The Chinese Connection
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Movie Reviews of The Chinese Connection
Movie Review: Authentic Bruce Lee
Summary: 5 Stars
such a low rating for this movie! thats why i put my 5 stars here. this is the most authentic bruce lee you can ever watch. absurd soundtrack , fat guy ... really does not matter. its a purely raw kung fu classic, tenfold the sum of its parts!Movie Review: Great
Summary: 5 Stars
First I would like to say that this is not a very perfect movie
but great.Bruce Lee at his best.The fight sences are so violent
and realistic.This movie is great but its a little to similar to
the big boss.
Movie Review: Undercover
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a good movie.Bruce Lee goes undercover to find his master's killer.I give this moive 10/5Movie Review: Bruce's best film - and I'll tell you which DVD to buy !
Summary: 4 Stars
Bruce Lee's second blockbuster kung fu film "Jing wu men" (1972), is arguably his best movie and captures Lee at his most lethal, charismatic and heroic. Set in turn of the century Shanghai, Bruce Lee is the Chinese kung fu school's most promising student (Chen), and he returns home to find his Sifu (or Master) has died. A very upset Bruce refuses to accept his teacher's death, and his suspicions are further aroused by a hostile visit by members of the local Japanese Bushido school bearing a banner insinuating that the Chinese are the "sick men of asia".
Suffice to say, that getting on the wrong side of Bruce Lee is like sticking your hand into a hornets nest, and Bruce is shortly dishing out retribution against the bullying Japanese with his stinging fists and spinning kicks. Produced on a rather modest budget by Golden Harvest Productions, "Fist Of Fury" relies on a relatively simple plot line, however Lee demonstrates during the movie his acting depth and that he is equally capable of playing a lethal avenger, a broken hearted pupil and even a grinning, buffoonish telephone repairman. The film was also the first time Bruce showed off his prowess with a pair of nunchuka.....how many people after seeing this film ran out and bought a pair of nunchuka, and then proceeded to clobber themselves black and blue trying to imitate Lee's whirling technique ?
When "The Chinese Connection" aka "Fist Of Fury" was released in Hong Kong in 1972, it had an even greater box office impact than Lee's first kung fu spectacular "The Big Boss". Once again, Chinese film fans flocked in their thousands to see this handsome, virile and athletic Chinese actor who wasn't afraid to say he was proud to be Chinese, but more than that, he throttled his Japanese adversaries and made them respect him and his Chinese kung fu. And when Bruce goes strolling into a park and is denied entrance due to a sign saying "No Dogs or Chinese Allowed", he vents his anger on mocking Japanese students, and then splinters the sign with a leaping front kick. It's interesting to note that Bruce Lee had a similar effect on Chinese audiences, in much the same way that "blaxploitation" films of the same period hit the right note with African American audiences. Jim Brown, Fred Williamson and Bernie Casey were very similar to Bruce Lee....good looking, hard hitting tough guys who didn't take insults lying down, and they took a stand and fought back. No wonder highly popular kung fu and blaxploitation films often turned up on double bills across the USA in the mid 1970's !
There is also an interesting story regarding the USA release title/s of Bruce's first two kung fu films. After the huge success in 1973 of "Enter The Dragon" in the USA, National General released Bruce Lee's three prior kung fu films, but there was a mix up in the titles. Bruce's first big success was "Tang shan da xiong" (1971), about an ice factory being used for heroin smuggling, and with the success of the Gene Hackman film "The French Connection", it was decided to release Bruce Lee's film about crooked drug dealers in the USA as "The Chinese Connection". However, somehow the prints of "Tang shan da xiong" and "Jing wu men" were mis-labeled, and "Jing wu men" was mistakenly released in the USA as "The Chinese Connection", and "Tang shan da xiong" was released as "Fists of Fury".
( I agree...it's very confusing ! )
The DVD on Amazon with the red tinted cover is unfortunately the Region 1 CBS/FOX non-widescreen version, dubbed with English voices and only presented in Dolby Digital 2.0 mono.
HOWEVER....over many many years, I've purchased and owned numerous versions of "The Chinese Connection" aka" Fist Of Fury" on VHS, LD and DVD....thus I think I've come across the finest example of them all. Media Asia / Hong Kong Legends have released a Special Collectors Edition DVD that is just jammed full of fantastic features. First off, it's a digitally remastered razor sharp print in 2.35:1 Anamorphic Widescreen, secondly the soundtrack is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1 Audio for BOTH the dubbed English language version, plus it includes the original Cantonese soundtrack. WOW....those kicks and punches now reverberate through my surround sound system with real cracks and thuds. ( Most other versions are either mono only, or Dolby Digital 2.0 mono ! )
There's also a wonderful audio commentary by martial arts practitioner and cinema guru, Bey Logan, which is both informative and entertaining, an animated biography showcase, the HK & UK theatrical trailers, and four photo galleries. Plus to cap it all off, there are recent interviews with two of Bruce Lee' s co-stars from "The Chinese Connection" aka "Fist of Fury", Tony Liu and Max Lee. To the best of my knowledge, the Media Asia / Hong Kong Legends version is only available in Region 2 and Region 4 DVD, however that's no issue if you have a multi zone DVD player. So, if you want to see Bruce Lee's finest film, in its best presentation to date, then definitely hunt down the Media Asia / Hong Kong Legends DVD release...it's readily available on the Amazon UK website. The Media Asia / HK Legends DVD version is worth ten stars !!
Movie Review: Another good movie for the legend........
Summary: 4 Stars
Reviewing Bruce Lee films is not easy. On one hand, you have a legend of martial arts who is a good actor. On the other hand, you have terrible scripts, horrid supporting acting, TERRIBLE voice dubbing, and just odd little tidbits that hurt the film. If you go into these movies with the right frame of mind, I think everyone can enjoy them. I can see how some people can be turned off by them, however. I mean it's not like Bruce can fight all 100 min.Like his first film (Fists Of Fury), this movie is basically about revenge. Bruce comes back to his martial arts school to find his teacher has been killed and a rival Japanese school is responsible. His school prides itself on avoiding conflict as much as possible and only fights when it has to. He, on the other hand, wants to avenge the death of his teacher and teach the bad guys a lesson.
Like I said before, the acting is pretty much terrible with a couple exceptions. Bruce and his leading lady have some nice, romantic parts that are watchable. But, like his other Hong Kong films, it's all just there to give Bruce an excuse to kick some ass. And that he does very well.
One of his most famous on-screen fight scenes takes place in this movie. He literally takes a whole Japanese kung-fu school on by himself. And wins. He also fights a sword-wielding bad guy with just his hands and feet. He fights a huge russian (His name is actually Robert Baker and was one of Bruce's students at the time) that can bend steel pipes with his bare hands. I think you get the idea. The fight scenes are better in this movie than they were in Fists Of Fury. This is the one that amazed people and really started the Bruce Lee phenomenon. Highly recommended for any martial arts fan and essential for any Bruce Lee freak, like myself.
The DVD itself is bare bones. The boxed set does come with a 5th disc containing and documentary, so it somewhat makes up for the lack of extras on this disc.