Tschang Fu - Der Todeshammer

The Hong Kong film industry was becoming invaded by all the Bruce Lee imitators who came along during the latter half of the 70s. Most of the films that resulted, are instantly forgettable. The above movie is barely tolerable. The story is meant to be about the brother of Chen Chen (Bruce Lee) who is out to avenge his brother's death and to destroy the Japanese at the same time. All I can see, is a load of scenes thrown together with no sense of narrative, plus some rather poor attempts at acting and direction. Bruce Li is one of the better Bruce Lee lookalikes. He tends to lack charisma but his fighting skills are OK. In spite of all the film's shortcomings, the martial arts scenes are digestible - just about.......

This continues from where the original movie left off, with the brother of the Bruce Lee character coming in to help save the school Lee had been defending. Though there is at least some connection to the first movie, there is hardly any plot here, with most of the movie consisting of those evil Japanese beating the snot out of the Chinese characters who, except for our hero, are remarkably poor fighters. With our hero being the only capable Chinese fighter, I have to wonder if this appealed to Hong Kong audiences at the time.

If there were some decent fights, this could have been mindless entertainment. Unfortunately, the fights, the sets, the rest of the production values are just like the typical shoddiness found in a typical H.K. movie of the period. Stick to Hong Kong movies from the 80s and 90s.

Here are some updated info's for this excellent movie. Bruce Li should have been as famous as Bruce Lee.. his action sequences are just as amazing and his acting is even better at times. This is a very good semi-sequel to Chinese Connection.. the USA version of fists of fury with Lee was the renamed BIG BOSS..Then Chinese Connection was the renamed Fist of Fury..confused yet? And don't even start with me about Bruce Le...

Technical Details Actors Bruce Li ; Lo Leih ; Ti Fung ; Lee Quinn Director Jimmy Shaw Certificate 18 years and over Year 1976 Languages English - Stereo Duration 1 hour and 34 minutes (approx)

Bruce Li steps into the nunchucks of Bruce Lee in this surprisingly good sequel/rip-off of the late great Dragons best film Fist of Fury.

Bruce Li plays Bruce Lees brother and comes into town to find out why his brother died and kill some more Japanese occupiers.

Although it all falls apart before the end this film manages to be quite entertaining and Lo Lieh is great as the main bad guy.

Many of the original cast return with the exception of Bruce Lee (of course) and Nora Miao (who decided to instead star in the "official" sequel, which also starred a young Jackie Chan, New Fist of Fury) Not a classic at all but a well made film that is quite enjoyable.

The finest slice of Bruceploitaion.

All right, here we have another of the infamous "Bruceploitation" films, with the most popular of the wannabes, Bruce Li. Hey, wait, come back, this is actually a good Bruceploitation movie! But first, we need a minor history lesson...

In 1972, the real Bruce Lee stars in Jing Wu Men/Cheng Mo Mun/Fist of Fury/Chinese Connection (or whatever else you want to call it), and of course, it's a hit. In 1976, three years after Lee's death and four years after Fist of Fury, Lo Wei now decides to look for the "new Bruce Lee" to film New Fist of Fury, and reels in Jackie Chan, or, as he would bill him, "Sing Lung". Seeing as how this was to be an "official" sequel to Fist of Fury in using the same director as well as a couple of veteran cast members (Nora Miao Ker Hsiu and Han Ying Chieh), plus having a star who didn't exactly try to impersonate Bruce Lee for once, you'd think it'd be good. It wasn't. It was overly long, very slow both in pacing and fight scenes, and the ending was one of those endings that feels like the director and writer just thought "uh, we don't have a real ending planned... eh, this'll do". Overall, for being the only official Bruce Lee sequel, it was just boring and no fun whatsoever.

However, around the same time, the Shah Brothers (no not the ShaW Brothers, the ShaH Brothers... big difference) had coined the simple name Fist of Fury Part II before Lo Wei could use it, and decided to make an unofficial sequel. Similar to New Fist of Fury, Fist of Fury Part II brought in a couple of veteran cast members, in this case Tien Feng and Li Kun, both reprising their roles from the previous film. Now, if New Fist of Fury was as bad as it was, you would think this would be worse... it's actually better. The storyline is more coherent in that it directly follows the events from the end of the first film starting with the funeral of Bruce Lee's character Chen Zhen. The story deals with the Japanese ignoring Chen Zhen's final request in that the Japanese were to leave the Jing Wu school in peace, but instead invade the school and occupy it. It is at this time that Chen Zhen's brother, Chen Shen (played by, who else, Bruce Li) pays his respects at his grave site. It is here that a Jing Wu student in hiding tells Chen Shen of the trouble the school is facing and that he must help.

That's pretty much the plot as the film is heavy on action while Lo Wei's "official" New Fist of Fury was lacking in action. The best part is just how much attention was spent in recreating the Jing Wu school to look virtually identical to the set from the Golden Harvest studios. Also, the new villain this time around is Miyamoto played by Lo "Five Figners of Death" Lieh who has a pretty damn good final fight with Bruce Li. Overall, this is the best example of a Bruce Lee sequel and one of Bruce Li's best. There IS a Fist of Fury III that does continue from here following Chen Shen's return home and the continuation of the Japanese occupation... but it's not nearly as good as this one. Also, good luck finding an uncut version of this film as the current US DVD is taken from a British video which cuts out all uses of the nunchucks. Try to find an out of print NTSC video on eBay if you can. Overall, this is worthy of a 6/10. Decent story, above par "Bruceploitation acting", nice set design, and pretty good fights. Worth a look!