Legend of the Wolf

This movie has gotten a lot of mixed reviews. Some people have praised it and others have called it pure dreck. I really didn't know what to expect from this movie. Well, I found the plot to be slightly confusing. Well, I couldn't figure out what the whole modern day story was about. The flashback told about an amnesiac who returns to a village after WW2 and finds his lost love and some old enemies. A lot of brutal fighting follows.

The fight scenes are the calling card of this film. They're all fast and furious. If you take your eyes of the screen for a second you'll miss some stuff. It's all hyper-stylized, from the camerawork to the exaggerated gunplay and use of projectiles. There's a lot of speeding up, but it actually helps the fighting out; it makes it more intense. The martial arts itself is pretty good. Donnie uses his trademark kicks and also does a fair amount of Bruce Lee impersonating. His fight with the eagle claw guy is just astounding.

There is some fairly disturbing brutality in this film. The slaughter of the village and the scene preceding the final fight are examples. I guess it's supposed to make the movie more powerful.

In the end, I think the great fight scenes overshadow the sometimes confusing narrative and the brutality of the film.

I'm sorry martial arts fans, this is not good quality martial arts. Its good in some bits but thats about it. Its not Donnie Yen style which is good I reckon because its showing us that he is challenging viewers.

The storyline is pretty good, has a bit more of a plot. However the fighting just wasn't that good, too violent for someone like him.

Plus the ending was just shocking especially the fight scene with the Bandit leader.

Not bad if you wanna see something different from Donnie. And to the person that mentioned that this is the best film ever. No bloody way! Drunken Master 2 is way better, so is Armour Of God. Once upon a time in China is better, so is Enter The Dragon.

Legend of the Wolf is amazing. Donnie Yen made what is one of the best martial arts films from the 90's. Visually the film has a great colour-scheme (green/yellow, very saturated). The photography doesn't look low-budget at all, and there's a nice village and forest where the film takes place. The action is surreal and brutal. You must lose yourself in the mayhem to fully appreciate the action scenes. The story is simple and very direct. The narrative has a story-book feel to it. The music is quite brilliant too -- at times it forces certain emotional responses from you and other times it's simply haunting or furious. Do not miss this film, it's art.

How my fellow martial arts fans can speak so warmly about this movie, even calling it their favourite, and the best martial arts movie ever made, is completely beyond me... :-/ I've watched hundreds of martial arts movies, both new and old, and I'm a huge fan of Donnie Yen, in everything from his classic awesome movies like Iron Monkey, to his newer awesome movies like Flash Point and Ip Man. But c'mon, this movie is clearly rubbish? The fights are nothing but high speed closeups, so you can't really see what is going on most of the time, how is that impressive or cool? I'm really glad Donnie grew out of this kind of movie directing in his later movies (he directed Flash Point, which is pure awesomeness), because this is not how you do fighting in movies, or in real life, for that matter. I couldn't care less about the lame story either. Not a passing grade from me.

I have seen thousands of martial arts films, ranging from the Hong Kong classics of the 70's to the mixed genre, CGI works of the present day.

This is my favorite one.

The fight scenes are the single most beautiful, incredible spectacles I've seen in any action film.

When two combatants trade blows, the encounter is more a battle between two Gods than mere flesh and blood. In "The Matrix 3", the directors' efforts to achieve this failed miserably. Not so in this film.

When Donnie Yen glares at his opponent(s),one feels that the fate of the world depends upon the clash. Accompanied by a tremendous musical score, the effect is enhanced even further.

And Yen's character takes on everyone; a vicious gang of fifty men armed with machetes, an entire army of 100+ toughs, gunslingers, iron chain-wielding assassins, and many others.

One reason is that "Legend of the Wolf" represents a historic step forward in martial artsfilm-making; modern action films are shot at 18 fps (frames per second)while being played at 24 fps ("under-cranking"), which accelerates the action, but loses the sensation of power from the blows.

While LOTW utilizes under-cranking,it also features bone-crunching, vicious blows the likes of which I had never seen before in any action film.

The blows from a punch or the slash of a sword make the viewer cringe from their sheer power and might.

As excellent as the fight scenes are, it wouldn't be the greatest action film ever were it not for the tragic, depressing storyline.

It is told through flashback, describing how a dying gangster used to be a young, ruthless, and completely invincible warrior.

Yet, in the end, despite ultimately triumphing over his hundreds of opponents, the young warrior loses what is most dear to him in all the world, and is never able to win it back.

This harsh view of the "unbeatable young fighter", so common throughout martial arts films, is both realistic and deeply touching.

One of the few perfect films ever made.