Jing wu ying xiong (1994)

Director:

Gordon Chan

Writers:

Gordon Chan (screenplay)
Lan Kay Toa (screenplay)

Release Date:

22 December 1994 (Hong Kong)

Genre:

Action | Drama

Plot:

In 1937, a Chinese martial artist returns to Shanghai to find his teacher dead and his school harassed by the Japanese.

Plot Keywords:

Kung Fu | Martial Arts | Abuse | Slap In The Face | Sword

Awards:

2 nominations

Cast

Jet Li	...	Chen Zhen
Shinobu Nakayama	...	Mitsuko Yamada
Siu-hou Chin	...	Hou Ting-An (as Chin Siu Ho)
Billy Chow	...	General Fujita (Supreme Killer) (as Billy Chau)
Yasuaki Kurata	...	Fuimo Funakoshi
Paul Chun	...	Uncle Noh (as Paul Chiang)
Ada Choi	...	Rose
Cheung-Yan Yuen	...	Captain Jie
Toshimichi Takahashi	...	Japanese Ambassador
Carol Tam	...	Wei
Jackson Liu	...	Ryuichi Akutagawa (as Lou Hsueh Hsien)
Sun Wong	...	Cook
Man Biu Lee	...	Biu
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Shaun Britton	...	English Gentleman at dock
Tai Woh Dang	...	Ngai
Gary Mak	...	Lun - Jingwu Mun student
Kenji Tanigaki

Also Known As:

Fist of Legend (Hong Kong: English title) (International: English title)
Cheng miu ying hung (Hong Kong: Cantonese title)

MPAA:

Rated R for some strong martial arts violence.

Runtime:

103 min | Germany:98 min

Country:

Hong Kong

Language:

English | Japanese | Cantonese

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Iceland:16 | South Korea:15 | Philippines:PG-13 | Singapore:PG | Australia:M | France:U | Norway:18 | UK:18 | USA:R

Company:

Eastern Productions

Trivia:

Jet Li plays Chen Zhen in this movie, a student of master Huo Yuanjia. Jet Li will then go on to play Master Huo Yuanjia in Huo Yuan Jia (2006)

Goofs:

Continuity: When Akutagawa and the Japanese Ambassador are talking after playing a game of Go!, the pieces disappear and re-appear a number of times.

Quotes:

Chen Zhen: The object of matching is to beat down the opponent.
Fumio Funakoshi: Wrong kid, the best way to beat the opponent is to use a gun.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Jackie Brown: How It Went Down (2002) (V)

One of THE martial arts films

Simply put, Fist of Legend is one of the very best martial arts films ever made. It stands in a group with Bruce Lee's Enter the Dragon, Jackie Chan's Drunken Master II, and...as soon as I think of anything as good as those three, I'll let you know.

Choreographed by the legendary Yuen Wo-Ping, this is Jet Li at his best (and that's saying a lot, folks). Eschewing the aerial wire stunts, Li relies on skill, speed and agility, and is more than up to the task. These fights - and there are a lot of them - are stunning. But the real wonder is that there's a real movie here underneath all the stuntwork. Interesting characters, an intriguing plot, and conflict that goes deeper than "you killed my master"; there's even some political comment. This is a thinly-veiled remake of Bruce Lee's "Fist of Fury" (or "The Chinese Connection" in the US, for some bizarre reason), but the story's been widened and given more depth. There's less Japanese-bashing, with more of an attempt to pin blame on individuals instead of nationalities.

If Jet Li is ever going to have a formidable American presence, it's films like this one that should be making the conversion, instead of merely above-average fare like "Black Mask".