Let's start at the beginning: Fist of legend is a new version of the same story as Bruce Lee's Chinese Connection (1972), by Lo Wei. In Chinese connection, the story takes place in China in the 30's, at the time when the Japanese were occupants, and starts after the death of a great Chinese martial arts Master, murdered by a Japanese rival clan. Bruce Lee's character is the disciple of this master and wants to take revenge. Fist of legend, by Gordon Chan, was made in 1994 and is a remake of this movie, or could be seen as another vision of the same events. It owns some similarities with the previous version but finally brings a new light on the story.

The first difference holds in the way the context is developed. In Chinese Connection, the situation between the two clans is clear : the Japanese are the aggressors, being racist and behaving like intruders as soon as they enter in the movie, provoking the Chinese people in their school and trampling on the ceremony for the dead Master. The Chinese are shown as being oppressed even in the everyday life, like in this famous scene where Bruce wants to enter in a place "forbidden to dogs and Chinese" … In Fist of legend, the situation is more complex. The Japanese of course persecute JingWu Mun clan, but the members of the Chinese clan are finally not shown as more tolerant people than their enemies. The two movies are not focused on the same conflicts: in Chinese Connection it was only about the Japanese/Chinese hostility, whereas Fist of legend starts the same way but then shows that both clan have to endure internal conflicts and the issue is re-centered on JingWu Mun itself. The existence of the Japanese woman's character, which is said to be Jet's wish for the movie, is another manifestation of this aspect.

Chen Zhen is different from a movie to the other as well. Bruce's character is obsessed by his duty to take revenge and doesn't control the troubles he provokes to his clan; he also doesn't hesitate to kill all the ones who are related to the murder, and his way to kill them is particularly violent and dishonouring. Jet's Chen also wants to take revenge and cannot find peace until he succeeds, but he looks much more serene, or at least searches for a balance on the contrary of Bruce's character who can only find peace by killing his Master's murderer. Besides Jet's character only kills the murderer himself and could even have spared him if he wouldn't have been obliged to defend his life at the end. More than revenge, his desire is more a will to make the truth be recognised.
Moreover, Jet's Chen's view on Japanese people is much more multifaceted - he has been in Japan to learn, he is in love with a Japanese woman and accepts to learn from a Japanese master - as well as his view on the Chinese characters. In the two movies the character has to take exile from his clan. For Bruce's one, it's because he is aware that he cannot let the clan assume the consequences of his impulsiveness, but the clan's internal stability represents a kind of security for him. As for Jet's, he has to go away to save the clan's reputation as well but because he voluntarily puts in question some fundamental rules, and he chooses to be chased away instead of accepting to fit these rules. The clan is not anymore a symbol of the security offered by the Chinese traditions towards the foreigners' invasion, but on the contrary shows how Chinese people refuse to admit that their world is changing and that they will sooner or later have to accept new influences...

So Fist of legend brings a new orientation to this story and its characters. It is obvious that the two movies are not exactly focused on the same topics. When Chinese Connection focuses on the revenge feeling of Bruce's character against the Japanese, Fist of legend shows a world full of changes where the character have to find their own place. On the other hand, the movie also pays a great homage to Bruce's through its great Martial arts scenes and spirit…

What can be surprising in Fist of legend to all the people used to the 90's Hong-Kong action movies is the rhythm of the movie and the way it's filmed, as well as the way the characters contain their feelings. In fact we can easily notice there is a big contrast between the action scenes and the ones without action, which are not at all directed and filmed the same way. This can be explained by the big intervention of the Choreographer Yuen Woo ping in the directing of the action scenes : the movie seems to have two different directors. Instead of making the movie look unbalanced, the result is the use of the action to enhance some aspects of the story and the characters' internal feelings.
In the acting scenes, the camera angles are very steady, with long shots. The settings are rather square and bald. It looks like the atmosphere people from JingWu Mun are living in: a world full of strong and rigid rules where feelings have to be restrained. In contrast, action scenes are hysterical, much more like the usual Hong-Kong movie standard, with very dynamic camera moves and where sometimes the environment around the characters takes a part to express their internal energy, like the wind in the fight with the Japanese master…

In JingWu Mun, everybody has a very determined place that shouldn't be put in question, dictated by strong traditions. Every single exception in someone's role to play shocks them and has to be discussed for hours. Of course the rigidity of these rules are totally in contradiction with the expression of individuality and the decision process of long discussions prevents the members from taking any initiatives. There is no place for spontaneity. The rules can't tolerate any exception and as soon as someone wants to disobey one, this person has to be expelled, like Chen Zhen when he wants to bring the Japanese woman. The rigidity is also apparent in the way people dress, which has a meaning towards one's place in the clan. See the women for example : they have a determined role, towards men and towards each others, and they are all dressed the same. When they finally accept the courtesan among them regardless of her past, this represents a change in their world but we can notice that she has to dress the same as the others to be part of them. Then, Ting' An (Chin Siu Ho) cannot express in front of the others his love for her like he was doing out of JingWu Mun before…