Legend of the Fist - The Return of Chen Zhen

Aroview: Belated sequel to Bruce Lee's FIST OF FURY (remade with Jet Li as FIST OF LEGEND) picks up well after the Dojo-busting triumphs of those films, with legendary Zhen Chen (Donnie Yen) now leading a Chinese resistance against Japanese-occupied Shanghai.

Certainly not the first – or last – in the testy Sino-Japanese genre, this features the usual abundance of patriotic fervour and Japanese ass-kicking, though unlike other recent movies to pit Chinese folk heros against Japan’s occupying army (i.e. IP MAN), dir. Lau has gone a step further by adding a superhero dimension to the many overheated action sequences. Not for everyone, the film’s pulpy martial arts exploits at least dazzle in a purely uninhibited way.