New fist of Fury with Jackie ChanThe original Fist of Fury with Bruce Lee was a massive success in Hong Kong, but when he died a never ending line of impersonators and actors hailed as ‘the next Bruce Lee’ came to the surface to ride on his good name.

Ironically, the big martial arts star would be Jackie Chan, who stars in the sequel to Fist of Fury titled – New Fist of Fury. The funny thing is, this movie didn’t do too well, and isn’t what made Jackie Chan so popular…

Why?

Well Jackie Chan’s break through roles were movies like Snake in the Eagle’s Shadow and Drunken Master.  These movie were known as terrific Kung Fu comedies that showed Jackie’s human side in a comical way, followed up by fantastic athletic and acrobatic ability.

Fist of Fury was Raymond Chow’s (rather exploitative as always) way of riding on Bruce’s Legacy, and introducing Jackie Chan as the ‘next Bruce Lee’ – this resulted in a serious role for Jackie using his fantastic abilities in the fight sequences.

The idea behind the movie being that some members of the Jing Wu school where Bruce lee’s character Chen Zhen originated from, decided to head to Taiwan when they are faced with more Japanese opression.

Jackie Chan’s character Ah Loong is a trouble maker and thief, who steals from the Jing Wu students only to discover a strange weapon in the box – a pair of Chen Zhen’s Nunchaku.

After being beaten and opressed Ah Loong is found almost dead in a ditch by Chen’s fellow Jing Wu students and nursed to health.

That’s when the opression of the Japanese starts to get out of control and Ah Loong decides to make a stand against them.

Seeing in him the very fury and passion that possessed Chen Zhen, the Jing Wu students teach Ah Loong their Kung Fu and the powerful ‘Fist of Fury’ technique before doing their best to defeat the opressive Japanese men.

You can’t hold Jackie Back!

Young Jackie Chan

While this movie didn’t do too well, it’s still not a bad flick to watch – but definitely not the best!

You still see hints of Jackie’s comedic nature and charisma shine through in odd scenes, which brought a smile to face when I noticed them, he was still finding ways to be himself a little more (like the Jackie we’re used to these days).

He still plays a humane, beatable character initially which fits his persona quite well.  but when he springs into action, Jackie’s athletic ability is quite obviously present, making for some ‘decent’ fight scenes.

Overall I d0n’t think Jackie wanted to play the serious role, but he did his best to bring himself to it.

The Action & Martial Arts

One thing I did appreciate in this movie was that the fighting was half way between wavey out dated fights and technical martial arts.

The fights between most other characters (besides Jackie Chan’s) are actually not bad, and I found that the head of Japanese wasn’t too bad in his fight scenes either – not to mention looking quite ripped and intimidating.

Drunken Hands with Jackie Chan

Jackie’s performance isn’t bad, he relies more on his acrobatic moves than martial arts but it works quite well.  He even performs the same Jing Wu hand movement as Bruce Lee did in the original fist of Fury – another link to the original film.  But it looks a little crappy in comparison.

Overall?

This movie is pretty standard for it’s time, the most attractive factors are the association with Bruce Lee, the Fist of Fury movie and the lead actor being Jackie Chan.

I’d recommend this movie to people wanting to see a little more of Jackie Chan’s performances before he was famous, and only if you’re prepared to watch an ‘ok’ kung fu film.  If you didn’t know who Jackie Chan was when watching it, it’d be a pretty standard cheap flick.

As I said – not bad but not great!

On DVD –

Region 1 (US & Canada)
New Fist of Fury on DVD

Region 2 (UK, Europe, etc)
New Fist Of Fury [DVD]

Region 4 (Australia, New Zealand, etc)
New Fist of Fury on DVD

More info on Movie Regions here.

25 Martial Arts Movies All Fans Must See - FREE


Subscribe to our Newsletter to Download this FREE Ebook. You'll also receive the latest updates and info on Martial Arts and action movies!

Thank You, please check your email to confirm your subscription :)