Fist of Legend (1994)
Fist of Legend is a 1994 Hong Kong martial arts film directed by Gordon Chan, featuring action choreography by Yuen Woo-ping, and produced by Jet Li, who also starred in the lead role. The film was released on 22 December 1994. It is a remake of the 1972 film Fist of Fury, which starred Bruce Lee as the lead character. The film is set in the Shanghai International Settlement in 1937 at the beginning of the Second World War as the Imperial Japanese Army are stationed in Shanghai, China. It holds a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Plot.
Chen Zhen attends class in Kyoto University when thugs from the Black Dragon Clan burst in and attempt to force him out simply because he is Chinese. Mitsuko, one of Chen’s classmates who is in a romantic relationship with him, along with Chen’s professor and classmates, defend his presence. The thugs turn violent but Chen easily defeats them using a variety of controlled Chin Na techniques. The Japanese thugs’ sensei, Funakoshi Fumio, who is also Mitsuko’s uncle, arrives to take control of the situation and apologizes for his students’ behavior. Funakosji is impressed by Chen’s skill and converses with him, and Chen learns that his master, Huo Yuanjia, has died after losing in a match against a Japanese karateka, Akutagawa Ryūichi. Chen is distraught after hearing the bad news and he leaves Kyoto for Shanghai immediately. Chen returns to Jingwu School and learns that his master’s son, Huo Ting’en, has become the new master of Jingwu School. The next day, Chen goes to the Japanese dojo to challenge Akutagawa, who honorably accepts.
Chen defeats Akutagawa easily and concludes that Akutagawa was not capable of defeating Huo Yuanjia, after which he suspects foul play in his master’s death. Chen has Huo Yuanjia’s corpse exhumed for an autopsy against the wishes of Huo Ting’en and his fellow Jingwu members. It is revealed that Huo Yuanjia was poisoned and weakened before his match against Akutagawa. Over the next few days, word of Chen’s victory against Akutagawa spreads and Chen becomes a local celebrity in Shanghai. The Jingwu members begin to look up to Chen as their new instructor, which incurs the jealousy of Huo Ting’en. Huo remains silent and seeks comfort in a brothel, where he becomes romantically involved with a prostitute.
Meanwhile, Akutagawa confronts General Gō Fujita of the Imperial Japanese Army after suspecting that his match against Huo Yuanjia had been rigged, which he considers dishonorable. After a heated argument, Fujita kills Akutagawa by breaking his back in front of the Japanese ambassador, and then places the blame on Chen.
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Enraged by their master’s death, Akutagawa’s students attack the Jingwu School, culminating in a fight that is eventually stopped by the local police. Chen is arrested and placed on trial for allegedly murdering Akutagawa. Several bribed witnesses provide false and conflicting accounts of the murder, but the court refuses to accept testimony from any Chinese defense witnesses on the grounds of bias towards Chen. Mitsuko shows up and testifies that Chen is innocent because he spent the night with her, and the court accepts her false testimony because she is Japanese. Chen is exonerated, but his apparent relationship with Mitsuko ruins his reputation because the Chinese view it as an act of betrayal against his fellow Chinese. Huo Ting’en and the senior Jingwu members demand that Chen leaves either Mitsuko or the school. Huo uses the opportunity to settle his personal vendetta against Chen by challenging him to a fight. Although Chen defeats Huo, he still chooses to leave with Mitsuko.
Influence on other films.
Fist of Legend inspired the Wachowskis to hire choreographer Yuen Woo-ping for the fight scenes in The Matrix (1999). The style of fighting in the two films bears some resemblance. In 1996, an unofficial sequel titled Fists of Legends 2: Iron Bodyguards was released starring Jet Le (not Jet Li). Later films have also been influenced by Fist of Legend. Hitman contains a scene involving the main character using a belt as a weapon as seen in Fist of Legend. The more realistic and less wire-driven fight choreography seen in Kiss of the Dragon was a result of fan criticism to Corey Yuen’s choreography in Romeo Must Die and preference for the style seen in Fist of Legend. In 2006, Jet Li played his character’s teacher, Huo Yuanjia, in Fearless. In 2010, Gordon Chan and Andrew Lau produced a continuation of this film named Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen with Donnie Yen as Chen Zhen in his thirties.
Box office, Television.
Though Fist of Legend is widely considered one of Li’s best films, during the downturn period of the Hong Kong film industry, its HK$14,785,382 box office gross was considered a disappointment. By comparison, Li’s Fong Sai-yuk grossed over HK$30 million, and Fong Sai-yuk II grossed HK$23 million. However, its overall box office from other countries was good. In the United Kingdom, the film (released as Jet Li’s Fist of Legend) was watched by 1.1 million viewers on television in 2004, making it the year’s seventh most-watched foreign-language film on television (below six other Hong Kong action films).