The Big Boss Part II

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Michael Wai-Man Chan, Lo Lieh, and Ping Wang in The Big Boss Part II (1976)

Cheng Chao-Chun visits his brother in Thailand, then finds a job as an ice factory worker.Cheng Chao-Chun visits his brother in Thailand, then finds a job as an ice factory worker.Cheng Chao-Chun visits his brother in Thailand, then finds a job as an ice factory worker.

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IMDb RATING

5.7/10

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YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

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5DanTheMan2150AD

Far from a masterpiece but never boring

One of the most infamous and illusive films to ever come out of Hong Kong, The Big Boss Part II has finally graced the world once again thanks to the team over at Severin Films unearthing this rare obscurity. While its notorious unavailability may have fuelled the film's legacy, it's not a great film, often bordering on inept. All very odd as director Chan Chue had served as the 1st AD (and even starred as the villainous Ice Factor Manager, a role he reprises in this film) on the original film. It's an absolute mess but one that is very enjoyable in the right mindset, be it the poorly edited and slow-speed boat chase set to the James Bond Theme (arguably the film's best moment), fight scenes that jump cut to people having sex or the kung fu alligator fight. There's a mini Five Fingers of Death reunion going in with its cast as both Lo Lieh and Wang Ping headline as protagonist and antagonist respectively, although they are both blatantly phoning it in making for some hilariously awful romantic chemistry. While Bruce Le, in his Bruceploitation debut, takes over Lee's role from the original but is stuck in prison for the entire film meaning all he gets to do is overact and look bored. Misguided to a point but not without effort, I don't know what came over the cast and crew with The Big Boss Part II but I do know that I'm always grateful for any opportunity to watch a rare piece of film history.

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Alternate versions
Despite how rare the film has been to begin with (though finally given a blu-ray release from Severin Films in 2024), there's actually two completely different opening credit sequences. The more widely seen version, on the aforementioned blu-ray, attempts to recreate the final fight of the previous film, with Yuen Wah as Cheng Chao-An (not Bruce Le/Huang Kin-Lung, who otherwise plays him in the film itself) and Corey Yuen as Hsiao Mi (previously played by Han Ying-Chieh), with occasional intercuts to actual footage from the first movie's final fight. The lesser seen version, from a very rare VHS transfer of the film, replaces this with a slideshow of photos of Bruce Lee from all of his films (with the least, ironically enough, being from The Big Boss). However, you can still hear the police sirens and grunting at the end of this version, implying that this was a last minute replacement, potentially due to a possible lawsuit from Golden Harvest for the use of the real Big Boss footage.