New Fist of Fury (1976)

New Fist of Fury (1976) **/*****

One of Jackie Chan's earliest leading roles, a semi sequel to the Bruce Lee starring Fist of Fury (1972). Both films were directed Lo Wei under whom Jackie started leading man career under. Unfortunately Wei had no idea how to properly utilize his star. And that really shows in New Fist of Fury, Wei envisioned Jackie as the second coming of Bruce Lee, something that not only was a misguided venture, but also something Jackie didn't want. There was only Bruce Lee, and no one could replace him.

Just to be safe, there are spoilers ahead.. so read no further if you don't want the movie ruined. 

In direct contrast to the style that would come to define Jackie's career, New Fist of Fury is a straight forward martial arts drama. The Japanese are the defecto bad guys, which is a common and recurring theme in Chinese/Hong Kong martial arts films. They have the Japanese, and we, being the USA, have the Russians,  so it all works out. 

If this wasn't a Jackie ( Or Jacky as the subtitles proclaim) Chan, I'd probably really like this for what it is, a fairly well produced, if stereotypical, post Bruce lee, 70's kung fu movie. However, I was first introduced to 90's international superstar Jackie Chan  thanks to Rumble in the Bronx, Rush Hour, and the various butchered miramax releases of his movies. And that's the version I love the most. The 1980-2010 era Jackie was straight up gold to me. After 2010 he started to get a little more serious in his roles, and they started to have downer endings again.  And I usually dislike depressing endings. Which this movie has. 

This is one of my least favorite Jackie Chan movies, and there's not a lot I can say about it. It's not bad, it's just not what I want from a Jackie Chan movie. If you enjoy kung fu/martial arts movies, give this a spin and you may be surprised, on the other hand, if you are a JC fan, this is probably not your cup of tea and you should probably just skip it. 

As for the cast, and I am just using the listings on IMDB for this, which lists only 5 main cast members, including Jackie.

Nora Miao who appeared in  Bruce Lee movies, The Big Boss (1971), Way of the Dragon (1972), & Fist of Fury (1972). She also appeared in Snake and Crane Arts of Shaolin (1978) and Dragon Fist (1980) with Jackie Chan

Sing Chen (1936-2019) who appeared in countless films between in a career that spanned 1969-1993.  Memorable appearances include Bruce Li in New Guinea (1978),  Treasure of Bruce Lee (1979), Kung Fu of 8 Drunkards (1980) and more. His last notable appearance was in Double Impact (1991) simply credited as a Dockworker. 

Ying-Chieh Han (1927-1991), Also appeared in Big Boss (1971) and Fist of Fury (1972), and IMDB credits him in roles from 1950-1987. A sample of his credits are

A Touch of Zen (1971), Duel of the Seven Tigers (1979), Blood Sorcery (1986),

Ming Yi (1932-2009). IMDB only credits him from 1968-1980, with only a handful of credits past 1976. And there's not really a lot I know him from, or that are even on my watchlists. Mask of Death (1978)  is the sole title on my lists. The other titles I clicked on at random, were all in the romance genre. 

As a reminder, IMDB is not exhaustive, especially when it comes to asian cinema pre-90's. It's a good place to start, but I'd recommend using other sources to  look up credits and/or proper titles for the movies.