Fist of Fury (1972)

A young man seeks vengence for the death of his teacher.

Director:

Wei Lo

Writer:

Wei Lo (screenplay) (as Lo Wei)

Stars:

Bruce Lee, Nora Miao, James Tien

2 wins & 1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Bruce Lee	...	Chen Zhen
Nora Miao	...	Yuan Le-erh (as Miao Ker Hsiu)
James Tien	...	Fan Chun-hsia
Maria Yi	...	Yen
Robert Baker	...	Petrov
Fu Ching Chen	...	Chao
Shan Chin	...	Tung
Ying-Chieh Han	...	Feng Kwai-sher
Chikara Hashimoto	...	Hiroshi Suzuki (as Riki Hashimoto)
Jun Katsumura	...	Suzuki's bodyguard
Chung-Hsin Huang	...	Tien
Kun Li	...	Hsu (as Quin Lee)
Feng Tien	...	Fan
Ying-Chi Li	...	Li (as Yin Chi Lee)
Tony Liu	...	Chin

Storyline

Returning to Shanghai to marry his fiancée, Chen Zhen (Bruce Lee) a student of renowned martial arts teacher Huo Yuanjia, discovers his sifu has died. During the funeral, members of a local Japanese dojo show up and insult the Chinese students. The bullying continues, with Chen fighting back, but when he discovers the truth - that his teacher was poisoned on the orders of the dojo's master - he sets off on a doomed mission of revenge.

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Plot Keywords:

kung fu classic | chinese versus japanese | imperial japan | hand to hand combat | roundhouse kick | 

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Taglines:

Unstoppable! Unbelievable! Unbeatable!

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Genres:

Action | Drama | Romance | Thriller

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Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

Hong Kong

Language:

Mandarin Cantonese English

Release Date:

9 September 1972 (USA)

Also Known As:

Fist of Fury

Filming Locations:

Hong Kong, China

Box Office

Budget:

$100,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Golden Harvest Company

Technical Specs

Runtime:

106 min 102 min (PAL) 99 min (initial release)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

According to certain historical sources in China, the real-life Chen escaped from Shanghai successfully.

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Goofs

When Bruce's character kills his Russian opponent near the end of the movie he grabs Petrov's hair by the top of his head. When he chops Petrov in the throat he suddenly has his hair from the back.

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Quotes

Chen: Eat. This time you're eating paper. The next time it's going to be glass.

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Alternate Versions

For its original 1972 UK cinema release the BBFC requested a cut to remove a shot of a flying throat kick, though it appeared intact in all early theatrical prints and was possibly waived before release. In 1978 the film was withdrawn by BBFC director James Ferman (together with Enter the Dragon) and all nunchaku footage removed together with the previously mentioned throat kick, and these cuts, (totalling 2 mins 51 secs) would persist in all of the film's UK video releases. The cuts were fully restored for the 2001 Hong Kong Legends release.

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Connections

Featured in Chop Socky: Cinema Hong Kong (2003)

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Soundtracks

Atmospheres
Written by György Ligeti
Performed by Das Orchester des Südwestfunks Baden-Baden
Courtesy of MGM Records
Brief excerpt, played twice, during dramatic death scenes

User Reviews

Lee's most conventional martial arts film, but still classic stuff

The second of the Bruce Lee-starring movies is in terms of plot a lot less interesting than the first. Here, we have the 'student sets out to avenge his master's death' which was already the major storyline of most martial arts films. However, it is handled in a more realistic way then usual and technically it is far superior. Lee was allowed to choreograph his own fights and his battle with Japanese martial artists in their school and climactic duels with a Russian boxer and a Japanese swordsman remains classic fight scenes.

The film drags somewhat in the middle although the lengthy dialogue scene between Lee and his girlfriend was another step forward for the Hong Kong martial arts movie, vivid proof that Lee was a pretty good ACTOR. By contrast, Lee's final farewell to his girlfriend is all the more powerful for being done completely without dialogue at all. The ending is the most powerful and moving of all the Lee films, the final freeze frame managing to encapsulate Lee's grace and power in a single shot.

Many mock Lee's films as being silly and just consisting of fighting. Both accusations are completely untrue. They have far less fights than most films of this kind and, at least in the three Hong Kong films he made, there is a clear message that violence does not solve anything. They may not have the polish of the more recent works of Jackie Chan and Jet Lee but their power remains undiminished, as long as of course one does not watch the awful dubbed versions!