La Nouvelle Fureur de vaincre

Somewhat a sequel (really in-name-only, although there are minor character references and the dangerous title name method gets used without the same affect) to Lo Wei's "Fist of Fury" that starred martial arts legend Bruce Lee, Wei would go on to direct having Jackie Chan on the main mantle, in what is a virtual remake in the political theme of China vs. Japan and certain story plots. Chinese academies fighting to stay alive against Japanese martial arts school. Spirited, but the impact and charisma of Chan just doesn't feel right. A young Chan is quite raw, in a more aggressive and vengeance-filled role. But it's far from a Jackie Chan vehicle, as he doesn't really come into play until midway through due to his character's reckless and carefree attitude that sees him constantly being beaten up. Still there are some outstanding martial art sequences, namely the final long-winded confrontation where it's brutal and bloody (and those nun-chucks get a work out) with an out-of-the-blue payoff that tries to be as iconic as the film it's wanting to be. Pacing can be a little uneven (excluding those kung-fu slow-motion shots), but director Wei keeps the story straight-forward adding enough interest and tension with Chan Sing making a terrific deadly opponent for Chan and Nora Miao is good too.

This is the first film for Jackie as a new Kung-Fu star after the miss of Bruce Lee. Jackie has kept being very popular in Japan since late 70's. When I was a kid,I saw the picture of original Hong Kong made poster of this and dreamed to see this film in the theatre someday -- because this is "part-2" of that Bruce Lee's masterpiece, and the director was Lo-Wei, the same guy who directed original Fist of Fury!!!!...But this one has never shown in Japanese movie theatre at all. Some of Jackie's Kung-Fu films in 70's are so shabby, they are almost garbages (Mostly because of Lo-Wei).But Jackie's Kung-Fu actions in this one is one of the best in his 70's. But if you are Bruce Lee fan and will see this as "Part-2" of his masterpiece "FIST OF FURY", DON'T TOUCH THIS!! Maybe you will be mad and burn this video.

It was a mistake in trying to model Jackie Chan as the new Bruce Lee. There will only be one Bruce Lee. "Golden Harvest" attempted to make Chan's character in "New Fist of Fury" another version of Chen Chen (Lee) from the previous "Fist of Fury" movie. In the above film, Chan is angry, hard-edged and determined but none of that suited him. Jackie Chan needed a chance to develop his own personality and identity in the Asian film community. Eventually, he succeeded as we know. The plot picks up where "Fist of Fury" left off and the narrative here is a rambling mess! I can't be sure but I reckon the DVD I have of this movie is heavily edited. There is poor continuity and the film's depressing tone doesn't help. It is rather obvious that Chan and the school he belongs to, haven't a chance against their Japanese enemies. The film may have a generous dose of location shooting but that doesn't compensate for much. The fight scenes are still pretty good and at least they provide some distraction from the film's weaknesses.

Fairly drawn-out and sometimes frustrating Kung Fu film about the Japanese occupation of Taiwan. This film is not too bad, you just have to make it to the final reel - something that I expect only enthusiasts of this genre will do. So why is it frustrating? Well, Jackie (or Jacky as credited here), does virtually nothing until fellow Chinese literally drag him into a Kung Fu school in the last quarter of the (2 hour) film.

Sure, he has one action scene early in the film, but he succeeds only in getting pounded nicely by two Japanese fighters. A nice motive for him to learn Kung Fu, I thought. But I was wrong. He does nothing about it...

Anyway, this is one of the more coherent Wei Lo films, and the tension builds fairly steadily. The main villain played by Sing Chen is a believable and decidedly confronting and dangerous man - he's great.

The references to Bruce Lee are tastelessly rammed down your throat, but the final fight is great and suitably brutal. It's a good revenge story, with an unusual ending.

After co-starring in Hand of Death, Jackie Chan was forced into an early retirement because of the shift in consumer tastes in movies. The Hong Kong audience was dissatisfied with the action films after the death of Bruce Lee, leaving an ever-widening amount of unemployed stunt-men and bit-players. Since Jackie was one of these casualties he retired to Australia to be with his family. There he did construction in the day and worked in a Chinese restaurant at night. Then he received a telegram from Willie Chan wanting him to work in a new film called New Fist of Fury – a sequel to the beloved Bruce Lee film Fist of Fury. He told him that the movie would be for the newly formed Lo Wei Productions and that the film would be directed by Lo Wei himself. Jackie would receive 3000 Dollars (HK) per month for acting (he would later receive 9000 for being the stunt coordinator.) Little did anyone know that this unknown actor would become a big boon to the industry; though, this would not happen for a while and would not happen (directly) because of this film.

New Fist of Fury is typical of a Lo Wei film, it lacks cohesion and character with an overuse of plot elements. The film starts after the destruction of the Ching Wu School in Shanghai. The remnants of the school, led by the delightful Miss Lee (Nora Miao), are forced to flee to Taiwan to avoid persecution from the Japanese. She will stay with her grandfather Su Onli who is the head of a martial arts school. Unfortunately, the Japanese are ubiquitous in Taiwan too. When her group arrives, they are the target of a thief Helong (Jackie Chan) and his companion Old Chin (Hon Siu). Helong (Ah Lung in some translations) steals a wooden box containing the prize weapon of the late Brother Chen (Bruce Lee in the superior Fist of Fury) – nun-chucks.

Later, after Helong is found in a ditch beaten half-to-death by the students of Chin Ching Kai, he is found by Miss Lee's group and is nursed back to health (with the help of his prostitute mother's money, whom he does not know.) For all of this help and their forgiveness of him stealing their property, he refuses to learn Kung Fu so he can continuously be beaten up. Miss Lee has bigger problems than trying to get Helong to learn Kung Fu – the Japanese occupancy.

Akumora (played by the muscular Chan Sing) is the Japanese provincial leader who wants to combine the Chinese martial art schools under his Di Wah school. There is a great scene with him catching a knife in his teeth and then throwing it from his mouth killing an attacker. It is so hard to take this scene seriously, but it reminded me what Ed Wood might have done if he directed a Kung Fu film. Akumora is an interesting character that starts off semi-decent and then ends up completely anti-Chinese ("I kill Chinese, just like I kill dogs.") This is another annoyance with the film; it is completely ethnocentric with one-dimensional Japanese characters. This annoyance is especially evident when Akumora challenges a staged Kwong Gung, stating that the Japanese heroes are much better than Chinese's heroes. This infuriates Master Su during his 80th birthday celebration and leads to his death (when he jumps over a large crowd of people and apparently has a heart attack.) With the death of Master Su, Miss Lee decides to revive the Ching Wu School. This leads to an obvious clash with the Di Wah School.

One of the biggest problems with this film (yes even worse than the ever-yelling Jen Da So, the kiai spewing daughter of Akumora) is that Jackie is misused and miscast in this film. He constantly gets beat up by both Japanese and Chinese and yet refuses to learn Kung Fu. He does not get a decent fight scene until at least three-fourths of the film is over and yet he obtained his skills in just a few days (it is amazing what anti-Japanese sentiment can make you accomplish). When he does fight, his skills are quite evident. Jackie is very acrobatic and his fight scenes flow well though he is relegated to using actors who are weak in martial arts (with a few exceptions like Han Ying Chieh) and they slow down many of the action scenes.

I am a fan of Jackie Chan (and many of the HK films of this era), but this is not a film that rises above mediocrity. While it is not worse than many films during the 70's it has a few negative attributes that will doggedly follow it -- New Fist of Fury followed one of the most beloved of Bruce Lee films with a weak sequel and misused a future Hong Kong Superstar. Useless Tidbit: look for a small cameo role for Lo Wei where he portrays an inspector.