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Legend Of The Fist: The Return Of Chen Zhen Blu-ray Review

“Legend Of The Fist: The Return Of Chen Zhen” is poorly executed.

The plot: After fighting in WWI, Chen Zhen (AKA Qi Tianyuan) returns to China in the midst of a possible takeover by Japan. Chen, who becomes part of a resistance movement, masquerades as a superhero of sorts in order stop Japanese from murdering important Chinese citizens.  There are also important subplots about spies, a woman named Kiki, and a Japanese General.

“Legend Of The Fist: The Return Of Chen Zhen” starts off promising enough with an interesting backdrop and some exciting set pieces here and there (such as the opening war sequence and the street fight). Unfortunately, set pieces do not a film make. ‘Chen Zhen’ is a flat-out rushed film from start to finish. The busy film jumps from scene to scene in a dizzying fashion which not only leaves little room for character, but little room for the film to breathe.

Another issue, albeit a minor one, is that the action sequences are littered with CGI and over the top wirework. This really took me out of the film film as it felt out of place and clunky. The fact that the superhero identity looked like Kato and Black Mask (the Jet Li film) was equally distracting.  

Summary: If you’re looking to see a solid Donnie Yen flick, check out “IP Man 2” instead.

Video/Audio:

The widescreen picture quality is impressive. Viewers may notice that the film print is grainy at times, but I believe it was intentional. 

English and Mandarin DTS-HD 5.1 (and English and Mandarin Dolby Digital 2.0 tracks) have been included on this Blu-ray set. The Mandarin DTS-HD 5.1 audio track is the way to go here as the English track suffers from a poor dub.

Extras:
* Well Go USA Entertainment trailers and 2 “Legend Of The Fist” trailers.
* Interviews with Andrew Lau, Gordon Chan, Donnie Yen, Shu Qi, Anthony Wong, Huang Bo, Kohata Ryuichi. They discuss characters, history, the plot, etc.
* A fly on the wall behind the scenes look at the following sets: War Zone (from the opening of the film), Casablanca, Tianjin Street, Market Place, Newspaper Office, Japanese Headquearters, Student Movement, and Hongkou Dojo.

June 23, 2011 - Posted by nicklyons1 | Blu-Ray review | Donnie Yen, Legend Of The Fist: The Return Of Chen Zhen Blu-ray Review