I bought "Legend of the Fist" from Amazon simply because Shu Qi was in it. But prior to that, then I had no idea what the movie was about, so it was without any hopes or expectations that I sat down to watch the movie.

"Legend of the Fist" was actually a rather good enough action/martial arts movie spiced up with a fairly good storyline as well. Set during World War I in a Japanese occupied Shanghai, we follow the oppression of the Chinese and their rise to rebel against the Japanese. Mostly by the hands on a single man; Chen Zhen.

The action sequences and fight scenes in the movie were really great, nicely choreographed and executed, which is a trademark of Donnie Yen. So if you are familiar with his work, then you know you are in for some great action and lots of adrenaline here. However, the last fight was a bit too cliché for my liking, it was like an old Bruce Lee movie. You had Donnie Yen taking on a whole dojo of Japanese singlehandedly. Then he comes up against the 'villain', the main bad guy, and gets a nasty beating, but of course he comes back and beats the villain to a pulp. It was exactly like the old Bruce Lee movies, and it has been done too many times already, been there, done that. So it was sort of a anti-climatic end to the movie - as you saw it coming a mile away.

"Legend of the Fist" has some pretty good actors and actresses on the cast list; you have Donnie Yen (in the lead role of Chen Zhen),Shu Qi (playing Kiki) and Anthony Wong (playing Liu Yutian). And the people in the movie did great jobs in bringing their characters to life on the screen.

Having seen "Legend of the Fist" now, I sit here with the taste of 'was this a tribute to Bruce Lee' in my mouth. Because everything in this movie screamed Bruce Lee, and it seemed like a movie that might as well have starred the immortal Bruce Lee and not Donnie Yen. And I will not even go into the similarity between the Masked Fighter and Bruce Lee's Kato character... But regardless of this being the case or not, then "Legend of the Fist" was actually good entertainment both story-wise and also action-wise.

Fictional Chinese hero Chen Zhen was first portrayed by the legendary Bruce Lee in kung fu classic Fist of Fury (1972),in which he fought against Japanese imperialism in 1910s Shanghai. The character has since been reprised in numerous films and TV series, most notably by Jet Li In 1994 (for his excellent remake, Fist of Legend) and Donnie Yen, who, having already played the hero in a 1995 television series, returned to the character in 2010 for Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen, a sequel to Bruce Lee's original.

The film quickly excuses the fact that Chen Zhen was caught in an inescapable crossfire at the end of Fist of Fury, showing him to be alive and well in France, fighting alongside the allied forces in WW1. In a promising pre-credits action sequence, Yen's Zhen singlehandedly dispatches of umpteen German soldiers who have his fellow countrymen pinned down by gunfire. Zhen leaps out of a bunker, launches himself towards the enemy with impossible athleticism, scoots up a wooden pole armed only with a pair of bayonets, and deals with the Germans with incredible ferocity. It's an impressively OTT battle scene that delivers a level of action and excitement that, sadly, is never replicated.

What follows is, for the most part, a politically charged drama, as Zhen adopts the identity of a fallen comrade and returns to his homeland to attempt to unite his country and oppose the invading Japanese forces. Fast, furious and brutal martial arts scenes are few and far between, the film leaving fight fans wanting for the majority of the time. There are only a couple of martial arts melees (before the inevitable big smack-down at the end),in which Yen turns up in his Masked Warrior disguise (a nod to Bruce Lee's Kato character in The Green Hornet) to kick Japanese butt, but director Andrew Lau's annoying use of rapid editing and close-up camerawork doesn't allow the viewer to appreciate the star's fight choreography and lightning fast moves.

Predictably, the finale takes place at the Hongkou dojo, the site of Zhen's fight at the end of Fist of Fury, our hero taking on numerous karate students before facing the loathsome Colonel Takeshi Chikaraishi (Ryu Kohata). At this point, Yen does his best Bruce Lee impression, even producing a pair of nunchuks to crack some skulls, all of which would have been a lot of fun if it wasn't for Lau's frustrating directorial style. The movie closes by informing the viewer that Japan seized control of Shanghai shortly after, making the whole thing feel like a pointless exercise.

4.5/10, rounded down to 4 for wasting Shu Qi in a pointless 'tragic romantic interest' role.

Another fest of ass-kicking from Hong Kong superstar Donnie Yen, LEGEND OF THE FIST is loosely based on the same legend as Bruce Lee's FIST OF LEGEND and Jet Li's FIST OF LEGEND. Yen plays a masked freedom fighter battling against imperial Japanese forces during their occupation of Shanghai during the 1920s, and the film is a rousing, action-packed slice of superlative entertainment.

Okay, so the action doesn't quite have the edge of the similar IP MAN and its sequel, but generally speaking it's very good indeed. There's a particular viciousness to the scenes involving Yen going around and battling or murdering his beleaguered city's oppressors, and an involved, conspiracy style-storyline means that nobody can truly be trusted. The ending, which builds to one final bout with the enemy, is predictable in the extreme but nonetheless crowd-pleasing and hugely entertaining.

Yen sleepwalks through his role a bit, having played this type of character loads over the years, but he's given strong support in the likes of established names such as Shawn Yue, Anthony Wong and Shu Qi. The fast-paced story is handled well by Andrew Lau's Infernal Affairs, who brings the same kind of twisty, gritty vitality to this story as he did with that hugely influential cops vs. gangsters movie. And, of course, there are lots and lots of scenes of Yen kicking ass as only he knows how, including a spectacular opening that celebrates the little-known Chinese role in WW1.