LEGEND OF THE FIST: THE RETURN OF CHEN ZHEN (Andrew Lau)

-

I loved the Bruce Lee homage, and considering that Donnie Yen also played Chen Zhen in the 1995 TV series (which I haven't seen), I think this reimagining of the famous fictional folk hero's story is a must-see. It is timely because there is a current resurgence of HongKong martial arts films, with Yen just finished portraying Ip Man twice. LEGEND OF THE FIST isn't necessarily excellent; there are flaws in the storytelling, but what it lacks in coherence it certainly makes up for fist-to-fist and sole-to-face action. 

No other could have played the character better than Donnie Yen. I loved the climax scene where he is dressed in white Mandarin suit, kicking all those hapless Japanese posers into walls, into midair, and onto each other, complete with that trademark Bruce Lee screaming. 

Shu Qi as the enigmatic leading lady is fascinating. Apart from SO CLOSE and MILLENIUM MAMBO (I have yet to see this), this is certainly one of her notable roles.

Anthony Wong plays Master Liu, a very influential Chinese figure in Shanghai. Wong is so much a character actor he doesn't need too many dialogue. His eyes speak louder than words.

Huang Bo as Police Inspector Huang Haolong provides support to Chen Zhen's character. While a bit typecast, the cop character has some fine moments in the film. Just watch him lecture that British bastard.

Another one of the film's strengths is the Kato (from the Green Hornet) reference. In the middle part of the film, Chen Zhen disguises himself as THE MASKED WARRIOR, wearing all black and that famous Kato mask as he thwarts assassinations being carried out by the Japanese against its adversaries.

The action choreography is impressive, as to be expected from Donnie Yen. There's Judo, Jeet Kune Do  and yes, Wing Chun. Visually, you'd see Chen Zhen being a combination of Ip Man, Kato, and Chen Zhen. 

On the downside, the political story arc is so stretched thin both IP MAN movies and the heavily-awarded BODYGUARDS AND ASSASSINS, both starring Yen made more sense.

All of a sudden the story goes from 1917 France onto Shanghai in the 1920s and then back and forth and back and forth and then, all of a sudden the cop character of Huang Bo are acquainted with THE MASKED WARRIOR. 

There's too much vague references if you haven't seen the TV series and the original Bruce Lee film. I have seen the Bruce Lee film, but I can barely remember it; all I could recall is the famous ending.

While a very much welcome update of the Chen Zhen story, director Andrew Lau does not add much to improve the franchise. At least movie cliches could have been avoided, like when Chen Zhen gets beat up, remembers those who died, then gets up and suddenly he's unbeatable. I mean, come on let's scrap these things! It's like watching a Steven Seagal movie, except that Seagal doesn't get hit in his movies.

RATING: 3/3  

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

ANINO SA LIKOD NG BUWAN (Jun Lana, 2015)

-
Image
* English title "Shadow behind the Moon" The best term to describe Jun Lana's latest film would be a cinematic charade- a game of identities, of motives, of suppressed passions, and of uncertainty. Or the film equivalent of a Russian doll, if you will. "Anino sa Likod ng Buwan" only has three characters- husband and wife Nando (Anthony Falcon) and Emma (LJ Reyes) and military man Joel (Luis Alandy). What started as a seemingly routine banter among friends gradually and intensely escalated into an examination of society, where the definition of immorality is blurred during a time of insurgency.  And in fact, the film does discuss the subject of immorality from various paradigms. When does adultery become acceptable, and to whom? Is sexual liberation more heinous than murder? Why is immorality always a double standard? The film plays out the ideas in endless games. Or are they really games at all? Lana could have stopped there, but he didn...
Read more

TUHOG (Jeffrey Jeturian)

-
Image
Film within a film-structured movies are always interesting watch. Not only do they provide a much-needed deconstruction of form and content of cinema itself, but also that much-needed emotional punch a cinephile would surely love.  Like in BAD EDUCATION (Almodovar, 2004), we witness the characters tell the back story via montage, as if we are part of the cast of characters watching an actual movie. The form was successful in evoking pain and regret, and also of empathy. In TUHOG, Jeffrey Jeturian and screenwriter Bing Lao tackles sensational media in the Philippines, especially in cinema. The film opens as a film producer hears a pitch for a possible movie- a story of a grandfather who rapes his own granddaughter.  The director of the film soon after visits the victim of the crime, Floring (Ina Raymundo). Coercing both she and her mother, Perla (Irma Adlawan) to sell them the movie rights to their story, we witness as exploitation cinema unfolds. To think of it, capitaliz...
Read more

BIGKIS (Neal Tan, 2014)

-
Image
As an advocacy film, BIGKIS (INTERTWINED) gets its message across. The state of maternal healthcare in the Philippines is downright depressing, with mothers seated on the floor of public hospitals due to shortage of beds, medical equipment and hospital staff. The baby better be gaping through the birth canal before the mother receives serious medical attention.  Such social issue has been featured countless times in local documentaries and even in a feature film (2011's BAHAY BATA), but BIGKIS pushes the envelope further by bridging a connection between mother and child by means of breastfeeding, and in doing so, promoting breastfeeding in the process.  As a drama, the film tends to squeeze too much tragedy from the downtrodden lives of its characters that a lot of the dialogue feels staged for us to feel sorry for their countless miseries. Mariel (LJ Reyes), a teenage mother deals with an unwanted pregnancy and worse, the abandonment of her baby's father (Pancho ...
Read more