This summer marks the 50th anniversary of Bruce Lee’s sudden death at the age of 32. His Hong Kong movies Big Boss (called Fists of Fury in America) and Fist of Fury (renamed the Chinese Connection) had become global sensations. His masterpiece Enter the Dragon was close to being released. People were shocked that a man who seemed so indestructible could be gone. Enter the Dragon became a massive hit and Way of the Dragon (renamed Return of the Dragon) was released to packed houses in America. Martial Arts cinema fans were eager for more even though there wasn’t really much more left besides his fight footage for his unfinished Game of Death. Distributors and theater owners that specialized in Kung Fu flicks were eager for more Bruce Lee or the next Bruce Lee. Hong Kong filmmakers were eager to make more with actors that could be mistaken for Bruce Lee. Thus, the era of Bruceploitation was born. Films came out with Dragon, Chinese, Fists, Boss and even Game and Death in their titles. The stars went by Bruce Li, Bruce Chen, Bruce Lai, Bruce Le, Bruce Lie, Bruce Leung, Saro Lee, Bruce Ly, Bruce Thai, Brute Lee, Myron Bruce Lee, Lee Bruce, Bruce Lei, Dragon Lee and Bronson Lee. A few action stars were hyped as the next Bruce Lee. Only one rivaled the popularity of Bruce although his name wasn’t a variation of Bruce Lee.
Jackie Chan had worked with Bruce Lee on his Golden Harvest films as a stuntman and background roles. During 1976, Jackie was given the lead role in what’s considered the official sequel to Fist of Fury. Lo Wei had written and directed the original Fist of Fury with Bruce Lee after their teaming up on The Big Boss. Lo saw Jackie as the actor who had the skills to claim to be the next superstar. Although at the time of the film, Jackie was using his stage name Sing Lung. Luckily Lo Wei wasn’t going to make Jackie Chan play Bruce Lee’s character Chen Zhen. He got to be a brand-new character and not a clone of Bruce. Lo gives us a story about what happened to the Jingwu School after Zhen’s final charge.
After the fall of the Jingwu School, Mao Li Er (Fist of Fury‘s Nora Miao) and others flee from Japanese occupied Shanghai to Taiwan which is still Japanese occupied. They hide out at her grandfather’s school, but trouble shows up at their doorstep in the form of a rival Japanese Karate School that doesn’t want anything taught on the island, but their brand of martial arts. Ah Lung (Jackie Chan) is a petty thief who pilfers a set of nunchaku from Mao Li Er. He’s unsure of the weapon and tries to make a deal with a different school except it doesn’t work out well. He doesn’t want to get into either school because he likes his freedom as a thief. He does his best to not make a scene so he can keep up his thieving ways. But he finally can’t take it when the head of the Karate school shows up in the village square with the destroyed sign from the Kung Fu School. He wants to learn Kung Fu so he can take on the head of the Karate School and get back at the Japanese. Mao Li Er swears Ah Lung has the spirit of Cheng Zhen. She shares the secret move book written by Zhen including the Fist of Fury with the new student. While he’s a quick learner of the techniques, will Lung have the same fate of Zhen when he goes up against the Japanese?
What’s interesting is that the Blu-ray has two versions of the film. First is the original cut that came out in 1976. This is two hours long with Mandarin as the base language. Supposedly the film didn’t do as well as Fist of Fury II (also Chinese Connection 2) starring Bruce Li. Maybe the unknown Jackie Chan didn’t boost the box office. But the film got a second shot when it was reissued in 1980 after Jackie had struck it big with Snake in the Eagle’s Shadow and Drunken Master. The first thing done to the film was to change the credits to Jackie Chan instead of Sing Lung. Because Jackie had become a bigger name, the film was altered to not disappoint fans. The running time was dramatically shorted to only 82 minutes as scenes without Jackie were sliced away. The new version doesn’t make us wait to see Jackie Chan on the screen. They snip away the first eight and a half minutes of the film to Jackie’s introduction and first major fight. The movie is now all about Jackie’s character so his fans didn’t feel cheated watching him playing a supporting character. They also swapped the language with a new Cantonese dub track instead of Mandarin. This language swap wasn’t quite so shocking since Jackie at this time didn’t voice his roles. Which version is better? Why choose? You should watch the original release first so you can see how things were supposed to build. New Fist of Fury not the next Bruce Lee, but the future Jackie Chan.
The Video for both versions is 2.35:1 anamorphic. The transfer brings out the details of the location that’s getting busted up by Jackie and his fellow students. Audio for the original cut has Mandarin 1.0 DTS-HD MA, Mandarin (alt) 1.0 DTS-HD MA, Cantonese 1.0 DTS-HD MA and English 1.0 DTS-HD MA. The 1980 release version only has Cantonese 1.0 DTS-HD MA and English 1.0 DTS-HD MA. The levels vary although the English dubs are fine. The movies are both subtitled in English.
Audio Commentary by Frank Djeng & Michael Worth is on the original release. Once again Frank Djeng has plenty of details on the production and the various actors that pop up. They point out Lo Wei makes a cameo at that start of the longer film. Strange to think his “Director’s Cut” involved cutting himself out of the film.
Audio Commentary by Brandon Bentley is on the 1980 version. He gets into how the cut came around after the success of Jackie Chan in other films. He also points out the music was changed for the update to sound more synth based. He points out that until a few years back, the 1980 version was all you could watch in America and England.
New Fist, Part Two Fist (7:35) is a video essay from Brandon Bentley that compares New Fist of Fury to Fist of Fury Part 2 with Bruce Li. He compares the cast that’s brought over from the original movie. We also get a sense how each film treats the same characters. It’s strange to think how nowadays two films trying to do this would end up battling it out in court and not at the box office.
Original Theatrical Trailer in Cantonese (3:38) is all about Jackie Chan and not merely a new Bruce Lee. This is to promote the 1980 cut.
Theatrical Trailer in English (3:15) must be from the longer cut since it includes pictures of Bruce Lee.
Chen Zhen Trailer Reel (17:54) includes the original Fist of Fury with Bruce Lee, Fist of Fury Part 2 with Bruce Li, Fist of Fury III, Fist of Legend with Jet Li, Fist of Fury, The Legend of the Fist and Fist of Fury Chen Zhen. It’s interesting how they re-interpreted the character over the decades.
Image Gallery has two dozen press photos, poster and a brochure.
Double-sided fold-out poster featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Tony Stella
Illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing by Jonathan Clements and an archival retrospective article by Brian Bankston
Arrow Video presents New Fist of Fury. Directed by Lo Wei. Screenplay by Lo Wei and Pan Wei. Jackie Chan, Nora Miao, Chan Sing, Luk Yat-lung, Yim Chung, Suen Lam, Cheng Siu-siu, Lau Ming, Han Ying-chieh & Lo Wei. Running Time: 120 & 82 minutes. Rating: Unrated. Release Date: August 29, 2023.
