No fists for old men

Fists of Legend

After the foray into the chronicles of Chen Zhen, there is one other movie that i wanted to mention. Fists (plural!) of legend is a nice korean movie that suffers from a name that is way to close to the Jet Li movie.

(False advertising at its finest)

While the poster looks like any other fighting movie, the actual movie is one of most positive surprises in the genre i stumbled upon in the last few years. In fact, it has much more in common with movies like Rocky I or Warrior (2011). 

The idea of the story is that there is a tv show named Fists of Legend. They seeks out middle-aged men that were well known brawlers or street fighters in their youth and lets them compete in an mma match for money. 

(Our action hero)

The main protagonist Duk Kyu is a tired father that runs a noodle shop that is run down and going on broke. The story he tells himself is that he peaked in high school, where he was an ambitious boxer that didn't make it to the olympics. His daughter looks down on him and judges him like only korean female characters can (the look in the picture above really says it all). 

The TV show producers try to recruit him and he meets his two best friends from high school again, one of them now in middle management and the other a smalltime member in an organized crime family. 

The movie tells two stories at once, with the main plot being the slow regain of confidence and pride by the three over the course of the show and the other being the back story about how they became friends and drifted apart in high school. 

(Same guys - in the 80s)

Story and characters are great, especially because the script really meshes the two time periods well, so that there are barely any lenghts. 

The other great thing are the fights. While the fights in the tv shows are well shot and really show the dynamic of the one-on-one (fighters are pressured, exhaustion plays a role etc.), there are a few minor gripes. The grappling isn't as well thought out and filmed as the standup, but that's only because the action choreographer is just that good in the kick/punch-department.

(character development)

What is really quite inspired is the decision to make the fights in the flashback story over the top and usually involve large groups on both sides, like in Crows Zero. The fights are incredibly fast and athletic, involving lots of high kicks etc. While i would usually critique this as breaking my fighting suspension of disbelief, it works here because it seems like we're seeing the nostalgic memories of the characters in which everything is larger than life.

(Trip down memory lane ... with a vengeance)

A great movie and really shows what can be done in terms of character development in a movie that very much centers around fighting.

The Return of the Bat-Zhen

Legend of the Fist: The return of Chen Zhen 

This is the latest movie with our undying hero. This time, Donnie Yen (who already played him in a TV Show in 1994) is playing the punch-dispenser, but this one is not just a loose remake. Instead, it is a kind of alternate take/ reboot / sequel to the original that is actually more inspired by Batman or Iron Monkey.

(The chinese Bruce Wayne)

Our Hero has fought in Europe before returning home and picking up a double persona as a playboy (the Bruce Wayne part) and Kato (Batman as a Chauffeur).

(This isn't the early 90s? What am i doing here then?)

While the story is overambitious, the cinematography, sets and costumes are excellent. Overall, one gets the impression that someone mashed two scripts together, one a sequel to fists of fury and the other a Hong Kong version of a comic book movie. 

The really interesting thing is the fighting, of course. Donnie Yen is using his individual style instead of trying to do a Bruce Lee impression (aside from a few Nunchuk scenes), which means things like chain punches (á la Ip Man) which is kinda fitting considering that Wing Chun got famous as the basis of Bruce Lees fighting style.

(Chain Fisting ... that came out wrong)

There are even the occasional high speed grapplings, a specialty of Yen that very few other action movies have managed to integrate convincingly into their fights. 

(Grappling in movies done right)

One weird thing that has to be mentioned are the scenes in which our hero moves super fast and runs in curves while leaning extremly to the side with the help of wires, almost like a motorbike. This is probably supposed to add to the superhero flair, but instead it makes the hero feel even more invincible, which takes the stakes out of the fights. 

Not a terrible movie, but attaching the Chen Zhen name to it actually holds the movie back a bit and forces it to pay homage to the old movie that doesn't match the rest.

More legendary fists

Fist of Legend

Fist of fury is considered a classic, so it's no wonder that it got remade. Jet Li picks up the mantle of Chen Zhen in a remake that is actually much better in many respects. Aside from an unbelievably boring poster (The movie is called fist of legend? Lets put the fist front and center of the poster! What about the legend part? Just add some glowy text effect in the background. Thats it!)

(pure genius)

The tweaks to the story are surprisingly well thought out. Chen Zhen is actually studying in Japan and in love with a japanese girl. This might be one of the few cases where 90s political correctness actually improved a movie. You can see that they made an effort to be more nuanced and not have a scene by scene copy of the original. Not all japanese are bad guys and the villain, while still being over the top, is actually menacing.

(notice the lack of swirlable moustache)

The real upgrade is the fighting. While Let Li is known for wire-fu (think Once upon a time in China), most of the fight cheoreography in fist of legends is much more down to earth. The speed is pretty high and the stunt men actually know what they do. There is still a lot of tough guy posing, but Jet Li doesn't go as overboard as in the original. There is still a lot of one-vs-many fights with people flying through rooms after a simple hit, but the real highlights are the long and brutal one on one fights. The cinematography isn't as good as some Jackie Chan films, but the editing and the very controlled use of slow motion is top notch. 

Fists of Legend .. so many fists ..and legends

To start off with my little project, I wanted to pick something that encapsules everything i plan to do with this blog. Therefore, i had to find out what i want to do (kinda d'ouh ). So here it is:

1. Introduce movies / shows / books / games that are special/interesting/terrible but awesome but not that widely known. 
2. Review / Riff / both them at the same time 
3. Talk about completely unrelated stuff

Today i wanted to talk a bit about the movies that could be counted as part of the "Chen Zhen Chronicles", the character played by Bruce Lee in Fists of Fury (aka The Chinese Connection).

The first post is immediatly breaking the rules i set up for myself (great way to go buddy) by including one of the most prolific films in martial arts movie history. 

Fist of Fury (aka Chinese Connection) 1972

Bruce Lee is always treated with an insane amount of reverence both as a martial artist as well as a movie star. While movie fighting and real fighting are different worlds, they are also closely linked (something i will try to write about in a future post).

The story (japanese overlords secretly poison master, make fun of school, Bruce/Chen bullies back) is simple and sounds like any other standard kung fu movie plot. Whats strange about it is the amount of ham & cheese, the characters look like cartoon characters and act accordingly. 

(Some of the less silly looking bad guys)

While the bad guys are moustachio-twirling evil guys (in fact a lot of them have one), the "hero" comes off as a bit of an asshole. While the bad guys act like cartoon characters and seem just as capable in terms of violence, Bruce Lee comes off as really threatening and much more serious than his enemies. 

(Guess who the villain is)

The fight choreography is not that great, although the camera work is inspired in some sequences. While the fights have an cinematic intensity that stems from the almost western-like standoffs that are typical for Bruce Lee, the butt-kicking itself is marred by the obvious big ego of the star who wants to look good and cool in every scene and the absolutly terrible fighting abilities of the stunt men or actors that are the victims.

Even worse are the sequences with a russian wrestler in which bruce escapes a badly applied armbar by biting the leg. 

(Grappling in style)

Anyone who has any real grappling experience will tell you that when some idiot tries to bite you in that situation, you would surely stay on the hold, break his arm and maybe break his jaw from the same position. 

The movie is now legendary, but when rewatching it you realize just how bad most 70s movie fighting really was.

Zeitreisen in die Gegenwart

Alles zurück auf Stunde Null. Eben noch kämpft Shaun in einem mittelalterlichen Gewölbe mit einem außerirdischen Wesen, nur um in der nächsten Sekunde in seinem eigenen Bett in Genf aufzuwachen. Er kann sich nicht erklären was geschehen ist, und spätestens als er im CERN seine Arbeit antreten will, stellt er fest, dass etwas faul ist im Staate Dänemark...

Schnarch vs. Gamer: Colonial Marines

Tief in den Eingeweiden des weltweiten Netzes, genauer gesagt im binären Bundesstaat Jobgates, findet sich am Fuße des Mount Zuse Memorials alljährlich die digitale Prominenz ein, um Gericht zu halten über all die programmierten Verbrechen, die von den Entwicklerstudios auf die User losgelassen wurden. Wie in all den Jahren zuvor hatte das Master-Control-Programm den Vorsitz inne. Zwar hatte man angesichts der Popularität des Angeklagten mit einem vollen Server gerechnet, aber der Andrang war noch stärker als erwartet, sodass nicht alle Anwendungen geladen werden konnten. Geduldig wartete das MCP ab, bis auch die letzten Dateien Platz genommen hatten. Schließlich räusperte es sich laut und vernehmlich in das Mikrofon auf dem Richterpult. Sofort verstummte das Zischeln und das Getuschel im Zuschauerraum. Tausende Augen wandten den Blick erwartungsvoll zum MCP, das zufrieden die Sitzung eröffnete.

Neulich im Brainfuck

Schon wieder ein Third-Person-Shooter und ich soll – wie sollte es auch anders sein - einen US-Soldaten spielen? Kein Interesse!
Doch auf der anderen Seite klingt das Szenario ganz interessant: Dubai ist nach einem Sandsturm größtenteils entvölkert. Die ersten Screenshots ließen bereits die apokalyptische Stimmung erahnen, die mich erwarten würde. Na gut, ausnahmsweise… dann schau ich mir doch mal an, was dieser Third-Person-Shooter so drauf hat. Am Ende musste ich mir selber eingestehen, dass ich „Spec Ops: The Line“ vollkommen unterschätzt hatte und das Spiel zu unrecht am Markt untergegangen ist.

Woran es gelegen hat, vermag ich nicht zu sagen. War es zu wenig Werbung seitens des Publishers, die Übersättigung der Spieler mit Ballergames oder schlicht die Ankündigung, dass „The Line“ eine richtige Handlung haben sollte, die die Shooterfans vom Kauf abgehalten hat? Möglich wäre es. Zum einen kommen die Geschichten, die in Shootern erzählt werden meist auf einer Briefmarke unter und sind dann auch noch schlecht inszeniert.