The Chinese Connection - Definition and Overview

Fist of Fury (《精武門》aka The Chinese Connection in the U.S., not to be confused with Fists of Fury) was Bruce Lee's second major film after his meteoric rise to stardom in The Big Boss. It tells the story of a Chinese Kung Fu school in Shanghai which is victimised by a Japanese Judo school (虹口道場 of 鈴木太郎) and Bruce Lee's ensuing fight back.

The film was based on the true story of Chen Zhen (陳真), a martial art student of the legendary master Huo Yuanjia (霍元甲), in the year 1910 right after the mysterious death of the master.

This film is famous for its scene wherein Bruce Lee's character is denied entry into a park bearing a sign saying "No Dogs and Chinese Allowed" (the film is set during the occupation of Shanghai by several foreign countries including Japan.) Bruce Lee's character, infuriated as an attendant allows a foreigner's Dog to enter the park, kicks the sign into the air then breaks it with a flying kick.

The U.S. title The Chinese Connection, trading off the popularity of the recently-released Gene Hackman film The French Connection, was originally intended for Bruce Lee's previous film, The Big Boss, due to the drugs theme of that movie. However, the U.S. titles for the films were swapped for an unknown reason so this film has carried the title The Chinese Connection ever since, despite being obviously unrelated to the content of the movie. The Big Boss in the U.S. had the title Fists of Fury, leading to much confusion.

Trivia

Sync Sound was not widely used in Hong Kong cinema until the 1990s so the voices even on the original Chinese soundtrack for this movie were dubbed. On the Chinese track, listen for the voice of the Russian fighter when he speaks English. It is none other than Bruce Lee himself (with added reverb).

Example Usage of Connection