In 1971, this was the highest grossing film of all time in Hong Kong, beating out American productions Sound of Music, The (1965) and Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970).

Bruce Lee was originally against two of director Lo Wei's ideas used in the film. First, was when one of the foremen was to be punched through a wooden wall. Lo Wei wanted to leave the villain's outline in the wall, similar to something in a cartoon. Lee tried his best to change it, but somehow, Lo Wei got the upper hand. The second, and the most famous scene of the film, is the climactic "jump kick joust" between Lee and villain Han Ying Chieh. Lee, once again, didn't like the idea due to its separation from realism. However, he gave in, and the shot was done.

The international (English) title of this film was "The Big Boss". In the United States the English dubbed version was originally to be released under the title "The Chinese Connection", a play on the title of the highly popular film French Connection, The (1971). For some reason the title was changed to "Fists of Fury". As a result, to avoid confusion with Bruce Lee's following film Jing wu men (1972) (known elsewhere in the world as "Fist of Fury"), the latter film's title for its U.S. release became first "The Iron Hand" and then "The Chinese Connection".

The infamous saw scene (mentioned in the alternate versions section) apparently was shown only once to an open public and that was the film's original premiere in the fall of 1971 in Hong Kong. Co-star Maria Yi herself said it was present in the film, but didn't look very realistic. Ironically, this was part of the rumor for years as to why the scene was never shown again.