Legend of the Fist Return of Chen Zhen

Product Description While China is traumatized by military cliques during the Warlord Era in the 1920s, Shanghai is the cynosure of all eyes. People see it as both Hell's Kitchen and Heaven's Gate. One of the city's most memorable heroes has to be Chen Zhen, who single-handedly avenges his mentor's death by killing all the Japanese at a dojo in Hongkou, only to be showered with bullets while making his legendary flying kick. Vanished from the public eye ever since, he has been taken for dead though his body is never found. Seven years later, a wealthy entrepreneur called Koo returns from abroad and makes a grand entrance on the Shanghai social scene by befriending the notorious mafia boss of the city. This mysterious man is none other than Chen Zhen in disguise who dwells in a world of nefarious means in order to infiltrate the criminal empire. He soon discovers a clandestine collusion between the mafia and the Japanese. Disguised as a caped crusader at night, Chen sets out to dismantle with his martial arts skill the evil collusion that plaques the country. One of his foremost missions is to ferret out the assassination list prepared by the Japanese. Amazon.com Hong Kong superstar Donnie Yen brings his customary eye-popping martial arts to Andrew Lau's period action drama, Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen, which revives the titular folk hero originally played by Bruce Lee in 1972's Fist of Fury. Yen also played Chen in a 1995 television series, and his reprisal here again succeeds due to his natural gravitas. Opening with an astonishing sequence that pits Chen and his Chinese allies against the Germans on a World War II battlefield, Legend of the Fist soon shuttles back to China, where Chen joins a growing resistance against the invading Japanese. Donning a black mask, he takes to the streets to wreak vigilante vengeance against the imperial forces, which have marked several prominent citizens for death. The fight sequences are naturally the high point of Legend of the Fist, with Yen incorporating elements of Lee's Jeet Kune Do system into his kinetic moves. Where the picture stumbles is in its various subplots, including a tentative romance between Chen and Shu Qi, who plays a nightclub singer with connections to the Japanese. These scenes and others lack the same energy as the fight sequences, and slow down the film's forward momentum, which pits Chen against main heel Kohata Ryu. The mix of action, politics, and emotion in Legend of the Fist doesn't work as well as Yen's Ip Man, but viewers who watch purely for Yen's extraordinary fighting won't be disappointed. The two-disc collector's edition features eight behind-the-scenes featurettes, which run in total for about 40 minutes, and cover everything from set construction to fight choreography by Yen himself. Interviews with key members of the cast and crew are also concluded, as well as original theatrical trailers and previews for other Well Go USA titles. --Paul Gaita Review "A popcorn movie of epic proportion!" --The Hollywood Reporter "An avalanche of ass-kicking!" --BadAss Digest