New Fist of Fury

New Fist of Fury is a martial arts film directed by Late Lo Wei. The film stars Jackie Chan, Nora Miao and Chan Sing.

Lung, a thief, is unwillingly hired by Lier, fiance of Chen Cen, to help her save her martial arts school from the Japanese. However, Lung must first master the martial arts to prove his worth.

The film can be termed as a film with decent plot and an abrupt ending. The film which is the second part of Late Bruce Lee's Fist of Fury the film serves a huge disappointment specially for those for were looking for some martial arts action film.

The acting in the film is decent although Jackie Chan who tries to look funnier and acted as a punching bag in the first half of the film disappoints. Nora Miao carries the same face throughout the film. Chan Sing as the main villain was impressive.

Screenplay of the film is topsy turvy as the film gives lots of false hope of some serious or great fight which you didn't see until the climax which surely has some violent action scenes but with a atypical ending.

Overall a film which raise your expectations sky high and ends in an disappointment.

First I will say that, yes I did enjoy Bruce Lee's "Fist of Fury", but I also enjoyed this pseudo-sequel as well. There wasn't all that much reference back to the first movie if you look at it, sure Chen Zhen was mentioned, as was Jing Wu, but beyond that, then there wasn't all that much reference. And I found that "New Fist of Fury" was actually an adequate movie in itself. Watch it for what it is, a Kung Fu movie meant for entertaining.

The story is fairly simple, a young man living as a thief comes to be forced into learning Kung Fu at the Jing Wu academy during the time when Taiwan was occupied by Japanese troops. And this young man embodies the Taiwanese spirit and fights for an independent Taiwan, standing up to the Japenese occupational force.

Bear in mind that this is an early Jackie Chan movie, and it was before all the slapstick comedy became his trademark, so this is a more serious Kung Fu movie compared to most other of his movies. Being a movie from 1976, you of course have the odd sound effects during the Kung Fu scenes and fairly questionable acting compared to today's standards.

There was a good amount of nice fighting throughout the movie, however I think the last showdown, the climax of the movie, was actually a little bit too much drawn out, taking a bit too long to finish. And then the scene when the movie ends was rather anti-climatic.

The movie in itself is a well worthy addition to any Jackie Chan fan's DVD collection, especially because it is outside of the usual slapstick comedy genre of Kung Fu.

It was a mistake in trying to model Jackie Chan as the new Bruce Lee. There will only be one Bruce Lee. "Golden Harvest" attempted to make Chan's character in "New Fist of Fury" another version of Chen Chen (Lee) from the previous "Fist of Fury" movie. In the above film, Chan is angry, hard-edged and determined but none of that suited him. Jackie Chan needed a chance to develop his own personality and identity in the Asian film community. Eventually, he succeeded as we know. The plot picks up where "Fist of Fury" left off and the narrative here is a rambling mess! I can't be sure but I reckon the DVD I have of this movie is heavily edited. There is poor continuity and the film's depressing tone doesn't help. It is rather obvious that Chan and the school he belongs to, haven't a chance against their Japanese enemies. The film may have a generous dose of location shooting but that doesn't compensate for much. The fight scenes are still pretty good and at least they provide some distraction from the film's weaknesses.

Fairly drawn-out and sometimes frustrating Kung Fu film about the Japanese occupation of Taiwan. This film is not too bad, you just have to make it to the final reel - something that I expect only enthusiasts of this genre will do. So why is it frustrating? Well, Jackie (or Jacky as credited here), does virtually nothing until fellow Chinese literally drag him into a Kung Fu school in the last quarter of the (2 hour) film.

Sure, he has one action scene early in the film, but he succeeds only in getting pounded nicely by two Japanese fighters. A nice motive for him to learn Kung Fu, I thought. But I was wrong. He does nothing about it...

Anyway, this is one of the more coherent Wei Lo films, and the tension builds fairly steadily. The main villain played by Sing Chen is a believable and decidedly confronting and dangerous man - he's great.

The references to Bruce Lee are tastelessly rammed down your throat, but the final fight is great and suitably brutal. It's a good revenge story, with an unusual ending.

Somewhat a sequel (really in-name-only, although there are minor character references and the dangerous title name method gets used without the same affect) to Lo Wei's "Fist of Fury" that starred martial arts legend Bruce Lee, Wei would go on to direct having Jackie Chan on the main mantle, in what is a virtual remake in the political theme of China vs. Japan and certain story plots. Chinese academies fighting to stay alive against Japanese martial arts school. Spirited, but the impact and charisma of Chan just doesn't feel right. A young Chan is quite raw, in a more aggressive and vengeance-filled role. But it's far from a Jackie Chan vehicle, as he doesn't really come into play until midway through due to his character's reckless and carefree attitude that sees him constantly being beaten up. Still there are some outstanding martial art sequences, namely the final long-winded confrontation where it's brutal and bloody (and those nun-chucks get a work out) with an out-of-the-blue payoff that tries to be as iconic as the film it's wanting to be. Pacing can be a little uneven (excluding those kung-fu slow-motion shots), but director Wei keeps the story straight-forward adding enough interest and tension with Chan Sing making a terrific deadly opponent for Chan and Nora Miao is good too.