Fist of Fury

Starring: Bruce Lee, Nora Miao, James Tien, Maria Yi, Robert Baker
Directed by: Wei Lo
Rating: R
Genre: Action, Drama
1972

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: When his beloved teacher is murdered, a student (Bruce Lee) seeks vengeance.

Review:
Tim: It bothers me when a film is known by different names. It makes everything confusing. I've decided to go with the original Chinese name, Fist of Fury for a film that was commonly known as The Chinese Connection in the United States. I've got a number of reasons for doing this, but it makes the whole thing frustrating and confusing. Anyway, the movie itself is a fairly good Bruce Lee film. It's no where near his best film, and it's better than his worst. It lives in that middle territory.

The story is a fairly straightforward vengeance tale. Lee's teacher is murdered by a rival martial arts school, and he is determined to get revenge. The story is simple, but there are interesting elements that made it worth watching. For example, I liked the few times the film explored the uncomfortable dynamic between Chinese and Japanese. Lee's school is made up of Chinese citizens, the murderous rivals are Japanese. The dynamic between these two isn't something you see very often American films. We have our own difficult racial past (and many would argue, present) to deal with. Exploring the relationship between these two cultures was interesting and elevated this film above your average revenge tale.

As expected, the real star of the movie is Bruce Lee. No one even comes close. The version I watched featured an absolutely abysmal dubbing job. It took a lot of effort to look past that. When I was able, I was impressed with Lee's performance. Yes, it occasionally veers into the melodramatic, but he had some really strong emotional moments as well. This film gave him significantly more opportunity to showcase his acting ability than Big Boss, for instance. While Lee's acting is good, no one watches these movies to see him emote. We watch it to see him put on a stunning martial arts performance. And boy, do we get opportunities to see that. One of the highlights has to be when Lee infiltrates the rival school and basically beats up the entire student body. They have him surrounded, but one by one, he takes them out. Seeing him use the nunchucks was brutal (and extremely cool). Lee does a lot of fighting in this film, and as always, I was transfixed by his ability. There truly was never anyone like him, and I doubt there ever will be again. I've seen incredible martial artists on the celluloid, but I have never seen anyone move like Bruce Lee. This film is yet another reminder of how tragic his death was for movie fans everyone. In addition to the personal tragedy, it makes you lament what wonders we would have seen on screen had he lived.

Now, while there is a great deal to like here, the film is very flawed. The dubbing job is atrocious. Even beyond that, the directing was about average. The script has a number of flaws, including the middle of the film that just slows down way too much. The scenes where Lee disappears and is hiding from his friends and enemies just felt like it dragged on and on. I'm not suggesting the 107 minute run time should have been cut, but we needed some more compelling scenes in the soggy middle. I kept wishing they would stop wasting time and set up the final confrontation. It was so obvious and predictable, yet we had to wait and wait to finally get there. In addition, there were dozens of moments throughout the film where a better director would have been able to create real tension, emotion, and suspense. Those opportunities were not capitalized upon.

While Fist of Fury is better than Big Boss, it's no where close to the awesomeness of Enter the Dragon. It's a good movie, but it has serious flaws. Despite the weaknesses, it still makes you wish Lee's filmography was bigger. Still, this movie is yet another reminder of the indelible image that Lee managed to impress on audiences in only a very few number of films.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 7



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend:
Big Boss, Enter the Dragon