Determinedly politically incorrect "Legend of the Fist" is a Chinese nationalistic war fantasy flick closer in tone to "Inglorious Basterds" than to Bruce Lee's "Fists of Fury." It's an interesting, if not entirely favorable, approach considering that Donnie Yen's leading character Chen Zhen is the same fictional martial arts hero Bruce Lee played in "Fists of Fury" (a.k.a. "Big Boss").
Director Wai-keung Lau ("Infernal Affairs") bookends this film with impressive martial arts action set pieces that more than compensate for the price of admission.
Chen Zhen is a survivor of the Japanese Labor Corps, where he proved his mettle among his fellow prisoners during a German attack in France. Zhen employs gravity-defying stunts normally reserved for comic book heroes with super powers.
The story is set in post-World War I Shanghai, circa 1925, when Japanese and British forces vie for control of China. Disguised behind a fake mustache, Chen Zhen reinvents himself as a businessman named Qi. He spends his time at a fashionable nightclub known as "Casablanca" where he is partnered with the club's mafia-connected owner Mr. Liu (Anthony Wong).
Qi sometimes plays piano with the house band that features a pretty chanteuse named Kiki (Shu Qi). Naturally, romance blooms between Qi and Kiki. Qi also finds time to create yet another disguised identity as an avenging masked warrior creation that is an unapologetic incarnation of Bruce Lee's Kato character in "The Green Hornet" television show.
Bruce Lee fans will get a kick out of the film's climax when Donnie Yen uses a pair of nunchaku sticks against a hoard of shinai sword-wielding attackers. Yen goes so far as to incorporate Bruce Lee's taunting animal sounds as he goes all out. Western audiences may have a harder time following the film's underlying political themes expressed in racist epithets, but there's no explanation needed for Donnie Yen's martial arts prowess.
Not Rated. 106 mins.
