Fist of Fury (1972)

Fist of Fury[a] is a 1972 Hong Kong action martial arts film written and directed by Lo Wei, produced by Raymond Chow, and starring Bruce Lee in his second major role after The Big Boss (1971). Lee, who was also the film’s action choreographer, plays Chen Zhen, a student of Huo Yuanjia, who fights to defend the honor of the Chinese in the face of foreign aggression, and to bring to justice those responsible for his master’s death. The film was produced by the Orange Sky Golden Harvest film production company, still in its infancy at the time, and it was Lee’s second kung fu film. The film touched on sensitive issues surrounding Japanese colonialism, and featured fairly realistic fight choreography for its time. It differs from other films in the genre for its historical and social references, especially to Japanese imperialism. The film grossed an estimated US$100 million worldwide (equivalent to over $600 million adjusted for inflation), against a budget of $100,000. It was the highest-grossing Hong Kong film up until Lee’s The Way of the Dragon (1972).

Plot.

Set in late Summer 1910 Shanghai, Chen Zhen returns to Jingwu School to marry his fiancée Yuan Li’er. However, he learns that his master Huo Yuanjia has died, apparently from illness, which devastates Chen. During the funeral, people from a Japanese dojo in Hongkou District arrive to taunt the Jingwu students. Wu En, translator and advisor for the Japanese dojo’s grandmaster Hiroshi Suzuki, taunts Chen by slapping him on the cheek several times, and dares him to fight one of Suzuki’s protégés. They present a sign to Jingwu School, bearing the words “Sick Man of East Asia”, seemingly to insult Huo Yuanjia, describing the Chinese as “weaklings” in comparison to the Japanese. The protégé taunts the Jingwu students to fight him and promises, “I’ll eat those words if any Chinese here dare to fight and defeat me”. Chen Zhen wants to retaliate, but is prevented from doing so by Fan Junxia, the most senior student in the school. Shortly afterwards, Chen Zhen goes to the Hongkou dojo alone to return the sign. He winds up fighting the Japanese students, defeating all of them, including their sensei, single-handedly.

He smashes the glass on the sign and makes the students who taunted him earlier chew up the paper bearing the derogatory words, so as to make them literally “eat their words”. Later, Chen takes a stroll to a park. A Sikh guard refuses him entry, due to a posted sign that forbids dogs and Chinese in the park. After the guard allows a foreigner to bring her pet dog into the park, a Japanese man approaches Chen and tells him that if he behaves like a dog, he will be allowed to go in. Chen beats up the man and his friends in anger. After the fight, Chen breaks the sign. The guard blows his whistle to alert the police, but the citizens who watched the whole fight help Chen to escape the park. The Japanese students and their master retaliate by attacking Jingwu School on Suzuki’s orders. After causing severe damage, the Japanese students leave. Wu, accompanying the Japanese students, warns Jingwu School to hand over Chen. Chen returns and realises that he has caused big trouble. His fellow students refuse to hand him over to the Japanese, so they make plans to help him escape from Shanghai.

The Way of the Dragon (1972) Biography, Plot, Box office, Reception and legacy, Fight.

Production.

Jackie Chan appeared in Fist of Fury, both as an extra and as a stunt double for the Japanese villain Hiroshi Suzuki (portrayed by Riki Hashimoto), particularly during the final fight scene where Lee kicks him and he flies through the air. Lee was not a fan of the director or his direction. According to Jackie Chan, he saw Lo Wei and Bruce Lee get into a verbal altercation that nearly escalated to a physical altercation. Lo Wei then hid behind his wife who was then able to calm Lee down.

Title.

Fist of Fury was accidentally released in the U.S. under the title The Chinese Connection. That title was a means of tapping the popularity of another film, The French Connection (starring Gene Hackman), released in the U.S. in 1971. That title was intended to be used for the U.S. release of another Bruce Lee film, The Big Boss, which also involved drug smuggling. However, the U.S. titles for Fist of Fury and The Big Boss were accidentally switched, resulting in Fist of Fury being released in the U.S. under the title The Chinese Connection until 2005, while The Big Boss was released as Fists of Fury. Recent television screenings and the current official DVD release (by 20th Century Fox, originally available in The Bruce Lee Ultimate Collection box set) in the U.S. have restored the original titles of all the films starring Bruce Lee. Fist of Fury is now officially known as Fist of Fury in the U.S.. The current DVD version also has a subtitle that reads “A.K.A. The Chinese Connection” when the Fist of Fury title appears on screen, as the source material is the Fortune Star digital remasters.

Release, Home media.

The film was released on 22 March 1972 in Hong Kong by Golden Harvest, and first released in the United States on 7 November 1972 in New York[citation needed] before Lee’s first major film, The Big Boss, was released there. The film was originally distributed in the U.S. by National General Pictures beginning in 1973, shortly before the release of Enter the Dragon. Columbia Pictures acquired the U.S. distribution rights to the film, after the demise of National General Pictures, in 1980 and re-released it, along with The Big Boss, as a studio-sanctioned double feature with the tagline “What’s better than a Bruce Lee movie? Two Bruce Lee Movies!” In Japan, the film was released on 20 July 1974. Several scenes in the Japanese version were censored due to Raymond Chow’s concerns over how the film’s anti-Japanese sentiments would be received by Japanese audiences. In the United Kingdom, the film was watched by 600,000 viewers on Channel 5 in 2009, making it the year’s most-watched foreign-language film on Channel 5.

Box office.

Upon its Hong Kong release, Fist of Fury grossed HK$4,431,423, beating the previous box office record set by Lee’s The Big Boss in the previous year. During its initial run, it grossed more than US$5 million in Southeast Asia and US$15,000,000 (equivalent to $97,000,000 in 2021) across Asia. In the United States and Canada, the film topped the box office in June 1973, and earned US$3.4 million in distributor rentals by the end of 1973, equivalent to an estimated box office gross revenue of approximately $12,000,000 (equivalent to $73,000,000 in 2021). Upon its July 1973 release in South Korea, the film sold 317,780 tickets in the capital city of Seoul. The film was also a success in the United Kingdom, where it released on 19 July 1973, a day before Lee’s death. In France, it became the 12th highest-grossing film of 1974 (below two other Lee films in the top ten, Enter the Dragon and Way of the Dragon), with 3,013,676 ticket sales. In Spain, the film sold 2,034,752 tickets.

The Big Boss (1971) Biography, Plot, Filming, Box office, Trailer.

In Japan, despite the film’s negative portrayal of Japanese villains, the film went on to be a surprise blockbuster in the country. Most Japanese audiences did not identify with the Japanese villains who they perceived as “unreal” and “stupid” but instead identified with Lee’s “Chinese warrior” spirit which reminded them of the bushido spirit depicted in older Samurai cinema. Fist of Fury became the year’s seventh highest-grossing film in Japan, with ¥600,000,000 (equivalent to ¥1,300,000,000 in 2019) in distributor rental earnings. Against a tight budget of $100,000, the film went on to gross an estimated US$100 million worldwide (equivalent to approximately $650 million adjusted for inflation), earning 1,000 times its budget. It was the highest-grossing Hong Kong film up until Lee’s The Way of the Dragon (1972).

Cast:

Bruce Lee as Chen Zhen
Nora Miao as Yuan Li’er
Riki Hashimoto as Hiroshi Suzuki
Robert Baker as Petrov
Tien Feng as Fan Junxia
Paul Wei as Wu En, Suzuki’s translator
Fung Ngai as Yoshida
Lo Wei as Inspector Lo, the police inspector
Huang Tsung-hsing as Tian, the cook in Jing Wu School
Han Ying-chieh as Feng Guishi
James Tien as Fan Jiaqi
Maria Yi as Yen, a female Jing Wu student
Jun Katsumura as Suzuki’s bodyguard
Lee Kwan as Xu, the third eldest student in Jing Wu
Jackie Chan as a Jing Wu Student (Special Appearance)
Corey Yuen as a Suzuki’s Student.

Fist of Fury (1972) Biography, Plot, Home media, Box office, Scene.