Bruce and the boss (played by Han Ying Chieh, who also served as the fight choreographer), which proved to be problematic: Bruce endured "two days of hell" when he sprained his ankle from a high jump on a slipped mattress, and had to be driven to Bangkok to see a doctor, where he caught a virus in the hot and stuffy conditions.

[4][5][8] The cast and crew spent the last twelve days in August filming further scenes in Bangkok, where Bruce enjoyed breakfast in bed at the Thai Hotel, a luxury he never had in Pak Chong.

Shortly after the Hong Kong run, The Big Boss was released in Singapore, and enjoyed similar success there, where it played for a total of 45 days at five theatres.

There was chaos at a midnight preview screening (27 November 1971) at Cathay's Jurong Drive-in cinema; police were called as hundreds of cars caused huge jams, and the film had to be delayed for 45 minutes.

[20] There was also a delay in the US, as distributors National General Pictures disliked the dubbing, and spent a lot of money on a new soundtrack featuring new music and rewritten, redubbed English dialogue.

[22] It topped the North American box office in May 1973, above two other Hong Kong martial arts films in the second and third spots, Lady Whirlwind (Deep Thrust) and King Boxer (Five Fingers of Death).

When the film was released in the United States, the death of Hsiao Mi, "The Boss", was cut down to him simply being stabbed in the chest with a knife in order to receive an "R" rating.

The original version of his death, which not only shows an explicit close-up of the knife in his chest but Cheng Chao-an's fingers piercing his rib cage and blood flowing from under his shirt, would have given the film an "X" rating.

Miramax distributed The Big Boss on television & streaming (Hulu & Netflix) along with Bruce Lee, the Legend (1984), Game of Death, Way of the Dragon and Fist of Fury.

"[34] In a positive review for Singapore newspaper The Straits Times, Arthur Richards wrote, "It is a delightful study of Chinese martial arts mixed with karate and lightning kicks, Western-style ... An acceptable thriller of the James Bond calibre.

"[35] Conversely, a negative review by Edgar Koh had appeared in another Singapore newspaper, New Nation, a few days earlier: "Bruce Lee is certainly skilled in his job, not as an actor but as an exponent of his particular brand of fighting with fists and legs ...

J. Oliver Prescott of the Tampa Bay Times wrote, "Bruce Lee is the fastest foot in the East ... Now back in Hong Kong, he has become the hottest international movie star since Clint Eastwood.

The characters are certainly simple: these are just plain Chinese country folk whose little disagreements develop overnight into Oriental rumbles equivalent to the Sharks and Jets in West Side Story.

"[37] Vincent Canby of The New York Times wrote, "Kung fu movies began as a local phenomenon in Hong Kong a couple of years ago.

"[38] Variety stated, "Despite the silly plot, dreadful supporting cast and prim morality (or perhaps because of them), Fists of Fury is sometimes entertaining, with most of the credit due to Lee.

A few shots of excessive violence and bloodshed (including the notorious "saw in the head" kill) and a sex scene were cut by the Hong Kong censors before the film was released, and haven't been seen since.

[41] Numerous further scenes were cut for all prints released outside of Hong Kong, mainly to increase the pacing of the film, as follows: In December 1979, a Bruce Lee film festival in Kilburn, London, was organised by Kung-Fu Monthly poster magazine; a Mandarin print from Golden Harvest's London office was screened for over 1,700 fans and was complete with the exception of a few shots cut by the Hong Kong censors.

[41] In 2023, Arrow Films announced the release of a set titled Bruce Lee at Golden Harvest, whose contents include an early Mandarin version of The Big Boss, which restores the scenes listed above.

[44] Recent American TV showings and the official U.S. DVD release from 20th Century Fox in 2005 have restored the original titles of all Bruce Lee films, though the descriptions do not match in some cases.

The early version featured expatriate voice actors living in Hong Kong who worked on the Shaw Brothers' films, and used Wang Fu-ling's score.

Once again, this biopic shows Lee encountering a Thai boxer on the set of The Big Boss, this time with the challenger being played by martial arts film veteran Mark Dacascos.