Watch Fist of Legend For Free

Sadly Over-hyped

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

How sad is this?

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

"Fist of Legend" is a remake of the Bruce Lee masterpiece, "Fist of Fury." The time, the setting and the story are quite similar but there are a couple of noticeable differences. Jet Li as a representative of the Chinese people, is having a secret relationship with a Japanese local girl. In addition, he receives instruction in the martial arts from a Japanese teacher. All of this tells me that the hatred between the two peoples isn't so black and white as in the Bruce Lee version. The plot needed improving though. It is quite a hard film to follow at times as there is a lack of continuity from one scene to the next. Having said that, this is still a good martial arts movie. Jet Li has the necessary hard-edged charisma as the avenging student. The fight scenes are ridiculously speeded up and end up looking unrealistic.

Set in 1914 Chinese student Chen Zhen is studying engineering in Kyoto where he is confronted by members of the Black Dragon Clan, a group of Japanese martial arts students who don't want Chinese in their country… he easily defeats them as he is a highly skilled practitioner of Kung-fu. Afterwards the student's master apologises to Chen and also informs him that his master has been killed in challenge match in Shanghai against a Japanese fighter. Chen returns to China and confronts the man he fought. He wins and is convinced that his master was in fact murdered and an autopsy soon reveals that he was poisoned. Meanwhile the Japanese fighter is murdered by General Fujita; Chen is accused of the murder but is cleared when Mitsuko Yamada, a student Chen knew in Kyoto, tells the caught that he was with her the night of the murder. This isn't the end of Chen's problems; when he returns to the Kung-fu school with Mitsuko it is made clear that she will never be welcome as she is Japanese. He leaves with her but inevitably he will fight again and ultimately face General Fujita.There seems to be some confusion about when this film is set; IMDb says it is in 1937 but references to Japan siding with the United Kingdom against Germany suggests it is really 1914. This doesn't affect ones enjoyment of the film though. The story is solid and there is a lot of brilliantly choreographed martial arts action. This doesn't include the wire assisted leaps that feature in so many such films, it is also pretty bone-crunching at times. Jet Li is on great form as protagonist Chen Zhen; both during the numerous fight scenes and the non-action scenes. Shinobu Nakayama does a fine job as Mitsuko and Yasuaki Kurata impresses as her uncle, an honourable Japanese fighter. Billy Chow is suitably unpleasant as the dastardly General Fujita. The production values are very high; if it wasn't for the young looking Jet Li I'd have thought it was made much more recently! Overall I'd certainly recommend this for any fans of martial arts films.These comments are based on watching the film in Cantonese with English subtitles.

One of the most applauded martial arts movies to date, this piece of art offers much more than flawless, thrilling action: plausible characters having real dilemmas and making actual decisions, based on their own moral codex. Each and every of the five-or-so protagonists is a human being with a set of values that he or she tries to follow, each and every fight is meaningful and serves to advance both the plot and character evolution. In this, Fist of Legend has achieved more than everything else that has been done in its genre and in fact transcended it, and should surely rank amongst the greatest movies of all time - much like Casablanca did for the classical melodramatic flick.Set in the time of the Japanese occupation of China and revolving around Sino-Japanese lovers, Fist of Legend presents numerous conflicts of morally right and wrong action, such as national pride versus racial prejudice, misuse of power versus right for self-defense, limits of loyalty to an authority, limits of self-sacrifice for the sake of love. It is amazing how so much of it could be crammed amongst the grand amount of action, but the result is unparalleled, creating the single movie where every fight has deeper meaning than just the hero thrashing another bad guy. When everything is poised for the grand finale, Fist of Legend delivers a truly epic battle between a hero standing for humanity with all its faults and a being that has lost all human traits save for the physical shell. Never before or after can I remember having such a strong feeling that humans could, and should, actually punch through concrete when the time is right.Unless you really, really can't stand Asian action cinematography or just hate movies that are not in English, there is no reason why you shouldn't enjoy this movie. Oh, and if you ever decide to watch only one, only ONE kung-fu pic, in your whole life, EVER... this has to be it.

Jet Li stars as Chen Zhen, a martial artist studying in Japan, who returns home when his old master dies during a challenge against a Karate school. Chen Zhen suspects foul play, and discovers that his master was poisoned before the fight. It seems that the nasty Japanese aren't playing fair, so Chen Zhen sets out to get revenge.This remake of the Bruce Lee classic Fist of Fury is one of Li's best films, chock full of top notch fight scenes in which our hero proceeds to kick seven shades of the proverbial out of his opponents. These fight scenes, by renowned action director Yuen Woo-Ping, show Li at his most brutal; any wire-fu is kept to a minimum, and Li is able to show off his blisteringly fast skills to great effect.Standout fights include Li against a school of Karate students, Li fighting blindfolded against his Japanese girlfriend's uncle (played by Yasuaki Kurata), and the climactic battle against double-hard bastard General Fujita (Billy Chow).If you've only ever seen Li in a US production, then do yourself a favour and watch Fist of Legend to see what he is really capable of.