La Vengeance aux poings d'acier

FIST OF FURY III is the third and final entry in the series of films that started with the Bruce Lee hit. This one features my favourite Bruce Lee impersonator, Bruce Li, in a storyline which basically copies that of the original with a few twists. Li is an upstanding young character who falls foul of some Japanese thugs when his family members and in particular his girlfriend are threatened by them.

The makers of this one deserve kudos for bringing back the hateful Japanese translator from the original film as one of the top villains, as he's as slimy as ever. Otherwise, the film is a bit on the ordinary side. There are plenty of fight scenes here, which keep you watching but are far from memorable or even that exciting. Li has the moves but it seems the director is more interested in making his film on both the cheap and in a hurry, so there's little in the way of slickness or professionalism here.

Things only pick up for the climax which makes great use of some 'dark and stormy night' atmosphere and made me realise how few martial arts films actually utilise rain and bad weather to their advantage. Li brings out the "fingers of death" method from THE BIG BOSS at one point, but otherwise the film is quite tame and predictable, the sort you'd watch once but never go back to.