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Fist of Fury
AKA: The Chinese Connection
1972
Director: Lo Wei
Stars: Bruce Lee, Nora Miao
Lee plays a kung fu student whose sifu's death reveals a conspiracy by the local Japanese school to destroy all of the rival Chinese schools. As you might expect, the local cops aren't much help so Lee sets out to take the law into his own hands.
One of the highest regarded martial arts films of all time, Fist of Fury, hasn't aged a well as a fine wine -- it's very slow and the symbolism can get pretty heavy-handed at times. However, Lee's prowess comes through in two spectacular scenes, one where he takes on the Japanese students and the finale against the Japanese sifu. Perhaps not coincidentally, these parts were dircted by Lee himself. It's too bad that they can't outweigh the stink of Lo Wei's directorial mess and lousy compositions. Even if you are a big Bruce Lee fan, do yourself a favor and just skip to the (too few) fight scenes and save yourself some agony.
RATING: 7
Reviews of various DVDs for this movie can be found here
Click here to view my commentary (with more pictures)