Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen

excerpt, more at my location - One is an acclaimed director, the other an ever-growing martial arts man-of-the-moment. Their source material is Bruce Lee's finest hour. How does this first collaboration between Andrew Lau and Donnie Yen shape up?

That the film is not especially emotionally involving is a surprise when one considers who is at the helm. Andrew Lau is responsible for some of the more visceral and engaging moments in recent Hong Kong popular cinema (consider his Young And Dangerous movies, or the original Infernal Affairs), but here he shows an oddly clumsy hand with character and emotion.

Given the talent involved, it was not unreasonable to expect something of a classic. This is far from it, but its set-pieces still contain more genuine imagination and excitement than is likely to be found anywhere else - especially in the thrilling prologue sequence, which prompts hope from this reviewer that, someday soon, the conscripted Chinese soldiers in World War One get the cinematic tribute they truly deserve.

Saw this at London preview.

This is a loose sequel to Bruce Lee's Fist of Fury. Its not important to know that but if you are a fan of Bruce Lee, you will enjoy Donny Yen's sometimes blatant impression of Bruce Lee's nuances and war cries. If you aren't familiar with Bruce Lee, than a certain fight sequence may look a bit bewildering! There is a fascinating story to be told here with some interesting sub plots and bizarrely evolving into a comic book superhero flick. Unfortunately, it makes for a complete mess. I wont totally blame the director for that, that's an editor's job to maintain a narrative flow. The potential is there for this to work but unfortunately it just seems to me that couldn't bind it all together, or they were in a hurry to complete the film because it all seemed rushed.

However, the film is sumptuous to watch in its period settings, and the 2 leads are charismatic enough to carry the film. There is a sprinkle of humour that gave me chuckles though some were unintentional.

But the real star of the film is Donny Yen. As he gets older, he has even more star presence than ever before and when he fights, you can always feel his punches and awesome kicks. The action scenes are adrenaline pumping, visceral, with a stylish visual flair. These alone are worth the price of admission.

I would watch this again, and maybe next time I can piece a few more pieces of the story together.

Overall, see it for the brilliance of Donny Yen action and if you actually followed the story and enjoyed it, then good for you!

Where to start….? Watched it on Netflix, and was really excited for the first 10 minutes because for once in my lifetime I finally came across a MA movie that's not telling me the story about how the Chinese being invaded from whomever for whatever reasons.

I was wrong, miserably wrong.

At one point I was still looking at Donne Yan killing German solider in the Western battlefield, minutes later he became Chen Zhen (played by Bruce Lee in the 1972 blockbuster, "Fist of Fury") in a black suit kicking Japanese's asses. Don't get me wrong, the fight scenes are crystal clear, fast, and furious; but for every 5 minutes fight scene comes a 35 minutes "Chinese trying so hard to be united against the Japanese", I just couldn't help but to skip through the so-called "acting" part. I knew what's coming next, you probably knew too, in fact everyone who have ever watched a MA movie would have known exactly what's going to happen next.

This is not about being incredibly stereotypical, this is not about absolutely zero character development; this is not even about being predictable. This is about the epic failure of the Chinese movie industry, the fact that they DO NOT have the brain power to think of anything new that's suitable in a movie to tie with Martial Art.

To conclude this, history is history, we do not need another and another and yet another movie to emphasis the past. We won't be nemesis trying to revenge the Japanese, this is not "glorious bastard", and we do not want to fall back in the same pattern and same routine, that's why we study history.

And Just a side note, never did a single Chinese troop fought outside of Asia during WW1, try harder next time.

Although the narrative gets convoluted at times, the historical setting of the Chinese labor corps sent to aid the allied war effort during world war 1 is historically factual ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Labour_Corps ), though it has been largely forgotten.

the Chinese intelligentsia also successfully mounted pressure to cause Japan to delay full scale aggression until the 30s ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twenty-One_Demands )

this movie is essentially a big budget hong kong action movie produced as a homage to Bruce Lee. At times it strives to be too many homages at once with Donnie Yen resurrecting both Kato AND Chen Zhen ( Fist of Fury).

It shouldn't be conceived as Chinese propaganda (anymore than any of the Bruce Lee movies were) or anti-Japanese, as long as you understand that the Chinese truly were the underdogs back then.

in fact, the young Japanese actor playing the colonel totally stole the show.

The best thing about "Legend of the Fist" is that it features some of the most spectacular acrobatic prowess to come from the great Donnie Yen. Unfortunately, these moments of awe inspiring nirvana appear in fits and starts after long, long moments of exposition.

If this movie had a strong story, like Donnie Yen's "Kill Zone" with it's engaging plot about police corruption and the consequences of pursuing vengeance, all this exposition could be forgiven. 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 instead becomes a violent drama about China's occupation by the Japanese. Granted, Donnie Yen's best film, "Ip Man" was also about the Chinese occupation; but that film managed a perfect balance between drama and spectacular action.

I would almost dismiss "Legend of the Fist" altogether; but then Yen does a flip, a jump, a punch, a kick and my jaw hits the floor.