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The Big Boss

The Big Boss (originally titled as Fists of Fury in the United States) is a 1971 Hong Kong martial arts film directed by Lo Wei (who also writer in the film) and Wu Chi-hsiang. Bruce Lee stars in his first major film in a lead role, and his first Hong Kong film since 1960. The film co-stars Maria Yi, James Tien, Tony Liu, and Nora Miao. Originally written for Tien, the leading role was given to Lee instead when the film's original director, Ng Kar-seung, was replaced by Lo Wei. The film was a critical success and excelled at the box office. Lee's strong performance overshadowed Tien, already a star in Hong Kong, and made Bruce Lee famous in Asia and eventually the world.

The film went on to gross nearly US$50 million worldwide (equivalent to approximately US$million adjusted for inflation), against a tight budget of $100,000, approximately 0 times its original investment. It was the highest-grossing Hong Kong film up until Lee's next film, Fist of Fury (1972).

Plot
Cheng Chao-an is a Chinese mainlander, who moves to Pak Chong, Thailand to live with his extended family and to work in an ice factory. He meets his cousin Hsu Chien and Hsu's younger brother by accident when Hsu stands up to local street thugs who refuse to pay for the dumplings from his brother. Cheng refrains from getting involved despite being tempted to. He swore to his mother to never participate in any fighting and wears a jade amulet around his neck as a reassurance of his pledge. Cheng begins his work at the ice factory. When an ice block is accidentally broken, a bag of white powder—obviously illegal drugs—falls out. Two of Cheng's cousins pick up the bag and are told to see the manager later that night.

The factory is actually a front for a drug smuggling ring led by Hsiao Mi (a.k.a. the Big Boss). When Cheng's cousins refuse to join them, the manager sends his thugs to kill them and dispose of their bodies, thereby preserving the secret. Hsu Chien and Ah Pei, another one of Cheng's cousins, go to Hsiao Mi's mansion to find out what happened to the two cousins. Hsu doubts Hsiao's claims that he does not know anything and threatens to go to the authorities. Hsiao sets his gang on the duo as a result, and after a brutal battle, they are both killed as well and their bodies hidden. When the Chinese workers at the ice factory learn that Hsu is missing as well, they refuse to work, and start a riot against the Thai management, who are joined by a group of hired thugs.

During the chaos, one of the thugs accidentally rips off and breaks Cheng's amulet. Enraged, Cheng jumps into the brawl and beats some of the thugs, causing them to flee. To reduce tensions, the ice factory manager makes Cheng a foreman, inviting him to a dinner that night to meet the boss. Everyone is happy that Cheng is the new foreman. the family goes home and everyone is happy except Chow Mei who starts crying because the others have forgotten Hsu and Pei are missing. Cheng promises to find out what he can about them. Cheng goes to the factory and gets the men to go back to work he tells the workers that he will speak to the boss and go to the police himself to find out about the investigation into the missing brothers and cousins.

Cheng arrives at the dinner the manager tells him that the boss cannot make it due a meeting with visitors from out of town. Several women arrive at the dinner and sit next to Cheng and start filling the glasses with cognac. Cheng gets drunk and spends the night with Sun Wu Man, a prostitute who attended the dinner. As he leaves the brothel in the morning, Chow Mei is walking by. Cheng is clearly embarrassed.

Because Cheng attended the dinner and got drunk, he did not follow up on his promise to speak to the police about the missing brothers. He tells his family when he returns home that he forgot. This causes much unease for Cheng's family and friends, who believe that Cheng is growing arrogant and spending more time reveling in his new position and having dinner with the boss than helping to look for their brothers. They grow to resent him, all except Chow Mei, his cousin, who stands up for him.

Later, Sun Wu Man warns Cheng that his life is in danger and reveals that Hsiao Mi is running a drug trafficking operation. Immediately after Cheng leaves, Hsiao's son, Hsiao Chiun, sneaks in and kills Sun by throwing a knife at her heart from behind. Cheng breaks into the factory and first finds the drugs before discovering a hand, the head of Sun, and the head of Hsu Chien in the ice blocks. Cheng is surrounded by Hsiao Chiun and a group of his men. Cheng fights his way out, killing Hsiao Chiun and his gang in the process. He returns home to find that his remaining family members have been murdered, while Chow Mei is missing. Mourning his loss by a river, Cheng vows to exact his revenge at all costs, even if he dies. To this end, Cheng returns to the town brothel and indulges in final pleasures with another Thai prostitute. Learning of the Boss' location, Cheng leaves the prostitute with the remainder of his money and departs, despite her attempts in convincing him to run away with her instead.

Cheng subsequently storms Hsiao Mi's mansion to fight him and his men. One of Hsiao Mi's disgruntled slaves frees Chow Mei, who was being held hostage by Hsiao Mi in a cramped room used as a prison cell. Chow Mei runs away to get help from the Thai police. Cheng finally kills Hsiao Mi after a fierce fight, by deflecting the knife Mi throws at him with his shoe. Once he knows that Chow Mei is safe (as she came running along with the police division), he surrenders to the police when they arrive at the mansion, and is detained and taken to the police vehicle to leave the mansion.

Cast

 * Bruce Lee as Cheng Chao-an, a young man who, along with his uncle, travels from Guangdong, China to Pak Chong, Thailand to stay with his cousins. Before departing, he swore an oath to his mother to not get into any fights. This is made legitimate by Cheng wearing his mother's jade amulet necklace to serve as a reminder to that oath he swore.
 * Maria Yi as Chow Mei, a typical damsel in distress; Cheng's only female cousin
 * James Tien (a.k.a. Paul Tien) as Hsu Chien, a martial artist who commonly fights with the local gangs
 * Nora Miao as a local cold drinks vendor (guest star)
 * Lee Quinn as Ah Kun
 * Rhoma Irama as Xin Chang
 * Han Ying-chieh as Hsiao Mi ("The Big Boss"), owner of an ice factory which is really a front for his drug-trafficking operation
 * Lau Wing as Hsiao Chiun, Hsiao Mi's son
 * Kam San as Cousin Ah Shan
 * Ricky Chik as Cousin Ah Chen (also assistant director)
 * Li Hua Sze as Cousin Ah Wong
 * Marilyn Bautista (a.k.a. Malarin Boonak) as Miss Sun Wu Man, a prostitute
 * Chan Chue as the ice factory manager (also assistant director)
 * Chom as the ice factory foreman
 * Billy Chan Wui-ngai as Cousin Ah Pei
 * Lam Ching-ying as Cousin Ah Yen
 * Tu Chia-Cheng as Uncle Liu, Cheng's uncle (also unit manager)
 * Peter Chan Lung as Hsiao Mi's henchman and gatekeeper

Background and conception
The four years following the cancellation of The Green Hornet was a difficult and frustrating time for Bruce Lee. In 1970, he was incapacitated for several months after damaging a sacral nerve in his lower back while weightlifting. 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. Bruce was still keen to develop film and TV projects in Hollywood, but Warner Bros. was reluctant to accept a TV script project he had developed (the plotline of which was similar to, but not the same as, Kung Fu), and production on The Silent Flute had to be suspended indefinitely after a three-week trip to India with James Coburn and Stirling Silliphant to scout locations for the movie proved unproductive. In light of these recent events, Coburn suggested to Bruce that he try his luck in the increasingly growing Hong Kong film industry.

In spring 1970, Bruce paid a visit to Hong Kong with his young son Brandon. Unbeknownst to Bruce, he had become famous there due to reruns of The Green Hornet on TV, and the enthusiastic reception he received took him by surprise. He was invited to appear on popular HKTVB chat show Enjoy Yourself Tonight, where he was interviewed and gave a board-breaking demonstration.

Encouraged by the interest in Hong Kong, Bruce asked his childhood friend Unicorn Chan to pass on his CV to Shaw Brothers, Hong Kong's largest film production company. They offered Bruce a long-term contract but only US$2,000 per film, which Bruce declined. Another offer appeared unexpectedly from Raymond Chow, a film producer who had in 1970 left Shaw Brothers to form a new company, Golden Harvest. 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. During that phone call, Lee determined the best action movie playing in Hong Kong and assured Chow that he could do much better.

In June 1971, Chow sent one of his producers, Liu Liang-Hua (the wife of director Lo Wei) to Los Angeles to meet and negotiate with Bruce, who signed a contract to make two films for Golden Harvest for US$15,000 ($10,000 for The Big Boss and $5,000 on completion of a second film tentatively titled King of Chinese Boxers and which became Fist of Fury). This eased the Lees' financial worries and permitted Linda to quit her job.

With the contract signed, Chow hastily arranged a meeting with his Golden Harvest executives and an old friend called Ma Thien-Ek (Fatty Ma), a Thai businessman, film distributor and cinema owner. They knew that Shaw Brothers were making a Muay Thai boxing film in Thailand (Duel of Fists), and wanted to make their new film there, which would also help to keep costs down. Fatty Ma, an expert in Thai affairs, offered to help with locations and expenses.

Writing
Veteran Chinese novelist and screenwriter Ni Kuang was commissioned to create a script based loosely on Cheng Chi-Yong, a prominent Chinese figure in Thai society in the early 20th century. Ni Kuang changed the name of the character to Cheng Chao-an, after Chao'an county in eastern China, the home of Cheng Chi-Yong's ancestors. He also developed the idea of Cheng being sent by his mother to live and work with fellow Chinese migrants in Thailand, after his father had been killed in a fight. She gave her son a jade necklace symbolising peace, protection and good fortune, as a reminder to avoid trouble.

It was not unusual in Hong Kong cinema for the director to amend the script during filming, and The Big Boss was no exception. When Lo Wei replaced the original director in late July 1971, he was unhappy with the script and re-wrote it, without Bruce's knowledge. Lo later recalled, "I wouldn't tell him I was re-writing the script for fear of affecting his morale. In my hotel room, he would often discuss the script with me which would leave me tongue-tied, so I would tell him I needed to rest, and as soon as he left I would be burning the midnight oil in order to get the script ready for the next day's filming."

Filming
Bruce Lee flew from Los Angeles to Bangkok via Hong Kong on 12 July 1971. 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. Bruce stayed in Bangkok for five nights, and it was here that he met most of the cast and crew and also Raymond Chow for the first time. Filming commenced on 22 July in Pak Chong, a small town situated some 90 mi northeast of Bangkok, on the northern edge of the Khao Yai National Park, Thailand's oldest reserve; it also serves as the gateway to the northeast (Isan) of Thailand from the Bangkok Metropolitan Region. 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. Due to the lack of fresh food, Bruce was losing weight due to a lack of proper diet, having to eat canned meat and supplement his diet with vitamins, which he had thankfully brought along. He occasionally lost his voice through trying to shout above the noise on set; mosquitoes and cockroaches were everywhere, and the tap water in the hotel was yellow. Bruce asked the hotel staff to put his mattress on the floor, as sleeping on the bed was uncomfortable due to his ongoing back problem. He also needed lots of rest after a fight scene.

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. A film producer from Taiwan told Bruce to rip up his contract and promised to take care of any lawsuit. Bruce, a man of his word, had no intention of considering the offers, although it did add some extra tension on the film set.

Shooting did not go smoothly at first. 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). Bruce was initially sceptical of Lo, describing him in letters to Linda as a "fame lover" and "another so-so one with an almost unbearable air of superiority". Bruce badly cut his right hand while washing a thin glass, the wound requiring ten stitches and a large plaster, which is very noticeable throughout the movie, especially the scenes filmed at the Thamrongthai ice factory, the first filming location used in Pak Chong. Fatty Ma had a contact who knew the owner of the factory, and arranged for Golden Harvest to film there for a few days.

One night, filming of the big fight in the ice house had to be stopped for an hour as Bruce had lost a contact lens, and dozens of people were on their hands and knees looking for it amongst thousands of ice chips. Eventually Bruce found it himself, leading Lo Wei to wonder if he had it in his pocket all along, and was deliberately being disruptive.

Aside from the factory, other locations in Pak Chong used for filming include the Lam Ta Khong river (a tributary of the Mun River), and a local brothel (the Mitsumphun Hotel), which has since burnt down. The actual bedroom scenes however were filmed in a riverside bungalow owned by the nearby New Wan Chai Hotel (now the Rimtarninn), where the film crew stayed during filming, due to the bedrooms in the brothel being smelly and unhygienic. The prostitutes charged only fifteen Baht in Thai money per client, but the film crew paid them one to two hundred Baht each to appear as extras in the film.

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

There has been some speculation that Bruce was involved in a real fight on the set of The Big Boss, as depicted in the 1993 biopic Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story. Although no such fight actually took place, Bruce did interact extensively with a few of the Thai stuntmen (one of whom was a former Muay Thai bantamweight champion), and exchanged info and skills with them between takes. Bruce reportedly though seemed unimpressed and called their kicks "telegraphed", while the Hong Kong stunt team (Lam Ching-Ying, Billy Chan and his brother Peter Chan Lung) were initially unimpressed with Bruce, and doubted his abilities. Their opinion of him soon changed when Lam challenged Bruce in the hotel, and Bruce sidekicked him across the room.

After an eventful, and at times chaotic, first few days' filming in Pak Chong, by early August the filming had picked up speed and was progressing well. Bruce and Lo Wei were collaborating, but they still clashed over a few of the scenes, in particular the use of trampolines and mattresses to propel people through the air, and also the scene where Bruce punches a man through a wooden wall, leaving a cartoonish outline in the wood. Bruce was also hesitant to go along with Lo Wei's ideas of filming risqué scenes of his character getting in bed with Thai ladies portraying prostitutes, although he eventually agreed to do them as Lo insisted it would add to his character's newfound image as a revenge-driven warrior.

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. Close-ups were used to finish the fight, as Bruce struggled and had to drag his leg, which was covered up with, and contributed to, his character's worn out, exhausted appearance.

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. The dinner party scene was filmed in the back room of the Poonsin Chinese Restaurant, close to the Thai Hotel. A few scenes were filmed at the Chao Phraya River in Phra Pradaeng District, including the opening scene in the film where Bruce and his uncle step off the ferry boat and walk through the busy pier. An old teak house in the east side of Phra Pradaeng district was used as the family home, while Nora Miao's scenes (and part of the opening fight sequence) were filmed on the quieter west side, which resembled rural Pak Chong. At times filming was delayed by heavy rain.

The Big Boss film crew returned to Hong Kong on 3 September, where there would be a further day of filming for insert shots including close-ups of Bruce avoiding the dogs and the "leg-grappling" scene during the fight with the boss (these were filmed at the Royal Hong Kong Golf Club). The final scene filmed was the now deleted "pushcart attack" in the alleyway, at Wader Studio in Hong Kong, as Golden Harvest had not as yet moved into their famous studios on Hammer Hill Road.

Post-production
Bruce viewed over three hours of unedited footage on 5 September, and was pleased with the results. The next day, he flew to the U.S. to see his family and film further episodes of Longstreet. While Bruce was in the US, the footage was sent for processing and editing. The editing was initially done by Golden Harvest editor Sung Ming, but because they were behind schedule, the renowned award-winning editor Chiang Hsing-Lung was also brought in to help. A veteran of over 170 movies, Chiang worked very quickly, and helped deliver the film on time. Since he was employed by Shaw Bros at the time, his involvement was kept secret, and he was uncredited.

Bruce returned to Hong Kong on 16 October with his family plus friend Robert Baker. They were greeted at Kai Tak Airport by several friends, news reporters and a large group of scouts from the Scout Association of Hong Kong. The next day, a private screening was held at Golden Harvest for cinema owners. Sung Ming then made further edits to appease the Hong Kong censors, for the film's general release at the end of October. On 22 October, Bruce and Robert Baker appeared on Enjoy Yourself Tonight to promote the film.

Bruce Lee and JKD short film
While in Thailand, Bruce wrote to Linda regularly, telling her he missed her and the children, and was looking forward to seeing them in Hong Kong once filming had been completed. In return for their air fare (from their home in Los Angeles to Hong Kong), Golden Harvest wanted Bruce to make a short film for them called Bruce Lee and Jeet Kune Do, which would run for approximately 15 minutes and be narrated by actress Nora Miao. According to Hong Kong press reports, Golden Harvest had originally planned for the short film to accompany the release of another upcoming film of theirs called The Hurricane (a.k.a. Gold Cyclone Whirlwind), starring Nora and written and directed by Lo Wei. This would promote Nora and introduce Lee's skills to the Hong Kong public prior to the release of The Big Boss. Nora, who was already in Thailand on vacation, joined the film crew in Bangkok in late August 1971, but the short film was not made, presumably because there was not enough time; she did, however, film a few brief scenes for The Big Boss in a cameo role as a roadside refreshment vendor.

Box office
On 23 October 1971, the film premiered at the Queen's Theatre in Hong Kong's Central district for a now legendary midnight screening. Linda recalled in her 1975 book Bruce Lee: The Man Only I Knew: "Every dream that Bruce had ever possessed came true that night. The audience rose to its feet, yelling, clapping, cheering. It was almost impossible to leave the theatre; we were absolutely mobbed." The Lees also attended the official gala premiere on 3 November, which was a charity screening for the Scout Association of Hong Kong. The film was an instant success, taking just 3 days to reach HK$1 million, and a week to reach HK$2 million. By the end of its relatively brief run (ending on 18 November), The Big Boss had made HK$3.2 million, breaking the previous record held by The Sound of Music by more than HK$800,000. An estimated 1.2 million people in Hong Kong, out of a population of four million, had paid to watch the film. It became the highest-grossing film of all time in Hong Kong until Lee's second film, Fist of Fury, was released in March 1972.

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. It went on general release on 8 December, and by the end of its run on 21 January 1972, it had broken box office records with just over sgd700,000, about S$240,000 more than previous record-holder The Ten Commandments. The film also played to packed cinemas in Malaysia, the third territory to show the film. By September 1972, it had grossed US$370,000 in the Malaysian capital city of Kuala Lumpur. During its initial run, the film grossed more than US$5 million in Southeast Asia alone and US$12,000,000 across Asia.

Despite the enormous success of The Big Boss in the Far East, overseas distributors were initially reluctant as they did not think it had potential outside Asia. It was only when the film suddenly became a surprise hit in Beirut (Lebanon) in 1972 that they began to take notice. Suddenly buyers from all over the world were arriving in Hong Kong to buy the film, which was soon opening in new markets for Chinese films such as South America, Africa and southern Europe. The film became a major box office hit in Europe between 1972 and early 1973. In the UK, however, the release of the English-dubbed version was delayed as distributors Crest Films withdrew their application for a BBFC certificate, while they waited for the current storm surrounding film censorship in Britain to pass (the Mandarin version was shown in Chinese cinema clubs in Britain in June 1972).

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. This new version was eventually released in the U.S. in April 1973 with the title Fists of Fury, about 18 months after the Hong Kong premiere and after Fist of Fury (retitled The Chinese Connection in the US), Lee's second major role, had a limited run in New York. It was an instant hit, with opening day earnings of US$50,000 from 53 theaters in the New Jersey and New York areas. 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). Its success was surprising given that the film was only originally intended for the Mandarin circuit. The film earned US$2,800,000 in distributor rentals at the American and Canadian box office during its initial run in 1973. The Big Boss went on to gross a total revenue of US$16.2 million in the United States (equivalent to US$88.3 million adjusted for inflation in 2020), where it sold approximately 9.418 million tickets and was one of the top 20 films released in 1973.

In France, the film became one of the top ten highest-grossing films of 1973, with 2,519,063 ticket sales. In Spain, the film sold 2,211,383 tickets. Upon its October 1973 release in South Korea, the film sold 209,551 tickets in the capital city of Seoul. In Lebanon, the film had a packed six-week first run in Beirut and then a second run that outperformed The Godfather (1972). The UK and Japan were among the last countries to release the film, in April 1974. In Japan, it was the year's seventh-highest-grossing film, with ¥600,000,000 in distributor rental earnings.

Against a tight budget of US$100,000, the film grossed nearly US$50 million worldwide (equivalent to approximately US$million adjusted for inflation), earning nearly 0 times its budget.

Re-releases
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. The first time this scene was shown in the U.S. was when it played on cable channel AMC in July 2004.

Columbia Pictures released the film as a re-issue in 1978 and again re-issued it with Fist of Fury as a studio sanctioned double feature in February 1981. 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.

In the United Kingdom, the film was watched by 300,000 viewers on Channel 5 in 2008, making it the year's most-watched foreign-language film on Channel 5.

On July 14, 2020, The Criterion Collection released a Blu-ray box set featuring The Big Boss, Fist of Fury, The Way of the Dragon, Enter the Dragon, Game of Death, and Game of Death II titled Bruce Lee: His Greatest Hits.

Critical reception
The Big Boss received mixed reviews from critics upon release. From the South China Morning Post during the film's original Hong Kong run: "This is probably the biggest thing to hit the Mandarin film business since the invention of fake blood ... Every cinema showing this film is packed to the fire exits." 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." 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 ... There are the stereotype good and bad, and the by now redundant theme of revenge. On top of this, it doesn't flow smoothly; the emotional mood, shallow though it is, is sometimes left out on a limb."

Reviews were also mixed when the film was released (as Fists of Fury) in the U.S. in spring 1973. 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. Unlike Eastwood's anti-hero, Bruce Lee is giving the American audiences what they apparently want now: a hero. Lee is Rex Allen, Lash Larue, Tom Mix, Roy Rogers and Gene Autry all rolled into one ... 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." Vincent Canby of The New York Times wrote, "Kung fu movies began as a local phenomenon in Hong Kong a couple of years ago. The two I've just seen, Fists of Fury (a.k.a. The Big Boss) and Deep Thrust (a.k.a. Lady Whirlwind), make the worst Italian Westerns look like the most solemn and noble achievements of the early Soviet cinema." 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."

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a score of 69% based on 16 reviews, with an average rating of 6.1/10.

Censorship and missing scenes
The Big Boss has quite a long and complicated history of censorship and editing, with many scenes being trimmed or removed completely for various reasons, for different markets. The notorious "handsaw in the split head" shot was cut by the censors in Hong Kong shortly before the film was released there in October 1971. It was only shown in a private screening at Golden Harvest for the press, cinema owners, and prospective buyers on 17 October, but has not been seen since; all that survives are a few stills.

Further scenes were cut for the first overseas prints released in some territories in late 1971 and early 1972. The nudity and bloodshed were toned down, along with a few seemingly innocuous scenes.

 * The scene at the refreshments stall is shortened, including an extended fight between Hsu Chien (James Tien) and the thugs.
 * An entire scene in which some of the cousins play a game of draughts, only for Ah Kun (Lee Kwan) to complain about cheating; also some of Cheng Chao An's (Bruce Lee) arrival at the house.
 * Cheng and Hsu are walking home after the fight near the gambling den; they enter a narrow alleyway and have to grab hands and leap onto a wall to avoid two carts which are hurled towards them. The pair return home, with Cheng looking amused as Hsu describe the events to the family.
 * A scene in which Cheng, after seeing his uncle off, heads down a road and observes the drink stand seller smiling at him from her stall; he walks past her looking glum.
 * As the thugs dispose of the two cousins at the ice house, a severed head is thrown into an ice container.
 * Some shots of Hsiao Chiun (Tony Liu) and then his father demonstrating fighting tactics to their men.
 * Some shots of Hsu and Hsiao Chiun after the former is attacked in the head.
 * Some shots of the thugs approaching and entering the grounds of the family home.
 * The shot of Cheng lifting the net to reveal Ah Shan's body is shortened.
 * The scene of Cheng at the riverside is shortened to remove some of his inner monologue and shots of his cousins' murdered bodies. After standing up and throwing his bundle of belongings into the river, the parts of him angrily shaking his fist and repeatedly shouting "Revenge!" are removed.
 * After Cheng runs down the road from the creek, rather than cutting to him arriving at the big boss's mansion like the mainstream cuts, he returns to the brothel for a third time. Here, he picks the prostitute in a red sweater-type dress (seen in the background the second time Cheng visits the brothel). They go to her room; Cheng pushes her onto the bed, and the two begin to strip. Cheng stands behind the bed, completely nude, but also completely emotionless. The woman lies on the bed and Cheng walks (waist-high shot) towards the camera, blurring out the scene. Next, Cheng is shown putting on his shirt, while the woman remains in bed, staring at him. He hands all his money to her, even though he already paid. He then picks up a bag of crisps from the bedside table, tries one, and then leaves.
 * Cheng punches Hsiao Mi a few more times as he lies lifeless.

Featured only in some trailers from the early 1970s, a different head is visible in the block of ice when Cheng is investigating the ice house; it's not known if it was in any print. Rumoured edits include reductions to the gruesome sequence in which the body of cousin Ah Wong is cut apart by the electric saw; at the dinner scene, a drunken Cheng approaches the prostitute Wu Man (Malarin Boonak) and imagines her topless.

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 the censored "saw in the head" shot. In 2023, Arrow Films announced the release of a set titled Bruce Lee at Golden Harvest, whose contents include a Mandarin version of The Big Boss which includes ten minutes of additional footage.

Alternative title confusion
When The Big Boss was being prepared for American distribution, the U.S. release was to be re-titled The Chinese Connection, a play on the popular The French Connection, since both dealt with drug trafficking. The U.S. title of Lee's second film, Fist of Fury, was to be kept nearly the same, except using the plural Fists. However, the titles were accidentally reversed. The Big Boss was released as Fists of Fury and Fist of Fury became The Chinese Connection. 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.

Alternative music scores
Unlike other Lee films, The Big Boss is unique in having not only two, but three completely different music scores. Fist of Fury, Way of the Dragon, Enter the Dragon, and Game of Death all only feature one score with minor alterations.

The first music score for it was composed by Wang Fu-ling, who worked on films such as The Chinese Boxer and One-Armed Swordsman. This was made for the original Mandarin language version and was also used in the English export version, in addition to the theatrical French and Turkish versions. Wang was the only one to receive credit, but it is also believed composer Chen Yung-Yu assisted with the score. At least one cue from Japanese composer Akira Ifukube's scores for the Daimajin trilogy of films was also utilised as stock music.

The second and most widespread of the music scores was by German composer Peter Thomas. This did not become widely known until 2005, when most of the music he composed for the film was published on iTunes. Thomas's involvement stems from a complete reworking of the English version of the film. 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. It was decided to make a new English version that would stand out from the ones of other martial arts films. New actors were brought in to re-dub the film, and Thomas re-scored the film, abandoning Wang Fu-ling's music. The German dubbed version (German: Die Todesfaust des Cheng Li, English: The Deadly Fist of Cheng Li), premiering before the reworked English version, features his score.

The third score is the 1982 Cantonese release score, which primarily features music from Golden Harvest composer Joseph Koo. However, a good portion of Koo's music in the Cantonese version was originally created in 1974 for the Japanese theatrical release of The Big Boss, which was half Koo's music and half Peter Thomas's. Golden Harvest simply took Koo's music from the Japanese version and added it to the Cantonese version. Aside from this, this version is most infamous for its use of the Pink Floyd music cues from "The Grand Vizier's Garden Party, Part 2", "Echoes", "On the Run", "Time" and "Obscured by Clouds", as well as King Crimson's "Larks' Tongues in Aspic, Part Two". Other music cues were taken from old horror films and B-movies, including I Was a Teenage Werewolf and How To Make A Monster.

Legacy
Kotaku has traced the video game usage of the term "boss" back to The Big Boss.

Unofficial sequels
In 1976, a non-canon continuation to The Big Boss was made called The Big Boss Part II, starring Bruce Le (Huang Kin Lung) as Cheng Chao-an and Lo Lieh as Cheng's brother, who wants revenge for their father's murder. The film was directed by Chan Chue, who was an assistant director on the original film and also reprises his role as the villainous ice factory manager. The Big Boss Part II was partly filmed at some of the Pak Chong locations used in the original film, including the ice factory and the Buddhist temple which is used as the villain's lair. The elusive film still exists, but did not make it to home video until Severin Films released a new scan of a Mandarin print as a bonus on the Enter the Clones boxset in 2024.

A later sequel, Big Boss Untouchable, was produced in 2002 with Dragon Sek in the lead role.

Official sequel
In 1981, a loose sequel simply called Big Boss II (杰泉达东考, Jiě quán dà dōng kǎo) was released. Directed by Lu-Po Tu and starring Ryong Keo (Dragon Lee), Tan Yin (Bolo Yeung), Lik Cheung, Yoo-haeng Kim, Ying-Hung Lau, Fa-Yuan Li, Ni Liu, Yao-Kun Pan, Chien-Po Tsen, and Wei-Ho Tu. While transporting funds for independence movement, Lee Han-saeng is shot in the legs by the Japanese military police. He recovers from his wounds with the help of Jang Geo-chil, an independence fighter, and his daughter, Wan-ah. When the Japanese police investigate Jang's house, Han-saeng and Jang take refuge in the home of Wan-ah's uncle. But he sells them out, blinded by his greed for the reward on their heads. They run and hide in kisaeng Ae-hi's home. Ae-hi and her sister Yu-ha desire revenge on the Japanese police who killed their father. But they are killed when Wan-ah's uncle turns them to the Japanese police while Han-saeng is away. When Jang and his wife are killed, Han-saeng takes revenge on the Japanese police. In the US, the film also goes by the titles Chinese Goliath, Muscle of the Dragon, and The Deadly Dragon Lee Fights Again.

Other actors as Bruce Lee playing Cheng Chao-an
Various Bruce Lee biopics have been filmed over the years, with the two most famous being Bruce Lee: The Man, The Myth and Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story. Both of these films feature their respective actors, Bruce Li and Jason Scott Lee, at one point acting as Lee on the set of The Big Boss. Both films feature a variation of the rumour that Lee was challenged on the set by a Thai boxer. In Myth, Lee was challenged on set and was caught in the middle of an ambush later on off the set. In Dragon, Lee is challenged during an actual take during filming of The Big Boss, wearing the trademark rolled up long sleeve white T-shirt, white sash, and black pants. Both of these are highly exaggerated accounts (not to mention that Dragon makes the mistake of saying that filming for The Big Boss began in July 1970 rather than in July 1971), as the story told is that Lee merely discusses martial arts with a Thai fighter on the set. Besides these two examples, a third Bruce Lee biopic, The Legend of Bruce Lee, this time with Danny Chan Kwok-kwan as Lee and filmed in mini-series form, was shown in Hong Kong in 2008 as part of China's hosting of the summer Olympics. 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. Photos and behind-the-scenes video of this scene have appeared on various websites, including Dacascos's official site.

VHS releases
4 Front (United Kingdom)
 * Released: 17 March 1997
 * Classification: 18

4 Front (United Kingdom)
 * Released: 1 October 2001
 * Part of a boxset
 * Classification: 18

20th Century Fox (America)
 * Released: 21 May 2002
 * Named Fists of Fury
 * Classification: R, X (known in some video releases)
 * Color: NTSC
 * Run time: 99 minutes

DVD releases
Universe (Hong Kong)
 * Aspect ratio: Widescreen (2:35:1) letterboxed
 * Sound: Cantonese (Dolby Digital 5.1), Mandarin (Dolby Digital 5.1)
 * Subtitles: Traditional, Simplified Chinese, English, Japanese, Korean, Indonesian, Malaysian, Thai, Vietnamese
 * Supplements: Trailer, trailers for Way of the Dragon, Enter the Dragon, Game of Death, Legacy of Rage, star files
 * All regions, NTSC

Mega Star (Hong Kong)
 * Aspect ratio: Widescreen (2:29:1)
 * Sound: Cantonese (Dolby Digital 2.0 Dual Mono), Mandarin (Dolby Digital 2.0 Dual Mono)
 * Subtitles: Traditional, Simplified Chinese, English, Japanese, Korean
 * Supplements: Trailer, synopsis, cast and Crew biographies
 * All regions, NTSC

Fortune Star – Bruce Lee Ultimate DVD Collection (Hong Kong)
 * Released: 29 April 2004
 * Aspect ratio: Widescreen (2:35:1) anamorphic
 * Sound: Cantonese (DTS 5.1), Cantonese (Dolby Digital 5.1), Cantonese (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono), Mandarin (DTS 5.1), Mandarin (Dolby Digital 5.1)
 * Subtitles: Traditional, Simplified Chinese, English
 * Supplements: Original trailer, new trailer, still photos, slideshow of photos, celebrity interviews, unseen footage, Game of Death outtakes, Enter the Dragon alternate opening, 32-page booklet
 * Region 3, NTSC

Fox (America)
 * Released: 21 May 2002
 * Aspect ratio: Widescreen (2:27:1) letterboxed
 * Sound: English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono)
 * Subtitles: English
 * Supplements: None
 * Region 1, NTSC

Fox – Bruce Lee Ultimate Collection (America)
 * Released: 18 October 2005
 * Aspect ratio: Widescreen (2:35:1) anamorphic
 * Sound: Cantonese (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono), Manadarin (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono), English (DTS 5.1), English (Dolby Digital 5.1)
 * Subtitles: English
 * Supplements: Original trailer, new trailer, still photos, slideshow of photos, interview with Tung Wai, bonus trailers
 * Region 1, NTSC

Hong Kong Legends – Special Collector's Edition (United Kingdom)
 * Released: 6 November 2000
 * Aspect ratio: Widescreen (2:35:1) anamorphic
 * Sound: Cantonese (Dolby Digital 2.0 Dual Mono), English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Dual Mono)
 * Subtitles: English, Dutch
 * Supplements: Commentary by Bey Logan, production photo gallery, animated biography showcase of Bruce Lee with voice over, original Mandarin trailer, Hong Kong promotional trailer, UK promotional trailer, bonus trailers
 * Region 2, PAL

Hong Kong Legends – Platinum Edition (United Kingdom)
 * Released: 23 October 2006
 * Aspect ratio: Widescreen (2:35:1) anamorphic
 * Sound: Cantonese (Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo), Cantonese (Dolby Digital 2.0 Dual Mono), English (2.0 Dual Mono)
 * Subtitles: English, Dutch
 * Supplements: Disc 1: Commentary by Andrew Staton and Will Johnston, bonus trailers; Disc 2: UK platinum trailer, UK promotional trailer, original Mandarin trailer, Hong Kong promotional trailer, rare uncut 8 mm UK trailer, original 35 mm UK title sequence, textless 35 mm title sequence, original lobby cards, "Paul Weller: Breaking the West", "Fred Weintraub: A Rising Star", "Tom Kuhn: What Might Have Been", "The History of The Big Boss: A Photographic Retrospective", "Deleted Scenes Examined: The Story of the Elusive Original Uncut Print", animated biography showcase of Bruce Lee with voice over, DVD credits
 * Region 2, PAL

Blu-ray Disc release
Kam & Ronson (Hong Kong)
 * Released: 6 August 2009
 * Aspect ratio: Widescreen (2:35:1)
 * Sound: Cantonese (DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1), Cantonese (Dolby True HD 7.1), Mandarin (Dolby Digital EX 6.1), Thai (Dolby Digital EX 6.1)
 * Subtitles: Traditional Chinese, English, Thai
 * Supplements: Tung Wai interview
 * Region A

Bruce Lee: His Greatest Hits (Criterion Collection #1036) Disc 1
 * Released: 14 July 2020
 * Aspect ratio: Widescreen (2:35:1)
 * Sound: Original Mandarin Mono, Original English-Dubbed Mono, Cantonese Mono, Mandarin with score by Peter Thomas Mono
 * Subtitles: English
 * Supplements: Commentary by Brandon Bentley, Commentary by Mike Leeder, Alternative Footage, Archival Program "Bruce Lee: The Early Years", "Bruce Lee vs Peter Thomas" on Peter Thomas' score, "On The Big Boss" making-of, TV Spots and Trailers, Leaflet shared with accompanying discs of Fist of Fury, The Way of the Dragon, Enter the Dragon, Game of Death and its sequel, alongside the extended "Special Edition" of Enter the Dragon.
 * Region A

title: The Big Boss


text: Talk:United States/to do

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Talk:United States/to do


text:
Marvel Adventures

Marvel Adventures, formerly Marvel Age, was an imprint of Marvel Comics intended for younger audiences, including small children. Unlike the standard comics published by Marvel, which often take place in story arcs spanning several issues, each Marvel Adventures comic tells a standalone story. In April 2012 it was replaced by all new All Ages line tied to the Marvel Universe block on Disney XD.

Age
The idea was initially established as the Marvel Age imprint in 2003. The Marvel Age name had last been used as the title of a promotional magazine published by Marvel from 1983 to 1994. The initial idea for the imprint was to reuse the early plots, written by Stan Lee in the 1960s, in a modern-day setting, with new writers and artists retelling the stories. The stories would be published in the standard comic book format and quickly collected and reprinted in manga-style digest size. Several titles from Marvel's failed Tsunami line, as well as several other Marvel series, were also collected in this format and released under the Marvel Age banner. Each book also contained character concept sketches by the artists on the last pages.

Adventures
In 2005 Darwyn Cooke was brought on to develop a new all-ages book based on Marvel's heroes. The stories would be independent from the Marvel 616 Universe and feature an array of Marvel's most popular characters. Cooke was eventually left behind by Marvel and the book carried on without him where a new batch of creators were brought on to tell stories Cooke never intended to tell. The Marvel Age imprint was relaunched as Marvel Adventures, with Marvel Age: Spider-Man and Marvel Age: Fantastic Four being restarted as Marvel Adventures: Spider-Man and Marvel Adventures: Fantastic Four. This time around, the stories would be original and not based on existing stories. In order to be able to tell standalone stories and to escape the trappings of having to reflect the events of other Marvel titles, none of the titles take place within the primary Marvel Universe continuity.

The titles published consist of Marvel Adventures: The Avengers, Marvel Adventures: Spider-Man and Marvel Adventures: Super Heroes. Two other titles, Marvel Adventures: Iron Man and Marvel Adventures: Hulk, were both canceled after brief runs. Marvel Adventures: Fantastic Four ended its run, after 48 issues, in May, 2009. It was followed two months later by a Fantastic Four Giant-Size Adventures one-shot.

In 2010, the line was ended and then rebooted with only two titles, Marvel Adventures: Spider-Man and Marvel Adventures: Super Heroes returning. Both titles started over with a new first issue. Both titles ended in March 2012, and were replaced by new titles tied to the "Marvel Universe" cartoon block on Disney XD, and are titled Ultimate Spider-Man Adventures and The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes Adventures, respectively.

Digests
Marvel Digests were collections of Marvel Age/Adventures comic books compressed into smaller digest-sized books, rather than the original larger magazine form. Following theme with the Marvel Age comic books, they contained concept art sketches of characters in the back of the books.

Marvel Age Fantastic Four

 * Marvel Age Fantastic Four Vol. 1: All for One (Marvel Age Fantastic Four #1-4)
 * Marvel Age Fantastic Four Vol. 2: Doom (Marvel Age Fantastic Four #5-8)
 * Marvel Age Fantastic Four Vol. 3: Return of Doctor Doom (Marvel Age Fantastic Four #9-12)

Marvel Age Fantastic Four Tales

 * Marvel Age Fantastic Four: Clobberin' Time (Marvel Age Fantastic Four Tales #1, Tales of the Thing #1-3, Spider-Man Team-Up Special #1)

Marvel Age Hulk

 * Marvel Age Hulk: Incredible (Marvel Age Hulk #1-4)

Marvel Age Spider-Man

 * Marvel Age Spider-Man Vol. 1: Fearsome Foes (Marvel Age Spider-Man #1-4)
 * Marvel Age Spider-Man Vol. 2: Everyday Hero (Marvel Age Spider-Man #5-8)
 * Marvel Age Spider-Man Vol. 3: Swingtime (Marvel Age Spider-Man #9-12)
 * Marvel Age Spider-Man Vol. 4: The Goblin Strikes (Marvel Age Spider-Man #13-16)
 * Marvel Age Spider-Man Vol. 5: Spidey Strikes Back (Marvel Age Spider-Man #17-20)

Marvel Age Spider-Man Team-Up

 * Marvel Age Spider-Man Team-Up Vol. 1: A Little Help From My Friends (Marvel Age Spider-Man Team-Up #1-5)

Mary Jane

 * Mary Jane Vol. 1: Circle of Friends (Mary Jane #1-4)
 * Mary Jane Vol. 2: Homecoming (Mary Jane: Homecoming #1-4)
 * Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane Vol. 1: Super Crush (Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane Vol. 1 #1-5)
 * Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane Vol. 2: The New Girl (Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane Vol. 1 #6-10)
 * Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane Vol. 3: My Secret Life (Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane Vol. 1 #11-15)
 * Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane Vol. 4: Still Friends (Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane Vol. 1 #16-20)
 * Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane Vol. 5: Sophomore Jinx (Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane Vol. 2 #1-5)
 * Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane The Complete Collection Vol. 1 (Mary Jane #1-4, Mary Jane: Homecoming #1-4, Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane Vol 1. #1-8)

Marvel Adventures Avengers

 * Marvel Adventures Avengers Vol. 1: Heroes Assembled (Marvel Adventures Avengers #1–4)
 * Marvel Adventures Avengers Vol. 2: Mischief (Marvel Adventures Avengers #5-8)
 * Marvel Adventures Avengers Vol. 3: Bizarre Adventures (Marvel Adventures Avengers #9-12)
 * Marvel Adventures Avengers Vol. 4: The Dream Team (Marvel Adventures Avengers #13-15, Marvel Adventures Giant-Size Avengers #1)
 * Marvel Adventures Avengers Vol. 5: Some Assembling Required (Marvel Adventures Avengers #16-19)
 * Marvel Adventures Avengers Vol. 6: Mighty Marvels (Marvel Adventures Avengers #20-23)
 * Marvel Adventures Avengers Vol. 7: Weirder And Wilder (Marvel Adventures Avengers #24-27)
 * Marvel Adventures Avengers Vol. 8: The New Recruits (Marvel Adventures Avengers #28-31)
 * Marvel Adventures Avengers Vol. 9: The Times They Are A-Changin'(Marvel Adventures Avengers #32-35)
 * Marvel Adventures Avengers Vol. 10: Invasion (Marvel Adventures Avengers #36-39)
 * Avengers & The Infinity Gauntlet (Avengers & The Infinity Gauntlet #1-4, Infinity Gauntlet #1)

Marvel Adventures Hulk

 * Marvel Adventures Hulk Vol. 1: Misunderstood Monster (Marvel Adventures Hulk #1-4)
 * Marvel Adventures Hulk Vol. 2: Defenders (Marvel Adventures Hulk #5-8)
 * Marvel Adventures Hulk Vol. 3: Strongest One There Is (Marvel Adventures Hulk #9-12)
 * Marvel Adventures Hulk Vol. 4: Tales To Astonish (Marvel Adventures Hulk #13-16)

Marvel Adventures Iron Man

 * Marvel Adventures Iron Man Vol. 1: Heart of Steel (Marvel Adventures Iron Man #1-4)
 * Marvel Adventures Iron Man Vol. 2: Iron Armory (Marvel Adventures Iron Man #5-8)
 * Marvel Adventures Iron Man Vol. 3: Hero by Design (Marvel Adventures Iron Man #9-12)
 * Marvel Adventures Iron Man Vol. 4: Armored Avenger (Marvel Adventures Iron Man #13, Iron Man: Golden Avenger #1, Marvel Adventures Iron Man & Hulk: FCBD 2007, and Marvel Adventures Iron Man, Hulk, & Spider-Man: FCBD 2008)

Marvel Adventures Fantastic Four

 * Marvel Adventures Fantastic Four Vol. 1: Family of Heroes (Marvel Adventures Fantastic Four #1-4)
 * Marvel Adventures Fantastic Four Vol. 2: Fantastic Voyages (Marvel Adventures Fantastic Four #5-8)
 * Marvel Adventures Fantastic Four Vol. 3: World's Greatest (Marvel Adventures Fantastic Four #9-12)
 * Marvel Adventures Fantastic Four Vol. 4: Cosmic Threats (Marvel Adventures Fantastic Four #13-16)
 * Marvel Adventures Fantastic Four Vol. 5: All 4 One, 4 for All (Marvel Adventures Fantastic Four #17-20)
 * Marvel Adventures Fantastic Four Vol. 6: Monsters and Mysteries (Marvel Adventures Fantastic Four #21-24)
 * Marvel Adventures Fantastic Four Vol. 7: The Silver Surfer (Marvel Adventures Fantastic Four #25-28)
 * Marvel Adventures Fantastic Four Vol. 8: Monsters, Moles, Cowboys & Coupons (Marvel Adventures Fantastic Four #29-32)
 * Marvel Adventures Fantastic Four Vol. 9: New York's Finest (Marvel Adventures Fantastic Four #33-36)
 * Marvel Adventures Fantastic Four Vol. 10: Spaced Crusaders (Marvel Adventures Fantastic Four #37-40)
 * Marvel Adventures Fantastic Four Vol. 11: Doomed If You Don't (Marvel Adventures Fantastic Four #41-44)
 * Marvel Adventures Fantastic Four Vol. 12: Four-Three-Two-One (Marvel Adventures Fantastic Four #45-48)

Marvel Adventures Spider-Man

 * Marvel Adventures Spider-Man Vol. 1: The Sinister Six (Marvel Adventures Spider-Man #1–4)
 * Marvel Adventures Spider-Man Vol. 2: Power Struggle (Marvel Adventures Spider-Man #5–8)
 * Marvel Adventures Spider-Man Vol. 3: Doom with a View (Marvel Adventures Spider-Man #9–12)
 * Marvel Adventures Spider-Man Vol. 4: Concrete Jungle (Marvel Adventures Spider-Man #13–16)
 * Marvel Adventures Spider-Man Vol. 5: Monsters on the Prowl (Marvel Adventures Spider-Man #17-20)
 * Marvel Adventures Spider-Man Vol. 6: The Black Costume (Marvel Adventures Spider-Man #21-24)
 * Marvel Adventures Spider-Man Vol. 7: Secret Identity (Marvel Adventures Spider-Man #25-28)
 * Marvel Adventures Spider-Man Vol. 8: Forces of Nature (Marvel Adventures Spider-Man #29-32)
 * Marvel Adventures Spider-Man Vol. 9: Fiercest Foes (Marvel Adventures Spider-Man #33-36)
 * Marvel Adventures Spider-Man Vol. 10: Identity Crisis (Marvel Adventures Spider-Man #37-40)
 * Marvel Adventures Spider-Man Vol. 11: Animal Instinct (Marvel Adventures Spider-Man #41-44)
 * Marvel Adventures Spider-Man Vol. 12: Jumping To Conclusions (Marvel Adventures Spider-Man #45-48)
 * Marvel Adventures Spider-Man Vol. 13: Animal Attack! (Marvel Adventures Spider-Man #49-52)
 * Marvel Adventures Spider-Man Vol. 14: Thwip! (Marvel Adventures Spider-Man #53-56)
 * Marvel Adventures Iron Man/Spider-Man (Marvel Adventures Spider-Man #57, Marvel Adventures Iron Man #1, Iron Man #234, and Marvel Team-Up #9)
 * Marvel Adventures Spider-Man Vol. 15: Peter Parker vs. The X-Men (Marvel Adventures Spider-Man #58-61)

Marvel Adventures Spider-Man (vol. 2)

 * Marvel Adventures Spider-Man: Amazing (Marvel Adventures Spider-Man vol. 2 #1-4)
 * Marvel Adventures Spider-Man: Spectacular (Marvel Adventures Spider-Man vol. 2 #5-8)
 * Marvel Adventures Spider-Man: Sensational (Marvel Adventures Spider-Man vol. 2 #9-12)
 * Marvel Adventures Spider-Man: Friendly Neighborhood (Marvel Adventures Spider-Man vol. 2 #13-16)
 * Marvel Adventures Spider-Man: Tangled Web (Marvel Adventures Spider-Man vol. 2 #17-20)
 * Marvel Universe Spider-Man: Amazing Fantasy (Marvel Adventures Spider-Man vol. 2 #21-24)

Marvel Adventures Super Heroes

 * Marvel Adventures Spider-Man/Iron Man/Hulk: Triple Threat (Marvel Adventures Super Heroes #1-4)
 * Marvel Adventures Thor Featuring Dr. Strange, Ant-Man And Captain America (Marvel Adventures Super Heroes #5-8)
 * Marvel Adventures Thor & The Avengers (Marvel Adventures Super Heroes #9-12)
 * Marvel Adventures Spider-Man & The Avengers (Marvel Adventures Super Heroes #13-16)
 * Marvel Adventures Black Widow & The Avengers (Marvel Adventures Super Heroes #17-21)

Marvel Adventures Super Heroes (vol. 2)
Note: Marvel Adventures Super Heroes #18 and 20 are not collected because they are reprints, of Marvel Adventures Iron Man #2 and Marvel Adventures Fantastic Four #10 respectively
 * Marvel Adventures Avengers: Iron Man (Marvel Adventures Super Heroes vol. 2 #1-4)
 * Marvel Adventures Avengers: Thor (Marvel Adventures Super Heroes vol. 2 #5-8)
 * Marvel Adventures Avengers: Hulk (Marvel Adventures Super Heroes vol. 2 #9-12)
 * Marvel Adventures Avengers: Thor & Captain America (Marvel Adventures Super Heroes vol. 2 #13-16)
 * Marvel Universe Avengers: United (Marvel Adventures Super Heroes vol. 2 #17 & 19, and Marvel Adventures Avengers #1-2)
 * Marvel Universe Avengers: Hulk & Fantastic Four (Marvel Adventures Super Heroes vol. 2 #21-24)

Various series

 * Marvel Adventures Avengers: Captain America (Marvel Adventures Super Heroes vol. 2 #8 & 12, Marvel Age Spider-Man Team-Up #2, and Captain America #255)
 * Marvel Adventures Thor: Bringers of the Storm (Marvel Adventures Super Heroes #7 & 11 and Marvel Adventures Avengers #5 & 15)
 * Marvel Adventures Thor/Spider-Man (Marvel Age Spider-Man Team-Up #4, Marvel Adventures Spider-Man #40, Marvel Team-Up #115-116, and Thor #391)
 * Marvel Universe: Spider-Man and The Avengers (Marvel Adventures Avengers #8 and 15, Marvel Adventures Spider-Man #16 and Marvel Age Spider-Man #5)

title: Marvel Adventures


text:
User:Andreweb

André Carneiro Alves Rocha
Computer Engeneering - State University of Campinas (aka Unicamp).

title: User:Andreweb


text:
Kafr Jammal

Kafr Jammal (كفر جمّال), is a Palestinian town in the Tulkarm Governorate in the western edge of the West Bank. It is located about halfway between Qalqilyah and Tulkarm, and had a population of 2,855 in 2017. The village is mainly agricultural, and mostly raises olive and citrus crops. Kafr Jammal is at an altitude of 257 meters, and is bordered by Falamya (Falameh, Falāma) in the west, Kafr Zibad in the east, Jayyous in the south, and Kafr Sur to the north.

History
Ceramics from the Byzantine period have been found here.

16th century
Kafr Jammal was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire in 1517 with all of Palestine, and in 1596 it appeared under that name in the tax registers as being in the Nahiya of Bani Sa'b, part of the Nablus Sanjak. It had a population of 17 households and 13 bachelors, all Muslims. The villagers paid a fixed tax rate of 33.3% on various agricultural products, such as wheat, barley, summer crops, olive trees, goats and/or beehives, in addition to "occasional revenues" and a press for olive oil or grape syrup; a total of 11,074 akçe.

19th century
In 1838, Kefr Jemmal was noted as a village in the Beni Sa'ab area, west of Nablus. In 1882, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine described Kefr Jemmal as "a small stone village on a knoll, with cisterns."

In the 1860s, the Ottoman authorities granted the village an agricultural plot of land called Ghabat Kafr Jammal in the former confines of the Forest of Arsur (Ar. Al-Ghaba) in the coastal plain, west of the village.

In 1870/71 (1288 AH), an Ottoman census listed the village in the nahiya (sub-district) of Bani Sa'b.

British Mandate
In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Kufr Jammal had a population of 396 Muslims, increasing in the 1931 census to 499; 1 Christian and 498 Muslims, in 109 houses.

In the 1945 statistics the population of Kafr Jammal was of 690 Muslims, with 14,945 dunams of land according to an official land and population survey. Of this, 1,702 dunams were plantations and irrigable land, 4,451 were used for cereals, while 19 dunams were built-up (urban) land.

Jordanian period (1948-1967)
In the wake of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War and after the 1949 Armistice Agreements, Kafr Jammal came under Jordanian rule.

In 1961, the population of Kafr Jamal was 1,041.

Post 1967
Since the Six-Day War in 1967, Kafr Jammal has been under Israeli occupation.

Kafr Jammal enjoys good relations with neighboring villages, and heavy education and commercial exchange take place among them. The village is also notable for having a large diaspora outside the West Bank, mostly in Jordan, but also in Saudi Arabia and the United States. Kafr Jammal's population follow the Hanbali and Shafi'i fiqh (schools of Sunni Islam).

Local origins
The residents of Kafr Jammal have origins in Kafr a-Dik.

title: Kafr Jammal


text:
Talk:Enthalpy of neutralization

We need to decide which spelling of "neutrali(z/s)ation" we're going to use here. It looks silly to have one in the title and the other in the article itself. Decrypt3 19:26, Oct 7, 2004 (UTC) Wiki policy states that you use the spelling of the original poster if different regions spell the words differently so the title spelling wins--85.12.80.1 07:16, 3 May 2006 (UTC)

title: Talk:Enthalpy of neutralization


text:
Federation and Empire

Federation and Empire (F&E) is a strategic-level board wargame set in the fictional Star Fleet Universe spinoff of Star Trek, currently published by Amarillo Design Bureau Inc. (ADB). It is a stand-alone product, but has sometimes been considered the official campaign generator for Star Fleet Battles.

Overview
In outline, Federation and Empire is fairly typical for a grand strategy game. Players take alternating turns, managing the resources of their side to build ships and defenses, and maneuver their ships (or fleets) to attack the enemy and then resolve the resulting combats; his opponent then does the same on his turn. In detail, it is a bit more sophisticated. During movement enemy ships can react a short distance onto moving ships. There are rules for the interaction of these forces, which may force some or all of the moving ships to stop, being pinned by the reacting enemy. After movement, the non-moving player can also move a few limited reserves of ships to battles so as to shore up the defense of critical points. After combat, the moving player retrogrades or moves ships that were in combat back to source of supply or repair, and finally moves a limited number of ships vast distances to prepare for the coming enemy turn.

Combat itself is resolved in a number of combat rounds after the two players each deploy their battleforces. A battleforce is the group of ships each player selects to participate in combat from the stack of starships (and other units like bases) in the battle hex. In F&E there are no stacking limits, but only the ships in each battleforce may participate directly in combat, and this number is limited by the command rating of the designated flagship of the battleforce. The ship classes with the greatest command ratings are the dreadnoughts and heavy battlecruisers, with ratings of ten. Command cruisers have ratings of nine, heavy cruisers eight, and so on with the smaller ship classes. So a battleforce headed by a dreadnought could bring up to ten other warships with it into the combat phase. Certain specialty ships may be added above this limit; for instance a fleet scout or a squadron of drone bombardment ships, etc. Command points may also be expended and allocated to the battle hex, each permitting one extra ship to be added to the battleforce. Command points reflect commitments by fleet headquarters to organize and deploy more assets to the battleforce.

To resolve a combat round, the offensive rating factors for each ship/unit are summed to produce the battleforce's compot, or combat potential. Each player also chooses a Battle Intensity Rating reflecting how aggressively the ship captains handle their ships. A die is thrown; when indexed with the BIR and adjusted for electronic warfare, a percentage is obtained. This multiplied by the compot produces the number of damage points scored on the enemy battleforce. The attacking player has the option of allocating some of this damage as directed damage on one (and only one) of his opponent's units. The unit chosen is crippled by turning its counter over to its crippled (reverse) side. The attacker may expend more of his damage score to finish off (destroy) the enemy unit. When using directed damage the attacker must expend two points of his damage score to produce each point of directed damage (one ship can be designated by its owner to be in a protected position in the battleforce and is attacked by directed damage at a three-to-one ratio. Usually this ship is the flagship or an especially valuable unit like a fleet tug. The fleet scout and any drone bombardment ships also enjoy this advantage). Special warships known as maulers, deployed in small numbers during the General War by the Coalition (Romulan, Klingon and Lyran fleets), can inflict directed damage at a one-to-one ratio. After directed damage is resolved, remaining damage points are absorbed by the defender as he chooses at a one-to-one ratio of damage inflicted to damage taken.

Both players compute their combat results simultaneously and take turns resolving the effects of their attacks. These actions complete one round of combat. Before the next round commences, players may transfer attrition units between their battleforces and the ships not participating in the combat, e.g. fighters and fast patrol ships. The purpose of such a transfer would be to replace destroyed attrition units and restore carriers and/or PF flotillas in the battleforce to their full capacity prior to the next combat round. Then, before the following round, each player must decide to continue the combat or withdraw from the battle hex. If so, his opponent has the option of pursuit (usually in an effort to pick off cripples which are disadvantaged in their attempt to disengage). Combat rounds are repeated until one battleforce withdraws or is destroyed. An additional step is required if a flagship is destroyed or withdrawn: if a replacement flagship lacks the requisite command rating to command the number of ships in its battleforce, then the battleforce must be voluntarily reduced to the new flagship's command rating.

Combat resolution is different in battle hexes involving bases and/or planets. Here the attacker must offer the defender an "approach battle" in which the attacker's battleforce can be engaged at a distance from the base/planet by the defender's mobile units. The base/planet cannot participate in combat directly but can lend EW support and send attrition units. The advantage here for the defender is that the base/planet cannot be fired upon until and unless the attacker destroys or drives off the defender's battleforce. The defender may decline the approach battle in which case the base/planet may be included in his battleforce, at risk of destruction (or in the case of a planet capture or devastation). In Capital hexes of each of the races/empires (all containing several homeworld planets and the all-important Shipyards), a special pre-combat procedure involves the defender having to divide his fleet into separate battleforces for each homeworld/shipyard in the strategic battle hex. After inspecting the defender's order of battle at each location, the attacker likewise forms independent battleforces for each of the defender's locations; from there the usual base/planet procedure is implemented involving the mandatory offer of approach battles.

The main focus of the game is the General War, an 18-year-long conflict set in the Star Fleet Universe that involves all the major powers of the Alpha Octant. The scale is extremely large compared to board games in a terrestrial setting, with each hex on the map representing 500 parsecs. As the rules point out, this reduces the Milky Way Galaxy as shown on the map to a two dimensional object, because only the core would have a cross-section greater than one hex and the core is not rendered on the map. Units are typically individual ships, each with its own combat rating. Each of the interstellar governments or "empires" can have dozens, perhaps hundreds, of ships, leading to a game with a potentially very high number of counters used, on a map that is only as large as a "small" strategy game. However, significantly larger maps are available for purchase directly from ADB that greatly reduce this problem. Player aids also permit individual counters to represent large fleets, with the constituent ship counters being kept off map.

While nominally a two player game, players must keep each empire's records separate, meaning that is easy to run each side as a team with up to one player per empire. Team play can involve up eight people, but more typically involves four to five players.

The main boxed set has a series of scenarios that can be played individually, but together outline the play of the entire General War. As well, it also allows for free campaigns outside of the canonical Star Fleet Universe timeline to be played, with canonical orders of battle for each of the stellar empires. The expansions typically have a number of scenarios, which may be a focused treatment of a particular part of the General War, or an alternate way the war could have begun. There are also a limited number of scenarios that show other conflicts in the region, such as the Four Powers War.

Early versions
Federation and Empire itself was originally published in 1986 by Task Force Games (TFG). The rulebook has been revised five times since then. All editions come with 'fleet charts' (sheets of off-map holding areas for excess counters), 'capital charts' (to detail the contents of the capital systems of the various empires), and the main map. The original set included 10 numbered sheets of double-sided counters for ships as well as two sheets of single-sided counters for markers and the like.

TFG's first strategic level game for the Star Fleet Universe was Federation Space, released in 1981. It was derived from the current working draft of what became Federation and Empire, and so can be considered an "older brother" to it, even though there are notable differences between the two. One such difference was that Federation Space did not use the battleforce concept in combat resolution. All the starships in the battle hex participated in combat. The result was that the sheer quantity of ships tended to dominate the contest over the quality of the ships in the contest. This almost always resulted in hordes of the inferior ships of the Klingon Deep Space Fleet overwhelming the smaller but high-quality Federation Starfleet. Another difference with F&E is that the rules for handling fleet carriers with their fighter wings were immature.

Deluxe Edition
Federation and Empire Deluxe Edition was published in 1989 by TFG with the significantly updated and expanded "Rev-1" rulebook, a nicer-looking map and a new set of counters. Deluxe Edition retained the two single-sided counter sheets, but had three identical sets of four double sided counters (referred to as A, B, C, and D), providing two extra sheets by excluding a small number of unique units. Subsequent printings included updated "Rev-2" and "Rev-3" rulebooks.

At the time, the rules mentioned an upcoming expansion, Total War which was expected to provide all the things that could not fit in the box. However, as new ships and ideas were still be promptly introduced to the SFU through Star Fleet Battles, this proposed expansion quickly took on dimensions equal to the original game.

 * Carrier War (subtitled Total War Part One) was the first supplement offered for F&E in 1993. It consisted of new rules, new scenarios, and counters providing separate carriers and escorts (which had only existed in pre-defined "groups" to save space in the original).
 * Special Operations was a smaller module published in 1993 that brought in several new rules, such as Klingon Stasis Field Generators.
 * Marine Assault was published in 1995 and featured extensive rules detailing the use of ground troops and marines in strategic operations.

2000 Edition
When Amarillo Design Bureau took over the publishing of all Star Fleet Universe material from TFG, they continued selling the Deluxe Edition, but soon released another large rewrite of the rules in 2000. This "Rev-4" rulebook is usually called "F&E2K".

In 2004, the countersheets were again changed, from ABCD to One and Two. (Current sheets are twice the size of old ones.) In total, the number of counters are the same, but the counters that players may want extras of have been segregated onto Two, so that they can be bought separately. Once the counters are punched out, there are no differences between "F&E2K4" and the previous version.

 * Advanced Operations, published in 2003, was the first new expansion after the rewrite in F&E2K and focuses on the later years of the General War with X-ships, heavy war destroyers, as well as more sweeping rules like raids and battlegroups.
 * Combined Operations was published in 2003 as a revised replacement for both Special Ops and Marine Assault. It provided a much-needed rewrite of elements of the earlier expansions and included new content such as police ships.
 * Fighter Operations was published in 2004 as an updated version of Carrier War and also introduced new carrier types to the game.
 * Planetary Operations, published in 2004, features more ways of producing and repairing ships, like planetary repair docks and depot-level repair.
 * Strategic Operations, includes rules and counters for hospital ships, sector bases, diplomatic teams, and other additions to the game system.

In addition, Captain's Log has a regular section devoted to the game, and often includes preview material for future expansions, such as the set of trial rules for the Interstellar Concordium in issue 25.

2010 Edition
In March 2010, ADB Inc. released a new edition of Federation and Empire, the first significant change since the 2000 edition. While the map and various charts are identical to the previous edition, key differences include a new rulebook and all new counter sheets.

The 2010 rulebook includes all previous errata, and addresses new issues discovered in the 10 years since the previous edition. Many rules were updated to better combine with the various expansion products, and to accommodate the expanded counter mix provided by the new counter sheets.

Due to changes in manufacturing, the counter sheets now contain over 2100 counters (as opposed to over 1500 of the previous edition). This allowed the many carrier groups in the game to exist as individual ships instead of multi-ship counters, and the new rules eliminated the special bookkeeping this once required.

ADB plans to convert the Deluxe Edition expansions to the new 2010 rules in the future.

 * ISC War published in June 2011, brings the Interstellar Concordium into the game after a 25-year wait. The game includes the "ISC pacification" scenario at the end of the General War, as well as a scenario on the expansion of the ISC to their borders at the beginning of General War.
 * Minor Empires published in 2017, includes the rules and counters for the Vudar, Lyran Democratic Republic and the Seltorians, as well as several scenarios showcasing these empires.
 * Tactical Operations will be primarily a counters only product with minimal rules and adding ships not currently in the game from previously published Star Fleet Battles products.
 * Civil Wars will cover the Romulan Civil War and the Kzinti War of Return (both from the end of the General War), the Lyran Civil Wars from before the General War, as well as the introduction of WYN and Lyran Democratic Republic to the Federation and Empire system.
 * Fighter Operations was updated again in 2016.

Reviews

 * Adventurer #4 (Oct., 1986)

title: Federation and Empire


text:
Hardangerfjord

The Hardangerfjord (Hardanger Fjord)  is the fifth longest fjord in the world, and the second longest fjord in Norway. It is located in Vestland county in the Hardanger region. The fjord stretches 179 km from the Atlantic Ocean into the mountainous interior of Norway along the Hardangervidda plateau. The innermost point of the fjord reaches the town of Odda.

Location
The Hardangerfjord starts at the Atlantic Ocean about 80 km south of the city of Bergen. Here the fjord heads in a northeasterly direction between the island of Bømlo and the mainland. It passes by the larger islands of Stord, Tysnesøya, and Varaldsøy on the north/west side and the Folgefonna peninsula on the south/east side. Once it is surrounded by the mainland, it begins to branch off into smaller fjords that reach inwards towards the grand Hardangervidda mountain plateau. The longest branch of the Hardangerfjord is Sørfjorden which cuts south about 50 km from the main fjord. Its maximum depth is more than 860 m just outside the village of Norheimsund in the middle of the fjord.

Norway's third largest glacier is found on the Folgefonna peninsula, along of the Hardangerfjord. With its three parts, the Folgefonna glacier covers an area of 220 km2, and in 2005 it became protected as Folgefonna National Park.

The area of the fjord is divided among several municipalities in Vestland county: Bømlo, Eidfjord, Etne, Kvam, Kvinnherad, Stord, Sveio, Tysnes, Ullensvang, Ulvik, and Voss. The total number of inhabitants living in all these municipalities along the fjord is only slightly more than 70,000 - on a total area of 8,471 km2.

History
About 8,000 BC, the Scandinavian land mass started to rise up as enormous glacial ice started to melt. The lower parts of the valleys became flooded, and so created what we today know as the Hardangerfjord. The valley was originally not only made through glacial erosion but by the high pressure melting water which pushed its way beneath the ice.

The history of the fjord goes far beyond its Viking history, back to the time of hunters on the surrounding mountains, and later on, farming along this fertile area which today is considered the "fruit orchard of Norway". Later the fjord became the birthplace for a large tourism influx to Norway, and in 1875 Thomas Cook started weekly cruise departures from London to the Hardangerfjord, due to its spectacular nature, glaciers, and grand waterfalls. Soon after this, many of the major waterfalls became the power source for large industries in fjord settlements such as the town of Odda.

Economy
Hardangerfjord has recently seen an increase in tourism. New infrastructure was built for travelers and the location has once again become an industry for the local communities along the fjord.

The fjord has good conditions for fish farming. Fish farms yearly produce more than 40,000 tons of salmon and rainbow trout which makes the Hardangerfjord one of four major fish farming regions in the world.

Hardangerfjord's melt-water is also bottled at source to form the product Isklar, sold worldwide.

Geography
There are many fjord arms that branch off of the main Hardangerfjord. There are also certain sections of the main fjord that have special names. Below is a list of the sections of the fjord and the arms that branch off them. From west to east:
 * Bømlafjorden (west entrance to the fjord)
 * Børøyfjorden (branches to the north)
 * Stokksundet (branches to the north)
 * Bjøafjorden (branches to the south)
 * Husnesfjorden (around the Husnes area)
 * Onarheimsfjorden (around the Onarheim area)
 * Lukksundet (branches to the north)
 * Kvinnheradsfjorden (around the Rosendal area)
 * Øynefjorden (branches to the north)
 * Sildefjorden (around the island of Varaldsøy)
 * Maurangsfjorden (branches to the east)
 * Hissfjorden (around the Kysnesstranda area)
 * Strandebarmsbukta (bay to the north)
 * Ytre Samlafjorden (around the Norheimsund area)
 * Fyksesundet (branches to the north)
 * Indre Samlafjorden (around the Ålvik area)
 * Utnefjorden (around the Utne area)
 * Granvin Fjord (branches to the north)
 * Sørfjorden (branches to the south)
 * Eid Fjord (around the Eidfjord area)
 * Osa Fjord (branches to the north)
 * Ulvikafjorden (branches off the Osa Fjord to the northwest)
 * Simadal Fjord (branches to the northeast)

title: Hardangerfjord


text: User talk:198.51.174.14

title: User talk:198.51.174.14


text:
Prudential plc

Prudential plc is a British-domiciled multinational insurance company headquartered in London and Hong Kong. It was founded in London in May 1848 to provide loans to professional and working people.

Prudential has dual primary listings on the London Stock Exchange and Hong Kong Stock Exchange, and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. It also has secondary listings on the New York Stock Exchange and Singapore Exchange.

Early history
The company was founded in Hatton Garden in London in May 1848 as The Prudential, Investment, Loan, and Assurance Association and in September 1848 changed its name to The Prudential Mutual Assurance, Investment, and Loan Association, to provide loans to professional and working people. In 1854, the company began selling the relatively new concept of Industrial Branch insurance policies to the working class population for premiums as low as one penny a week through agents acting as door to door salesmen. The army of premium collection agents was for many years identified with the Prudential as the "Man from the Pru". The company moved to its long-time home at Holborn Bars in 1879 and converted to a limited company in 1881. The building was designed by Alfred Waterhouse, and is built of terracotta manufactured by Gibbs and Canning of Tamworth (c.1878): two of the same driving forces behind the Natural History Museum in London.

Late 20th century
The company was first listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1978.

In the mid-1980s, financial deregulation allowed financial institutions to own estate agencies, and Prudential decided to follow early market entrants such as Provident Financial Group plc (Whitegates) and Lloyds Bank (Black Horse Agencies), in summer 1985 by purchasing a long-established and successful Huntingdon-based firm of estate agents, Ekins, Dilley and Handley, for £12 million. This was originally intended as an experiment allowing the company a new route to market for mortgage-linked endowment policies; however after many other financial institutions followed suit, Prudential rapidly started to embark on an acquisition trail which would quickly see it become market leader in terms of number of offices. Acquisitions included Chestertons Residential and Earl & Lawrence in August 1986, Edward Bailey & Son in January 1987, The Channel Island Estate Agency Property Shop in February 1987, and Rogers & Clark in May 1987. This was however done at great cost. Although a typical cost of establishing a new estate agency branch was around £75,000–£100,000, Prudential paid a total of £125 million for 337 of its branches: an average cost per branch of £371,000.

In 1986, Prudential acquired the American insurer Jackson National Life. In the same year, amongst many other acquisitions, Prudential Property Services acquired the fifty-two strong chain of Reeds Rains for £24 million.

The collapse of the housing market in the south of England in 1989 brought about a slump in income at Prudential Property Services, which during the first half of 1990 lost £23 million. Prudential had been closing branches, with 100 closing between December 1988 and May 1990. After these losses were announced, another 175 branches closed in July 1990. In May 1991 Prudential sold the remainder of the chain for a total of £13.5 million, representing a 90% loss on the cost of acquisition. Some branches were purchased by their original owners for fractions of the price they had received from the Prudential just a few years earlier. For example, the Prudential Property Services office in Hanwell was originally an independent agency, purchased by Prudential for £200,000: it was subsequently sold off to Rolfe East Estate Agents for £1. The western division of Prudential Property Services was sold to Scottish Widows to join their Connells Estate Agents chain. The northern division was sold in a £3.4 million management buyout reverting to the name, Reeds Rains, the south east division was sold to become Arun Estates, and Chestertons and another region were sold to the Woolwich Property Services.

In 1997, Prudential acquired Scottish Amicable, a business founded in 1826 in Glasgow as the West of Scotland Life Insurance Company, for £1.75 bn.

In 1998, Prudential set up Egg, an internet bank in the UK. The subsidiary reached 550,000 customers within nine months, but had difficulty achieving profitability. In June 2000, an initial public offering of 21% was made to allow for further growth of the internet business, but in February 2006 Prudential decided to repurchase the 21% share of Egg. Egg was subsequently sold to Citibank in January 2007. In 1999, M&G, a UK fund management company, was acquired. In June 2000, the company was first listed on the New York Stock Exchange to help focus on the US market.

21st century
In February 2002, Churchill bought Prudential's general insurance business.

In October 2004, Prudential launched a new subsidiary, PruHealth, a joint venture with Discovery Holdings of South Africa selling private medical insurance to the UK market. In April 2008, Prudential outsourced its back office functions to Capita: about 3,000 jobs were transferred (1,000 in Stirling, 750 in Reading and 1,250 in Mumbai). This significant outsourcing deal, worth an estimated £722m over a 15-year contract, built on Prudential's existing relationship with Capita, who took over its Belfast operation in 2006 along with about 450 employees in a smaller operational restructure.

On 1 March 2010, Prudential announced that it was in "advanced talks" to purchase the pan-Asian life insurance company of AIG, American International Assurance (AIA) for approximately £23 billion. The deal later collapsed, and AIA ended up raising money in an IPO.

In December 2013, Prudential announced the purchase of Ghana's Express Life Company. Express Life was subsequently rebranded as Prudential Ghana. In April 2014, Prudential launched two corporate responsibility initiatives to support education in Ghana: the Prudential Scholarship Programme for more than 500 senior high school students, in partnership with the NGO Plan Ghana; and a scheme to support actuarial science graduates. In September 2014, Prudential purchased Kenyan life insurer Shield Assurance and rebranded it as Prudential Kenya, further expanding the company's presence in Africa. Prudential has since entered six other African countries – Uganda in 2015, Zambia in 2016, Nigeria in 2017, Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire and Togo in 2019.

On 10 March 2015, it was announced that the CEO, Tidjane Thiam, would leave Prudential to become the next CEO of Credit Suisse. On 1 May 2015, it was announced that Mike Wells, head of the company's US business, would succeed Tidjane Thiam as CEO, on a pay package worth up to £7.5 million.

In August 2017, it was announced that Prudential was to combine its asset manager, M&G, and Prudential UK & Europe to form M&GPrudential.

In November 2017, Prudential announced the change in the name of its joint venture with Chinese investment company CITIC to "CITIC Prudential Life Insurance Company Limited".

In March 2018, Prudential announced that it would demerge M&GPrudential from the Group; the demerger was completed on 21 October 2019.

In 2021, the company demerged its US business leaving it focused solely on African and Asian markets.

As of March 2022, 60 percent of Prudential's of head office staff were based in the Hong Kong and fewer than 200 employees in London.

Operations
The company has two business units:

 * Prudential Corporation Asia: based in Hong Kong, the business is the largest UK life assurer in Asia. It has had a presence in the continent since 1923 when an overseas agency for life assurance was created in India. Although this was subsequently nationalised, Prudential relaunched in India in 2000 as ICICI Prudential, a 26% joint venture with ICICI Bank. As CITIC Prudential Life, a 50–50 joint venture, they were the first UK company to re-establish a life business in mainland China in 2000. There are also businesses in Cambodia, Mainland China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam. Prudential's Asian asset management business, Eastspring Investments, has total funds under management of US$247.8 billion.
 * Since 2014 Prudential has been building a multi-product, multi-distribution business in Africa, with operations now in eight countries across the continent, including Nigeria, Ghana, Togo, Cameroon and over one million customers. Nairobi has been the regional office for Prudential's Africa business since 2021.

Prudential RideLondon
Prudential were the inaugural sponsor of RideLondon, an annual two-day cycling festival, held for the first time in 2013. The 2017 Prudential RideLondon-Surrey 100 set a new fundraising record for the event, with £12.75 million raised for charity, bringing the total raised by the event to more than £53 million in its first five years.

The event was developed by the Mayor of London and his agencies and is organised by the London & Surrey Cycling Partnership. The main events are a 100-mile professional road race through Surrey and London, and an amateur race along the same route. Participants in the amateur race typically raise money for good causes. The 20,709 finishers in the 2014 event raised more than £10 million for charity. Prudential ended its title sponsorship of RideLondon in 2020.

Senior management
Key individuals are:

title: Prudential plc


text:
El train

El train or L Train may refer to:
 * An Elevated railway
 * The Chicago "L", a rapid transit system
 * The Market–Frankford Line in Philadelphia, commonly called "the El"
 * L (New York City Subway service)
 * L Taraval, streetcar route in San Francisco
 * L Line (Los Angeles Metro), a light rail line in Los Angeles County, California

title: El train


text:
User talk:Dalit~enwiki

Hi! Since your new, allow me to explain a few policies regarding the India page.
 * 1) Adding the BSP to the List of political parties — The Congress and the BJP are the two largest parties. If we include the BSP, the SP, SS, TDP etc will all want their names included. We can't have all.
 * 2) The external links pertain to India and the Indian government. The Ambedkar link should be in the Ambedkar page.

I have also moved the Ambedkar intro from this page to your main page User:Dalit as this page is to discuss topics. Have a nice time here! :) ¶ ɳȉčḩåḽṗ | [[User talk:nichalp| ✉ ]] 20:11, Oct 8, 2004 (UTC)

Your account will be renamed
Hello,

The developer team at Wikimedia is making some changes to how accounts work, as part of our on-going efforts to provide new and better tools for our users like cross-wiki notifications. These changes will mean you have the same account name everywhere. This will let us give you new features that will help you edit and discuss better, and allow more flexible user permissions for tools. One of the side-effects of this is that user accounts will now have to be unique across all 900 Wikimedia wikis. See the announcement for more information.

Unfortunately, your account clashes with another account also called Dalit. To make sure that both of you can use all Wikimedia projects in future, we have reserved the name Dalit~enwiki that only you will have. If you like it, you don't have to do anything. If you do not like it, you can pick out a different name. If you think you might own all of the accounts with this name and this message is in error, please visit Special:MergeAccount to check and attach all of your accounts to prevent them from being renamed.

Your account will still work as before, and you will be credited for all your edits made so far, but you will have to use the new account name when you log in.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

Yours, Keegan Peterzell Community Liaison, Wikimedia Foundation 23:17, 19 March 2015 (UTC)

Renamed
 This account has been renamed as part of single-user login finalisation. If you own this account you can |log in using your previous username and password for more information. If you do not like this account's new name, you can choose your own using this form after logging in: . -- Keegan (WMF) (talk) 11:53, 22 April 2015 (UTC)

title: User talk:Dalit~enwiki


text:
BWG

BWG may refer to:

 * BWG, the IATA and FAA LID code for Bowling Green–Warren County Regional Airport, an airport in Bowling Green, Kentucky
 * BWG, the National Rail code for Bowling railway station, West Dunbartonshire, Scotland
 * BWG, the OACI code for Blue Wings, a defunct charter airline based in Germany
 * BWG Foods, an Irish wholesaler and retail grocery franchise operator
 * Bradford West Gwillimbury, a town in Ontario, Canada

title: BWG


text:
Wikipedia:Literature collaboration of the fortnight

Each week a Literature Collaboration of the week will be picked using this page. This is a specific literature-related topic (books, authors etc.) which initially either has no article, has only a basic stub-like page, or is in need of more information. The aim of this project is to improve the quality of Wikipedia's literature-related articles through widespread cooperative editing.

The project is also used to fill gaps in Wikipedia, to give users a focus, and to give us all something to be proud of. Any registered user can nominate an article and can vote for any number of the nominated articles. Every Sunday, the votes are tallied, and the winner will be promoted for a week to potential contributors. If you nominate an existing article, please add to the article talk page.

Previous winners that have gone on to become featured articles can be found at /Features. Previous winners can be found at /History. Removed nominations can be found at /Removed.

Selecting the next Literature Collaboration of the week
The next winner will be selected on Monday, January 11, 12:00 (UTC).

Voting
Please vote for as many of the following candidates as you like. Please add only support votes. Opposing votes will not affect the result, as the winner is simply the one with the most support votes (see Approval voting).

Remember: Any registered user is encouraged to vote.

To enter your votes, simply edit the appropriate sections by just inserting a new line with "# ~". This will add your username and a time stamp in a new numbered list item.

Tie-breakers
In case of a tie, voting will be extended for 24 hours. If there is still a tie, the candidate that was nominated first wins.

Nominations
New nominations can be made at any time and should be added at the end of this page. Please use the provided template.

If the page you are nominating already exists, please add LCOTWcandidate to the top of its talk page.

If the article is selected as the Literature Collaboration of the week, please add IsLCOTW to the top of the article page.

Considerations for nominations

 * Giving reasons as to why an article should become the LCOTW may assist others in casting their vote.
 * Can the wider literature community easily contribute to the article? Or is it something only a small number of people will know about?

Pruning
Nominations will be moved to /Removed if they have not received 2 votes after 14 days on the list, and so on as is fit.

Candidates for next collaboration
Template:

How to read a poem (1)

 * Nominated Feb 28; needs 3 votes by March 6 (minimum 3 votes per week)

Support:
 * 1) Filiocht 12:49, Feb 28, 2005 (UTC)

Comments:
 * Needs much work, new name, etc. See article talk page for more. Filiocht

Burmese Days (2)

 * Nominated March 10; needs 3 votes by March 17 (minimum 3 votes per week)

Support:
 * 1) A.K.A.47 21:34, 10 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Comments:
 * Early book by a great author - which reveals a lot about him, none of which is given credit for by this short article. A.K.A.47 21:34, 10 Mar 2005 (UTC)

List of fairy tales by place of origin (3)
notes: I created the article and used List of fairy tales I have organized many but not all I put the ones I haven't put in their respective table in a table in the talk page please help Support: --Alpha774 23:34, 15 January 2007 (UTC)

Active LCOTWians

 * CGorman
 * Filiocht
 * J OHN C OLLISON | (Ludraman) (cmon guys I'm lonely here!)
 * MacGyverMagic (currently researching nominations.)
 * Danny 16:47, 10 Oct 2004 (UTC)
 * Jmabel | Talk 21:17, Nov 8, 2004 (UTC)]]: not sure I'll be a regular on these, but I'll pitch in when I have something to add.
 * Deepak 16:34, 9 Nov 2004 (UTC)
 * Deb
 * Jwrosenzweig
 * gK ¿? 04:42, 11 Nov 2004 (UTC) I am mostly interested in poetry, and especially Japanese poetry such as haiku and tanka, but will try to help out when I can.
 * Sjc 16:56, 17 Nov 2004 (UTC) - alright I don't read much these days written after the 13th century other than history but I will do what I can :)
 * Litefantastic - Sorta.
 * Awadewit 27 December 2004 - I can help out with British and American literature but will be most useful in the period from 1600 to 1900.


text:
Dates of establishment of diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China

Since its founding in 1949, the People's Republic of China (PRC) has had a diplomatic tug-of-war with its rival in Taiwan, the Republic of China (ROC). Throughout the Cold War, both governments claimed to be the sole legitimate government of all China and allowed countries to recognize either one or the other. Until the 1970s, most Western countries in the Western Bloc recognized the ROC while the Eastern Bloc and Third World countries generally recognized the PRC. This gradually shifted and today only while the PRC is recognized by the United Nations, as well as 181 UN member states (including 18 G20 member states), Cook Islands, Niue and the State of Palestine. Both the ROC and the PRC maintain the requirement of recognizing its view of the One China policy to establish or maintain diplomatic relations.

1949
The PRC was established on 1 October 1949, when the Chinese Civil War was still underway, and the seat of Government of the Republic of China in Canton was not relocated to Taipei until December 1949. All the countries that recognized the new PRC government in 1949 were communist states.

Recognition of the PRC after it was seated at the UN
The Republic of China, which had occupied China's seat at the United Nations since 1945, was effectively expelled on 25 October 1971, through Resolution 2758 approved in the general assembly of said date. Its seat was taken over by the People's Republic of China from 15 November 1971, and the migration of relations to the PRC soon followed among members of the Western Bloc, except for the United Kingdom, France, Canada, Italy and the Scandinavian Countries which had previously established diplomatic relations.