Fist of Legend | Jet Li, Shinobu Nakayama | Dare I say it? Better than Bruce Lee's original

Fist of Legend | Jet Li, Shinobu Nakayama | My favorite Jet Li movie and my favorite martial arts movie

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Fist of Legend

	Fist of Legend Jet Li, Shinobu Nakayama Dimension Films, 2000 average customer review:based on 298 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Dare I say it? Better than Bruce Lee's original

"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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My favorite Jet Li movie and my favorite martial arts movie

This was wonderfully done. No physically impossible wired fight scenes, which I have nothing against, just realistic ones are always cooler, in my opinion. They were about 2/3 realistic, a nice balance. The plot held it's own too. There isn't tons of blood and no disgusting flying limbs or a ridiculous amount of bullets and machine guns or anything like that. Just quality martial arts thoughout a good story that's watchable many times over.

Jet Li, undeafeated

Chinese vs Japanese.In fist of fury, we see bruce lee. in fist of legend, we see jet li. i am in love with bruce lee, but i would say that fist of legend is the best film i have watched in the whole of my life.
five stars is not enough for this movie. i love to watch this movie that i shared it with all of my goods friends. so paying a huge sum of money for this movie is worth it. it is nice to see two best martial arts (kung fu and karate)in the challenge.

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Best Martial Arts Movie Ever

First off my favorite part about this movie, the fight scenes were realistic, no flying around, no impossible leaping just fast-paced real martial arts.

Second, the plot is amazing, I normally dont buy martial arts movies for their plot, but I would buy this movie without the amazing action sequences.

A rather good Jet Li film.

I'm not a big fan of Jet Li. But I do have to say, as Jet Li films goes, this one is quite entertaining. The fight sequences are semi-realistically good, and the story, typically a weakpoint in a film like this, isn't bad at all.

reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, page 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19

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