The doors of the Jingwu Association burst open, Bruce Lee’s shrieking kiai pierces the night, in a final fatalistic act he throws a sidekick into a burst of machine gun fire. Thus ends the iconic Bruce Lee movie on the early history of the Jingwu Association. For many that movie is the first and most lasting impression they have of the Jingwu Association. My wife and I’s book on the Jingwu Association’s early years has recently been published and I took some time recently to watch that movie to see what aspects of its portrayal were accurate and which were movie hype.
The movie I am referring to is known in the west as “Fists of Fury” but its Chinese title is “Jingwu Men” or Jingwu Gate. The Jingwu Association was the single most important Chinese martial arts association of the Republican Period. The Jingwu was responsible for a number of developments in Chinese martial arts. One of these firsts was the fact the Jingwu Association was the first Chinese martial arts association to make movies of their martial arts activities and these 8mm movie reels as part of their program to promote Chinese martial arts both in China and in other parts of Asia. Sadly none of these movie reels survived.
What has survived is the interest in Jingwu movies. The three best known Jingwu movies are the one starring Bruce Lee and two more recent movies starring Jet Li. The two Jet Li movies that feature the Jingwu are; “Hero of Jingwu” and “Huo Yuanjia”, the latter was released in the U.S. as “Fearless”.
Turning to the Bruce Lee film, a number of the things shown in that film are fairly realistic, while other aspects of the film are normal “film hype” or entirely fictional. When I offer this critique of the film, I am fully aware of the fact that movies are entertainment and that nobody at Golden Harvest, the film company that made the film, claimed that the film was “historically accurate”. But in many odd ways it was.
One of the first things one notices about any Bruce Lee film is the ****iness, coolness and energy of Bruce Lee. In the movie Fist of Fury Bruce Lee struts around, is quick to ditch his top to better display his cut physique and at one point actually thumbs his nose at his opponents. And when it comes to fighting he is a fireball of youthful energy. In reality the Jingwu Association shared many of these same attributes. The Jingwu did present itself as a “young” and iconoclast organization. The Jingwu did “thumb its nose” at many of the traditional ways of thinking that they thought were holding China back. One of the main proponents of the Jingwu, a journalist named Chen Tiesheng, was quick in his articles to display the same kind of “attitude” that Bruce Lee displayed in the movie. Chen Tiesheng used a youthful, “cool and ****y” tone in his writings that attacked anyone who spoke against the Jingwu Association or its plans. Chen Tiesheng had ongoing media battles with a number of conservative Chinese writers over the issue of Chinese modernization.
Like the fictional character played by Bruce Lee, many of the real life early Jingwu proponents were quick to literally show their muscles. Many of the photographs of the early Jingwu events show Jingwu students flexing their muscles and training with weights. Although by modern standards none of the real life Jingwu students were “ripped”; nonetheless by Chinese standards of the early 1900s they were far more developed than the average.
In a related vein, in the movie Bruce Lee is always sharply dressed in his Jingwu uniform while in contract the enemies of the Jingwu are usually shown in some state of dishevelment. This is also true to historical reality. The real Jingwu Association prided itself on having its students and teachers looking sharp in their uniforms. The Jingwu presented itself as having a “fresh tailored style” that served to separate it from the dirty, disheveled look that had been the norm for Chinese martial artists of the late Qing.
To keep this post from getting too long let me just list some of the things shown in the movie and comment on the historical aspects of them:
Japanese poisoned Huo Yuanjia: No proof of this and not very likely. The number one weapon of the Japanese in Shanghai was money bribes. Japanese martial arts, in particular judo and jiujitsu, were a well established part of the Shanghai martial arts scene and there would be no reason to murder/poison an aging Northern Shaolin teacher even one as high profile as Huo.
Huo as founder of Jingwu: Not really. Huo was the “spiritual symbol” of the Jingwu but it can not be said in any realistic sense that he was a founder. The founders of the Jingwu were a group of middle class businessmen who all had ties with the New Culture Movement and the Kuomintang Political Party.
Women at the Jingwu: Fist of Fury is famous as being the only Bruce Lee movie where Bruce Lee kisses a girl who is one of his fellow students at the Jingwu. And it is true that the Jingwu had a women’s program but---the women and men did not train together. That would have been too much for even the progressive Jingwu Association to accept.
There are other interesting aspects to the movie but let me keep this post kind of short.
Take care,
Brian
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Originally Posted by taai gihk yahn
