Anybody who tries to promote this as a Shin'ichi "Sonny" Chiba vehicle is going about it all wrong, as the legendary martial artist makes just a couple of fleeting cameo appearances. He plays a superintendent who sends a deep-undercover cop to assassinate the kin of an underworld figure, knowing this will prompt the kingpin to make some sort of move. But what the kingpin does is send his goons to kill a different cop and his dad, mistakenly thinking that they were involved. And the different cops' partner, Julia Cheung (Sibelle Hu) goes about seeking revenge.
"Sonny" Chiba fans will seek this out due to his involvement, and inevitably feel ripped off when he's in it for so little time. But if one does stick it out regardless, they'll find that "Fighting Fist" kills time (and bad guys) adequately enough. It's a decent, entertaining story that scores some points for being rather mean-spirited and gory. It's gory enough to have some people chuckling, if not cheering. The action is not first-rate, but it's watchable, providing enough entertainment to keep the viewers' attention from wandering too much. There is some pathos to the material, as certain characters' deaths do have some impact. The mute informant who speaks through sign language is a pretty endearing character. There's even some comedic approaches at times, so this little movie does cover a fair amount of bases in terms of Asian action flicks.
A Japanese / Hong Kong co-production, directed with competence if not great style by Casey Chan.
Six out of 10.
