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Fist Of Fury (精武門, lit. “Jing Wu Tradition”; originally titled "The Chinese Connection" in America) is a 1972 Hong Kong action martial arts film produced by Raymond Chow and directed by Lo Wei that stars Bruce Lee in his second major film role.

Dubbing History[]

Before production started, both Bruce Lee and Golden Harvest were unhappy with the results of Axis' dub of Bruce's previous film, The Big Boss. So, It was decided that both Golden Harvest and Bruce himself would be more involved with the production of this dub. According to Michael Kaye, Barry Haigh was originally planned to dub Bruce’s character, Chen, but this was vetoed by Bruce and Golden Harvest, with them wanting to decide for themselves which voice actor would play Chen. Every male voice actor at Axis would be auditioned for the role of Chen, but all of the male voice actors were cut out of the role, with the last remaining dubber being Michael Kaye. When Michael auditioned for Chen, both Bruce and Golden Harvest agreed that he was the right fit for the character and assigned him to dub Chen, something that was undoubtedly a result of Michael's years of experience in theater.

During the dubbing sessions for Fist Of Fury, Bruce would direct Michael Kaye's performance as Chen. Michael would often have to dub a line several times until Bruce was satisfied with the output, with Bruce often hitting Michael in the back during action sequences to get a more natural performance out of him. This resulted in Michael hurting his voice from screaming and yelling so much that his voice was completely shot for around a week and a half, with him often finding it difficult to speak. Years later, Michael would recall the dubbing sessions for Fist Of Fury as, "The hardest job I ever did". Needless to say, both Bruce and Golden Harvest were very happy with the output. However, when it came to the first english dub for Way Of The Dragon, Bruce refused to let Michael dub Bruce’s character, Tang Lung. Instead, Bruce told Jack Moore to voice Tang Lung in the now lost first dub.

Fist Of Fury's dubbing crew is a little smaller when compared to other Axis dubs from this period. When compared to Godzilla Vs. Gigan, a dub from the same year which has ten voice actors, Fist Of Fury only has six, with its dubbing cast consisting of Michael Kaye, an unknown female voice actor, Barry Haigh, Jack Moore, Chris Hilton, and Ted Thomas. For Jack Moore, his role as Suzuki is considered to be his last big role, and one of his only performances where he dubs a main villain.

Michael Kaye - Ted Thomas phone call incident[]

Michael Kaye's role as Chen is considered by many to be his last great dubbing performance while working for Axis. Sometime during 1972, after the dubbing sessions for Fist Of Fury, Michael Kaye would open up his own dubbing studio. However, when Ted Thomas caught wind of this, it enraged him. This resulted in an incident where Michael received a call late at night, where Ted would berate Michael and threatened to destroy his career to a point where he would never be able to work again. This incident severed all ties between Michael Kaye and Ted Thomas, but Michael would continue working at his own dubbing studio, and participated in dubbing sessions with Barry Haigh and Matthew Oram's dubbing groups.

Cast[]

Character Original Actor Axis Dub
Chen Zhen Bruce Lee Michael Kaye
Yuan Li-Er Nora Miao ¿?
Fan Chun-Hsia Tien Feng Barry Haigh
Inspector Lo Lo Wei Chris Hilton
Suzuki Riki Hashimoto Jack Moore
Wu Wei Ping-Ao Michael Kaye
Yoshida Fung Ngai Barry Haigh
Tien Huang Tsung-Hsun Ted Thomas
Feng Han Ying-Chieh Chris Hilton
Petrov Robert Baker
Fan Jia-Qi James Tien Jack Moore
Hsu Lee Kwan Ted Thomas
Chin Lau Wing Chris Hilton
Yen Maria Yi ¿?
Gate Guard ¿? Barry Haigh
Heckler Vincent Wing-Sing Michael Kaye
Receptionist Mao Lo Ted Thomas
Diplomat Chin Chun Jack Moore
Student in Black Max Chiu-Chun
Student in White Peter Lung Ted Thomas

Sources[]

"I Was Bruce Lee's Voice" by Jack Moore, 1975. https://www.facebook.com/groups/985430954806787/posts/3850433114973209/ | Michael Kaye phone call interviews, 2023. https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/search?q=Michael%20Kaye / https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/search?q=Michael%20Kaye

See Also[]

External Links[]

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