Customer Reviews

Fists of Fury [VHS]

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

Back in 1970, Bruce Lee was a keen martial artist with three Jeet Kune Do studios, he had a fledgling TV/movie career in the United States appearing in movies such as "Marlowe" and TV series such as "Longstreet", and he was charging major Hollywood stars up to $250 an hour for personal martial arts tuition. However, Bruce Lee was somewhat unsatisfied with his life, and he had headed back to Hong Kong for a break and arrived to an unexpected welcome from many young Chinese TV fans, who had seen him as "Kato" on the cult TV series "The Green Hornet". Also around this time, HK film producer Raymond Chow had left Run Run Shaw and started "Golden Harvest" productions, and spied the athletic Bruce as a potential lead actor for the action film genre. After some negotiations, Chow managed to secure Bruce's signature to star in a low budget martial arts film titled "Tang shan da xiong", or as it was eventually released in Western film markets, "The Big Boss" aka "Fists of Fury".

Filming was completed around Pak Chang in Thailand, and by all reports it wasn't the most pleasant of places, and the cast and crew survived on terrible meals and poor accomodation. The plot line is simple enough....a young Bruce Lee plays Cheng Chao-an, who has come to the big city to work with his cousins in the local ice factory. His father's departing words of wisdom to Bruce are to remember his promise not to get into any fights, and as a reminder Bruce wears a jade pendant around his neck. However, trouble seems to follow Cheng around and before long he is drawn into violence, as the truth is uncovered that the ice factory is merely a front for a heroin smuggling operation. "The Big Boss" aka "Fists of Fury" certainly has it's shortcomings, however in 1971 it was the springboard that really launched the legend of Bruce Lee, and it remains forever a key film in the evolution of the martial arts / action genre. Lee was a capable enough actor to demonstrate a broad range of emotion and feelings beyond just anger.....he's an eager and willing worker for his first day at the ice factory, he's wooden and uncomfortable when he first meets his city cousins, and he's clumsy and embarassed around the pretty Nora Maio. However, Lee was at his most charismatic and thrilling to film audiences when he explodes against the villains who butcher his friends, and the film's fight sequences featuring Lee are violent, uncompromising and fast paced. Lee could also capably mix in humour with his brooding menace, such as in the scene when Bruce is munching on a bag of chips, he kicks two knife wielding thugs in the groin, and then continues to finish his chips ! As the body count escalates, the film moves towards a showdown between Bruce Lee and the sinister owner of the ice factory (played by the wonderful Yin-Chieh Han, who also appeared as a trecherous cook in Lee's next film "Fist of Fury" )The film received a rapturous welcome from Chinese film fans, who just loved watching this rugged & handsome Chinese actor and his flailing fists, and the movie broke many box office records in Hong Kong.

Now to which version on DVD you should buy ! The DVD version of this film on Amazon.com with the red tinted cover is the Region 1 CBS/FOX release, and it's not true widescreen, it's only the dubbed English version, and only presented in Dolby Digital 2.0 mono.

However, my suggestion is that you log onto the Amazon UK website and buy yourself the Hong Kong Legends Special Collectors Edition DVD of "The Big Boss", as it is the finest quality presentation available of this movie on DVD. The special release DVD's long list of goodies includes the following : a digitally remastered crystal clear and UNCUT 16:9 Anamorphic widescreen presentation, plus the soundtrack is selectable between the dubbed English version, or the original Cantonese version both in Dolby Digital 5.1 Audio ! On top of that there is a sensational audio commentary track from film commentator / Bruce Lee fanatic Bey Logan, plus original theatrical trailers and interviews with cast members. The disc is Region 2, but hey that's why they invented multi-region DVD players. I've owned many versions of this film on DVD from all over the world, however hands down the HK Legends DVD is the best one yet and it rates 5 stars and more. If you are a Bruce Lee fan, this DVD belongs on your shelf.

I was very anxious to buy this DVD cause Bruce Lee was one of my childhood heroes, but the image and sound quality is so bad that I might as well just use it for a coaster. It's like watching one of those old 8mm films.

I hope that the owners of the film get smart and restore it. I'll be willing to buy it again if it was cleaned up.

Why American production make HK movies look so cheap? First of all, they cut off so much scene, second of all ruin it by making look acting so dumb by English Dubb. For ANY of HK movies, ALWAYS stick with ORIGINAL LICENSED HK RELEASE. Be careful with cheap imports, boots though.

Top notch Martial Arts Action. Don't let it bother you that this is his first big film, theres tons of time on screen with Bruce, and even in his quiet moments his presence is great. The US version on DVD is a great improvement from the VHS versions all of us have had to live with for years, but it you see the Chinese versions, you will find the movies to be better in every way. Thanks to Thomas Ong for his very good advice that made me aware of this (see Listmania) , also read Dragon Man X's reviews, his reviews are great. he goes into this same topic in depth. I have about three versions of this movie, and the US version cut out the scene where he goes to the brothel (needless US censorship- including a priceless few seconds of Bruce behind a Chair ready to go .. why would they cut that out. oh yeah, the brothel. they seem to frown on showing that stuff now. They sure didn't mind that stuff before 1990 ) We have so few films of Bruce that it's a crime to withhold any footage from us. Also cut out is the scene at the end (if you see the US version from fox, you can sense there is something missing) (Note that the scene with the saw in the icehouse is missing from all versions, I guess that is removed from all the versions). Also, the scale of the widescreen, while good in the US version is still cropped more than the Chinese Versions side to side and a bit from the top and bottom. And the sound is stereo in the Chinese versions! The subtitling is off in the US versions also. I compared the traslations, and the Chinese versions have what I believe to be the more accurate versions of the translations. this is true of all the US tranlations of the BL films, it's more fun and meaningful to read the actual translation.. in the US version , they had to voiceover and watch the actors as they mouthed the words so sometimes the meaning is completely different. And the Chinese versions have an actual photo of Bruce, not glazed over in red? who made that decision?

This dvd is terrible quality, it has lots of terrible analog flaws, like the vhs tape that it was copied from kept losing tracking wiping out the main fight scenes, and the whole movie is squashed horizontally, and distorted. The color is way off like the vhs tape was rented for years before being copied onto the dvd. It is unwatchable! Do not buy this tape or any tape from this Candian company.

Fists of Fury was the name of the American release. The movie is cut and it's badly dubbed. Go out and find the import release titled The Big Boss. Not only is it uncut but it's in the original mandarin with english sub-titles, superior picture quality and it's properly formated in it's original aspect ratio 2.50.1. See it like you've never had before. The WB release is sub-par and about the same price as the import.

This is, in my opinion, the weakest of Bruce's three HK action films (I don't count "Game Of Death" as a REAL Bruce Lee flick). But the man only starred in four movies his entire life, and it's always a kick to see the guy in action, so as his legend deepens, the more his fans will salivate and gobble up whatever's served up on the WA-TAAH! plate.

The production value is almost laughable, and the English dubbing (in regards to the Fox DVD) is absolutely abysmal, but there's only one reason to ever watch a Bruce Lee movie: Bruce Lee. No matter how amateur the film is, or how frickin' lame the plot is, it doesn't take away from his lightning-fast talent. God, if only he'd have lived longer. One can only imagine what he'd have done.

"Enter The Dragon" is his best, but if you've already seen it a dozen times and want to try out his earlier stuff, first check out "The Chinese Connection," "Way (or Return) Of The Dragon" and then this one.

I've always felt that this film captures Bruce Lee at his best -- not the more famous American-made "Enter the Dragon." Bruce Lee plays a country boy who, through his uncanny fighting skills, defends the downtrodden workers from an unscrupulous boss -- a slimy "Mr. Big" type. OK - the plot is not complex. It's classic, corny and simple. But the issues at stake make Lee's fight scenes all the more electrifying -- far more so (for me) than the stylized James Bond-type antics of "Enter the Dragon." This film has a certain poignance -- its hero is taken away at the end... Similarly, Lee dies at the end of "The Chinese Connection." For me, the greatest of all kung fu films (closely seconded by Lee's other films and maybe a "Drunken Master" or two).

Amazon should not be selling this DVD. I have never seen anything of such appalling quality. It must have been recorded of a video, the last 15 minutes are unwatchable, the screen flickers, and has scrolling black and white lines all over the screen. Even apart from this, the quality is very blurry, and the sound is difficult to hear. It made me extremely cross having to watch (and pay for) such a good film in such bad condition. NO-ONE SHOULD BUY THIS!

First and foremost , I'm a devoted Bruce Lee fan. As for the movie , "Fists of Fury" , itself ? I give it 5 stars. How can you give anything less to the man that perpetuated all the kung fu movies, after him ? You can't . I certainly wouldn't. There'll never be another like him. The film , itself is flawless ... kicking. It's got the famous ice factory scene, the yard scenes , and Jackie Chan performing the longest fall in kung fu history on film , at that time. This film is very significant. But this rating , I give to the dvd "cheap" version. Check this out : I have all of his movies on vhs , as well. However , I've recently converted to dvd's. With that in mind , I wanted to purchase all of Lee's movies on dvd. Fists of Fury is one of Bruce Lee's finest movies and I appreciate it's importance to the kung fu genre. However , I figured I'd save a few bucks and get the version that costs less than , say , an official version ( with an actual picture of Bruce on the cover , instead of a cartoon or painting). In my cheap version , it is intirely in fullscreen. So much , in fact , that parts of the film run off of the screen. It was painful to watch. From that point , I ordered the normal versions of his other movies , and found the format phenominally different and I could start watching the Bruce Lee films , the way that he would want any of his fans to. Just stay away from the cheap versions and stick to the official studio ones. You can't lose.