Fist of Fury
(1972)
aka The Chinese Connection
Chinese Title: 精武門
Tradução: Ching Woo School
Cast: Bruce Lee, Nora Miao, Tien
Feng, James Tien, Riki Hashimoto, Wei Ping-Ao, Feng Ngai, Maria Yi, Hang
Ying-Chieh, Lo Wei
Director: Lo Wei
Action Director: Han Ying-Chieh,
Bruce Lee
Interestingly enough, the portrayal of the Japanese fighters in this movie is decidedly less racist than it would be in subsequent “chopsockey” movies. For one, the most derogatory thing said about the Japanese characters is that they “look like vampires[1].” And while the Japanese are portrayed as extremely brutal fighters, they are nonetheless in the employee of a Chinese person, which softens the racism a bit, as it points out that the Chinese’ worst enemy is ultimately their own countrymen.
At the same time, the way they are portrayed in this film comes across as a backhanded compliment of sorts: when the main Chinese villain shows up in the beginning, he has mastered that Japanese martial art of judô and proceeds to manhandle the entire school until the master shows up and teaches him a lesson. With that scene, Wang Yu inadvertently suggests that for all of its merits against other Chinese fighters, or unskilled fighters in general, kung fu is an inferior martial art compared to Japanese styles. This is compounded by establishing that the karate masters are not only better than the Chinese kung fu master, but that only a combination of different esoteric styles is enough to defeat karate. That approach to the story subtely undermines the power of Chinese kung fu, and recent matches between traditional kung fu masters and MMA fighters—who routinely incorporate judô or jiu-jitsu into their repertoire—suggest that Wang Yu was onto something, even if it wasn’t the exact message he wanted to convey.
A year later, the low-budget film Duel of Karate came out of Taiwan. The first hour of the movie is essentially a remake of The Chinese Boxer, with the Japanese fighters once more being in the employ of a Chinese villain. The film isn’t so dismissive of kung fu, however, and our hero dispatches all of the Japanese opponents by the end of the second act. That same year, another Taiwanese effort, a wuxia film called Duel with Samurai was released. The story, which revolves around a group of samurai with nigh-magical powers running amok around the Chinese countryside, establishes the Japanese as being an independent threat to China and Chinese martial arts. As villains, the Japanese are portrayed as cold-blooded killers who fight their victims on unfair terms, and occasionally as rapists as well. Much like The Chinese Boxer, it is only through a secret esoteric swordplay technique that our hero is able to defeat the villain at the end.
This brings us to March of 1972 and the release of Bruce Lee’s sophomore kung fu extravaganza Fist of Fury. A huge hit in Asia at the time of its release and an influential film in the genre to this day, Fist of Fury drew on the negative feelings that many Chinese people had for Japan and Japanese people at the time, much of which still exists to this day. The story follows the mysterious death of Huo Yuanjia[2], a real-life martial arts master and founder of the famous Ching Woo Academy, which exists to this very day and has branches in several different countries. His top student, Chen Zhen (played by Lee), refuses to believe that his master would just keel over dead and suspects foul play, tracing his murderers back to the Japanese Hongkew School. The film is set in the international territory of Shanghai in 1910, thus for all of Chen Zhen’s physical talents, he’s ultimately no match for his enemies’ diplomatic power and sway over the local authorities. The film ends with a final, fatal act of defiance of Chen Zhen in the face of Japanese treachery, a sad reminder of how the Chinese were often treated like second-class citizens in their own country.
Indeed, I may be justified in suggesting that Chinese people were treated like third-class citizens. In an early scene, Chen Zhen visits Huangpu Park and is stopped at the entrance by an Indian guard, who points him to a sign that reads, “No Dogs or Chinese Allowed.” Immediately, we see a British couple entering the park with their dog. Chen Zhen points out the discrepancy in the guard’s partial enforcement of the park rules, which goes ignored. At that moment, a Japanese man—played by Yuen Wah, who studied with Jackie Chan at the same Peking Opera Academy and even did some acrobatic doubling for Bruce Lee in Enter the Dragon—offers to let Chen Zhen in the park if he agrees to follow him, walking on all fours like a dog(!). Obviously, this is a Bruce Lee film, so the scene ends with him beating the holy hell out of his mockers, but the sad reality is there for all to see.
Throughout the film, the powerlessness of the Chinese against the international laws that govern the international territory in Shanghai is evident, even when the Japanese aren’t actively oppressing the locals. Even the local inspector, played by director Lo Wei, finds himself succumbing to the pressure of both the head of the Hongkew School, Mr. Suzuki (Riki Hashimoto, best known for wearing the monster suit in the Japanese Daimajin films), and the Japanese consulate. The Ching Woo School, who have nothing to do with Chen Zhen’s renegade actions against the Japanese, are forced to shoulder the blame, given the ultimatum to turn in their friend or be closed (and maybe even arrested as well).
It is this injustice— the double standard of the Chinese laws being subject to pressure from foreign powers, while those foreign powers were free to work around their own laws with absolute impunity—that most likely spoke more to the hearts and minds of the Chinese audiences than its fight scenes. After all, the entire concept of the Shanghai International Settlement grew out of an injustice, namely the British Opium Wars waged against China in the first half of the 19th century. While initially a merger of British and American settlements, the Shanghai International Settlement was eventually administered by a council of diginitaries of other nations, including Germany, France and Denmark. Imperial Japan also joined the “club” in the early 20th century, and by the end of World War I, had the largest number of citizens living in the settlement. They quickly grew in power, ultimately surpassing the British. By the 1930s, the Japanese army had invaded Shanghai and a Japanese police force was set up to enforce Japanese laws within the settlement. By the time the United States got involved with World War II in 1941, the Japanese had exclusive control over the settlement.
During the 1930s, there was much conflict between the Japanese military and Chinese revolutionaries in and around the settlement. Despite the resistance, the Japanese ultimately took over the entirety of Shanghai and other key cities, including its then-capital of Nanjing. The latter event resulted in The Rape of Nanjing, a Japanese military offensive in 1937 that resulted in the death of about 300,000 Chinese civilians living in the capital, plus the widespread raping of Chinese women and looting of local businesses. The Japanese would continue to occupy China—despite resistance from both Communist and Nationalist forces—until 1945, when they lost the War. While this movie is set before many of those historical events, there’s no doubt that many adult viewers were reminded of those incidents as they watched this film. In that case, the pent-up rage and subsequente explosion of violence instigated by Chen Zhen must’ve been cathartic to Chinese audiences. The film doesn’t change history and make Chen Zhen responsible for kicking the Japanese out of Shanghai, as his actions come with a cost for him and others at the end. But those viewers who carried traumatic memories of the war were at least afforded the opportunity to see some of their tormentors suffer retribution at the hands of another Chinese citizen: the fictional character of Chen Zhen.
Unlike The Chinese Boxer and Duel with Samurai, the Japanese martial artists in Fist of Fury are not portrayed as being invincible. In the film’s first and most iconic fight sequence, Chen Zhen enters the Hongkew Dojo and proceeds to beat up every single student, including the instructor (played by Chinese actor Fung Ngai). It’s significant that Chen Zhen’s character at this point is established only as being Huo Yuanjia’s most zealous student, but not a master of any style different from what his colleagues are training in. Later on, when the Hongkew Dojo attacks the Ching Woo Academy, the Chinese students are able to get their licks in, getting beaten mainly when getting double teamed or contending with the instructor. Thus, the enemy isn’t Japanese karate per se, but the diplomatic power and hypocritical administration of the International Settlement behind it that empowered the Japanese.
There are dozens, if not hundreds, of kung fu movies produced in Hong Kong, Taiwan and the People’s Republic of China, plus a dozen more produced in South Korea, that portray the Japanese in a negative light. The Chinese Boxer (1970) started the trend, but it was the runaway success of Fist of Fury that really made it popular. It wouldn’t be until 1978 that director Lau Kar-Leung saw fit to portray both Japanese people and Japanese martial arts in a more respectful light, with his magnum opus Heroes of the East. That film also was the first to point out that racist attitudes directed at the Japanese ultimately did more harm than good. Few films followed its example, most notably Fist of Legend with Jet Li. At what point the wounds of the past will completely heal and the atrocities committed by the Japanese will be left in the past we do not know. For now, this cliché, as hoary as it’s become, will continue to be one of the major tropes of martial arts films made for the Jade Screen.
[1] - Jimmy Wang Yu would take this a
step further in his 1972 opus The One
Armed Boxer, by casting Taiwanese actor Lung Fei as an Okinawan karate
expert who sports a pair of fangs(!).
[2] - The story of Huo Yuanjia is
told/sensationalized in classic films like Legend
of a Fighter (1982) and Fearless (2006),
and in popular TV series like The
Legendary Fok (1981).
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