Jet Li remakes Bruce Lee, and the result is
great. It's a movie with both a) great martial arts and b) a social
conscience, which is more than most kung-fu flicks can boast. Only rarely does
amazing kung-fu action meet up with a solid story in the same film. Normally,
this genre showcases a whole lot of kicking and crowing, with little else in
the way of plot. But Fist of Legend, a remake of the 1972 Bruce Lee film, Fist
of Fury, is a marvel to watch. The gravity-defying fight scenes are virtually
non-stop, but what makes this film stand out from other kung-fu flicks, is
that the story is pretty good. The strong point of this film is the
cinematography of Derek Wan. The images are imbued with the rich, vibrant
color which has become a hallmark of modern Chinese films. While this may seem
to follow the typical you-killed-my-teacher-now-I-must-kill-you plot, Fist of
Legend delves deeper. This film demonstrates some pretty impressive
storytelling techniques. It has an interesting political sub-plot and by the
end, the character of Chen Zhen is legendary. It's a fine movie. Jet Li is in
fine form, with minimal wirework and only subtle under cranking necessary to
enhance his skills. All credits of all the terrific and pitch-perfect fight
scene should be given to Matrix Action Director - Yuen Woo Ping. With the
combination of Yuen's fights direction and Jet Li's presence and skills,
notable fights were all over the place. One highlight is when Li takes on a
whole class of Karate-Jap students, some of the overheads shots will remind
many Matrix's fans, but in fact this was made almost 10 years ago is even more
a classic. In some ways Fist of Legend is very much like the Matrix,
especially of many philosopher's sayings like 'Japan is like an venous insect
biting an elephant (China)' and a quote that I will always remember is
eventually how and why Jet Li won his final fight against Billy Chow - 'If you
learn to adapt, and to be fluent, then you will always be invincible'. The
final fight, is probably as good as it can be and most likely the best fight
scene ever filmed on camera. It was so well directed by Woo Ping that it push
the already HK martial arts classic Fist of Legend to even greater heights. It
also defy the fact that remakes are usually bad, but this remake of Bruce
Lee's Fist of Fury, is as good as it can be and some even say it surpass the
original, but no matter what the case is, Fist of Legend is just the best of
the best and a must for all HK cinema starters and fans alike.
96.5%
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