Thursday, March 09, 2006
Fist of Fury (1971)
Stars: Bruce Lee, Nora Miao, James Tien
Director: Lo Wei
Before the uncut versions were finally released on DVD, Bruce Lee fanatics spent dozens of frustrating years trying to find proper cuts of his movies on VHS. Most copies of The Big Boss, Way of the Dragon and even Enter The Dragon were cut severely – in some cases to get them under an R-rating, in others it just seemed to be for the hell of it. Fist of Fury suffered the least in this respect, but it’s nice to have it on DVD all the same.
Acquiring a knowledge of Chinese history will help you appreciate this movie, which more or less sees Bruce taking revenge on those nasty, oppressive Japanese. As with most of his work, storyline doesn’t play a terribly big part and the English voice they chose to dub over him is totally inappropriate, but Lee’s charisma and unmatched kung fu techniques comfortably overcome adversity. This movie features the famous fight scene where Lee takes on an entire Japanese karate dojo – a piece of choreography that would be copied again and again over the next 30 years, but never bested.
Every martial arts film connoisseur has their favourite Bruce Lee film and this definitely isn’t mine. When the fists aren’t flying, the narrative tends to drag, which doesn’t happen so much with The Big Boss or Way of the Dragon. But it’s Bruce Lee – you’ll be skipping to the fight scenes anyway.
VERDICT: 3.5/5 stars
ON THE DVD
DISC QUALITY You’ve never seen it better. Apparently remastered from a decent original, the image is sharp and clean and the audio nice and strong.
COMMENTARY Conducted by Bruce Lee biographer, Bey Logan, who also does the honours on The Big Boss. What he doesn’t know about the film isn’t worth knowing. He’s able to switch between the complex historical background of the film and bits of trivia so piddling and obscure even a devoted fan will learn something new.
INTERVIEWS GALLERY Two of them, both with a text intro. Max Lee, who was involved in the fight choreography, is rather dull, but Bruce’s co-star on Fist of Fury, Tony Liu, is very animated and talks candidly about his relationship with the late Lee.
ANIMATED BIOGRAPHIES Narration of scrolling text, just in case you can’t read it for yourself.
Director: Lo Wei
Before the uncut versions were finally released on DVD, Bruce Lee fanatics spent dozens of frustrating years trying to find proper cuts of his movies on VHS. Most copies of The Big Boss, Way of the Dragon and even Enter The Dragon were cut severely – in some cases to get them under an R-rating, in others it just seemed to be for the hell of it. Fist of Fury suffered the least in this respect, but it’s nice to have it on DVD all the same.
Acquiring a knowledge of Chinese history will help you appreciate this movie, which more or less sees Bruce taking revenge on those nasty, oppressive Japanese. As with most of his work, storyline doesn’t play a terribly big part and the English voice they chose to dub over him is totally inappropriate, but Lee’s charisma and unmatched kung fu techniques comfortably overcome adversity. This movie features the famous fight scene where Lee takes on an entire Japanese karate dojo – a piece of choreography that would be copied again and again over the next 30 years, but never bested.
Every martial arts film connoisseur has their favourite Bruce Lee film and this definitely isn’t mine. When the fists aren’t flying, the narrative tends to drag, which doesn’t happen so much with The Big Boss or Way of the Dragon. But it’s Bruce Lee – you’ll be skipping to the fight scenes anyway.
VERDICT: 3.5/5 stars
ON THE DVD
DISC QUALITY You’ve never seen it better. Apparently remastered from a decent original, the image is sharp and clean and the audio nice and strong.
COMMENTARY Conducted by Bruce Lee biographer, Bey Logan, who also does the honours on The Big Boss. What he doesn’t know about the film isn’t worth knowing. He’s able to switch between the complex historical background of the film and bits of trivia so piddling and obscure even a devoted fan will learn something new.
INTERVIEWS GALLERY Two of them, both with a text intro. Max Lee, who was involved in the fight choreography, is rather dull, but Bruce’s co-star on Fist of Fury, Tony Liu, is very animated and talks candidly about his relationship with the late Lee.
ANIMATED BIOGRAPHIES Narration of scrolling text, just in case you can’t read it for yourself.
# posted by The Fearless Writer @ 8:46 PM 
