Upon learning that his martial arts teacher has been killed a Chinese student in Kyoto named "Chen Zhen" (Jet Li) leaves his Japanese girlfriend, "Mitsuko Yamada" (Shinobu Nakayama) and heads back to Shanghai to pay his respects. However, when he gets there he finds that the official reason for his master's death wasn't quite accurate and that he was poisoned by someone within the martial arts school. He further discovers that a rival Japanese martial arts school may also have been involved as well. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this film is essentially a high-quality remake of the Bruce Lee film, "The Chinese Connection". Although the original film was certainly good for its day, this particular movie boasts better acting, more martial arts scenes and a higher sound and film quality as well. Yet, even with all of these assets, the familiar plot and some of the rather long fighting sequences detracted a bit from the overall enjoyment factor. At least for me. Likewise, although Jet Li performed very well, it's still hard--even to this day--to duplicate Bruce Lee. Slightly above average.
Review of Fist of Legend
