_J_'s Journal: TIFF 10 - 09/09 - Legend of the Fist

Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen

Andrew Lau, co-director of Infernal Affairs, returns with this followup and homage to Fist of Legend. Donnie Yen takes over the role of Chen Zhen in this action flick set in pre-WWII Shanghai. This movies succumbs to some of the usual PRC themes of "Unity of all China including Taiwan" and "Japanese are Evil" (for good reason). But the movie itself had some bad cgi, soundtrack overdubbing or sync issues and, as is often the case, wire-fighting that was just a little too out there.

I'm still waiting for a Chinese/Hong Kong director to play with the standard Kung-Fu movie themes. This was not that movie.

Overall I enjoyed it but it was not great cinema. It was entertaining enough but the problems I mentioned earlier as well as weak plotting and editing drew me out of the film.

6/10