Fist of Legend

A film review by Christopher Null - Copyright © 2001 Filmcritic.com

A precursor to Crouching Tiger, Jet Li's Fist of Legend is a high-flying, hidden-wire kick-and-punch-fest, set against a historical, epic backdrop. In this installment of flying fists, Li returns his old school in Shanghai, only to find his teacher assassinated and the Japanese ready to invade (before WWII). Complete with love story and vengeance plots, it's a masterful blend of action and plot. The typically bad dubbing gets in the way, but frankly the story is better than that of Tiger. Too bad the stunts are not quite up to par -- too few and far between -- though when it's on, the fighting is impressive.

A remake of Bruce Lee's Fists of Fury and based on actual events.

A new 2008 DVD includes a feature commentary from Hong Kong cinema expert Bey Logan, plus a second disc featuring deleted scenes, four making-of featurettes, and an odd look at the film with Brett Ratner and Elvis Mitchell.

Aka Jing wu ying xiong.

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Rating

3.5 out of 5 Stars

Cast and Crew

  • Director: Gordon Chan, Woo-ping Yuen
  • Producer: Jet Li
  • Screenwriter: Lan Kay Toa, Kwong Kim Yip
  • Stars: Jet Li, Paul Chiang, Siu-hou Chin, Ada Choi, Billy Chow, Paul Chu, Yasuaki Kurata
  • MPAA Rating: R