Reviewed by: mrblue Date: 12/14/2007 After floundering around in the Hong Kong film industry for several years, Stephen Chow finally hit box office gold in 1990 with All for the Winner. Like most HK actors of the time who tasted a bit of success, Chow immediately found himself working almost non-stop. The results were a varied lot, but Chow once again scored a major hit with this film and solidified his star status. Unfortunately, Fist of Fury 1991 hasn't aged as well as some of Chow's other entries from this period, but it's still a fairly entertaining romp. Fist of Fury 1991 has Chow starring as Lau Ching, a Mainland bumpkin who travels to Hong Kong to meet his family. Soon upon arriving, Lau's belongings are stolen by a hustler named Smart (Kenny Bee). After a "loogie fight" (which is as gross as it sounds), the two become friends and decide to enter in a martial arts tournament, where Lau's powerful right arm (yes, that's right, just his right arm -- he's kind of a wuss everywhere else) will hopefully get them the $10 million prize. The trouble is that since Lau isn't sponsored by a school, he can't enter the tournament. After some failed attempts, Lau meets up with Master Fok (Corey Yuen). Fok's attention to his new ward makes his former prize pupil (Vincent Wan) jealous, and so Lau is set up for the attempted rape of Fok's daughter (Cheung Man). Kicked out form the school, Lau begins training with a group of strange old masters with the hope he can enter the tournament and redeem his name. Fist of Fury 1991 certainly has some funny moments. Of particular note is a sequence where Lau is sent in by his new teachers to rob a bank, which turns into a very canny parody of the A Better Tomorrow films. And though it is not a remake of the classic Bruce Lee movie per se, there's also some very nice homages. After watching this movie, it's pretty obvious that Stephen Chow has some furious blows to go along with his rapid-fire mouth. But with all the good Fist of Fury 1991 offers, there's just as much bad stuff. A lot of the jokes (which heavily depend on Cantonese puns) will fall flat on western audiences, especially given the poor subtitles on the DVD. The film also takes a much too serious turn during the third act. It's kind of hard to take a film seriously as a dramatic vehicle when the lead actor has just spent the last hour doing bathroom humor. There's also a lot of bloody violence that feels out of place. Still, this is Stephen Chow we're talking about here. Even though this is not his best work by any means, it's still a lot better than what passes for comedy, both in Hong Kong and in the States. If you're a fan of his work (or that of Bruce Lee), Fist of Fury 1991 is a solid movie that's well worth your time. [review from www.hkfilm.net] Reviewer Score: 6

Reviewed by: STSH Date: 11/13/2005 Summary: Tiresome - watch part II instead Kenny Bee is usually reliable as a screen presence, but this film partnership with Chow simply doesn't work. The first 30 minutes is tiresome and not funny, and I gave up after that. I am VERY glad that I saw Part II first. Fist Of Fury 1991 Part II ranks among Chow's outstanding work. See it instead of Part I. Reviewer Score: 2

Reviewed by: pjshimmer Date: 12/15/2003 very bad comedy from Stephen Chow. Corey Yuen Kwai is an asset, but the movie is nevertheless mediocre. [4/10]

Reviewed by: Sydneyguy Date: 05/15/2002 Summary: Average While this movie does have some funny parts in it, it is not up to Chow Sing Chi's high standards. What could of made this a family movie was if they reduced the amount of blood coming out of Chow Sing Chi. That was a bit overboard. 6/10

Reviewed by: Inner Strength Date: 04/10/2002 Summary: BAD One of his worst rip off films to date, I didn't find anything interesting here at all. The laughs mounted to about 2 or 3 I think, the rest was plain boring, and not funny. It was a disapointment at the time, because he was doing some other really good ones at this time. Rating: 1/5

Reviewed by: MrBooth Date: 09/13/2001 Summary: Excellently made film FIST OF FURY 1991 - An earlier Chiau movie, very loosely based on Bruce Lee's FIST OF FURY. Chiau is a country bumpkin with an unusually strong right arm that comes to the big city and falls foul of big city living. The first person he meets is thief Kenny Bee, who takes his bag. After chasing him down and apprehending him, Chiau decides to move in with him since he's lost the contact number of the friend he came to stay with. Chiau's attempts to find gainful employment are not fruitful, so Kenny persuades him to enter a kung fu tournament on the strength of his right arm. In order to enter, however, Chiau must join an accredited kung fu school. From their, the story progresses... I thought this was a really excellent film - in fact, one of my favourites so far. The story is well developed, the performances are great (mainly Kenny Bee's - I think the only other thing I've seen in him is MOON WARRIORS, and he was completely different here). Yuen Kwai also has one of his best roles. There's quite a lot of action in the film, with Chiau showing the odd impressive move. The overall tone of the film is probably more serious than his later works, though there are a couple of scenes that are hysterically funny. The final fight, a rocky-esque war of attrition, is surprisingly brutal. Production values aren't as high as Chiau films would quickly come to deliver as standard, but the film stands up well despite this. The Mei Ah disc is pretty lame, as you might expect, but well worth picking up regardless. Reviewer Score: 7

Reviewed by: Yellow Hammer Date: 05/10/2001 The story is about Sing (Stephen Chow), a Mainlander who came to Hong Kong (doesn't it sound familiar?) to find his cousin. He meets up with Siu (Kenny Bee) and hook up with various kung fu schools, in the hope of winning a $10 million dollar prize from a fighting competition. Cheung Man plays the love interest of Stephen Chow. I would classify this movie as somewhat of a comedy, though there is plenty of fighting in this movie. The reason this movie is called Fists of Fury 1991 is because he joins a kung fu school that translates to "New Jing Mo Mun", where Jing Mo Mun is the famous school from the original Bruce Lee Fists of Fury movie. Some hilarious references to the original movie takes place as well.

Reviewed by: Moro Turkey Date: 09/12/2000 Being one of Chow's earlier movies, Fist of Fury 1991 doesn't touch the greatness of stuff like God of Cookery or Chinese Odyssey, but the surprisingly intense final fight scenes make up for the badly constructed plot. Most of the jokes are pretty funny, although they tend toward disgusting. There's a gag early on that actually made my stomach turn, which is unusual. It's even worse than the running nose thing in King of Comedy! Strange to say, sometimes Kenny Bee seems to do a lot of the goofing-off, while Chow is sort of the straight man. I'd give this movie a 7.5 out of 10.