Bruce Lee had only a few films before his untimely death, which obviously robbed cinema of many potential classics as he was in his prime in the years prior to his passing.
But I can’t review films that might have been, and I wasn’t around in the late 60s and early 70s to watch the films he did make at the time they had the most power – so I must review them and comment as I see things now in 2011. I’m sorry if a lower than perfection rating offends anyone who sees Bruce Lee as a cinematic god – but at the same time I wonder if half the guys who rock his many bootleg T shirts are devotees or merely guys who went to Hong Kong once for a few days.
In Fist of Fury Chen (Lee) arrives home in Shanghai after a long absence to find his beloved Master has died unexpectedly after a duel with a Japanese fighter from a rival school. It must be mentioned that at the time the Japanese occupied Shanghai by force and treated the local Chinese as less than dogs – might now be a good time to point out I’m pretty sure Chen eats a dog on a spit in one scene?
Let’s say Chen handles the death of his master… badly. Things are not helped when members of the Japanese martial arts school show at his funeral to stir things up, for the good name of the school no-one reacts to the taunts and the intruders are allowed to leave somewhat victorious.
Good block Tubby.
Only Chen ain’t going out like that, the next day he pays their school a visit and systematically dismantles everyone in attendance, including the old, wise, fat master – who obviously was cast for his acting and can’t fight for shit.
This sleight doesn’t go down well with the Japanese who send a group down to apprehend Chen and end up in an all-in brawl with the Chinese students instead, the Japanese tell the school that they have three days to hand over Chen or they’ll dob on him… “I know you are but what am I” stuff indeed.
So the back and forth goes on for the rest of the film, the Japanese keep taunting and giving demands, the Chinese want nothing to do with things but don’t want Chen to get killed and aside from his pigtailed ladyfriend have no idea where he is, and Chen himself lies low, using a bunch of terrible disguises to infiltrate and get information. He picks off conspirators and those responsible for the death of his Master as the facts are uncovered.
Eventually of course things come to a head and a big showdown is inevitable with Chen vs the entire Japanese school… PLUS a Russian muscleman that they brought in especially for the situation – and so they could have a scene where he bends rubber props made to look like metal.
I think that they also wanted to easily differentiate some of the major bad guys, so they give one heavy a bizzare ginger wig and paint ludicrous sideburns on the Japanese leader to frame an equally fake looking mo. The Russian mercenary too rocks a dangerously bad perm, though that unfortunately might have been real.
It must be said that Fist of Fury gets better as it goes along, the first half is a little slow and the fights dull, uninspired and flat. But as Chen gets angrier and angrier Bruce gets to display more of what made him great, the fights don’t flow as well as some of Jackie Chan’s (who was the stuntman that pulled off the huge fall signifying the end of the film by the way) but they do highlight Lee’s athleticism and magnetism.
Even in the scenes where he is simple seething about and pondering – which are many – you can’t take your eyes off him, his determined jaw and heavy eyebrows make him always seem thoughtful and ready, and there was a fair chance that that was the case.
“This hurts me as much as it hurts you… (though probably less).”
It is unfair to martial arts lovers that Bruce Lee was taken so soon, he could have made another dozen classic films to complete his legacy and redefine an entire cinematic genre (he could also have gotten lazy and fat and busted out easy cash-ins like Adam Sandler has for a decade).
As it stands we’ll have to watch Enter the Dragon over and over – or my preference read biographies or watch docos about the real Bruce Lee, a far more interesting, noble and complex character than any he played onscreen.
Fist of Fury must therefore stand as an intriguing appetiser for a main course that started with Enter the Dragon but was never allowed to finish.
Final Rating – 7.5 / 10. Builds momentum in the second half as Bruce is allowed more room to move, probably my favourite Bruce film after Enter the Dragon.
