B Plus Movies

Jet Li, in my humble opinion, has gotten a raw deal since he started doing American cinema. The man is far more than a martial artist, but a complex actor capable of bringing a number of subtle, tender moments to characters who might otherwise might just be brutal brawlers. The scripts he’s been handed in the States have all missed that dimension in him, even though some have tried. His efforts as an actor in China display a much greater range and depth to his acting.

For example, there is Fist of Legend.

In this movie, Li stars as a student of a great martial arts master who has been killed while at a tournement. Li returns to his master’s school and tries to help the students put themselves back in order, but finds himself and the school set upon by irreverant and viscious students of a rival Japanese school. Soon, Li begins to suspect foul play and is forced to go on the run, the local government being in the pockets of the Japanese. Li must fight to find justice, to keep his master’s legacy and to avoid being put in a jail cell… or worse, the grave.

If this plot sounds familiar, it’s because it’s identical to Fist of Fury,  Bruce Lee’s epic, one of the greatest martial arts films of all time. This is a remake and homage, no a rip off like so many other movies that came out China screaming “You killed my master”! Fist of Legend in many ways is a more hopeful film than Fist of Fury and distinguishes itself from it’s predecessor enough that comparing them does no harm to either one.

Fist of Legend uses all of Jet Li’s considerable talents, from his graceful work as a martial artist to his subtle and reserved talents as a dramatic actor. The film takes time to explore both the world that Li’s character lives in as well as the character himself, leaving one with a sense of a world larger than just the spaces in which the film’s fight scenes take place.

And what fight scenes they are.

Where the film kind of risks losing the viewer is in it’s pacing. In it’s attempt to be thurough, Fist of Legend seems to drift here and there.  I never really felt like I was just waiting to get to the next round of fisticuffs, but I did occasionaly wonder when they were going to get on to the happier part of the film. Admittedly, knowing the plot from Fist of Fury, I may have just been one step ahead of where I needed to be, but still this movie felt to me like it had enough material in it to be broken into to movies, a drama and a martial arts epic.

Before you sit down to Unleashed or Romeo Must Die, check out Fist of Legend. Better yet, skip those movies and go straight to this one. Jet Li has made entertaining films in the US (some of which I’ll have to review here at some point) but  to get a proper measure of how talented the man really is, go look at where he began. I did and because of that, I give Fist of Legend a B+.