Fists of Fury
Brief Synopsis
Cast & Crew
Lo Wei
Bruce Lee
Maria Yi
Han Ying Chieh
Tony Liu
Paul Tien
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
Kung-fu master protects his family and friends from drug traffickers.
Director
Lo Wei
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Just keep away. Go on. It's not your fight.- Cheng Chao-an
Beat it or I'll kill you right now.- Cheng Chao-an
Why Cheng, you're a pretty good fighter.- Hsiu Chen
A few tricks from back home. You know I broke a promise. Never to fight again.- Cheng Chao-an
Alright! Hold it! Now you get out of here, I'm warning you. You bastards can't push us around. If you wanna fight, I'll take you on.- Cheng Chao-an
I had an idea you'd be snooping around. Father told you to mind your own business.- Mi's son
Now I know the whole story.- Cheng Chao-an
Listen buddy you're not going anywhere. So you know. So what? You're heading for the freezer.- Mi's son
Why hasn't my son come back? Go over to the factory and see if you can locate him. Hurry up.- Mi
Trivia
If you pay attention through the movie, you can tell when or not Cheng will kill in a fight. When it's just a "fun" fight, he would wear either brown or blue pants with a t-shirt and a blue sash. But in a serious fight, he'd wear a long sleeve shirt with black pants and a white sash. This may be because in Chinese culture, white is a symbol of death.
The infamous saw scene (mentioned in the alternate versions section) apparently was shown only once to an open public and that was the film's original premiere in the fall of 1971 in Hong Kong. Co-star Maria Yi herself said it was present in the film, but didn't look very realistic. Ironically, this was part of the rumor for years as to why the scene was never shown again.
The international (English) title of this film was "The Big Boss". In the United States the English dubbed version was originally to be released under the title "The Chinese Connection", a play on the title of the highly popular film French Connection, The (1971). For some reason the title was changed to "Fists of Fury". As a result, to avoid confusion with Bruce Lee's following film Jing wu men (1972) (known elsewhere in the world as "Fist of Fury"), the latter film's title for its U.S. release became first "The Iron Hand" and then "The Chinese Connection".
In 1971, this was the highest grossing film of all time in Hong Kong, beating out American productions Sound of Music, The (1965) and Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970).
While not mentioned in the film, a few books released in the '70s at the time of the film's release mentioned that Cheng Chao An was forced to make his promise to his mother after his father was killed in a fight. In order to continue the family name, Cheng's mother wanted to make sure he would not fall to the same fate and that he'd live to raise his own family. Film historian Bey Logan even mentions this in an audio commentary.
Miscellaneous Notes
Released in United States 1973
Released in United States 1973
