The Chinese Connection (Fist of Fury)

(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.