Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		3.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.0

Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov May 12, 2011

Screened at the Venice Film Festival, Andrew Lau's "Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen" (2010) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Hong Kong-based distributors MegaStar. The supplemental features on the disc include two theatrical trailers; making of featurette; behind the scenes featurette; and deleted scenes. In Cantonese, Japanese, and English, with optional English, Traditional Chinese, and Simplified Chinese subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".

The crucial fight

I have mixed feelings about Andrew Lau’s latest film. On one hand, it wants to be a tribute of sorts to arguably the most famous of Bruce Lee’s characters, Chen Zhen; on the other hand, it is loaded with so much Chinese propaganda - there are numerous crass statements about the importance of Chinese national unity, the Great Chinese Spirit, and Japanese imperialism - that occasionally it overshadows Han Sanping and Huang Jianxin's The Founding of a Republic.

WWI, France. More than 150,000 Chinese soldiers are sent to Europe to assist the Allies. Amongst them is Chen Zhen (Donnie Yen, Kill Zone, Ip Man), who eventually assumes the identity of one of his dead fellow comrades and returns to China. In the occupied by the Japanese army Shanghai, he befriends Liu Yutian (Anthony Wong, Vengeance, Infernal Affairs Trilogy), the extravagant owner of the Casablanca, the city’s most popular nightclub. Yutian is a member of the Chinese resistance, and his club is where its leaders meet.

But the Casablanca is also routinely visited by Japanese spies. The best ones happen to be beautiful women who men cannot resist. Unsurprisingly, Chen Zhen quickly falls for one of these spies, Kiki (Shu Qi, My Wife is a Gangster 3, If You Are the One), who has been hired by Yutian to work in the club.

The all important transformation where Zhen puts on the Kato costume and becomes The Masked Warrior occurs halfway through the film. Then Batman-meets-K20 inspired action sequences transform the entire film into a bizarre action extravaganza that culminates with an awfully familiar looking fight between Zhen and an obnoxious Japanese colonel (Kohata Ryuichi, City of Life and Death).

Despite the lush visuals and occasionally impressive fights, Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen is undoubtedly one of the most disappointing big budget Asian productions to emerge in recent years. The film is notably chaotic and loaded with political statements, and its main characters often looking lost, contemplating dilemmas that have little to with the reality they share.

The various twists in the film are also completely mismanaged. Kiki’s true identity, for instance, is revealed almost immediately after she meets Zhen, yet there is a very strange tendency to completely ignore it. Additionally, the film spends a great deal of time on the planned execution of various supposedly prominent Chinese patriots yet never bothers to clarify who they are or why they are so important. As a result, the many elaborate execution scenes look puzzling to say the least.

The big action scenes are well choreographed but look like expensive MTV commercials. The most lavish ones are also unnecessarily long. Yen fans will likely appreciate them - the final fight, in particular, is quite good - but it feels like his talent has been wasted in this film. One could argue that this is also the case with the supporting cast.

The special effects are impressive - Shanghai from the beginning of the century looks real, while the Casablanca reminds about the notorious Moulin Rouge. The battle scenes from the prologue are also decent. The elaborate costumes are also of exceptionally high quality.

Azrael Chung Wai-Chiu’s (Bruce Lee, My Brother) editing is very problematic. Not only it dramatically affects the tempo of the film but in certain parts completely changes its tone.

Note: Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen premiered at last year’s Venice Film Festival. The film was also screened at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Andrew Lau's Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Hong Kong-based distributors MegaStar.

The majority of the film looks decent - detail is good and color reproduction impressive. Contrast levels are also good, especially during the daylight footage. However, there are various scenes that look somewhat soft, at times even lacking good definition, because for some unknown to me reason random mild noise corrections appear to have been performed. The effects are fairly easy to see when one projects the film. I also noticed various traces of mild to moderate edge-enhancement that pop up during a number of indoor scenes (see screencapture #11). A few aliasing patterns are also present. A lot of these issues will likely be difficult to spot on average size screens (50'-55'), but those of you using digital projectors will notice them. Finally, there are no serious stability issues to report in this review. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray disc. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free PS3 or SA in order to access its content).

Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There are four audio tracks on this Blu-ray disc: Cantonese Dolby TrueHD 7.1, Cantonese Dolby Digital 5.1, Mandarin Dolby TrueHD 7.1, and Mandarin Dolby Digital 5.1 (with portions of English and Japanese). For the record, MegaStar have provided optional English, Traditional Chinese, and Simplified Chinese subtitles for the main feature. When turned on, they appear inside the image frame.

I opted for the Cantonese Dolby TrueHD 7.1 track, but there is a large number of actors in the film who spoke Mandarin and were dubbed (in addition, of course, to those who spoke Japanese and English). The loseless audio track is outstanding - the bass is incredibly powerful and deep while the rear channels as active as I have heard on recent Asian Blu-ray releases. Predictably, the action scenes impress the most, but Chan Kwong Wing's music score also gets a strong boost. The dialog is crisp, clean, stable, and easy to follow. The English translation is good, but I must say that I noticed a number of small grammatical errors.

Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer 1 - theatrical trailer for Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen. In Cantonese, with optional English, Traditional Chinese, and Simplified Chinese subtitles. (2 min, 1080p).

• Trailer 2 - theatrical trailer for Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen. In Cantonese, with optional English, Traditional Chinese, and Simplified Chinese subtitles. (2 min, 1080p).

• Making of - in this standard featurette, cast and crew members discuss the film's production history and narrative. The featurette also contains raw footage from the shooting of the film. In Cantonese and Mandarin, with optional English, Traditional Chinese, and Simplified Chinese subtitles. (16 min, 1080i).

• Behind the Scenes - a look at the various locations seen in the film, and raw footage from the shooting of key action sequences. In Cantonese, with optional English, Traditional Chinese, and Simplified Chinese subtitles. (2 min, 1080i).

• Director's Unseen Footage - a gallery of deleted scenes. In Cantonese, with optional English, Traditional Chinese, and Simplified Chinese subtitles. (12 min, 480/60i).

Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Hardcore Donnie Yen fans will likely be pleased with Andrew Lau's Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen, but I have to admit that I expected a lot more. There is so much talent on display yet the final result is so underwhelming. The Blu-ray disc herein reviewed, courtesy of Hong Kong-based distributors MegaStar, looks decent and sounds terrific. RENT IT.