(Fist of Fury is
the real Chinese title but I always knew it as The Chinese Connection (a cheap trick to bank off of The French Connection) so that’s what I’m
going with)
Now this is some classic Bruce fuckin’ Lee. There are so many things I don’t understand
about the plot but it doesn’t matter because the martial arting is superb.
Bruce gets back from…somewhere far away…and finds his
martial arts teacher and mentor dead. The
narrator tells us that he was poisoned but it’s unclear if the protagonists actually
know that or not. Either way Bruce is
real torn up about it and has a sneaking suspicion that this Japanese martial
arts school did it because the Japanese come over, make fun of them and start
to taunt the Chinese students ‘n shit. But
Bruce isn’t gonna take this lying down so he goes over to the Japanese school
and kicks the shit outta these guys. From
there on it’s tit for tat with the Japanese and Bruce going back and forth
retaliating.
I love the simplicity of this film. The good guys are honorable because they don’t
want to cause trouble and are innocent minded.
And the bad guys are evil…just because.
They think they’re a superior race which comes up a bunch of times but
why they target this particular Chinese school and this specific teacher is
left unexplained. These guys are obsessed
with closing it down. I don’t get it,
but the bad guys are just so determined and they seem to enjoy being scumbags
that I’m on board with it. You gotta
find happiness in life and for the Japanese in this film that means fuckin’ up
the Chinese and pushing them around.
Of course the shining star in all of this is Bruce
himself. His performance is improved
over The Big Boss (aka Fists of Fury) but at the same time it’s
a little one dimensional. I think there’s
maybe like two scenes where he’s not fucking angry as a motherfucker in this
thing. His rage is unbridled and he
beats the shit out of anyone that stands in his way. At first it’s really awesome but after a
while his constant brooding and revenge fueled motivation becomes a little
disturbing. Bruce doesn’t just punch and
kick people after a while, he starts murdering dudes. He doesn’t give a fuck, he’s gonna find the
asshole that offed his teacher and then kick him through a goddamn wall.
The only real complaint I have about this film is the pacing
gets off track. The first third is
totally incredible with plenty of fighting, confrontation, evil plotting, oppression,
racism, discovery, etc. The second third
slows down a little too much. The police
are called in to investigate a couple of guys that Bruce killed, Bruce goes
undercover to try and find out who killed his teacher and the other good guys
from the Chinese school constantly ask each other what they’re going to do
about their situation. There are some
neat things thrown in like a badass strength demonstration from the wringer
that the Japanese bring in, some more evil plotting and a goofy bad guy party
with a stripper and drinking. So it’s
not a complete lull but the last third gets back to being fucking great with
pretty much nonstop fighting. So in the
grand scheme of things that middle third isn’t a big deal but definitely noticeable.
If you’re gonna see one Bruce Lee picture I guess Enter the Dragon would be it, but if you’re
hungry for more you can’t go wrong with this one. Although, I think the original title could be
a little more accurate. Both fists seemed
pretty furious in my opinion and not just one of ‘em.
Hi there,
ReplyDeleteNice review! I disagree with you regarding the second third though. Fist of fury is not just about sending kicks and throwing punches. It's about, pride, love, respect and there is even a hint oh humor (Bruce Lee dressed up as the electricity guy, lol).
Anyway, +1 for your conclusion, definitely a must-see.
Thanks for the comment. I guess I came off like I'm against downtime in action pictures but I'm totally not. For Fist of Fury it's not even really much of a problem. It's just a very small gripe in this otherwise classic.
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