Fist of Legend vs Fist of Fury

[benwfelt]

Fist of Legend (1994), starring Jet Li, tells the story of Chen Zhen--
a Chinese martial artist who investigates and avenges the mysterious
death of his master at the hands of the Japanese occupiers of
Shanghai. "Fist of Legend" is basically a remake of Bruce Lee's "Fist
of Fury" (1972) but the two films are different in a lot of ways.

What really differentiates the two films is the way they treat the
subject of Japanese-Chinese relations. "Fury" portrays the Japanese
occupiers of Shanghai in a obviously negative light-- everyone from
the regular Japanese who won't let Bruce Lee into a park to the
students of the Japanese school who seem almost mentally handicapped.
"Legend", however, makes an clear attempt to show that there are both
good and bad people not only on the Japanese side but also the
Chinese. I don't necessarily fault "Fury" writer/director Lo Wei for
making the movie he did-- he was working 22 years earlier when the
world and people's attitudes were quite different. Plus, it made Bruce
Lee wildly popular with the Chinese and led to a bit of a kungfu movie
renaissance in the 70s. I do, however, feel like the additional
conflict (albeit a non-kungfu one) gave "Legend" a richer, better plot
(besides being more appropriate for a modern audience).

The action in both movies is top notch. Both Bruce Lee and Jet Li were
at their best in these movies. Yuen Woo-ping, who is awesome,
choreographed "Legend" in the same year he directed and choreographed
Drunken Master II with Jackie Chan. What a year! I'm not sure who
choreographed "Fury" but I'm guessing Bruce Lee did it himself. Bruce
Lee was doing some cutting-edge, controversial, stuff at the time by
mixing western and eastern styles. I'm sure "Legend" won lots of
points with Bruce Lee fans by making use of Bruce's classic style.
Great action scenes in both movies include Chen Zhen taking one the
entire Japanese school and final fights that'll knock your socks off.
Jet Li ends his fight with a belt and Bruce Lee with the empty hand
technique but both are great.

One problem I have with "Legend" (and probably every other subtitled
movie I've ever watched) is that they completely changed parts of the
dialog to make it more acceptable to a western audience. As an avid
foreign-film watcher and as a former translater/interpreter, I find
this very very annoying and if any those subtitle making folks are out
there, please stop it. You are not doing anyone a favor. Just stop.
Please.

In "Legend", Chen Zhen is asked if he hates the Japanese and he
responds "I don't know" but if you watch the version I did, he instead
says "I don't hate". What's up with that!? Why not let him "not know"?
What's wrong with having conflict in Chen Zhen's character? Lame.
Then, they changed the last line of the movie so that instead of
"going where he is needed (i.e. where the fight is), he went to be
with his girlfriend in Japan. I guess somebody thought a western
audience would rather have a resolution to the romantic subplot rather
than end with the line that puts the legend in "Legend". But what's
legendary about going to be with your girl when there's still fights
to be fought for China? Would Myamoto Musashi have become a Japanese
legend had he given up the Way of the Sword to pursue his love life? I
understand the reasoning but one of the biggest reasons people like me
watch foreign films is for the cultural understanding that comes along
with it. I would have preferred the original dialog.

So, which movie is better? I'd say Fist of Legend is better written
and better directed, Fist of Fury has the Bruce Lee magic that can't
be duplicated, and both are equally entertaining from an action
perspective. But when you're talking about two of the best kungfu
movies ever made, it's tough to pick a winner-- they both deserve a
prominent spot on the shelf.

~Ben

[JiggaJonVilla]

I'll have to agree with 100% of this review. Besides, the Chinese vs.
Japanese conflict, the Traditional vs.Modern kung-fu conflict was
beautifully portrayed in a stand out scene between Jet Li and Chin Siu
Ho (Ting-an). You could tell something special was about to happen
even before any actual fighting occurred. In classic kung-fu movie
style Jet and Siu Ho each presented his stance.

There are two main intentions when a pugilist presents his opening
stance:

Firstly, your stance is a direct indication of your abilities. In
classic kung-fu movies, a master taking on a new, inexperienced
student would often have his new ward drop into a horse stance in
order to evaluate his balance, endurance, and strength. You will also
see examples of a fighter portraying a weak stance before a fight, and
then getting his butt whooped.

Secondly, presenting your stance is as much an announcement of your
specific discipline as a display of your skill. In older movies this
was often done with head-on shot/reverse-shots; meaning you would see
a head-on, full body shot of a combatant executing a stance, followed
by a reaction shot from the opponent ("Southern Drunken fist, huh?")
which leads to the opponent executing a reactionary stance ("I'll
counter with Mantis!"). You saw a bit of this in Forbidden Kingdom.

What was standout in Fist of Legend is the perfectly symmetrical, full-
bodied profile shot of Jet and Siu Ho as Siu Ho busted out a
beautifully executed cat stance. This was followed by a reaction shot
from Jet where he is recognizing the style taught to him by his late
master, a style that had become the base for his skill. They return
to the previous symmetrical shot as Jet hesitantly enters into an
adjusted (more relaxed) cat stance. Jet is giving his opponent face
as a senior brother of their kung-fu school and as the son of his
master. As the fight goes on, Jet realizes that he has to use his own
modern kung-fu to control the situation. His doing away with old
unnecessary movements is a physical manifestation of his resistance to
old Chinese views, particularly those towards the Japanese. He is
after all fighting for the honor of his Japanese girlfriend. He moves
into a more relaxed kick-boxer-like stance and starts shuffling his
feet like a boxer, yet in his movements (particularly his kick-work),
you can still see the grace and finesse of his base martial art. As
he comes out on top, you can see how his victory was as much
philosophical as physical.

On a side note: If you enjoy Fist of Legend and haven't seen Fearless,
it's definitely worth a viewing. In Fist of Legend, Jet Li plays Chen
Zhen a fictional student of real life Chinese national hero, Huo Yian
Jie. In Fearless Jet plays Huo Yian Jie himself. Although the
continuities of these two movies don't match up (In Fist of Legend,
Huo Yian Jie's final Japanese opponnent is a bumbling incompetent,
while in Fearless he's an honorable martial arts master), moving from
Fist of Fury to Fist of Legend to Fearless, it's interesting to see
how much more reasonable Chinese-Japanese relations have become.
Throw Gordon Liu's Heroes of the East (another indisposable piece of
Kung-fu cinema) in there and you'll see a more gradual progression.