Bruce Lee: Fist of Fury (Jing wu men) (1972) Movie Review, Trailer, Film Still and Poster

Hong Kong 1972
Director: Wei Lo
Cast: Bruce Lee, Maria Yi, James Tien, Riki Hashimoto, Nora Miao, Jackie Chan
Rating: R
Language: Mandarin
Release Date: 22 March 1972
Running Time: 1 hour 47 minutes

The Movie Review

Bruce Lee: Fist of Fury film still 1


BRUCE LEE: FIST of FURY ( Jing wu men )
Storyline:
Cast:
Ending:
Overall:

In 1971, the name of Bruce Lee had become famously known Asian-wide, with his first major film The Big Boss. And what a pace Bruce Lee had for 5 months after, exactly on March 1972, another legendary movie of Lee's was released. And what a proof of high expectation the audiences were having for Fist of Fury was the one whose gross revenue could actually beat The Big Boss. While The Big Boss (1971) itself, had already the record of setting the highest gross revenue Hong Kong movie up until that year.

Fist of Fury is inspired by the real death of Martial Artist in Shanghai named Huo Yuanjia. Lo Wei was back to direct Fist of Fury and apparently Lo Wei also brought back some actors from The Big Boss, such as James Tien, Tony Liu, Nora Miao and Maria Yi. Fist of Fury was well known in the United States as "The Chinese Connection" or in its Chinese title "Jing wu men". Don't get confused though with "FistS of Fury" which is the U.S. title for "The Big Boss (1971)".

Bruce Lee now stars as Chen Zhen, one of many students of Huo Yuanjia. Chen Zhen arrives home just to find his teacher is already being buried. Chen and his other fellow students of Huo's Chinese Martial Arts school realize completely that their teacher was actually murdered and the strongest suspect is none other than Mr. Suzuki (Riki Hashimoto) from the Japanese Dojo. But since the Japanese has strong political influence in Shanghai and the police can't do much about it, Chen Zhen decides to take matters into his own hands. Especially after some of Suzuki's students deliberately insult Chen and his friends and the Chinese in general.

Fist of Fury, which produced in the same year as The Big Boss has more intricacy in its storyline. Particularly in the drama department which is being taken care of more seriously, with more dramatic dialogue that even clashes with politic. There are more duel scenes but less one-against-many scene. However there's less blood and violence than in The Big Boss, and somehow lessen the tension a bit. There is not much improvement to acting quality of the cast, but then again it's one thing that I'm willing to overlook and that's not much of a matter in this Kung Fu film.

Bruce Lee's fighting choreography is a delicacy from the past. All fighting scenes are perfectly can be done by a normal fighter, and not being exaggerated as in modern Hong Kong Kung Fu movies. Thus, everything looks real and exciting, with Lee's martial art prowess and his trademark of fighting taunt and shout, it's always nice to see Lee punches and kicks his opponents.

Fist of Fury has coined several notable memorable scenes, which I actually have read some of them in Hong Kong comic series. First of all it's the theme, the Shanghai warriors versus the Japanese, then the hanging villains on the lamp post, and ultimately the flying kick scene where Lee breaks a mocking signboard up in the air. And last but not least, you could see how young Jackie Chan is being beaten up by Lee, although he performs only as a stuntman for Mr. Suzuki.

All in all, with Fist of Fury, Lo Wei and Bruce Lee have once again delivered one great action movie, and fulfilled the hope of the fans and the Lee's future fans.

Jing wu men movie screenshot 2