Review of Fist of Fury (1972) by Clem666 — 19 Dec 2020

Scenario is way too simple, almost childish. We follow Bruce Lee's character during most of the movie. There is some interesting acting to search in the protagonists but Lee's acting is... huh... present ? I mean he does act a lot but it is way too often the same face, the one that could have an angry disruptive child. All the yellings he does while fighting don't help. He plays it so intensely that the important scenes lost their authenticity and then sadly become laughable. And when he don't have this angry facial expression he barely has none. In that way it is hard to have empathy for him because his behaviours all follow the same sheme: anger and then remorse. It feels like he never really learns from the consequences.

Fights are alright. They are punctuated by Lee's dynamism and choregraphies. However the FX and sound effects appear to be as poor as repetitive or even inadequate. It is surely to be linked to the age of the movie but all these *woosh woosh* sounds during fist fights are way too outdated. One thing weird about fights is when the level of violence suddenly increases like when you see blood on the screen. The fracture between fist fights and death is tenuous and contributes to make Lee's character more dangerous than he really should be. Sometimes it feels like cartoon and sometimes like hard reality.

The pace and the way the images are presented are okay. I found the romance plot quite insipid but it is surely due to Lee's strange acting. I don't expect him to be in love, but to be cold and brutal.

'Fist of Fury' is however a cool historical testimony of the hate between Chinese and Japanese. The differences between those two cultures are interesting to analyze.

The ending is unexpected and surprising.