TheRetroCritic

Here's the video review version of my Fist Of Legend review.

Directed by Gordon Chan, Fist Of Legend is a loose remake of Fist Of Fury in which Jet Li takes on the role of Chen Zhen, made popular in the 70's by Bruce Lee. Set during the Japanese occupation, we first meet Chen Zhen as a student who learns of his master's death and returns to his old kung-fu school to pay his respects. Soon enough, he starts to suspect foul play and a rival martial arts school causes trouble over and over. Add to that the fact that Zhen's love interest is Japanese so not exactly popular with his peers and you've got yourself a busy little movie with plenty of tension but also plenty of fighting. Li may not be as expressive or charismatic of an actor as Bruce Lee but he knows his kung-fu and the fight scenes are impressive throughout the film. Gordon Chan not only makes them look fantastic but he successfully makes them feel like timeless, iconic set-pieces. The best may very well be the fight between Zhen and Fumio Funakochi (Yasuaki Kurata)

Along with Shaolin Soccer , cartoonish martial arts movie homage Kung Fu Hustle introduced western audiences to Stephen Chow's films and his uniquely wacky style of humour, leaving people in Europe and the US wondering if all Chinese comedies were THIS insane when, really, this movie was pretty out there even by Chow's standards. Man was it fun, though. The film sees the shady and very dangerous Axe Gang threaten a small village. As it turns out, kung-fu masters secretly live in the village so, when this is revealed, the gang is forced to find new ways to take the place and its inhabitants down. The whole thing escalates and the fate of the village soon rests on whoever "the chosen one" is. As ever, Chow mixes silly, often pretty gross characters with cartoony action sequences and brutal moments. To give you an idea, the film opens with the Axe Gang slicing off someone's leg and shooting some woman in the back with a shotgun. Much like in Chow's Journe