The Chinese Connection

 

(themoviedb.org)

FIST OF FURY-1972-Chen Zhen (Bruce Lee) seeks revenge for the death of his teacher. Within the first 20 minutes he beats a whole Japanese Bushido school. Unfortunately, the Japanese ransack Chen's school and beat everyone up. Chen is asked to leave Shanghai but instead becomes an elusive avenger, picking off the men responsible for his teacher's death. Suzuki (Riki Hashimoto), the evil Japanese master, wants Chen stopped. He hires a Russian strongman (Robert Baker; Lee's student and friend) but that doesn't work. Chen kills them all but not before most of his school is wiped out. 

Also with Lee's two THE BIG BOSS co-stars Maria Yi and James Tien and Nora Miao. In the US it was known as THE CHINESE CONNECTION and was once again written and directed by Lo Wei (who also appears as a police man). He and Lee didn't see eye to eye on everything and argued constantly. According to Jackie Chan who did some stunts for the film, he saw Lee and Wei nearly come to blows till Wei backed down. Raymond Chow again was the producer. 

FIST OF FURY was the highest grossing Hong Kong film ever, until it was topped by Lee's next film, THE WAY OF THE DRAGON.

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Boss Lee

 

 (imdb)

THE BIG BOSS-1971-Cheng Chao-An (Bruce Lee) and his uncle (Chia Chen-Tu) visit his cousins in Thailand. He had promised his mother he wouldn't fight so he lets cousin Hsu (James Tien) do most of the fighting when they come across bullies and gangsters. They all work at an ice factory. When two cousins discover that the icehouse is really pushing dope, the manager has them killed and dismembered. When Hsu accuses the factory boss (Ying Chien Han) of killing his friends, he's killed by the boss' son (Tony Liu) in a bloody fight. After Cheng is made the foreman, Mei (Maria Yi) and his other cousins think he's sold out. Nearly everyone dies before Cheng and The Boss have their bloody showdown. 

This was Bruce Lee's first starring role and became one of the biggest hits in Hong Kong film history. Ironically, James Tien was originally cast in the Lee role but when the director left the project and writer Wei Lo became director, the actors' roles were reversed. In the US, it was confusingly called “Fists of Fury” (the title of Lee's next Hong Kong based movie). 

Lo went on to make many more movies including early Jackie Chan productions. A Golden Harvest release, Raymond Chow was the executive producer.

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