Review for Fist Of Legend: Ultimate Edition (Review)
Thursday, 18th March 2010, 14:45

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Introduction
Hot on the heels of Kill Zone, the second collaborative release between Cine Asia and Dragon Dynasty comes to the UK, and this title has been a long time in coming. We now get Fist of Legend: The Ultimate Edition. I'm usually wary about adding the Ultimate Edition suffix to Cine Asia titles, as often they are the only editions released in the UK, which makes it all a pointless hyperbole. But there has been a Fist of Legend release in the UK, courtesy of Buena Vista several years ago, an unpleasant non-anamorphic, dub only version of the film that is hardly the sort of thing to appeal to collectors of kung fu cinema. It's the same version that has been shown on TV broadcasts several times over the past few years, the same version that I have started to watch, and then had to switch off because the dub was so excruciating. It's a crying shame, as Fist of Legend is reputed to be one of Jet Li's finest action films, made at the height of his powers back in 1994. This modern remake of the classic Fist of Fury finally gets the release it deserves, anamorphic with original language audio courtesy of Cine Asia, a two-disc release with the Bey Logan commentary. It's also released on Blu-ray on the same day.

It's 1937 and tensions are high across South East Asia, especially with Japan beginning to dream imperialist dreams, and throw its weight around its territories and beyond. But it is the economic superpower in the region, which is why Chen Zhen is at a prestigious Tokyo university, learning about the modern world, and putting up with jingoistic students who wish to promote their vision of racial purity. It isn't the growing hatred that makes him go home to Shanghai though, it's the news that his kung fu master Huo Yuan Jia has been killed in a match with the head of a rival Japanese dojo. His desire is simple, to return home, pay respects to his master, then show the Japanese that the Chinese will no longer tolerate their arrogance by giving them a good kicking. It's never that simple though. It becomes all too clear that the man reputed to have bested Huo Yuan Jia is wholly incapable of such an act, and there's something far more sinister going on. Worse, Chen Zhen's return throws the Jing Wu Men School into turmoil, especially as he brings a modern approach to kung fu that doesn't sit well with the new master, Ting-an, son of Huo Yuan Jia. It becomes even more complicated when Chen Zhen's Japanese girlfriend Mitsuko follows him to Shanghai, and they become victims of prejudice from both sides.

Picture
Fist of Legend gets a 1.85:1 anamorphic transfer, and a pleasant film to PAL transfer at that. The image is clear and sharp throughout, with good colour balance showing the excellent production design to good effect. You can't get away from the fact that it's a 15 year old film, so there is some grain prevalent, and a smidge of print damage and age, but certainly not immediately noticeable. It does contrast with the opening credits, which appear to have been created especially for this release by Dragon Dynasty, and they are a whole lot cleaner, sharper, and CGI. Of course the whole point of this film is the kung fu, and the action sequences are stunning, choreographed by Yuen Woo Ping (who else), and brilliantly shot. They are also much more grounded for a film of this period, and wirework is thankfully kept to a minimum.

Sound
You have a choice between DD 5.1 English, and DD 2.0 Cantonese and Mandarin, with optional English subtitles. Watch the Cantonese version, as it best portrays the central story arc of the confrontation between the Chinese and Japanese, simply because the characters speak the language appropriate to their nationality, Cantonese and Japanese. The Mandarin track has all the characters speaking Mandarin, and the same can be said of the English track. The English dub wasn't quite as excruciating as I remember, and I get the feeling that Dragon Dynasty created this dub specifically for this release, replacing the original English dub with something more palatable. Certainly, the music has been re-scored by Stephen Edwards to take advantage of the 5.1 soundstage, and is markedly different from the original score. Bey Logan notes in the commentary that we should have the choice of both scores for the English dub, but in the UK we only get the re-scored audio. It's also worth noting that the English dub makes the ending of the film different from the original language versions.

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