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Yuen Wo Ping, whose felicitous collaboration with Jet Li on Fist of Legend is arguably Jet Li's finest in martial arts sequences, and whose collaboration again with Jet Li on Hollywood/French project Danny the Dog puts him back on the martial arts track for the first time since leaving for Hollywood, will be collaborating yet again with Jet Li on ????? Legend of a Figher / Huo Yuan Jia (tentative) this March. Currently, Yuen Wo Ping is also attached to one Hong Kong and two Hollywood projects, namely Kungfu Granny, Golden Dragon (Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs) and Hands of Shang Chi. Legend of a Fighter, to be directed by Ronny Yu, who hopes to portray the essence of kungfu as well as seeking a breakthrough in the martial arts choreography, will feature an international ensemble from Mainland, Hong Kong, Korea, Japan and US, majority of whom are martial artists. Apparently, famous Japanese singer Noriko Sakai, 34, has signed on to play Jet Li's girlfriend. The movie, financed by Columbia Tri-Star's Bill Kong at the cost of 150 million yuan, will be produced by Great Eastern and distributed by Columbia Pictures.
The script was written by scriptwriters from US and Hong Kong and an insider, who has seen the first draft, expresses worries. He says that the storyline doesn't amply show the patriotism and magnanimity of Huo Yuan Jia, and his spiritual achievements are somewhat downplayed, quite different from the audience's image of the national hero. Rather, Huo Yuan Jia has turned into an honourable pugilist.
Spoilers: The insider says that the first half is a little cruel to Huo Yuan Jia's image, for it deals mainly with pugilistic feuds. Huo Yuan Jia gains fame after emerging as the winner in a martial arts contest, and to avenge for the death of his disciple, kills someone called Master Black. The second half relates to fighting against kungfu experts from US and Japan. However, here, the script doesn't quite bring out the theme of Huo Yuan Jia resisting foreigners, of his feelings of the country being oppressed.
While Chen Zhen also exists in the first draft, his screen time is minimal, and he doesn't avenge Huo Yuan Jia's death, which makes the story feels rushed and incomplete. Neither does the script say anything about Huo Yuan Jia's founding of martial arts school Jing Wu Men. Overall the movie is about wushu, about peace being the highest pursuit of martial arts practitioners. Quanzhou Evening News, BigStar[/quote]
www.wu-jing.org/
The story does sound like it has echoes of Legend of a Fighter, Fist of Fury or Fist of Legend to me. Is Fist of Legend the actual title? Because in that case it sounds like a remake (wierd as there has been a "Fist of Legend 2" (aka Iron Bodyguards).