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. Alternative versions 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 was toned down, along with a few seemingly innocuous scenes, including the final one filmed (in a studio in Hong Kong), where Cheng Chao-An (Bruce Lee) and Hsu Chien (James Tien) 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 a cart which is hurled towards them. The only logical explanation for the cutting of this scene was that it was done to increase the pacing of the early part of the film, which placed more emphasis on James Tien than on Bruce Lee. There was a reduction to the gruesome sequence in which the body of cousin Ah Wong is cut apart by the electric saw, and body parts are placed into the ice container. A small edit was made to the dinner party scene, where a drunken Cheng approaches the prostitute Wu Man (played