Fist of Fury (1972)

The Worst Film Ever

Captivating movie !

The acting in this movie is really good.

It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

A young man seeks vengeance for the death of his teacher. Fist of Fury benefits from a strong performance by Bruce Lee who lights up the screen with his humor and his punches, unfortunately that wasn't enough for me to enjoy the film because everyone else around him is either a cartoon character that tries to fight him or just bad actors that don't try that much to act. The fight scenes are impressive, most of the jokes land cause of Lee's persona and every time that he is on screen the movie is alright but when he isn't? It gets over the top, boring and the villains are one note cut outs for example others get drunk or just scream like insane for no reason. Overall Fist of Fury is good when Lee is on screen when he isn't tho? It's not that great or even memorable. (5.5/10)

Fist of Fury (1972) was Bruce Lee's second action/Kung-Fu flick and it launched his career into the stratosphere. The surprising success of The Big Boss gave the fledgling studio Golden Harvest instant cred within the Asian film industry along with making Lee a star. Lo Wei directed and wrote the screenplay but Lee was allowed to direct his own fight scenes, giving them a more fluid and stylized feel to them. This would also be the last film he would make with Lo Wei whom the two would often be at loggerheads with one another.Bruce Lee stars as Chen Zhen, a brilliant Kung Fu student who returns to Shanghai to visit his former teacher who mysteriously passes away before his arrival. This along with a rival Japanese karate school led by Hiroshi Suzuki want to get rid of the bothersome Ching Woo School. But the unhinged Chen Zhen will stop at nothing to find out who murdered/killed his beloved teacher, even if he has to unleash his deadly fist of fury. Be it alive or dead, when it comes to vengeance there will be a price to pay.An awesome movie that is a must see for action film fans. Bruce Lee oozes a physical charisma that has rarely been captured on celluloid. Bruce Lee wanted to make films that appealed to everyone and wanted to break into the Japanese market but this movie wasn't going to allow that due to the subject matter provided by Lo Wei. His next film would be (to date) his biggest success money wise, Way of the Dragon.

Lo Wei's FIST OF FURY is yet another strong, action-fuelled odyssey of danger, treachery, rivalry, and hatred from Bruce Lee, the undisputed king of kung fu cinema who once again gets an opportunity to display the reasons that he is still, even now forty years later, considered to be the best of the best when it comes to martial arts. Drawing on many inspirations, from spaghetti westerns to war films and even romance, the movie satisfies on a number of levels and not least with the violence-fuelled plot which makes ultimate use of the intense hatred of the Japanese by the Chinese (and vice-versa). This time around, Bruce plays a deeply flawed hero who simply cannot control his anger when confronted by a Japanese school who may or may not have had his beloved master killed. In order to satisfy his deep-burning lust for revenge, Bruce goes on a one-man mission of revenge and justice, as the police close in on him and his former comrades lose hope.Lo Wei's movie is well-directed and it goes without saying that the fights are very well choreographed, especially towards the end of the movie. Although the transfer I saw was badly cropped, many of the fight sequences are still highly impressive, showing a more human but no less indestructible side of Bruce. The finale, in which he invades the Japanese camp and takes on a massive Russian fighter, is great stuff and martial arts at its finest.The rest of the film is a mixed bag, containing heavy helpings of social comment, drama and a close examination of the situation in which the helpless characters find themselves. In a way, all of the participants have no control over what they do and so watching the inevitable tragedy play out is often gripping stuff. Although the victim of another bad dubbing job, the often strong acting shines through from the likes of Nora Miao, James Tien, and of course Bruce himself. Thus, both Lee fans and fans of the action genre in general should find much to be enjoyed in this powerful, very human drama which uses the fight scenes as a result of the plot rather than the other way round (as is often the flaw with most cheap kung fu movies). Jet Li's 1994 film FIST OF LEGEND is a very different - but no less impressive - version of the same story.

This, for me has to be the best Bruce Lee film there is. It contains every part of Bruce's dynamism that I don't think is visible in his other films. Based on a true story, Bruce portrays the character Chen Jun, a past student of a school of martial arts at which his sifu (master) has just died. On returning, Bruce does not believe his sifu died of natural causes and after a while discovers the truth, at which point he goes on a killing rampage. For every second that Bruce is on the screen he has an aura which surrounds him that I think gives you an insight into why he is a legend. His performance is unlike any other, not only in this film but in the era also. Scenes to remember for me are; Bruce seeking revenge in the Bushido school, returning the 'sick men' sign. the scenes in which before and after he discovers the real reasons for his sifu's death and the climactic battle with Petrov. I've watched this film again and again and I'm always amazed at Bruce's on screen presence, even now.