MyRating: YY1/2Director: Andrew Lau
Cast: Donnie Yen, Shu Qi, Anthony Wong, Huang Bo, Shawn Yue, Yasuaki Kurata, Ryu Kohata
Donnie Yen reprised his role as Chen Zhen, the role that he played in the 1995 Hong Kong TV series "Fist of Fury". This fictional martial artist and Chinese culture hero, created by the Hong Kong writer Ni Kuang, was first popularized by the legendary Bruce Lee in his 1972 martial arts movie, Jing Wu Men (Fist of Fury). Since then, this character has appeared in numerous remakes and adaptations of films and television series, including in the popular 1994 Jet Li's Hong Kong movie, Fist of Legend (which happened to be my most favorite Jet Li's movie of all time). The character of Chen Zhen is believed to be based on Liu Zhensheng, a real student of Huo Yuanjia, a Chinese martial artist and co-founder of the Chin Woo Athletic Association, a martial arts school in Shanghai. Huo Yuanjia's character has also been played by Jet Li in his 2006's Fearless. And the stories of Chen Zhen, even though varies in many different remakes and adaptations, usually have the same background, which is to avenge the death of his beloved teacher, Huo Yuanjia.
This movie is set in Shanghai during the Japanese invasion to China, seven years after the events of the 1995 "Fist of Fury" TV series, and seven years after the 'death' of Chen Zhen, who was shot after avenging his teacher's death. But he is not dead. He returns, changes his identity, and befriends with a local businessman and the owner of a prominent nightclub, Master Liu (Anthony Wong), with a grand plan to infiltrate and fight the Japanese. Chen also involves in a romantic relationship with the nightclub hostess and singer, Kiki (Shu Qi). When Tokyo sends a death list of 100 names of the influenced Chinese people to the ruthless Japanese Colonel in China, Colonel Chikaraishi (Ryu Kohata), all to be killed within one month, Chen knows that this is the time to act. Disguising himself as a masked fighter by night, Chen tries to save as many people in the list as possible before the time runs out. And all that leads into the final one on one brutal combat with the Colonel in the Japanese dojo.
If I have to sum up my review for this movie in one sentence, then it would be "a movie with great actions and martial arts, but with not so good story, that resulting in a mediocre feel-like movie". I will start with the story. I think the script was not well written, with messy sub-plots that made the story to become complicated, but actually with no substantial depth. The movie was less 'heart', as it was difficult to feel the characters. All this make the movie to become a bit mechanical, with many fight scenes, but no 'touching' moments. And watching Donnie Yen wearing a black suit with a mask (the same as that of Kato from The Green Hornet) was somehow laughable. It was just not comfortable to see him in that silly costume. This movie was also too noisy with many unnecessary loud background sounds. If compared with Ip Man 2 that was released earlier this year (also staring Donnie Yen), which was a great movie with a lot of heart, this movie was in a different league.
Putting aside the story, the action scenes were great though, with awesome martial arts fights. Donnie Yen was definitely one of the most exciting Hong Kong martial arts actors nowadays. He has been in the movie industry for so long (one generation with Jet Li), including playing in Hollywood movies (Blade II, Shanghai Knights), but his stardom is really rocketing to the sky after playing Yip Man in the hugely successful Ip Man in 2008, that makes him a hot commodity nowadays. And what great about Donnie Yen is, not only he is great in martial arts (as he actually knows kung fu, like Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan and Jet Li), but he also has a good acting capacity. I just love this actor. And Donnie Yen was the one who made this movie to become exciting, with his brilliant and fun to watch martial arts moves. The fighting choreography was top-notch, even though there were some impossible over-the-top actions. The final battle in the dojo where Donnie Yen fights against countless karate students was mind blowing, including the ultimate fight with the Japanese Colonel.
If you are a fan of Donnie Yen and martial arts, then you should probably watch this, but do not expect a good story. And I would like to add one more line, 'Even though the story will let you down, but Donnie Yen won't.' (MJ)
