Fist of Fury is a martial arts film directed by Lo Wei. The cast were Bruce Lee who portrayed the lead role of Chen Zhen; Nora Miao acted as Yuan Li’er, Chen’s fiancѐe; Riki Hashimoto as Hiroshi Suzuki, the master of the Hongkou doj. Also starring were Robert Baker as Petrov, a Russian gang leader and Suzuki’s friend. This film runs for 103 minutes and was first shown in 1972 in Hongkong and in November 7, 1972 in New York (Wikipedia).
This martial arts film was set in the early twentieth century during the Japanese occupation in this part of China (Shanghai) as depicted by the Japanese insulting and abusing the Chinese in the first part of the movie. Considered as Bruce Lee’s most outstanding films, it is a movie centered on the oppression, injustice and revenge.
The opening of the movie portrayed Lee as Chen Zhen, a student of Chin Woo Martial Arts School, returning to their place in time for his mentors’ funeral. Chen doubted the cause of his masters’ death and later in the movie the hero discovered that his mentor (Huo Yuanjia) was intentionally poisoned by their cook who was Japanese and a spy. It was not clear in the movie why the Japanese killed Mr. Huo because he was not at all depicted as a threat to them; as his childhood friend said he taught his students “to practice martial arts to strengthen the mind and the body and not to conquer.” Director Lo Wei who wrote the story must have relied heavily on the flow of Chinese martial arts movie at that time. In the Fist of Fury, Wei used the killing of
the teacher as the main reason that triggered Chen to seek justice. After defeating the Japanese martial arts students including the student master, Chen was supposed to escape to avoid the rage of Suzuki who threatened Ching Woo School but before his planned escape he found out that Huo was poisoned by their cook. Chen’s revenge resulted in the killing of men from both sides.
Considered as Bruce Lee’s finest films, Fist of Fury depicted the Chinese emotion against racism. In one scene, where Chen was denied access to a park and was instead shown a sign ‘dogs and Chinese are not allowed’ and a Japanese told him to act like a dog to be allowed entry, he responded by beating the man and the Japanese and he destroyed the sign with his mighty fist.
The film was a little racist towards the Japanese but it is understandable as it was filmed some 40 years ago when the oppression done by the Japanese during the early 20th century until the world war was still fresh in the minds of the oppressed. The heroic action of Bruce Lee when he brought down the villains is a fight against oppression.
Chen was able to get back at the villains and avenged the death of his master as he defeated the Japanese mob. Chen surrendered to the authority and was assured of the safety of his school which was his masters’ legacy. The end of the story is a little sad, unlike other movies where the hero was be justified for what he did or at least some would not end in the hero’s death; Chen was killed by guns shots as he made a flying kick towards the arresting policemen.
References
Fist of Fury. Dir. o Wei. Per. Bruce Lee. N.d. Fist of Fury. 21 Oct. 2011. web. 08 Oct. 2011 www.metacafe.com/watch/7548375/bruce_lee_fist_of_fury
“Fist of Fury”. Wikipedia: the Free Encyclopedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Oct. 2014 en.wikipedai.org/wiki/Fist/of/Fury.
