Have you seen Bruce Lee's Fist of Fury? Or, as it's known in it's dubbed American version, The Chinese Connection? This movie is a sequel to that movie. I'm not saying that you have to see the original Bruce Lee movie to have fun with this one, but it helps. If you're too lazy to watch that one, I'll catch you up to speed: Bruce Lee is a character named Chen Zhen. Chen Zhen has been away for a while, and when he comes back he finds out that his kung fu master is dead. He had been killed in a kung fu vs. karate showdown with the Japanese. That makes Bruce Lee mad. He goes over to the Japanese karate school, kicks all their asses, and leaves. The Japanese have never been nice to the Chinese, so of course they retaliate against Bruce Lee and his kung fu school. The law gets involved and the Japanese quite literally get away with murder. This makes Bruce Lee so mad he's just gotta kill back. So he does. Lots. The police and Japanese soldiers come to take him away, at which point he fills with Nationalist Pride and charges the armed soldiers. The screen freezes mid-charge, but you hear the guns firing, so you know that Bruce eats it in the end for his country.
Or does he?
See, that original movie has been remade quite a few times - notably Jet Li's Fist of Legend - so it was up to savvy movie producers to find a new angle for a new generation. "Maybe he lived!", they thought, and a new movie was born. To make it classy, they hired the guy who made the Infernal Affairs movies, Andrew Lau ( you know those movies better as The Departed by Marty Scorsese. That's right - The Departed was a remake), and they got current kung fu golden boy (and member of the previous generation) Donnie Yen to star in it.
It seems Chen Zhen survived and is now helping the French in World War I. It would all seem kind of silly if the filmmakers didn't pull out all the stops and put in an incredible action set piece to get everything started. Once the audience (and the Germans) knows who they're dealing with, it's back to Shanghai for Chen Zhen and his buddies, armed only with a false name and Nationalistic Pride. In another nod to the great Bruce Lee, the costume that Chen Zhen wears when he hands the Japanese their collective asses is the same one Bruce Lee wore as Kato on TV's The Green Hornet. He's known as The Masked Avenger, and he's a hero to all the downtrodden Chinese everywhere.
So far, it's pretty entertaining. Then things take the requisite bad turn in the second act, and the end is all kung fu ass-kicking glory. Really, you need to see Fist of Fury to appreciate what they've done here. You don't even need to see all of it. Watch the fights. Skip around if you have to (Shame on you. That movie's awesome! Watch it all!). See that suit he's wearing in the poster? It's a copy of the same one Bruce Lee wore in the original. They even reference the original in the poster, for god's sakes! It's like the Great Chinese Story! Everybody knows it! Don't be left out! Watch this movie!
Oh, and for anybody who says that it's all a pean to Communism or Socialism or whatever -ism is the bad -ism for the week, just shut up. It's a movie. There's no hidden agenda. You're not too smart for the Chinese and their sneaky ways. Hero was a great movie and you missed it. Legend of the Fist is pretty great and you're gonna miss it, too. Think about that when you go see Captain America, smart guy.
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