In the Claws of the Big Z

Infobox Film
name = In the Claws of the Big Z


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starring = Bore Lee
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country = flagicon|Croatia Croatia
language = Croatian
budget = below 100 USD
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imdb_id = 0409767

"U kandžama velegrada", better known by its English title "In the Claws of the Big Z" (the literal English translation is actually: "In the Claws of the Metropolis" - but the title was slightly altered for the English release), is a Croatian martial arts parody starring Bore Lee.

The plot revolves around Bore Lee, a martial arts expert from Sinj who comes to Zagreb to study yoga only to find trouble in the big city. The duration of the movie is 55 minutes and it is filled with many fights.

The film was shot and cut in October 2003 and was completed in the course of a two week period. The entire budget was below 100 USD (or 90 EUR). By genre and quality, film was classified as trash movie. But, the movie was openly made as trash-movie, without any pretending that it's something more. Because of that openness, film had incredible success, although it was not shown in major and "regular" cinema theaters, but in smaller, "sideshow" theaters.

This film inspired and incited the whole wave of trash-movies in Croatia and neighbourhood, giving the new sense, creativity and life to that genre. Authors all over the country gave freedom to their movie ideas, however silly they seemed. This has resulted in starting of Trash Film Festival [http://festival.trash.hr/] in Croatian city of Varaždin, which is regularly featured in "Revue of amateur movies" in Zagreb.

Also, with this movie, Bore Lee, became famous all over Croatia, and very soon, in neighbouring countries (a year later, Bore Lee was invited in Montenegro, where he also made his movie, "Golden Sticks").

So, the film featured some prominent Croatian celebrities, as well as plenty of pop culture references and healthy humour (although film tries to be serious). As a result, it soon became one of the most popular films in recent Croatian history. In later movies, Bore Lee attracted more Croatian celebrities.

Its DVD edition features the very first audio commentary in Croatian language, provided by three of its directors. Also, it was shown at many film festivals around the world.

Although this was a trash-movie, the DVD of this movie the most sold DVD among all Croatian movies in Croatia. [http://www.regionalni.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=104&Itemid=30] , [http://www.tportal.hr/servlet/infocalredir?suffix=/objects/Box/2004/09/28/0835002.524.html&selector=200305090365018&day=04&month=02&year=2006] .

In 2005, its sequel "" was released.

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