During the Japanese occupation of Shanghai, Chen Zhen, the star pupil of a recently-deceased martial arts teacher battles a Japanese dojo which seeks the demise of his master's fighting school.

A brother and sister escape from Japanese-occupied Shanghai to Japanese-occupied Taiwan, to stay with their grandfather who runs a Kung-Fu school there. However, the master of a Japanese Kung- Fu school in Taiwan has plans to bringing all other schools on the island under his domination, and part of his plan involves the murder of the grandfather.

After Japanese warriors execute the Chinese Jingwu kung fu school's headmaster, Chen Zhen, and raid a number of schools in an effort to weed out Jingwu rebels, Zhen's brother, Chen Shen, vows revenge.

After avenging the death of his brother, Chen Shen (Bruce Li) returns home from Shanghai. He tells his mother (who went blind from crying over her son's death) that he will no longer fight. However, being a movie with the words "fist" and "fury" in the title, Chen doesn't keep his promise for very long. Japanese occupiers who are aware of Chen's history terrorize his family by, among other things, vandalizing his mother's store and beating up his brother. Later, they frame Chen for a murder. After the Japanese boss arrives in town and causes a ruckus, Chen breaks out of jail for a final confrontation.

After the death of his teacher Ho Yuan Jia, Chen Jan returns to his home town of Dali and live the rest of his life peaceful seclusion however the theft of a nation treasure forces him to confront the Japanese marauders and corrupt western archaeologists and officials.