Fist of Fury

Shanghai, 1908. Chen Zhen comes back to his school and learns that his master Huo Yuanjia is dead. A group from the Japanese dojo arrives at the funeral and leaves a sign reading Sick Man of East Asia. Chen returns the sign, then learns his master was poisoned and starts settling accounts alone. It ends with his own death. Lo Wei directed, with Bruce Lee in his second major role. It opened on 22 March 1972. In North America it went out as The Chinese Connection because of a title mix-up; that name had been meant for Lee's previous film. On a 100,000 dollar budget it took an estimated 100 million dollars worldwide and was the highest-grossing Hong Kong film until Lee's The Way of the Dragon later the same year. The film goes straight at Japanese colonialism, and the park scene with the sign reading no dogs or Chinese allowed refers to real discrimination in Shanghai's International Settlement. The reviews were mixed. Variety called it naive and said it had little US commercial appeal while granting Lee's invincible heroics. Rotten Tomatoes now sits at 83 percent and Metacritic at 68. Who it is for: viewers curious about Bruce Lee and the turning points of martial arts cinema. Who it is not for: anyone uneasy with how the Japanese characters are handled. The film runs on nationalist anger and leaves the other side entirely flat.