Bruce Lee - Death greetings from Shanghai

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Movie
German title Greetings from Shanghai
Original title Jing knew
Country of production Hong Kong
original language Cantonese
Publishing year 1972
length 115 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Lo Wei
script Bruce Lee , Lo Wei
production Raymond Chow
music Wang Fu-Ling , Joseph Koo
camera Chen Ching-Chu
cut Chung Yao Chung
occupation
synchronization
chronology

Successor  →
Two fists stronger than Bruce Lee

Bruce Lee - Death Greetings from Shanghai (also known as Bruce Lee: The Avenger's Fist and Fist of Fury , original title: Jing wu men ) is a Chinese martial arts film directed by Lo Wei from 1972 with Bruce Lee in the lead role.

action

The film begins with information about the real Chinese folk hero Huo Yuanjia who lived from 1868 to 1910 . A fictional story of the background to his death and the events that led to the investigation of the murder committed is then told.

Shanghai , early 20th century. China is partially occupied by the Japanese . Chen-Zhen , a student at the Chinese Huo School, returns to his training facility, but is bitter to discover that his master has died. During the funeral ceremony, grief drives him almost insane, and it is difficult to keep him from opening the coffin.

Huo officially died of pneumonia, which Chen refuses to accept. His classmates are also suspicious, but urge caution. At the funeral there is a scandal when ambassadors from a competing Japanese school disrupt the ceremony. The situation can be cleared up quickly, but the temperamental Chen cannot just dismiss the insult and goes to the Japanese school on his own. There he has a fight with the local students. The vanquished seek revenge, in turn go to the Huo school and beat both the students and the furniture short and sweet. They also demand the surrender of Chen, otherwise they threaten the police to close the school. When Chen returns a little later, his fellow students are very angry about what happened.

To prevent further riots and also to protect Chen himself, they want to bring him out of town and hide him. Chen does not agree with this at first, but then goes on to protect the school and especially his classmate Yuan, whom he loves, from the Japanese. The night before he fled, Chen accidentally overheard two employees at his school and unmasked them as Japanese who had sneaked into the school. They confess to murdering Huo, and Chen kills them in anger. At the same time, he finds evidence that the Japanese school is behind the plan.

The Japanese, angry about the murder of their people, then put pressure on the local police through the Japanese embassy . An inspector forced the gun to the chests of the Huo students: they would have to hand Chen over, otherwise the school would be closed and everyone would be arrested. Since the Huo students themselves do not know where Chen is, Yuan goes looking for him and finds him: Chen is still bitterly working on a plan of revenge.

During a Japanese festival, attended by the Russian fighter Petrov, among others , Chen in a disguise adjusts the secretary of the Japanese school, another conspirator. Before he kills him, Chen obtains the information he is looking for: Huo was poisoned on the orders of the Japanese school principal Suzuki.

What then follows is characterized by the absence of important people. Due to the absence of the older Huo-Eleven, the Japanese students carry out a massacre at their school and kill the pupils. At the same time, Chen enters the abandoned Japan school and kills the students who remain there. In the school garden there is a showdown between Chen and Petrov, Chen emerges as the winner. When he can also kill the headmaster, he sees his revenge as successful.

When the older Huo students come back and see the many bodies, they are deeply dismayed. Because of the Japanese deaths, the inspector comes to the school accompanied by the Japanese ambassador. The ultimatum has expired and the Japanese are furious and demand that Chen be surrendered. Since the students still do not know where Chen is, the inspector has no choice but to arrest everyone. Chen himself arrives at school at the same moment. He overhears the conversation and realizes that only he can end the smoldering conflict and save his friends. Chen turns himself in to the authorities on condition that the Huo School is spared further reprisals, and goes into captivity by the Japanese. However, this only lasts for a short time, as Chen jumps towards the police shooters waiting to fire and is shot.

criticism

“In the mutilated theatrical version that was originally shown in this country, the story of this film seems as poor as it is irrelevant, as a mere foil for the usual sequence of acts of violence and murders, this time combined with a strong nationalistic tendency. The integral version created by ZDF, however, enables a better understanding of this - reactionary - attitude [...]. Bruce Lee's strongest, because it is the most closed film. "

- Lexicon of international film

background

  • Chen's master was Huo Yuanjia (Cantonese: Fok Yuen-gap), who, along with Wong Fei Hung, is considered one of the greatest folk heroes in China. Jet Li later played Chen (actually Chen-zhen) played by Bruce Lee in Fist of Legend and his master Huo Yuanjia in Fearless .
  • Fist of Fury was the second work of the successful trio Lee / Chow / Lo. Planned as the successor to the first work The Big Boss (premiere: October 31, 1971), director Lo Wei wrote the script almost overnight, and with the commitment of the entire film crew, Fist of Fury was premiered on March 22, 1972. The film exceeded the expectations placed on it.
  • With this film , Bruce Lee set new standards with regard to the representation of battle scenes . For the first time he used nunchucks that the audience had not seen before. Chen's more or less racist expression is also striking , but only in the German language version, not in the English version.
  • Jackie Chan had one of his first cinema appearances in "Fist of Fury". He doubled the Suzuki actor when Lee finally kicked him through a wall of paper. Lee had himself doubled in one scene doing a somersault while fighting a Japanese school instructor. Otherwise he carried out his fights alone, which he also choreographed himself.
  • The actor Yuen Biao has an extra role in the film. Director Lo Wei is involved in the film and plays the police inspector.
  • According to historical sources, there was a real Chen-Zhen who actually managed to escape at the time. Bruce Lee himself decided, however, to let this one heroic death die because of the high level of violence on the part of Chene. The fight against Petrov is also based on real backgrounds. It goes back to the challenge of a Russian fighter to Huo Yuanjia, which he accepted.
  • Main film flaws: A close-up of the eyes shows Lee's contact lenses. When entering a park, a couple in 1970s clothing walks through the picture.
  • The 1977 film Tschang Fu - The Hammer of Death is also known as Fist of Fury II . In this, Bruce Li avenged the death of his brother, Bruce Lee.
  • Bruce Lee stopped working with Lo Wei after this film. Reasons were the nationalistic undertone of the film and the exaggerated demonization of the Japanese from Lee's point of view. Wei is also said to have made racist remarks on the set several times.

German marketing

  • Fist of Fury has so far been released in the version Bruce Lee - Death Greetings from Shanghai . In this cut, the film was heavily shortened and concentrated almost exclusively on the action scenes.
  • In 1993 ZDF broadcast its own version. Under the title Bruce Lee - The Avenger's Fist , a version of the film was broadcast which, apart from a few removed sequences (including cuts during the battles against Petrov and Suzuki), almost corresponded to the original Asian version. In addition to a completely new dubbing (instead of Elmar Wepper , Lee was now dubbed by Rainer Schmitt ), the film also got a different, shorter credits. During the opening credits and closing credits, the theme song Fist of Fury is sung in English. At death greetings from Shanghai it could still be heard in the Cantonese original.
  • In 2011, Fist of Fury , like the other films by and with Bruce Lee, was released for the first time in full and unabridged on Blu-Ray. Optionally, both the original German and the ZDF synchronization is included here. The scenes that were missing in the original version (e.g. Huo's funeral right at the beginning) are underlaid with the ZDF synchronization.

synchronization

role actor Speaker
theatrical version		 Spokesman for the
ZDF version
Chen Zhen Bruce Lee Elmar Wepper Rainer Schmitt
Yuan Le-erh Nora Miao Susanne Uhlen Pia Werfel
Fan Chun Hsia James Tien Fred Klaus Nicolas King
Petrov Robert Baker Ulrich Bernsdorff
Hiroshi Suzuki Riki Hashimoto Wolf Ackva Horst Stark
Wu Ping-ao Wei Gerd Martienzen Harald Halgardt
inspector Lo Wei Walter Reichelt Henning Schlueter
Hsu Kun Li Wolfgang Draeger

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Bruce Lee - Greetings from Shanghai. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed October 28, 2018 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  2. ↑ schnittberichte.com, accessed on May 18, 2017
  3. ↑ Cinema synchronization in the German dubbing index
  4. ^ ZDF synchronization in the German dubbing index