FIST OF LEGEND (Japan Version) DVD Region 2

The narrative is surprisingly clear, and it charges ahead on all eight cylinders. While the film sticks closely to Bruce Lee's storyline (even the funeral portrait of Master Hou is the same), director Gordon Chan and company manage to update things for the nicer 90’s we lived in. The Japanese in this film are not all bad, Jet even gets a Japanese girlfriend (the Sanrio-esque Nakayama Shinobu) and one of his opponents (Yasuaki Kurata, the martial artist who lists to the left) is genuinely admirable as a fighting man of the world.

The visuals are nothing short of stunning. The image of Jet Li in Japanese schoolboy uniform, hair ground down into a severe buzz is so graphically audacious that it sears the screen, and the framing has a crisp, geometric style that matches his isosceles widow's peak. Gorgeously studio-bound, the sets are austere, stark and color-designed to within an inch of their lives. As combatants clash, rich golden and red paper leaves swirl around them, falling from a papier mache birch. Like inhaling pure oxygen, its purity is an intoxicant. It's a pared-down, stripped-away, pedal-to-the-metal lacerating affair, and one of Jet Li’s best. Make no mistake about it: this movie will fry your eggs.

by Grady Hendrix