Fist of Legend

I've loved this movie since I was a kid and so I was stoked when I saw it was coming to BD. I just got it today and put it into the PS3. The movie's still as great as ever, both picture and audio. However the subtitles for the movie are horribly inaccurate. As a Cantonese speaker it feels as if the people the wrote the subtitles watched the movie on mute and were just guessing at what the actors were saying. So while I could get along fine with Chinese audio alone, I depend on the subtitles for the Japanese parts. Since the Chinese parts were so off I can only assume that the Japanese parts may well be too. I'm sure the subs would probably convey a cogent story, but just know that it may not be exactly the one the director intended it to. If it weren't for this I'd probably give it a 5 but since the subtitles are probably needed for the viewers who don't understand both Chinese and Japanese, 3 stars.

When I heard about this release about a year ago, I was so excited. Probably more excited than I have ever been for any DVD release. I think it was supposed to come out in January, but then it got pushed back indefinitely. But now it is finally here. Most people have probably seen the movie, but if you haven't, prepare to be blown away. It is easily Jet Li's best fighting performance of his career in my opinion. And the co-stars Chin Siu Ho, Billy Chow and Yasuaki Kurata are also on the top of their games, in both fighting and acting. It is a remake of Bruce Lee's Fist of Fury, but not a scene by scene remake by any means. It really is a different movie. Not a great overall movie, but the fight scenes easily elevate it to greatness. It is a fight fan's dream movie.

Rating4.5/5

Most people have probably only seen the old Dimension English dubbed version. A lot of people may not realize how important the original language is for this movie. There are not just Chinese people talking, there is also a lot of Japanese dialogue. I never really liked this movie, I just liked the fights, but it is a much better movie watching it in the original language. And the picture quality is so beautiful. This DVD is my prized possession right now.

One more note on the audio. The audio options are English, Cantonese and Mandarin. The odd thing is that the sound is a lot different on all 3 audio tracks. The Mandarin sounds better in some places, but unfortunately the Japanese dialogue is spoken in Mandarin on the Mandarin track. And while the music is better at times on the English track, I prefer the Canttonese soundtrack overall. I just got very annoyed very quickly by the English version playing the same song over and over again. And the dubbing completely ruins the movie. I love English dubs, but not this one. This is one I will be glad to forget. Not only are the voices bad, but the dialogue really dumbs down the movie. So do yourself a favor, and read the subtitles.

Now to the special features. I watch the special features for movies every once in awhile, but when it's one of my favorite movies, I always watch the special features. Dragon Dynasty has had some amazing special features on many of their martial arts movies, and their release of Fist of Legend is no different.

Great lengthy interviews from director Gordon Chan, Chin Siu Ho and Yasuaki Kurata. All the interviews are great, but the Kurata interview definitely stands out. Such an informative interview. It's easy to see that Kurata has aged (he's 62 years old!), but he doesn't seem to want to acknowledge it. he still looks like he's ready to take on any project that comes his way. And there is a special feature that shows Kurata at his action school. He is so focused on teaching and watching his students. This school is intense. I can't even imagine how intense it would be if the Dragon Dynasty camera people weren't there.

There are also some deleted scenes included. I wish they could have put the Chin Siu Ho opium scene in this version of Fist of Legend. It really helps to explain why Chin Siu Ho is a little off and seems to be running on 7 cylinders instead of a full 8.

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Well, this review is mainly written for those who are already familiar with the movie and have yet to see this DVD version of it. First the good news. The picture quality is better than I have ever seen it on video, which is to be expected from the transfer. The colors are vivid and the lines are sharp, and overall the picture is cleaned up considerably. Also the sound is much clearer and in stereo, although there are moments where it seems the foley and looping are a little bit off (I'm hoping it's not the notorious DVD lip-synch problem, although since this movie is dubbed it's difficult to tell). That's about all for the good.

Now the bad. First off, as I mentioned, this version is dubbed (and no there isn't an original language option), and quite badly at that. This is regrettable considering that one thing that made the original so great was that it was multi-lingual, where Japanese spoke Japanese, Chinese spoke Cantonese and the Westerners spoke English. Here everything is dubbed into English, so the character differentiation is lost. Plus the voiceovers are wooden and unnaturally stilted, and the gist of the dialogue often strays from what is written in the subtitled version, which sometimes causes key thematic material to be lost (ie. Chen's lecture to the other students concerning the importance of a powerful attack). This, of course, is a common problem concerning dubbing.

Secondly, that great title music has been wiped out and replaced with something more typical, more "dramatic" in terms of Hollywood thinking, I suppose.

Finally, and I think this is the most unforgivable thing, the ending has been truncated and the dialogue overtly distorted to completely change the context. I won't say what it is, but I'll just say the original ending had much more resonance than the new one. Also, the new ending cuts out the segment that shows what becomes of the Jing Woo school. I have no idea why they chose to cut that part out--it doesn't even detract from the new ending, so what's the point?

Still, the fight scenes, which are among the best ever filmed, are in their entirety, and they look better than ever, and I guess that's most important. It's just too bad that they felt the need to tinker with the movie, making it overall not as strong as the original.

Read Best Reviews of Fist of Legend Here

"Fist Of Fury" (or "The Chinese Connection", as it was released in Western markets) is arguably Bruce Lee's most popular movie among Asian audiences. In other words, the target audience at whom martial arts movies are aimed tend to elevate that one above most others. Which means it takes a lot of guts to try to remake it.

Having a talent like Jet Li available to play Bruce Lee's part helps a ton...but talent alone is not what places this remake above the Bruce Lee original. Simply put, this is one of the most beautiful movies I've ever seen. The colors just jump off the screen, much as they are used to similar spectacular effect in Jet Li's later success "Hero". The costuming is top shelf, and the fight sequences are worthy of Bruce Lee's original (particularly the final showdown), and as noted in a previous review, there is significantly less wirework in this movie than in other Jet Li movies from the same era. The result is that the fight sequences, while awe-inspiring, are realistic and believable.

The characters are also well-delivered in spite of potentially crippling English dubbing that plagues most martial arts DVD's available in the West (Dimension should be better about this than most; this is not a low-budget distributor); you tend to feel good about the good guys and bad about the bad guys.

And the twists that separated the remake from Bruce's original are also very interesting and help to give this movie a strong identity of its own...the romantic ties involving both protagonists add a layer of depth unseen in most similar movies (the contrast between both female romantic leads is interesting and adds much to the substance of this film, absolutely shading the original) and before you know what's hit you, you find that you're actually watching a morality play concerning the evils of bigotry and racial intolerance (this was also a theme in Bruce Lee's original, but the remake does a better job of detailing how this is also a two-sided problem). And I much prefer the ending of the remake to that of the original, though there are those who will complain that the remake is more of a "Hollywood"-ized bastardization of the Asian soul of the original. But to me it just feels more satisfying.

This is a good recommendation to people who remember "The Chinese Connection" warmly and are skeptical over the notion of remaking it, as well as old-skool martial arts fans who believe that wirework is an abomination to the genre. And if you're at best a casual martial arts film buff, see this just for the care that was taken in its filming; truly a beautiful film, very easy on the eyes. Something for everyone.

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Let me start by saying the Chinese version of this film is my favorite movie of all time.

Dimension's dubbing and the liberties they take with the orginal script is both shocking and tactless. North American viewers who watch this version only see about 70% of the actual script. The rest of the sub-plots are all lost (particularly with the cook and the Dizzy Star House) and the simplified story also leads you to believe that Chinese Wushu is just a poor imitation of Japanese Karate when in the original script both country's martial arts were put into a positive light.

They can't even get the translation right at the end of the movie. The sign clearly reads,"Sick Men of Asia" and the dubbing has General Fujita pointing at his sign saying "I have a sign here that says 'Ching Wu is closed'."

Either the editors were saying that the Japanese General was an illiterate moron or, more likely, the American dubbing team didn't even bother looking at the sign before they translated the story.

You can buy this version, but my recommendation would be to watch it as a silent movie with the mute button on at all times. But you really are better off buying the VCD or VHS versions instead of this travesty.

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