Movie Review: Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen

Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen is a continuation of sorts of the story of fictional hero Chen Zhen, a Chinese kung fu master. The character of Chen Zhen has been featured many times before, in both film and television. 

Bruce Lee first potrayed him in the classic Fist of Fury (1972), the movie ending in an enigmatic freeze-frame, with the audience unsure of its hero's survival. Jet Li also played him in Fist of Legend (1994). In Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen, Donnie Yen picks up where his own 1995 television series Fist of Fury left off, once again reprising the role of martial arts and cultural hero Chen Zhen.

The movie, which opens in the U.S. April 22, is directed by Wai-keung Lau, released in Cantonese with English subtitles. It originally came out in Hong Kong in September 2010. Yen is not only the star, but also the film's action choreographer. And the action sequences are pretty spectacular.

In the opening sequence, set in France during WWI, Chen Zhen, with just two bayonets, defeats a german tommygunner and attacking troops in a wonderful sequence. Unfortunately, the movie takes quite a while to recapture this opening energy, as a very convoluted plot unfolds, in choppy sequences, seemingly in direct opposition to the gracefully choreographed fight sequences.

Chen Zhen takes the name of one of his comrades who died in action, Qi Tianyuan, and turns up in Shanghai in 1925 at the Casablanca nightclub. Master Liu (Anthony Wong), the local mafioso, owns the nightclub and immediately takes a shine to Qi, making him the manager. Also interested in Qi is nightclub singer Kiki (Shu Qi). But are her interests romantic, or something else?

If the film had left the plot at that, it might have been better. But there are many other plot threads — the political unrest bewteen China and Japan leading up to the Second Sino-Japanese War; General Zeng and General Zhuo, two rival Chinese warlords whose internal conflicts may lead to civil war; Qi's other other identity, as a vigilante, "the masked warrior" as he calls himself. This masked superhero is an homage to Bruce Lee's Kato, a leather-clad masked chauffeur who kicks major butt and thwarts an assasination attempt on Zeng by presumably, the Japanese. There is also an assortment of resistance fighters and spies, adding to the confusion.

Article Author: xoxoxoe

My name is Elizabeth Periale. I am an artist, blogger, and culture critic. I write about movies, books, television, pop culture—old and new—with a feminine/feminist perspective.

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