1972 • Hong Kong • Directed by Lo Wei

Bruce Lee’s second film for Golden Harvest, Fist of Fury, swiftly broke all the box office records set by his previous film The Big Boss, and launched one of the most iconic characters in Chinese action cinema in Chen Zhen, since played in other films by Jet Li and Donnie Yen.

Shanghai, 1910. Chen (Lee) returns from study abroad to find that his beloved martial arts teacher has died under mysterious circumstances. Chen immediately suspects members of a rival Japanese dojo, who bully his fellow students and denigrate the Chinese at every turn. Revenge on his mind, Chen starts a one-man war on the Japanese, making him public enemy number one – and he won’t go down without a fight!

Boasting many of Lee’s most iconic set pieces – not least when he tells his enemies that the Chinese are “not the sick men of Asia!” – Fist of Fury is a thrill-a-minute action spectacular that also turned out to be his final collaboration with director Lo Wei, who would attempt to launch the career of stuntman Jackie Chan (briefly seen in this film) a few years later in the sequel New Fist of Fury. This is the Mandarin version.