Dorathen Better Late Then Never

SeeQuant Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

InformationRap This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Quiet Muffin This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

Leofwine_draca This early Jet Li vehicle has had rather more exposure than some of his other flicks of the period, thanks to Dimension cashing in on Li's success in the US and releasing films from his back catalogue. Sadly, Dimension's decision had many fans up in arms, as the films were usually re-cut, badly dubbed and had new music added which was inferior to the original's. As far as I can see, THE LEGEND is no exception, with the level of dubbing being particularly noticeable. It's quite lucky that this film has plenty of comedy, as I imagine taking it seriously would be a difficult task.Li plays the role of the Chinese hero with typical ease, and gets to do far more comedy here than we usually see in his movies. He fits in with the rest of the actors nicely, and his martial arts skills are, of course, outstanding. The supporting characters are little more than caricatures, although saying that they do tend to stick in your mind – faces such as Li's roly-poly assistant, or his kick-ass mother, or the weirdly pale bad guy. The plot is confused but the film looks wonderfully colourful, something I'd attribute to the sure-hand direction of Corey Yuen.The best element of the film is, of course, the action. It's here where THE LEGEND really excels and becomes better than the norm. Wire work is in use here at all times, so don't go in expecting realism; instead, you get scenes of people flying, running along on the tops of crowds, and performing all manner of gravity-defying stunts. The fights are generally excellent, with three big standouts. The first is the kung fu contest where participants lose when they touch the ground; when Li joins it, it goes on for about ten minutes but never becomes boring. The other two quality moments are the battles with the pale bad guy, one halfway through and the other at the climax; both are terrifically inventive and packed with imaginative situations. It's the cartoonish action that really bolsters this movie and makes it what it is: an unassuming film with fun at the top of the agenda.

leonblackwood Review: This movie was terrible. The acting is appalling, along with the script which became hard on the ears after a while. To be honest, I didn't know what was going on from one scene to the next because I lost interest very early in the film. I did like Jet Li's mum but I didn't like Jet Li playing a comedic role. The fight scenes were soooooo over exaggerated and the storyline was all over the place. It seemed like the characters were fighting for no reason most of the time and Jet Li's mum just couldn't help poking her nose into her son's business. At the end of the day, it's a badly directed movie with a bad concept and I'm surprised that they made a sequel. Disappointing!Round-Up: I think that the director was attempting a Jackie Chan type comedy with this movie, but he done a really bad job. Personally I prefer the earlier Kung Fu movies which don't use all of the wire trickery or the crazy flying techniques. Anyway the love story was ridiculous and Jet Li's silly face expressions really became tedious after a while. On top of that, you've got this annoying soundtrack which really doesn't help matters. On the plus side, it does look authentic and the mum did crack me up in a few scenes, but I did end up falling asleep.Budget: N/A Worldwide Gross: HK$30.6millionI recommend this movie to people who are into their Jet Li movies about a man fighting for justice to save his family and his love ones. 1/10

tripwires And I think his Hong Kong/China movies are far better than his Hollywood ones. I saw this movie literally years ago, when I was a kid, so I don't remember it as well as I want to. I do remember it being kind of sad, but nevertheless, it's one of my favourite films. Jet Li simply rules.

charlie_062497 "The Legend of Fong Sai-Yuk" (or "The Legend" as entitled by Dimension Films Home Entertainment) starring Jet Li as the title character captures some of the best martial arts ever placed on film. Oh, sure, the actors are sometimes aided by the help of wires, but "wire-fu" never does overstay it's welcome in this fun-filled comic, kung-fu drama.Jet Li (an executive producer on the film) and director Corey Yuen ("Kiss of the Dragon", "The Defender", "The One") have been able to come up with some of the most inventive fight scenes that rival those of "The Matrix", "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon" and "The Legend of Drunken Master" (though I don't think Chan has ever used any wires in his work) or I should say vice versa since "Fong Sai Yuk" was filmed before any of the above mentioned.The movie itself is more or less the same as many other similar period piece kung-fu films (the "Once Upon A Time In China" series, which also starred Li, comes to mind). It details the heroics of Fong Sai-Yuk and his family (his father is the leader of a group of freedom fighters) as they try to evade and defeat an evil emperor's (who wants to rule China, of course) death squad.There's a subplot that involves a greedy land baron that's mostly played for laughs, but also introduces a female character who falls for Li and fleshes out a little bit of a love story between the two. However, as entertaining as those plot threads are, everytime the fighting begins, "Fong Sai-Yuk" kicks into overdrive with very thrilling scenes involving intricate, complex fight scenes.It's for those reasons that we go to see a martial art film and it's for those reasons alone that you should see "The Legend", I guarantee you won't be disappointed.