New Fist of Fury (1976)

Review: This is a very authentic Kung Fu movie which I found quite amusing because of its funny dubbing and old skool storyline, we're a pupil is out to revenge his master. The old ones are always the best! Jackie Chan was a young looking 22 year old when he starred in this movie and his martial arts skills wasn't as polished as they are in his latter movies but the epic showdown at the end was still quite good. Chan plays A Lung, who steals from the rich with his father, who he also lives with. After turning down many Kung Fu schools because he doesn't like the fact that he would have to change his lifestyle, he finally joins a school because he is fed up with the way that the Japanese are putting down the Chinese way of training. One of the Japanese Kung Fu school leaders, wants to make all of the Chinese martial arts schools come under his umbrella but all of them want to stay independent so the conflict turns to violence. He offers all of the schools to a battle for power but his elite squad easily take out the Chinese top fighters. When he finally gets to challenge A Lungs school, an epic showdown between there top fighters takes place and the Japanese leader uses underarm tactics to try and take out A Lung. I just admit, the action scenes were not the best and some of the fighting was really slow but the determination from Chan in the final showdown was great. There was a hint of silly comedy at the beginning but once the movie gets going, the politics between the Japanese and Chinese schools was quite interesting. I doubt they could make a movie like this in this day and age because it's not really politically correct but with that aside you can really see how much Chan stood out from the rest at such a young age. I can't really see how it's connected to the original Fist of Fury, which Chan also starred in and I do think that people will be a bit disappointing because they might be expecting something close to the original, which starred the brilliant Bruce Lee. Anyway, you can't fault this movie for its authenticity and believable cinematography but the action scenes were a bit weak. Watchable!Round-Up: This movie was made a few years before Chan hit it big with Drunken Master but he still had a few movies behind him so he wasn't new to the big screen. His acting was quite impressive, for that day and age and the straight forward storyline was interesting throughout. The director, Wei Lo, who died in 1996 of heart failure, also directed the original Fist of Fury and the Big Boss which both starred the great Bruce Lee, so he was one of the lucky directors to have worked with the best in the martial arts world. He had made over 60 movies in his career, most of which I can't pronounce because they were made in China but he will always be remembered for the movies that he made with Bruce Lee which have become timeless masterpieces. Budget: N/A Worldwide Gross: HK$456,787.20I recommend this movie to people who are into their action/martial arts/dramas starring Jackie Chan, Ming Cheng Chang and Shen Lin Chang. 5/10

Alright. so i feel like i should clear some stuff up first...i have this movie called...new fist of fury, which is the sequel to the Chinese connection, also called fist of fury, but the big boss (which features many of the same actors as new fist of fury) is also called fists of fury (the DVD i have of this movie is called fists of fury). Confusion is also aroused by the fact that the villain of the big boss is part of Ching Wu school in this movie. I don't know, i just thought i should mention this since it is really funny to me.Alright so, if you like Kung Fu movies...and by Kung Fu movies i mean bad Kung Fu movies, you will like this movie. It has all the elements: bad dubbing (by the people who seem to do every Kong fur movie EVER), shots that got cut up really horribly so you only see someone's ear and Another really funny thing is how there is a Japanese flag clearly present in the background of most of the scenes featuring Japanese characters.What i actually liked about this movie is that Jackie Chan is not trying to be funny for once, kind of. I mean the whole not knowing Kong fur forces him to act a certain way, but it's okay i guess. For some reason though, i thought Jackie was above the whole posthumous Bruce Lee cashing in phenomenon, but if you think about it, it makes the rest of his career make a lot more sense.So if you watch this movie as a normal horrible Kung Fu movie, and don't somehow elevate it because it's Jackie Chan (which in reality, you shouldn't) then it's AWESOME. and the fight scenes where Jackie starts to get intense don't feature him throwing baskets and flowerpots at people for once (another thing i hate about Jackie Chan, but that's just me)...and i have a little crush on Nora Mao.

After co-starring in Hand of Death, Jackie Chan was forced into an early retirement because of the shift in consumer tastes in movies. The Hong Kong audience was dissatisfied with the action films after the death of Bruce Lee, leaving an ever-widening amount of unemployed stunt-men and bit-players. Since Jackie was one of these casualties he retired to Australia to be with his family. There he did construction in the day and worked in a Chinese restaurant at night. Then he received a telegram from Willie Chan wanting him to work in a new film called New Fist of Fury – a sequel to the beloved Bruce Lee film Fist of Fury. He told him that the movie would be for the newly formed Lo Wei Productions and that the film would be directed by Lo Wei himself. Jackie would receive 3000 Dollars (HK) per month for acting (he would later receive 9000 for being the stunt coordinator.) Little did anyone know that this unknown actor would become a big boon to the industry; though, this would not happen for a while and would not happen (directly) because of this film.New Fist of Fury is typical of a Lo Wei film, it lacks cohesion and character with an overuse of plot elements. The film starts after the destruction of the Ching Wu School in Shanghai. The remnants of the school, led by the delightful Miss Lee (Nora Miao), are forced to flee to Taiwan to avoid persecution from the Japanese. She will stay with her grandfather Su Onli who is the head of a martial arts school. Unfortunately, the Japanese are ubiquitous in Taiwan too. When her group arrives, they are the target of a thief Helong (Jackie Chan) and his companion Old Chin (Hon Siu). Helong (Ah Lung in some translations) steals a wooden box containing the prize weapon of the late Brother Chen (Bruce Lee in the superior Fist of Fury) – nun-chucks.Later, after Helong is found in a ditch beaten half-to-death by the students of Chin Ching Kai, he is found by Miss Lee's group and is nursed back to health (with the help of his prostitute mother's money, whom he does not know.) For all of this help and their forgiveness of him stealing their property, he refuses to learn Kung Fu so he can continuously be beaten up. Miss Lee has bigger problems than trying to get Helong to learn Kung Fu – the Japanese occupancy.Akumora (played by the muscular Chan Sing) is the Japanese provincial leader who wants to combine the Chinese martial art schools under his Di Wah school. There is a great scene with him catching a knife in his teeth and then throwing it from his mouth killing an attacker. It is so hard to take this scene seriously, but it reminded me what Ed Wood might have done if he directed a Kung Fu film. Akumora is an interesting character that starts off semi-decent and then ends up completely anti-Chinese ("I kill Chinese, just like I kill dogs.") This is another annoyance with the film; it is completely ethnocentric with one-dimensional Japanese characters. This annoyance is especially evident when Akumora challenges a staged Kwong Gung, stating that the Japanese heroes are much better than Chinese's heroes. This infuriates Master Su during his 80th birthday celebration and leads to his death (when he jumps over a large crowd of people and apparently has a heart attack.) With the death of Master Su, Miss Lee decides to revive the Ching Wu School. This leads to an obvious clash with the Di Wah School.One of the biggest problems with this film (yes even worse than the ever-yelling Jen Da So, the kiai spewing daughter of Akumora) is that Jackie is misused and miscast in this film. He constantly gets beat up by both Japanese and Chinese and yet refuses to learn Kung Fu. He does not get a decent fight scene until at least three-fourths of the film is over and yet he obtained his skills in just a few days (it is amazing what anti-Japanese sentiment can make you accomplish). When he does fight, his skills are quite evident. Jackie is very acrobatic and his fight scenes flow well though he is relegated to using actors who are weak in martial arts (with a few exceptions like Han Ying Chieh) and they slow down many of the action scenes.I am a fan of Jackie Chan (and many of the HK films of this era), but this is not a film that rises above mediocrity. While it is not worse than many films during the 70's it has a few negative attributes that will doggedly follow it -- New Fist of Fury followed one of the most beloved of Bruce Lee films with a weak sequel and misused a future Hong Kong Superstar. Useless Tidbit: look for a small cameo role for Lo Wei where he portrays an inspector.

I just finished watching "New Fist Of Fury" and I found the plot to be interesting and the martial arts action entertaining. Jackie Chan does a commendable job in one of the first films of his successful career. Unlike "Rush Hour" and other films that have followed it, Jackie's demeanor is mostly serious. The martial arts action is fast and intense. In addition, the plot draws the action together nicely. The familiar themes of revenge and bitter discourse between the Japanese and Chinese are present throughout. I have seen the original "Fist Of Fury" with Bruce Lee and I feel that this film is a worthy successor. If you like classic martial arts films of the 70s and 80s; this film is for you.