Fist of Legend

A martial arts film set in Shanghai in 1937. Chen Zhen is studying engineering in Japan. He is the only Chinese student in the class and the others attack him. News comes from Shanghai. The master of his school has died in a duel and the death is suspicious. He returns. He arrives in time for the funeral, wants to see the body, and has an autopsy performed. From there the film is an investigation. Traces of poison, a false doctor, a rival school, and the Japanese military administration standing behind it. Chen does not go back to Japan. His Japanese fiancée Mitsuko is with him and the school will not accept her. Ting-an's line enlarges the conflict. The master's son takes over the school and Chen's presence weighs on him. What the narrative is interested in is not revenge but nationalism: the film sets Chinese against Japanese but does not distribute good and bad by nationality; one of its most respected characters is a Japanese martial arts master. The source is a retelling of a film Bruce Lee starred in. The same character and plot are used and the ending is changed. The fights are the film's real work. Yuen Woo-ping did the choreography and a style close to real contact was chosen instead of classical wirework. The best known section is a fight with the eyes covered. Chen and the Japanese master fight in darkness, and the scene is counted among the most remembered in fight cinema. Jet Li, Shinobu Nakayama, Chin Siu-ho and Yasuaki Kurata are in the cast. Gordon Chan directed. Who it is for: anyone who likes 1990s Hong Kong martial arts cinema. Who it is not for: anyone looking for a story; the sections outside the fighting are weak and the emotional lines are rushed.