Shang Hai tan da heng

Chen Kuan Tai, in addition to being an outstanding martial artist (not to mention one of the better actors in martial arts movies), was also an exceptionally talented director; even dividing his attention between the 3 aforementioned disciplines, he was able to produce some very watchable movies- case in point, BIG BOSS OF SHANGHAI. While storywise it's fairly familiar, it's the filmmaker's approach to the material that makes it singular. And it's always fun to see Chen Sing as a villain: he had the kind of mug you couldn't help but want to see punched in (especially when he was sneering while at some underhandedness). BIG BOSS OF SHANGHAI is highly recommended for kung fu connoisseurs.

Produced by Lo Wei and directed by its star, the wonderful Chen Kuan Tai, Big Boss Of Shanghai tells the classic tale of 2 brothers who travel to the big city, finding work for a local boss, and taking different paths that sees them eventually face-off against each other. Later remade in 1997 with Yuen Biao and Takeshi Kaneshiro as Hero; and again in 2014 as Once Upon A Time In Shanghai, with Philip Ng and Andy On, both of which are as excellent and well worth the watch. The film itself is a remake of the classic Shaw Brothers hit, Boxer From Shantung, which also starred Chen as the lead in one of his first major roles. So I guess this was quite a meaningful project for the star...

Chen Kuan Tai neatly delivers a classic tale of brotherhood, betrayal, honour and greed with himself and Jimmy Lee as the brothers. Regular bad guy in many Hong Kong films such as Angel's Project, and God Of Gamblers 3: Back To Shanghai, Lee is easily swayed and likes to prove himself for praise with more violence and dirty work. Upon arriving in Shanghai, they meet the right-hand man to a local boss, played with glee by Chan Wai Lau, Jackie Chan's master in The Fearless Hyena. Chan works for Chen Sing, to who he introduces the brothers. From there, their lives start to divide, with Jimmy Lee working his way up and Chen moving on to keep his honour!

I'm a huge fan of Chen Kuan Tai, and a huge fan of Big Boss In Shanghai, a film I would love to see a 4K restoration of in my collection. From its great sets and locations to superb performances, the film moves along at a great pace with non-stop fight action, a great story, and some nice stunt work. The cast of recognisable faces just adds to it, with many Lo Wei regulars from the Jackie Chan classics, and Cheng Hong Yip from Dragon Lord and Project A.

Big Boss Of Shanghai was to be Chen's third directorial project, and with it brings back the team that worked with him on the classic Iron Monkey. While its likely Chen himself had a hand in the choreography, the fight action here is handled by Chan Muk Chuen. He started as an action choreographer on the aforementioned classic as well as working on films such as Hero From Shanghai, The Crippled Masters, and The Eight Escorts. The fights are a lot of fun, getting more and more violent as the plot moves on, building up to an amazing climax and brilliant, brutal 15 minute finale.

There's so much going on, you can't help but be entertained. The film keeps a sense of realism about it, rarely defying gravity as most kung-fu films made in this era would do often. The brutal end fight between Chen Kuan Tai and Chen Sing is fantastic, and one of my favourites from this period. With our hero having had his hands forced into a bowl of acid, Kuan Tai struggles in pain to fight for survival with some killer moves and nice stunts that really impresses making this, for me, a much more entertaining movie than Lo Wei's very own classic, The Big Boss!

Overall: Wonderfully made and directed, Big Boss Of Shanghai proves to be one of Chen Kuan Tai's finest moments!

It begins with two guys walking in a canyon and that whistling song heard in many of these movies. They stop for noodles but have no payment. They meet the rich guy that wants to hire Chen Kuan-Tai for a bodyguard but he refuses on morality. Next he admonishes Cheng Kang- Yeh for stealing. They get in more trouble with the local big shot, so hop a train to Shanghai to seek fortune and fame. They start at the docks. They defeat the protection guy Chan Wai-Lau. The two friends soon have a problem between each other about how to manage their new success.

The copy is a VHS to digital file transfer with English dubbing. Where is the high definition fully restored digital version? Nowhere, of course, we are lucky the VHS rental craze saved this film from turning to dust. Chen Kuan-Tai was made for the role of the title character. He played a similar character in many 1970s martial arts movies and nobody did it better.

Besides Chen Kuan-Tai, the best part of the movie was the fights. There are a lot of fights and they could easily have been boring considering the restraints of the story. In 1979 so many of these movies were made and "anything goes" applied to the fights. There was the gymnastics of the Venoms, the wire work, the comedy, the kick masters and everything else. Yet this movie had a contemporary time frame, no fantasy, no over the top displays of inner power (telekinesis), it was all just street fights. The fights never got repetitive or unrealistic or boring from start to finish.

I rate this above average and highly recommend it for fans of the genre. I also recommend it as an introductory movie for folks who would like to take a look at martial arts movies from the golden age 1967-1984 to see if you like them.