La Fureur de vaincre

After seeing Fists Of Fury(a.k.a The Big Boss) on T.V, I was surprised that they showed his next movie The Chinese Connections(a.k.a Fist Of Fury) and I really enjoyed and I still love it, Bruce Lee was amazing, and his martial art skills were terrific, but what really amazed me the most was seeing him beating the s**t out of those japanese people, and fighting that Russian. This is the best movie Bruce Lee has made before starring in Enter The Dragon, and if you're a Bruce Lee fan please watch this movie, you'll love this.

before i start of on the review i just want to ask,"which other essentially non-American movie star (although he was born in San Francisco) is still on TV commercials over 40 years after his last completed film? i just saw 2 commercials on TV on the same day(no less), during major time-slots, one was a major car company and the other was a leading brand soda-pop. the mans legend lives to this day and far beyond, what is it about Bruce lee?

there has been 4 major stars of kung-fu movies that actually studied the martial-arts. Bruce lee, jet-li, Donnie yen, and Vincent zhao. one was even a world champion(jet-li) for a few years. Jackie, sammo, and yuen baio don't count, because they studied peking opera dance and acrobatics. my favorite out of all of them is Bruce lee. mark my words, just like there will never be another James Dean, there will never be another Bruce lee. the mans a legend and he had a total of four completed films, the last one in 1973, after that there were countless imitations. so if you are a true fan of Bruce lee, his last completed film was "enter the dragon" in 1973. he was about to take the world by storm right before his death.

OK, on to the movie...the setting is pre-world war 2 shanghai China, and it is about his masters poisoning death by the hands of the Japanese, while Bruce was away. he comes back for the funeral and is immediately suspicious unlike his other classmates.

the investigation goes deeper, he finds out people from his school were directly involved with the death and the bodies start piling-up from there on. the pacing got a little bit slow during the middle but thats okay, it wasn't just a kung-fu movie, there was serious acting in it too.

it is just the awesome imagery Bruce lee conveys when he is doing his thing...it is like on a visceral level impossible to duplicate. i love kung-fu movies in general but i have to say, there is no one like Bruce Lee...his style was his own and everybody tried to imitate him and everybody failed miserably or it was just meant to be comical. forget about other kung-fu movie stars trying to imitate him..., ever since i can remember(early 1980's)of my childhood in NYC, i would see him on TV, i walk down the street and guys are imitating him, i see t-shirts of him and this is in the United States...i can imagine how crazy it must have been in Hong Kong.

when Bruce lee did his moves they look so real and he was incredibly quick, like a cat and the closest i've seen in speed is jet li. watching Bruce lee beat up bad-guys is like a guilty pleasure that you don't mind.

there is so many classic images from this movie and they are like burned into my mind and i will never forget those images...the initial dojo fight, the ending where the shot ends on a freeze frame and like a hundred other shots in the movie. this movie is bleaker then his other three films, but it was shot beautifully, more so then the other 3 films.

thank you for your 4 completed films and may your legend and myth live on forever!

Chen Chen (Bruce Lee choreographed his own fight scenes) returns to the international compound of China to find his girlfriend (Nora Miao) and old friends , only to learn of his intimate teacher's death . This is compounded by the continual racist harassment by the Japanese population in the area . As he seeks vengeance for the death of his teacher and infiltrates Japanese territory to investigate the strange events . As he sets out to avenge the death of his teacher Huo Yuanjia (Fok Yuen Gap) and at one point during the film, the Chinese Wushu students are called "sick men of Asia" by their rivals . Unlike his friends, he confronts it head on with his mastery of martial arts while investigating his teacher's murder . Chen dispatches numerous thugs and hundreds of Karate experts before a violent slug-fest with Petrov , a baddie Russian (Robert Baker, in the Cantonese and Mandarin versions of the film, his voice is dubbed by 'Bruce Lee') . Chen Chen accepted the challenge of a Russian fighter who called all Chinese people "sick men of Asia" . According to certain historical sources in China , the real-life Chen escaped from Shanghai successfully .

This violent Chop-Socky displays action-packed , thrills , fast-paced and wild fighting images . The international title of this film was "Fist of Fury" , in the United States the English dubbed version was released under the title "The Chinese Connection" to avoid confusion with "Fists of Fury" or ¨The big boss¨ , the title for the U.S. release of Bruce Lee's previous film . Packs violent combats sequences including Karate , Judo, Tae Kwon do , Hapkido and Wushu . Exciting and rousing struggles , though Bruce Lee was doubled in the fight scene between Chen and Yoshida where Chen does a somersault, while Jackie Chan doubled for the villain Suzuki when he is kicked back through the large paper windows . And impressive final fighting , the key fight sequence between Lee and Robert Baker is a mixture of punishing action and dry humor, as at one point Lee bites Baker on his leg to escape an arm lock , plus Lee boxes with Baker, jabbing him repeatedly in the face whilst wearing a cheeky grin! ; the fight comes to a dramatic conclusion as Lee side kicks Baker in the head, knocking him senseless, and then Lee delivers a lethal karate chop to Baker's windpipe, terminating his bigger opponent.

The motion picture was well directed by Lo Wei , because of the movie's racial content and personal disagreements, Bruce Lee quit working with Lo Wei after this movie . Lo Wei also directed the successful ¨Fists of fury¨ and various Jackie Chan vehicles as ¨New fist of fury¨ and ¨Spiritual Kung Fu¨.

This is a top-notch Kung-Fu movie with the unforgettable Bruce Lee . Bruce Lee one of the biggest international hit smashes , ¨Fist of Fury¨ was previously realized to his American box office ¨Enter the dragon¨. This one was made later but released before ¨Lee's Return of dragon¨ with Chuck Norris as contender , and Lee had formerly starred ¨Fists of fury¨ or ¨The big boss¨. ¨Enter the dragon¨ is his last complete movie character but his next film ¨ Game of death¨ was absurdly edited after his death , this Kung-Fu actioner was realized by Robert Clouse , an expert on Chop-Socky movies and he directed Bruce Lee's last film . ¨Fist of fury¨ is indispensable and essential seeing for Lee fans and Karate enthusiastic.

What's not to love about Bruce Lee? Simple answer, nothing. Bruce Lee is the man who made Hong Kong and martial art films the way they are way today. This despite he only be able to do four films.

Set in the early twentieth century in the Japanese section of Shanghai, Fist of Fury tells the story Chen Zhen (Bruce Lee). He returns to the city to marry his fiancé but finds out that his master had died. He questions the official reason about how he was killed and the Japanese Bushidō school seek to close Chen's school. The Japanese plan to arrest Chen, learn the secret of the Fist of Fury and arrest every member of the school. Chen goes on a mission of vengeance, beating up and killing anyone who was involved in the Master's murder. But he has only three days to do it and uses his resourcefulness to avoid being arrested.

The story is skeleton thin, but who cares, it's Bruce Lee. And compared to most previous efforts in Hong Kong, Fist of Fury is pretty much Oscar worthy. Bruce Lee in trying to give Hong Kong films some story, and not just focus on the swordplay. The acting isn't exactly good. Bruce Lee and Nora Miao are the strongest performs. This film's winning feature (and the whole point of watching this type of film) is the martial arts sequence. Bruce Lee is obviously the best at what he does, beating up a lot of people on the way. The camera work is extremely well done, there is no shaky cam or over-editing that is a massive problem in today's cinema. Bruce Lee also uses his nunchakus which is always fun to see. Excellent viewing.

The film also has a couple of themes. There is the themes of vengeance and actions have consequence for everyone involved. There is also a major theme about Chinese and Japanese racism and the hatred the two nations have to each other. It was a nationalistic piece for the Chinese and show that they should be strong against the Japanese. This film was made when memories of World War II was still raw in the collective Chinese conscious.

A film for Bruce Lee fans.

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!