Very disappointing...

To me, this movie is perfection.

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

"Fist of Fury" is an improvement over Bruce Lee's previous movie, technically speaking and the story is stronger. Above all, the martial arts choreography is simply superb and represents the best of its kind. The violence is brutal and unpretentious. There is some history associated with this film, focusing on the hatred between the Chinese and the Japanese races. That is the reason why the plot is better than usual. Bruce Lee plays the avenging student of a local Chinese school who seeks revenge for the murder of his teacher. He soon runs afoul of this Japanese school - or should that be the other way round? Soon, all hell breaks loose as Lee exerts his own brand of justice - in Kung Fu style! There is added tension in the story, courtesy of the Chinese citizens being under the control of the Japanese. Bruce Lee is a more hard-edged character in this film. He displays almost no humour or charm and is strictly business. He dispatches his enemies without a second thought and without conscience. His anger and grief surface on more than occasion and in spectacular fashion. The fight scenes are amongst the best I've ever seen in a martial arts movie and I have watched a lot of them. Real life student of Bruce Lee - American Bob Baker - is on hand as a Russian martial artist. His fight against Lee is not to be missed. For the first time, we bear witness to the use of the nunchukus. In the hands of Lee, they are an exceptionally dangerous weapon. At the beginning when Lee first enters the Japanese school, he says the line: We Chinese are NOT sick men," the cinemagoers went wild with applause during the film's release in 1972. The Chinese people immediately regarded Bruce Lee as their hero and who can blame them? "Fist of Fury" proved to be so successful at the Asian box office after breaking all records, that two different sequels were made. In my opinion, neither one of them can match the original.

When Chen, a martial arts student, returns to Shanghai he is distraught to learn that his master has died. To make matters worse a group from a rival Japanese martial arts school turn up and insult them shortly afterwards. He wants to fight them but the school's new leader forbids it. Later he goes to the Japanese school and invites their students to fight him; he inevitably wins. The Japanese won't let it rest here and attack the Chinese school demanding that they hand Chen over; they are in part of Shanghai controlled by the Japanese so know he will almost certainly be killed. Shortly afterwards Chen learns that the Japanese were responsible for his master's death and soon he is taking his revenge.Fans of martial arts films will surely want to watch this Bruce Lee classic. The story is fairly simple but it provides a good excuse for some bone crunching action. Bruce Lee brings an animalistic intensity to the role of Chen; it is hard not to believe the character's rage. The fight scenes are particularly intense. There are some aspects of the story that one might not expect; most notably Chen's actions don't really help anybody; he gets his revenge but makes things worse for his school. The film does assume the viewer has some awareness of early twentieth century Chinese history when areas of Shanghai were controlled by different foreign powers, including the Japanese, and the local Chinese population were treated as second class citizens… if one doesn't know about this it doesn't spoil the film though. As said before Bruce Lee is great in the lead role; the rest of the cast is pretty impressive too. Overall a must see for martial arts fans.These comments are based on watching the film in Cantonese with English subtitles.

Fist of Fury (1972) was Bruce Lee's second action/Kung-Fu flick and it launched his career into the stratosphere. The surprising success of The Big Boss gave the fledgling studio Golden Harvest instant cred within the Asian film industry along with making Lee a star. Lo Wei directed and wrote the screenplay but Lee was allowed to direct his own fight scenes, giving them a more fluid and stylized feel to them. This would also be the last film he would make with Lo Wei whom the two would often be at loggerheads with one another.Bruce Lee stars as Chen Zhen, a brilliant Kung Fu student who returns to Shanghai to visit his former teacher who mysteriously passes away before his arrival. This along with a rival Japanese karate school led by Hiroshi Suzuki want to get rid of the bothersome Ching Woo School. But the unhinged Chen Zhen will stop at nothing to find out who murdered/killed his beloved teacher, even if he has to unleash his deadly fist of fury. Be it alive or dead, when it comes to vengeance there will be a price to pay.An awesome movie that is a must see for action film fans. Bruce Lee oozes a physical charisma that has rarely been captured on celluloid. Bruce Lee wanted to make films that appealed to everyone and wanted to break into the Japanese market but this movie wasn't going to allow that due to the subject matter provided by Lo Wei. His next film would be (to date) his biggest success money wise, Way of the Dragon.

*Spoiler Alert!* OK. I won't lie. I liked Fist Of Fury. I really did.Well, that is - I liked the wild, over-the-top fight scenes that were, at times, a literal frenzied roller-coaster ride of grunting, groaning, snapping, leaping, screaming bodies flying this way and that.Yep. Bruce Lee (with his perfect coordination and his precision timing) really did a mighty fine job of royally kicking some serious ass.And, in the lull between all of the Kung Fu action, I also liked the priceless "Geisha-Girl" striptease. (nudge-nudge-wink-wink) Now, that was a hoot-and-a-half! And, I also got a really big kick (pardon the pun) at the moment when Bruce Lee's character who (not being able to put his opponent down with any of his deadly kicks or chops) actually resorted to (get this!) sinking his teeth into this fierce, unstoppable brute's foot. (I ain't kidding!) Believe me, from where I was sitting, this was a sheer delight to watch. This sort of conduct from Bruce was a real slice of pure slapstick comedy, straight out of an episode from The Three Stooges.This film also contained a helluva lot of outright prejudice and antagonism towards the Japanese. I certainly won't go into any great detail about it here - But, I will say that the Japanese were all depicted as being a truly despicable bunch of pseudo-Nazi types.When it came to this picture's overall action sequences and the wonderful choreographing of its fight scenes, I was really quite surprised when I came to realize just how often these very scenes have been lifted and blatantly used, over and over again, in such films as The Matrix Reloaded, Kill Bill, and other such films.Anyways - In spite of all the wooden performances, the laughable dialog, and the terrible dubbing that prevailed, it was undeniably Bruce Lee, the ultimate master of martial arts, who shone magnificently throughout this very film that literally started the whole Kung Fu movie-craze over 40 years ago.