Chen Zen and his buddies have been sent as little more than canon fodder and labor on the front lines in WWI. The first fight scene featuring Donnie Yen is a thrill ride. The man went to a machine gun fight with knives and won! The stunt work was amazing. Donnie is fast and a true pleasure to watch.
Most of the movie gets bogged down into a series of subplots when the surviving soldiers go home. Japan has carved up Shanghai causing death and mayhem in their wake. Chen and his crew are part of the underground which includes a lot of characters who are never developed in any meaningful way. Anthony Wong is the owner of a club with shady alliances whom Chen partners with. Shu Qi with even shadier alliances is the gorgeous singer and hostess who wins Chen's heart.
Huang Bo is the humorous inspector who plays Commissioner Gordon to Chen's Black Mask. Without any real emotional connection to the rest of the characters the ongoing violence felt meaningless most of the time.
There is a great deal of Chinese nationalism played out rather heavily at times. This is a by the book movie, it's a foregone conclusion that Chen will have to fight the Big Bad Japanese Colonel, the son of the man killed in Fist of Fury, at the climax. The fight preceding it is reminiscent of Bruce Lee's fight in the original only on a grander scale.
The cinematography is quite lush with a good soundtrack backing it up. Director Andrew Lau brought 1920's Shanghai to life with eye catching depth and color. Yen is believable as the undercover freedom fighter and Black Mask. Shu Qi doesn't have enough to do, making do with what she is given. Wong and Huang added acting depth to the group. The star of this show is Donnie's fighting and the big fight scenes. He is unbelievably quick and agile. The fights are creative and deadly.
Though Legend of the Fist isn't a great movie it does have some gripping fight scenes that few actors other than Donnie Yen could carry off during this time period. Even now, it's hard to see many actors being able to duplicate what he accomplished.
Donnie Yen and Shu Qi had enough star power to almost cover over the gaping holes in this beautifully shot movie. Almost.
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