samuel shen Where to start….? Watched it on Netflix, and was really excited for the first 10 minutes because for once in my lifetime I finally came across a MA movie that's not telling me the story about how the Chinese being invaded from whomever for whatever reasons. I was wrong, miserably wrong.At one point I was still looking at Donne Yan killing German solider in the Western battlefield, minutes later he became Chen Zhen (played by Bruce Lee in the 1972 blockbuster, "Fist of Fury") in a black suit kicking Japanese's asses. Don't get me wrong, the fight scenes are crystal clear, fast, and furious; but for every 5 minutes fight scene comes a 35 minutes "Chinese trying so hard to be united against the Japanese", I just couldn't help but to skip through the so-called "acting" part. I knew what's coming next, you probably knew too, in fact everyone who have ever watched a MA movie would have known exactly what's going to happen next.This is not about being incredibly stereotypical, this is not about absolutely zero character development; this is not even about being predictable. This is about the epic failure of the Chinese movie industry, the fact that they DO NOT have the brain power to think of anything new that's suitable in a movie to tie with Martial Art.To conclude this, history is history, we do not need another and another and yet another movie to emphasis the past. We won't be nemesis trying to revenge the Japanese, this is not "glorious bastard", and we do not want to fall back in the same pattern and same routine, that's why we study history. And Just a side note, never did a single Chinese troop fought outside of Asia during WW1, try harder next time.

poe426 LEGEND OF THE FIST boasts some topnotch production values: in the opening scenes, Donnie Yen as the superhuman Chen Zhen makes short work of the Germans in France during WWI- with the aid of wirework and cgi. When WWII rolls around, Yen, laying low as a piano player in a Shanghai nightclub, antagonizes the occupying Japanese- and then snatches a chauffeur's black leather outfit and mask from a storefront dummy (part of a display for a movie titled THE MASKED WARRIOR) and kicks some butt. The outfit is, of course, yet another copy of Bruce Lee's costume from THE GREEN HORNET. Jet Li donned same in THE BLACK MASK, another Bruceploitation flick from yesteryear. Going Li one better, LEGEND OF THE FIST also borrows liberally from Li's own FIST OF LEGEND. It's enough to make one's head spin. As is the wonky wirework we see here (again). Far too much time is spent on posturing and partying and talking before this latest Bruceploitation propaganda flick kicks into high gear- and, when it does, it's much too little and it comes much too late to save this one. When Yen does his impression of Bruce Lee during The Big Finale, it's unintentionally hilarious. And I thought these kind of movies had finally run their course. Guess not...

vps2 Although the narrative gets convoluted at times, the historical setting of the Chinese labor corps sent to aid the allied war effort during world war 1 is historically factual ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Labour_Corps ), though it has been largely forgotten.the Chinese intelligentsia also successfully mounted pressure to cause Japan to delay full scale aggression until the 30s ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twenty-One_Demands )this movie is essentially a big budget hong kong action movie produced as a homage to Bruce Lee. At times it strives to be too many homages at once with Donnie Yen resurrecting both Kato AND Chen Zhen ( Fist of Fury).It shouldn't be conceived as Chinese propaganda (anymore than any of the Bruce Lee movies were) or anti-Japanese, as long as you understand that the Chinese truly were the underdogs back then.in fact, the young Japanese actor playing the colonel totally stole the show.

chrichtonsworld There is only one reason to see this movie and that is Donnie Yen. It is just an amazing sight to see this master of martial arts in action. Andrew Lau however must be ashamed for trying to be so political and patriotic. Nothing wrong with nationalistic movies once in a while. But lately it has been overkill. And he is clearly over his head here since he barely makes sense of what actually is happening on the screen. Worse you won't even care apart from the obvious cruelties displayed in movies like this. It is such a shame that the focus seems to be on the plot that is hardly interesting. Luckily for Andrew Lau Donnie manages to save it all by himself but you can't but wonder what the movie would have been like if the plot was kept simple.