Fist of Fury
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An international success for martial arts cinema, carved from historical material, fueled by heart-stopping fight choreography, and centered around Bruce Lee’s talent and charisma. Set in early twentieth-century Shanghai, Chen Zhen is devastated to find that his martial arts master and Chinese folk hero Huo Yuanjia has died. When members of a Japanese colonialist dojo insult the deceased, it’s time for the Fist of Fury to strike. While Bruce Lee was ultimately displeased that the movie leans (well, kicks and punches, rather) in a nationalist direction, it marked the first time we saw him in top form (with nunchucks, no less!). Legendary!
35mm print courtesy of the collection of the Austrian Film Museum.
O P E N E R
THE LITTLE DRAGON
Der kleine Drache
Christian Fuchs AT 1980 | 15′ | dOV
The short tumultuous life of Bruce Lee, neatly packaged into a mini-documentary straight out of the Styrian boondocks. Along with footage from daddy’s trips to Hong Kong, the piece comes to life with glorious fight reenactments. The director talked apprentices in the parental bakery into donning the famous yellow Lee attire and (fake-)kicking the shit out of each other.
(* 1918 in Jiangsu Province, China, †2020 in Hong Kong) was an actor and director, known for Jing wu men (1972) and Tang shan da xiong (1971), both with Bruce Lee, and Huang mian lao hu (1974) with Chuck Norris.
