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Fist of Fury began Bruce Lee’s sub-franchise which later had Jackie Chan and Jet Li playing the role of Chen Zhen, but that is a story for another day. Fist of Fury is the second film that the martial arts legend starred in, and it was a spectacle, in case you don’t know. The Chinese eventually did a version of the movie Shangqi, and yes, it got even better. Primarily, it was Lee’s introduction to the WESTERN world, and dude did it take off.
The plot of Fist of Fury is pretty simple, to be honest. It begins with Chen Zhen (Bruce Lee) and a gym master who seems to have died under mysterious conditions. While some argue it’s a natural death, Lee’s character stalks the truth. Now we know that the Japanese were up to some, but the real question is what did Bruce Lee do next?
The movies of Lee are amusing, to say the least. And on top of that, the extraordinary stunt work is always so much better than expected. Along with all these things, he also happens to have a very gregarious personality. You will find a lot of things that will make you chuckle such as Bruce Lee’s laughter when a small Japanese man dared to challenge him, and Bruce Lee dressing up as a telephone repairman.
Did you know that in 2021, Fist of Fury was the first movie ever dubbed into the Australian Noongar language? It goes to show the movie’s impact throughout history.
The fight scenes are amazing we all know that. Lee definitely does. They are long and at times, do feel tedious, but they never let you lose interest in the movie. The film in question came out in 1972 in Hong Kong. Its editing and audio quality were not the best and the version people watched was overdubbed in English. Still, it’s hard to deny how much the above factors do not impact the quality of the movie.
The plot of Fist of Fury is as interesting as the above factors. There are several gasp-inducing plot twists in the movie. One example is when Bruce Lee lifts up an entire carriage. We all know he is being assisted by wires but still, suspension of disbelief is required as in a lot of other films.
The sensei of the dojo is out of shape. Now that’s a stretch for me. He does not look the part. I find it also a stretch to believe he could actually reach Lee and inflict some damage upon him because he is so clearly slower and not nearly as trained as Lee is.
There is the incredibly misplaced sequence with the Geisha girl who is a dancing girl. The Japanese look eager to entertain the new Russian fighter that Lee will be going up against and she is performing a dance and seems to be getting undressed. It is not that I am against the Geisha dance, but it seems totally disconnected to the rest of the movie.
Bruce Lee’s teachings live on, long after he has left us. In Fist of Fury, we are provided brutal lessons on undying revenge, unyielding injustice, and the most evil path that follows the two.
We notice that Chen Zhen seems to process grief differently from his Chinese peers. This grief and anger propels him to hunt the Japanese down which leads to a killing spree, a very dark path for a martial artist. Lee does well to showcase this growing fury within him as the movie progresses. From his initial passive aggression to letting out all of his rage and direly murdering everyone who gets in his way to the extent of stabbing someone.
The movie is quite informative when it comes to pro-China perspectives. The Japanese seem to be dehumanized as savages who racially insult Chen Zhen by calling him a pet dog. Wu, the Japanese interpreter, even goes as far as saying, “The Chinese are a race of weaklings, no comparison to us Japanese.” The film depicts the bold injustices inflicted on Chen Zhen and how they should and shouldn’t be handled.
In the end, it all comes down to the moral equation of right versus wrong. While Bruce Lee’s character believed that he and his master had been wronged by the Japanese, one must face the music. Zhen has appointed the police to the gym, he then hands himself for all the murders that he has committed. He is practically a serial killer at this stage. While the ending suggests that he dies, we know that Chen Zhen’s legacy lives on in New Fist of Fury indirectly.
Fist of Fury is fantastic for a martial arts movie made in 1972, The choreography which was completed by Bruce Lee in his parts, was and still is astonishing. The storyline, while a little over the top from the anti-Japanese point of view, is not all that bad after all.
The only thing I don’t like about this film is the all too blatant pro-Chinese and anti-Japanese agenda that gets shoved in the nostrils of the audience. Lee had his reservations towards this as well, refusing to collaborate with director Lo Wei after this instance. As Jackie Chan, who did some stunt work for the movie, explains, he even fought with him and Lo Wei had to take cover behind his wife’s back when Lee charged towards him, making his wife calm Bruce Lee down.
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