Hey! I promised it a while back, and now I’m delivering. A kung fu movie!

The Chinese Connection was Bruce Lee’s second really big film. It took a story that has been told at least a couple of times in Chinese cinema and gave it a great 70s aesthetic. My favorite line of the movie is when a Japanese man wags his finger in Lee’s face and boasts, “So! You must be tired of living!”

Called Jing wu men (or Fist of Fury) in China, this one’s story is loosely based on a rivalry in the early 20th century between the Chin Wu school in Shanghai and a Japanese judo school. The entire movie just fumes with racism, nationalism, and general nastiness. But, I’m getting ahead of myself.

Lee plays a character named Chen. Chen returns from some peregrination to find that his beloved master has died. Distraught, partially because he finds out by interrupting the interment of his master’s body, he casts himself onto the descending casket. The gathered mourners are shocked but sympathetic. They feel his pain, but they must proceeding with burying the master’s body. Finding Chen too strong to be merely pulled off the casket, they bash him on the head with a shovel to make him more compliant. Chen presumably awakens back in the school. Having recovered his senses, he still refuses to let his master’s death go. Even the counsel of his beautiful love interest–who physically kicks ass in a way that most Hollywood pretty faces aren’t allowed to–cannot comfort him. He has suspicions that his master was murdered.

It isn’t long before visitors from a Japanese martial arts school enter the picture. They, presumably having heard that the school’s master has died of some malady, bring a giant sign reading “Sick Man of Asia” to the school. They boast that Chinese people are weak, impotent, sickly, et cetera. The allusion to the late master is obvious. Chen nearly launches himself at the offending Japanese visitors, but the guidance of his peace-loving former master stays his hand. Later, though, whoa boy!

Chen takes the “Sick Man of Asia” sign to the Japanese school, mops the floor with every motherfucker in the room, and forces two of them to eat the paper of the sign. The violence only increases from there. He eventually kills–and I mean straight up murders–several people in his search for justice.

All the while, the Japanese are depicted as hopelessly debauched. There is a pretty amazing geisha strip tease. If you aren’t prepared to watch a woman strip down to nothing but pasties and a paper fan, you should probably fast forward that scene. It won’t take long. The Japanese also hang a sign outside their quarter of Shanghai that reads, “No dogs or Chinese allowed.” (In case you were wondering, Chen jump-kicks the sign in half and then attacks all the Japanese people around him.) Additionally, watch out for a Chinese actor wearing brown face so that he can play a Sikh. It’s amazing in a way that makes me a little uneasy.

If you recognize the story above, you’ve probably seen a Jet Li movie called Fist of Legend. That’s another amazing film, but it will have to wait for another day. The story itself has passed into something like folklore, and The Chinese Connection is an opportunity to see it told with a Bruce Lee flavor. Do you remember the love interest above? The one who kicks so much ass? There is a group fight scene toward the end in which she takes on multiple Japanese fighters, gets whacked repeatedly in the face and belly, and keeps on going. I totally fell in love.