Jet Li's 1994 Martial Arts Film With 92% On Rotten Tomatoes Is Excellent If You Need Wall-To-Wall Motion

Gordon Chan’s 1994 martial arts masterpiece starring Jet Li, the Hong Kong-produced film Fist of Legend, is definitely one of many style’s greatest for all-out motion. The movie is a remake of 1972’s Fist of Fury, which options Bruce Lee. Nevertheless, the Nineteen Nineties model takes issues to a different stage in combating phrases, because of pioneering choreography from cinematic martial arts specialist Yuen Woo-ping.

Yuen choreographed a number of beautiful dojo-based fight sequences all through Fist of Legend, wherein Jet Li demonstrates his mastery of Chinese language Qin Na and Mizong Fist martial arts methods. Li, who was simply 30 years of age on the time the film was shot, performs Chen Zhen, a younger martial artist who goes to college in Kyoto, Japan. Nevertheless, many of the motion takes place in and across the hallowed Jingwu Faculty of martial arts in Shanghai, China. There might be no higher or extra acceptable setting for one of many best martial arts motion pictures of recent occasions.

Fist Of Legend Is Stuffed With Nice Motion From Begin To End

The Battle Scenes Start Seconds Into The Film

Beginning at breakneck velocity with a combat wherein Chen Zhen demolishes a complete cohort of Kyoto martial artists, Fist of Legend is arguably Jet Li’s single greatest assortment of film combat scenes. The motion by no means lets up, with Li coming into right into a scintillating head-to-head in opposition to the character who killed his grasp inside the film’s first quarter-hour. Li’s Chen Zhen defeats Akutagawa with the Huaquan fist approach inside 60 seconds, displaying his trademark lightning reflexes to the shock and awe of Jingwu’s dojo. This scene is only one of a number of wherein Li reveals off his mastery of varied methods.

What elevates Fist of Legend to an excellent larger stage as a martial arts film is its integration of wall-to-wall motion right into a compelling story wherein Li’s character should combat for his relationship with a Japanese classmate to be accepted in each their international locations. The scene wherein his girlfriend’s father agrees to show Chen Zhen the legendary Mizong Fist, having lastly accepted him, is nearly pretty much as good because the climactic motion that follows. Combining the knowledge he takes from his new father determine with an epic coaching sequence, Li’s character is ready for the finale of a lifetime.

Yuen Woo-ping Is The Predominant Motive Behind Fist Of Legend’s Wonderful Battle Scenes

The Choreographer Was Already A Kung Fu Film Nice Earlier than Fist Of Legend

Working Jet Li’s unimaginable skills as a martial artist right into a choreographed onscreen efficiency isn’t any imply feat, particularly given simply how briskly Li might transfer at his peak. However he met his match in choreographer Yuen Woo-ping, who’d been directing and choreographing kung fu cinema because the early Nineteen Seventies. Yuen Woo-ping directed among the greatest martial arts motion pictures round, together with the 1978 kung fu masterclass Drunken Grasp, starring Jackie Chan.

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Following Fist of Legend, with its landmark last combat scene between Jet Li and Billy Chow, Yuen Woo-ping went on to show his price as a choreographer to administrators of different genres. His work seems in every part from The Matrix to Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Invoice, and he was the combating guide behind maybe the best of all martial arts motion pictures, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Nonetheless, none of those movies function a fighter on the extent of Li, which locations Fist of Legend a lower above them for style purists.