Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen

Long after being thoroughly enticed to watch this from a kick ass war/martial arts clip with with some crazy wire-fu, and yet the reality of the movie is that clip was the entirety of the movie that takes place during wartime combat. While I love Donnie Yen as an action star, his chops as a dramatic actor are lacking, and unfortunately, this one leans too heavily into the drama and away from ridiculous action, especially by Hong Kong standards.

A very disjointed action intrigue movie. Being a Donnie Yen fan, I figured at the least I'd enjoy some good martial arts actions, and while there was a bit of satisfaction there it was mostly disappointing, not to mention too brutal for my taste. Jason Bourne-style shaky editing with many dumb choreography decisions leave a poor Yen offering. See the action at the beginning and the end if you must, but leave the rest alone.

As much as I appreciate the homages to Bruce Lee, the fact that the action choreography is so drastically different to his approach makes this feel a bit gimmicky. Yen plays Chen Zen fine, and the actual fights are entertaining, but the silliness of the action contrasts with the seriousness of the story. I like that the climax is much more grounded, but that too contrasts with most of the film. Decent, but not nearly as good as I'd hoped.

One jaw dropping action sequence right at the start. The rest is quite weak.

really should have let it all out and included more frenetic action scenes to make an all-out classic martial arts movie. instead it comes out as a decent period drama interspersed with wild over the top kung fu fights. still enjoyable, but missed the mark of excellence by not choosing it's genre.

Amazingly the plot of this movie managed to be both incomprehensible and predictable at the same time.

Chinese super hero movie, but some of it just falls flat. There are a few exciting, fun and unexpected scenes, but some key story points were poorly shown. The love story was sadly incomplete. The acting ranged from good to bad. Qi Shu was great. The story was sometimes interesting, but it frequently felt disingenuous. The movie basically suffered from poor story, weak dialog, bad direction, and a few too many useless special effects. An interesting movie that could have been so much better.

okay movie

- 11/25/11

59.000

Yet another rehash of stories involving Huo Yuanjia and Chen Zhen, this one just goes above and beyond about taking liberties and adding their own flair. Over-the-top fighting from Donnie Yen, lots of great Bruce Lee references, and some excellent 1920s aethetics.

I really want to like this one more than I do. The look is WONDERFUL. It is dramatically involving. The cast is very strong. But I don't think the movie knows what it wants to be -- it's schizophphrenic in a very major way. Is it a Chinese CASABLANCA? A Wartime BATMAN? The latter especially is underdeveloped, with most of the superhero action on display in the movie's trailer! Vague storytelling doesn't help. I'm glad t have seen it, but can't whole heartedly recommend it.

The touching story of one man's journey to kill a Japanese guy and save China.

"The film remains most engaging when it dispatches with narrative excess and focuses on the beautifully orchestrated mayhem." - Rob Humanick

Utterly ridiculous in all facets. From the martial arts trench warfare to the terrible acting from the suspect Englishman and ensuing propaganda. Not even worth watching for the martial arts.

I am sucker for political movies and foreign cinema. Combining the two does not always result in fireworks though. I am probably off guard with some of the elements as I've only seen Bruce Lee's Fist of Fury and not the series from the 90's. There are some really stunning and elegant fight scenes here but the meat on this story is at points really plodding and slow, sadly. Donnie Yen does an impressive job, Shu Qi, at his side, is enticing as well. Again, the movie was let down by the pace.