New Fist of Fury (Lo Wei, 1976)
Posted: 01 May 2014, 01:11
In 1972, Lo Wei hit his peak with the Bruce Lee film Fist of Fury. Sadly, he seemed to lose his touch almost immediately and his next few features were stodgy and dull, lacking the creative spark that had been present throughout his Shaw tenure and early Golden Harvest features.
One can hardly blame Lo for attempting to re-visit past glories when he started his new production company off with a sequel to his biggest hit. And, to his credit, Lo didn't just do the obvious and go and copy the first film.
Not that you'd know this by reading Jackie's "autobiography" in which he claims he was playing Bruce Lee's brother and that Lo directed him to play a "screaming demon of vengeance". Indeed, it's a pity that wasn't what happened with Jackie. Instead, it happened with the same year's Fist of Fury II, a Taiwanese indie in which Bruce Li played Bruce Lee's brother and pretty much played a demon of vengeance. And derivative as it was, that film really puts Lo's official sequel to shame.
In New Fist of Fury, Jackie plays a young Taiwanese thief called Ah Lung, who not only doesn't know kung fu but doesn't WANT to learn kung fu – he even knocks himself silly with the iconic nunchakus. Unbeknownst to him, his estranged mother is a concubine for the Japanese occupiers, and Ah Lung, why, he just hates the Japs. Our hero, ladies and gentleman.
I seriously have no idea where Lo Wei was going with this. Normally a hero's refusal to use his kung fu is the result of a sacred oath, or a Christ-like devotion to peaceful solutions. But when the refusal is down to stubbornness and idiocy, that's Hon Kwok-Choi sacrificial lamb territory, not heroes, not a new star destined to be the Next Bruce Lee.
I've often wondered if the character was originally meant to just a supporting role and Lo Wei beefed up the character once he saw Jackie's star potential, without doing the necessary damage control. Anyway, the film's real star is the lovely Nora Miao, who flees to Taiwan from Shanghai. Interestingly, the inital setup of the film seems derived from Hapkido, with Angela Mao being played by Nora. Sadly, instead of Sammo we get Chiang Kam and in place of Carter Wong we get some plank of wood. An Angela Mao style kung fu film with Nora Miao as the lead would have been pretty awesome, I wish I was watching that instead. Lo Wei reprises his role of the Inspector from the previous film, and whilst it's a good performance, he was unceremoniously cut from 2 different reissues. Han Ying-Chieh, understandably not reprising his role from the previous film, is also on fine form and, like Nora, is far better a leading character then the film's supposed hero.
In the villian's corner, Chen Sing plays Okumura. Whilst a fine performance and a quite decent character, one does again have to wonder what we're supposed to make of this character. He starts off as seemingly a perfectly reasonable chap, interested in uniting the local kung fu schools (under his name, but then what else is new?). Even when some idiot rebels trying to kill him, he doesn't go on a rampage of murder; he merely has his gorgeous daughter (Chen Siu-Siu) rough up some suspects, and then he invites them to dinner! Heck he doesn't even kill Nora's grandpa, the old fool gives himself a heart attack over a bit of nationalistic teasing.
Eventually (like 70 min into the movie!), Okumura suddenly remembers he is the bad guy and destroys the new Ching Wu school sign (the dastard!), Ah Lung suddenly remember he is the hero and has the sign repaired and returned (but only once the villains are out of the way), and poor Nora goes nuts, has flashes to photos of Chen Zhen (or rather photos of Lee from Enter the Dragon) and decides that Ah Lung is just like Chen Zhen...because he brought back a sign? I thought Chen Zhen smashed them.
Ah Lung proves ridicously adept at kung fu in a matter of days (can't hurt that he works out to Tangerine Dream's Rubycon). Meanwhile, the Japanese authorities get tipped off (by whom we never find out) that there are rebels at the Ching Wu School. Said rebels are the most feeble bunch ever; a few old guys sitting in the attic doing NOTHING AT ALL! They escape and the Japanese decide to finally lay down the law before a rebels does, you know, anything.
The resulting meeting of all the local kung schools could have been the setup for a no-holds barred royal rumble, but given the resulting fights are no more then 3 people at the most, they might as well have stayed at home. Okumura is getting into his villain phase by having the losing kung fu schools be butchered once they leave the dojo, but none of the heroes know that, so when Jackie finally wins a fight at the 11th hour by killing Okumura's daughter by kicking her in the chest...dude, that's harsh. Besides, it means we didn't get to see Nora Miao in a catfight with Chen Siu-Siu. I wish I was watching that instead.
Anyway, the final fight between Jackie and Chen Sing is pretty damn awesome, starting off bare-handed then going to Jackie using the three-section staff against Chen Sing's sai. Sadly, unintentional hilarity pokes its head in, when Jackie tries the "Fist of Fury", the blurry hand technique Bruce tried out in the original...
And the final ending apes that of the original but rather than being a testament to sacrifice and the power of the individual, it is instead an ode to bone-headedness and failing to think things through.
Rather like the film actually...
4/10
One can hardly blame Lo for attempting to re-visit past glories when he started his new production company off with a sequel to his biggest hit. And, to his credit, Lo didn't just do the obvious and go and copy the first film.
Not that you'd know this by reading Jackie's "autobiography" in which he claims he was playing Bruce Lee's brother and that Lo directed him to play a "screaming demon of vengeance". Indeed, it's a pity that wasn't what happened with Jackie. Instead, it happened with the same year's Fist of Fury II, a Taiwanese indie in which Bruce Li played Bruce Lee's brother and pretty much played a demon of vengeance. And derivative as it was, that film really puts Lo's official sequel to shame.
In New Fist of Fury, Jackie plays a young Taiwanese thief called Ah Lung, who not only doesn't know kung fu but doesn't WANT to learn kung fu – he even knocks himself silly with the iconic nunchakus. Unbeknownst to him, his estranged mother is a concubine for the Japanese occupiers, and Ah Lung, why, he just hates the Japs. Our hero, ladies and gentleman.
I seriously have no idea where Lo Wei was going with this. Normally a hero's refusal to use his kung fu is the result of a sacred oath, or a Christ-like devotion to peaceful solutions. But when the refusal is down to stubbornness and idiocy, that's Hon Kwok-Choi sacrificial lamb territory, not heroes, not a new star destined to be the Next Bruce Lee.
I've often wondered if the character was originally meant to just a supporting role and Lo Wei beefed up the character once he saw Jackie's star potential, without doing the necessary damage control. Anyway, the film's real star is the lovely Nora Miao, who flees to Taiwan from Shanghai. Interestingly, the inital setup of the film seems derived from Hapkido, with Angela Mao being played by Nora. Sadly, instead of Sammo we get Chiang Kam and in place of Carter Wong we get some plank of wood. An Angela Mao style kung fu film with Nora Miao as the lead would have been pretty awesome, I wish I was watching that instead. Lo Wei reprises his role of the Inspector from the previous film, and whilst it's a good performance, he was unceremoniously cut from 2 different reissues. Han Ying-Chieh, understandably not reprising his role from the previous film, is also on fine form and, like Nora, is far better a leading character then the film's supposed hero.
In the villian's corner, Chen Sing plays Okumura. Whilst a fine performance and a quite decent character, one does again have to wonder what we're supposed to make of this character. He starts off as seemingly a perfectly reasonable chap, interested in uniting the local kung fu schools (under his name, but then what else is new?). Even when some idiot rebels trying to kill him, he doesn't go on a rampage of murder; he merely has his gorgeous daughter (Chen Siu-Siu) rough up some suspects, and then he invites them to dinner! Heck he doesn't even kill Nora's grandpa, the old fool gives himself a heart attack over a bit of nationalistic teasing.
Eventually (like 70 min into the movie!), Okumura suddenly remembers he is the bad guy and destroys the new Ching Wu school sign (the dastard!), Ah Lung suddenly remember he is the hero and has the sign repaired and returned (but only once the villains are out of the way), and poor Nora goes nuts, has flashes to photos of Chen Zhen (or rather photos of Lee from Enter the Dragon) and decides that Ah Lung is just like Chen Zhen...because he brought back a sign? I thought Chen Zhen smashed them.
Ah Lung proves ridicously adept at kung fu in a matter of days (can't hurt that he works out to Tangerine Dream's Rubycon). Meanwhile, the Japanese authorities get tipped off (by whom we never find out) that there are rebels at the Ching Wu School. Said rebels are the most feeble bunch ever; a few old guys sitting in the attic doing NOTHING AT ALL! They escape and the Japanese decide to finally lay down the law before a rebels does, you know, anything.
The resulting meeting of all the local kung schools could have been the setup for a no-holds barred royal rumble, but given the resulting fights are no more then 3 people at the most, they might as well have stayed at home. Okumura is getting into his villain phase by having the losing kung fu schools be butchered once they leave the dojo, but none of the heroes know that, so when Jackie finally wins a fight at the 11th hour by killing Okumura's daughter by kicking her in the chest...dude, that's harsh. Besides, it means we didn't get to see Nora Miao in a catfight with Chen Siu-Siu. I wish I was watching that instead.
Anyway, the final fight between Jackie and Chen Sing is pretty damn awesome, starting off bare-handed then going to Jackie using the three-section staff against Chen Sing's sai. Sadly, unintentional hilarity pokes its head in, when Jackie tries the "Fist of Fury", the blurry hand technique Bruce tried out in the original...
And the final ending apes that of the original but rather than being a testament to sacrifice and the power of the individual, it is instead an ode to bone-headedness and failing to think things through.
Rather like the film actually...
4/10
It was the 1st Chan film I saw in its original language.