First I will say that, yes I did enjoy Bruce Lee's "Fist of Fury", but I also enjoyed this pseudo-sequel as well. There wasn't all that much reference back to the first movie if you look at it, sure Chen Zhen was mentioned, as was Jing Wu, but beyond that, then there wasn't all that much reference. And I found that "New Fist of Fury" was actually an adequate movie in itself. Watch it for what it is, a Kung Fu movie meant for entertaining.

The story is fairly simple, a young man living as a thief comes to be forced into learning Kung Fu at the Jing Wu academy during the time when Taiwan was occupied by Japanese troops. And this young man embodies the Taiwanese spirit and fights for an independent Taiwan, standing up to the Japenese occupational force.

Bear in mind that this is an early Jackie Chan movie, and it was before all the slapstick comedy became his trademark, so this is a more serious Kung Fu movie compared to most other of his movies. Being a movie from 1976, you of course have the odd sound effects during the Kung Fu scenes and fairly questionable acting compared to today's standards.

There was a good amount of nice fighting throughout the movie, however I think the last showdown, the climax of the movie, was actually a little bit too much drawn out, taking a bit too long to finish. And then the scene when the movie ends was rather anti-climatic.

The movie in itself is a well worthy addition to any Jackie Chan fan's DVD collection, especially because it is outside of the usual slapstick comedy genre of Kung Fu.

It's the Japanese occupied Taiwan. A Lung (Jackie Chan) is a thief and gets into a fight with two Japanese warriors. Mao Li Er arrives from Shanghai with her brothers on a mission to avenge brother Chen. She loses a box stolen by A Lung. She is disappointed that her grandfather is not fighting against the occupiers. The Japanese master Okimura taunts them and her grandfather dies while defending their honor. Mao Li Er decides to reopen her kung fu school. A Lung is angered by the arrogance of the Japanese and leads a resistance to learn kung fu. Mao Li Er teaches him the Fist of Fury.

I watched the 105 minutes version. Director Wei Lo returns to the Bruce Lee masterpiece with this sequel starring a young Jackie Chan. He's not doing a lot of his trademark humor. In fact, he does the serious chopstick bundle speech and walks through the town as a Christ-like figure. There is even a flash of Bruce Lee to hammer in the comparison. Quite frankly, that's the emotional high point of the movie and it shows some charisma from Jackie Chan. The film ends with a series of nice acrobatic fights. The fights are great and nicely shot. This is more than a Bruceploitation especially with a lead like Jackie Chan. Even at that point, his star quality is undeniable.

Jackie Chan's first leading role is in this disappointing follow-up to Bruce Lee's FIST OF FURY, although sadly it bears little resemblance to the former movie. Instead it is a long-winded and slowly paced movie, with a threadbare plot dragged to boredom point at frequent intervals. The story involves the Japanese ruling over the Chinese in Taiwan, but for the first hour and a half there is little action to recommend things and the production values and dubbing are as terrible as ever.

However, things do definitely pick up for the film's finale, which is the only saving grace really. It sees a newly-trained Chan battling against various Japanese killers and assassins. The finale does indeed offer plentiful violence and lots of cool martial arts moves, and to make things better there's a twist ending which comes totally out of left field and will make your jaw drop to the ground. Other than that, this is threadbare entertainment indeed, and the stuffy direction from Lo Wei makes it a really hard watch.