Sign in now to see your channels and recommendations! Amazon.com: Fist of Legend Legend of the Fist Reviews & Ratings. Write review. Index. Chen Zhen's first big- screen incarnation was the Bruce Lee classic.
The return of Donnie to the role since playing it in a 1. ATV series shouldn't be surprising- after all, with both the Ip Man. Bodyguards and Assassins, Donnie has been at the forefront of. Hong Kong- China big- budget co- productions with strong. Chinese nationalistic sentiment. True to the character's origins, this latest entry into the Chen Zhen. Chen Zhen/. Donnie Yen's enemies are once again the Japanese- this time in glitzy. Shanghai, an era when the city was divided along the lines of. The Japanese though were the most. China. to conquer the motherland. While an offshore and offscreen naval. Shanghai was to target locals. Donning a black suit and mask, Chen Zhen takes it upon himself to stop. Comparisons to Jet Li's. Black Mask (1. 99. The Green Hornet are inevitable, but Andrew Lau's. Batman. seeing as how Chen Zhen gets help from Huang Bo's local police. Commissioner Gordon). Lau's film however refuses to. And so his Shanghai is one abound with Japanese spies, even in wealthy. Liu Yiutian's (Anthony Wong) flashy nightclub Casablanca. Chen Zhen hangs out to observe the politicking among the. Westerners and the Japanese. Lau uses the tension between the various. Chen Zhen's underground resistance movement struggles to. Japanese forces. Amidst the suspense, the script by no less than four writers (including. Gordon Chan) also throws in a love story between Chen Zhen and. Kiki (Shu Qi), but the addition that was supposed to. So too the relationships. Chen Zhen's bond with. Liu Yutian. It is also tricky. Chen Zhen is supposed to, the kind of indignation that made the Ip Man. Chen. Zhen and an entire dojo of Japanese students and their master just. Those looking for Donnie Yen to kick ass should also lower their. Unlike the Ip Man films, Donnie doesn't get much time. Lau's frenetic. efforts to develop a script chock full of undercooked subplots. That is. a pity, because one would certainly like to see more of the fast. Donnie has on display during the. Chen Zhen uses. bayonet knives to take out a section of enemy soldiers on the second. There are just two more big. Donnie generates in both is extinguished far too quickly. For what he falls short in the martial arts sequences, Andrew Lau tries. As with his. other films, the director who started out as an acclaimed. Shanghai is grand and opulent. Nevertheless, most audiences would. Donnie Yen's fighting than Lau's gorgeous. Fans of Donnie Yen however should still find reason to rejoice. Chen. Zhen sees Donnie Yen at his most suave and charismatic (even looking. He is also a much better actor. Perhaps most importantly, the exhilarating. Chinese cinema right now. For a younger generation. Bruce Lee and his nanchucks in the original . With. tribute screenings at the Hong Kong International Film Festival earlier. Tokyo International Film Festival later this. Andrew Lau, writer Gordan Chan and leading kung- fu icon. Donnie Yen pay their collective tribute with Legend of. Fist, taking one of the most memorable of Bruce Lee's characters. Chen Zhen and imagining a follow up story. But wait, wasn't the final shot in Fist of Fury quite definitive? But. as movie rules are concerned, nothing's canon if you don't see it, so a. Chen Zhen (now with. Yen picking up the mantle) is still alive and kicking, and sent packing. WWI front in France to fight alongside his Chinese labourer. Axis forces. It's an unsatisfactory explanation. I know, but one of the rare blips in what I thought was a riveting. Chen Zhen assumes a dead comrade's identity. Shanghai keeping jolly well under the Japanese's radar. Shanghainese businessman Liu Yiutian. Anthony Wong), with whom Chen Zhen befriends, for an ulterior motive. Casablanca club. providing a hotbed of information as they plot and counterplot moves. Japanese's brewing aggression. Of late there's been a wave of such nationalistic movies that Donnie. Yen tend to get involved in, such as Bodyguards and Assassins, and his. Ip Man films, where Chinese people gather. Ip Man 1, we see and expect the same. Japanese general who shows off his fair share of. Like how many caricatures would be crafted in many. Chinese history. I had followed Donnie Yen's career. Hong Kong's. ATV, where he played Chen Zhen in a storyline that had to mimic Fist of. Fury, but expanded to include a romance with a Japanese woman. Like. some television dramas that gets new lease of life on the big screen. Yen has experience in portraying the role other than a. Jet Li in another feature film that was a remake, but. While aspects of the Chen Zhen character were toned down probably. I thought was MMA executed in brilliantly brutal fashion, starting. Chen Zhen being that one. Bruce Lee's direction when. Kato costume. I'd say if not for his age, I'd. Yen if he were to be casted as Kato in the upcoming. Green Hornet film in lieu of Jay Chou. More Lee homages were to come, with the necessity to go shirtless in. Lee in Fist of Fury with the. Yen, Lee is quite. Yen took the action choreographer reins, and. Watch this in a. cinema with a proper sound system decked out will heighten that sense. The story's pretty much plain sailing with little surprises thrown in. Anthony Wong lends gravitas, Chinese actor Huang Bo providing comic. Shu Qi lending her vocals yet again. Blood Brothers. While the. Fist of Fury's, the fight action. Bruce Lee's instead. At times it strives to be too many homages at. Donnie Yen resurrecting both Kato AND Chen Zhen ( Fist of. Fury). It shouldn't be conceived as Chinese propaganda (anymore than any of. Bruce Lee movies were) or anti- Japanese, as long as you understand. Chinese truly were the underdogs back then. Japanese actor playing the colonel totally stole the. Unfortunately, these moments of awe inspiring nirvana appear in. If this movie had a strong story, like Donnie Yen's . However, the. story is about Yen playing a Zorro- like folk hero, who dresses like. Bruce Lee in 'The Green Hornet'. What should be a rollicking adventure. China's occupation by the. Japanese. Granted, Donnie Yen's best film, . They spent some money on this one. The. action starts in 1. Chen Zen(Donnie). The action sequences in the opening moments. I really thought I was in for. Then LOTF(heehee) dives into the plot which is overdrawn, dull, and. There is very little character development, very little in. It's a shame too, because from the choreography to the effects. I could make a film about walking my dog around the block with more. I should expect from an. I SHOULD expect a lot of action. If you take out the. Unfortunately, the wait is so long that it's. I would watch the opening and ending till the DVD stops working, but I. Another fest of ass- kicking from Hong Kong superstar Donnie Yen, LEGEND. OF THE FIST is loosely based on the same legend as Bruce Lee's FIST OF. LEGEND and Jet Li's FIST OF LEGEND. Yen plays a masked freedom fighter. Japanese forces during their occupation of. Shanghai during the 1. Okay, so the action doesn't quite have the edge of the similar IP MAN. There's a. particular viciousness to the scenes involving Yen going around and. The ending, which builds to one final bout with the enemy, is. Yen sleepwalks through his role a bit, having played this type of. Shawn Yue, Anthony Wong and Shu Qi. And, of. course, there are lots and lots of scenes of Yen kicking ass as only he. Chinese role in WW1. Targeted at the Chinese market however, the movie marches very quickly. Bruce Lee and the all consuming xenophobia &. Chinese. movies. The numerous racial epithets (. The outfit is, of course, yet another copy of Bruce Lee's costume. THE GREEN HORNET. Jet Li donned same in THE BLACK MASK, another. Bruceploitation flick from yesteryear. Going Li one better, LEGEND OF. THE FIST also borrows liberally from Li's own FIST OF LEGEND. It's. enough to make one's head spin. As is the wonky wirework we see here. Far too much time is spent on posturing and partying and. Bruceploitation propaganda flick kicks into. When Yen does his impression of Bruce Lee. The Big Finale, it's unintentionally hilarious. And I thought. these kind of movies had finally run their course. Its not important. Bruce Lee, you will enjoy Donny. Yen's sometimes blatant impression of Bruce Lee's nuances and war. If you aren't familiar with Bruce Lee, than a certain fight. There is a fascinating story to be. Unfortunately, it makes for a complete. I wont totally blame the director for that, that's an editor's. The potential is there for this to. However, the film is sumptuous to watch in its period settings, and the. There is a sprinkle. But the real star of the film is Donny Yen. As he gets older, he has. The action scenes are. These alone. are worth the price of admission. I would watch this again, and maybe next time I can piece a few more. Overall, see it for the brilliance of Donny Yen action and if you. Where the Japanese soldiers. Chinese rebels and fighters are the good guys. So in a. way it's historically true during World War 1. Not the whole Chinese. I mean. Now I personally like Bruce. Lee, I think he is a pioneer for these Kung- fu movie and was a legit. So I really liked how this is a homage. This one however just didn't. It was just boring babbling. The cool Donnie Yen fight. Sure, most people don't watch. But the story was just. Sort. of. But the trust and betrayal elements just wasn't impactful and. I really wanted this movie to at. Overall this is a corny Chinese superhero movie that is maybe. Add another review.
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