Do you remember the scene in True Romance (1993)? Clarence is trying to explain to Lucy the gravitas surrounding his self-chosen birthday treat, an all-night screening at the local picturehouse of the Donny Chiba trilogy, “The Streetfighter”, “Return of the Streetfight” and “Sister Streetfighter”. Upon hearing the proposition she leaves promptly, “not my cup of tea” she exhales after taking a drag. As a predominantly male audience we sympathise, her loss it appears, we know she's missed out. Clarence goes to the screening anyway and, well, you know how it goes from there. If not, shame on you, see it ASAP. But see Badlands (1973) first so you know the heritage.
The invitation to watch The Legend of the Fist – The Return of Chen Zhen (TLF) at the Soho Screening Rooms last week triggered this memory. Was this a sequel or the ending of a trilogy? After all, that title is pretty long. It could've been a Harry Potter movie. It didn't matter, I've been wanting to go to the Soho Screening Rooms for a long time so I was in, even if it meant missing out on the Prince Charles Cinema screening of A Serbian Film (2010).
As it turns out, it's not a sequel or a finale, more of a reboot (previous incarnations feature Bruce Lee in 1972 and Jet Li in 1994). The Wiki page on reboots is fascinating BTW, check it out if you have time. Alas, TLF is not in the same calibre of Star Trek (2009) or Batman Begins (2005).
Despite a truly original, mind-blowing and wonderfully over-the-top opening sequence on the lesser known Chinese war efforts during World War One, TLF swiftly re-focuses its narrative attention towards the conflict between China and Japan. In doing so it disengages the audience it flawlessly captured in the opening ten minutes. For this reason alone we must ask why UK based distributors Metrodome have picked this up? As a national market the UK is predominantly interested in North-American exports at worst and European art-house at best? Asian cinema is notoriously difficult to profit from outside of DVD sales and perhaps explains why so many Studio Gibhli films are re-dubbed using English-speaking actors.
If that sounds archaic there are larger concerns at hand. Racial slurs such as "Japs" and "Chinks" are subtitled throughout. What are the rules? Presumably these words or their equivalent are present in the original audio track (Cantonese), should such ethnophaulisms be muted for western audiences? Does the context explain or justify their existence? When Carlos (Édgar Ramírez), the protagonist in self-titled film Carlos (2010), says "coño" repeatedly should the subtitles differ in the States ("Bitch") to those in the UK ("Cunt") or should it remain true to its national context? Whilst not usually an advocate of censorship there is something jarring about the repeated on-screen presence of such derogatory terms.
Considering Infernal Affairs trilogy (2002-2003) director Andrew Lau/Wai-keung Lau is at the helm and Metrodome are spreading the magic TLF came with higher expectations. Give this one a skip, peruse the back catalogue when you get a chance, if nothing takes your fancy give either/or Days of Glory (2008) and The Counterfeiters (2008) a shot.
The Legend of the Fist – The Return of Chen Zhen is released on 3rd December, 2010.
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