Jing wu men (1972)

Director:

Wei Lo

Writer:

Wei Lo (screenplay)

Release Date:

22 March 1972 (Hong Kong)

Genre:

Action | Drama | Romance | Thriller

Tagline:

Bruce Lee is DYNAMITE! [UK]

Plot:

A young man seeks vengence for the death of his teacher.

Plot Keywords:

Japanese | Murder | Martial Arts | Honor | Katana Sword

Awards:

2 wins

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

Bruce Lee	...	Chen Zhen
Nora Miao	...	Yuan Le-erh (as Miao Ker Hsiu)
James Tien	...	Fan Chun-hsia
Maria Yi	...	Yen
Robert Baker	...	Petrov
Fu Ching Chen	...	Chao
San Chin	...	Tung
Ying-Chieh Han	...	Feng Kwai-sher
Riki Hashimoto	...	Hiroshi Suzuki
Jun Katsumura	...	Suzuki's bodyguard
Chung-Hsin Huang	...	Tien
Kun Li	...	Hsu (as Quin Lee)
Feng Tien	...	Fan
Yin Chi Lee	...	Li
Tony Liu	...	Chin

Also Known As:

Fist of Fury (Hong Kong: English title) (UK)
Jing mo mun (Hong Kong: Cantonese title)
Laugh Track: Chinese Connection (USA) (video title (redubbed comic version))
School for Chivalry (Hong Kong: Mandarin title) (literal English title)
The Chinese Connection (USA)

Runtime:

Argentina:108 min | Germany:99 min | UK:102 min | USA:107 min | Hong Kong:102 min | France:95 min

Country:

Hong Kong

Language:

Mandarin | English

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Iceland:16 | New Zealand:M (re-rating, uncut) | New Zealand:R16 (original rating, cut version) | France:-12 | Portugal:M/16 | Finland:(Banned) (1978) | Finland:K-18 (DVD rating) | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Canada:14A | Hong Kong:IIB | Ireland:18 | Norway:18 (video premiere) | South Korea:15 | Spain:18 | Sweden:15 | UK:18 | USA:R | West Germany:18

Filming Locations:

Hong Kong, China

Company:

Golden Harvest Company

Trivia:

Steve Martin allegedly plays one of the police man who shoots Lee at the end of the film, though he has never been credited with this role. The legitimacy of this rumor is debatable.

Goofs:

Miscellaneous: When Bruce is spinning the two Bushido students in the Bushido school, they are clearly two lightweight dummies.

Quotes:

Petrov: [Suzuki want's to kill Chen but Petrov stops him] Let me take care of him.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in American Pie Presents Beta House (2007) (V)

Lee's most conventional martial arts film, but still classic stuff

The second of the Bruce Lee-starring movies is in terms of plot a lot less interesting than the first. Here, we have the 'student sets out to avenge his master's death' which was already the major storyline of most martial arts films. However, it is handled in a more realistic way then usual and technically it is far superior. Lee was allowed to choreograph his own fights and his battle with Japanese martial artists in their school and climactic duels with a Russian boxer and a Japanese swordsman remains classic fight scenes.

The film drags somewhat in the middle although the lengthy dialogue scene between Lee and his girlfriend was another step forward for the Hong Kong martial arts movie, vivid proof that Lee was a pretty good ACTOR. By contrast, Lee's final farewell to his girlfriend is all the more powerful for being done completely without dialogue at all. The ending is the most powerful and moving of all the Lee films, the final freeze frame managing to encapsulate Lee's grace and power in a single shot.

Many mock Lee's films as being silly and just consisting of fighting. Both accusations are completely untrue. They have far less fights than most films of this kind and, at least in the three Hong Kong films he made, there is a clear message that violence does not solve anything. They may not have the polish of the more recent works of Jackie Chan and Jet Lee but their power remains undiminished, as long as of course one does not watch the awful dubbed versions!