The Legend

Rating:
Summary: Overly edited version of a great movie
Review: I have a copy of Fong Sai Yuk on tape. This version was in Chinese and the subtitles weren't great, but it was a funny movie with great action. I bought it on DVD because I wanted a good version of this great movie. Unfortunately they cut enormous amounts out. There is only a dubbed English track and the subtitles are just this track and not an actual translation. The voice acting is mediocre and especially fails for Fong Sai Yuk's mom who is the funniest character in the movie. They cut a lot out. It is mostly jokes, but they also cut out some fighting parts which they must have felt would be inappropriate (Fong Sai Yuk fights using the dead body of his friend as a weapon).

My advice. ...Search around for a Chinese language version. I am usually happy with dubbing. I wasn't too upset about the cuts made in the theatrical release of Iron Monkey (Ironically, both cuts removed a scene of a women spraying water out of her mouth), but this brutal edit of Fong Sai Yuk bugged me.

Rating:
Summary: Could have done without dubbing
Review: I have to agree with many of the reviewers, this film really suffered from the dubbing. It just sounded too weird. Not having multiple soundtracks is pretty unacceptable for a DVD, especially when it is so obviously not originally made in English. The action is naturally great and comedy abounds, but is not enough to justify purchasing this disc.

Rating:
Summary: Get the subtitled version Fong Sai Yuk
Review: I love the movie Fong Sai Yuk (subtitled version)! I bought The Legend (dubbed version), so that I can enjoy the movie without being busy reading all the subtitles. That was a BIG mistake.

In The Legend, they had cut out some scenes and changed the dialogue. With those changes, the mood of the film has changed and you don't see the development of each character. That's why the story doesn't quite make sense or seem to flow entirely together. The Chinese culture and their beliefs (buddhism) is "taken out." The movie is actually more hilarious in Fong Sai Yuk.

Don't be left in the dark. A little reading in Fong Sai Yuk won't hurt. You'll enjoy this comedy, action film. I give Fong Sai Yuk 5 stars. As for The Legend...=(

Rating:
Summary: one of my 3 favorit Jet Li movies
Review: I love this movie and the part 2. The fight scenes are great. Very cool to watch. There are better stories but the fight scenes are so good it more than makes up for it and the store is still pretty good. Jet Li is so fast that you almost belive he could beat up that many people at once.

Rating:
Summary: one of my 3 favorit Jet Li movies
Review: I love this movie and the part 2. The fight scenes are great. Very cool to watch. There are better stories but the fight scenes are so good it more than makes up for it and the store is still pretty good. Jet Li is so fast that you almost belive he could beat up that many people at once.

Rating:
Summary: Americanized destruction of a masterpiece
Review: I recently saw a Hong Kong import of this film, titled The Legend of Fung Sai Yuk. The only audio tracks available were Canton or Mandarin Chinese, with English sub-titles available. It was easily one of the best Hong kong films I have ever seen. So when the American release version became available, with Li at the helm of the remastering, I was ecstatic! I immediately purchased the DVD and ran home to watch it.
My God, was I dissappointed. The English dub, while being okay, was *completely* different from the original; scenes cropped or deleted altogether, and the story was not only much different than the original, was nearly incoherent! I sold this version as fast as I could, and located an original version.
Before purchasing, make sure you get the *original*, Chinese-only version!

Rating:
Summary: What you missed between subtitled and dubbed....
Review: I recently saw the english dubbed version of Fong Sai Yuk (The Legend), after watching the original subtitled version.

First, let me say- Disney is way off on the R rating of this film. There is no nudity, coarse language, or blood and guts. There is violence, but it never goes past the point of something you wouldn't see in an action cartoon show on Saturday mornings. It's punching, hitting, and kicking. There's hardly any scenes with knives or swords or other deadly weapons. Not that I'm saying it's cool to beat people up, it's just never used in bad taste.

Overall, I was sorely disappointed with the dubbed version. However, my friends (who never saw the subtitled version) really enjoyed it- so I gave it a higher rating of 4 stars. For me, it's one thing to ruin the dialog and music from the original movie, but deleting scenes goes a step way too far. Here's a few missing scenes from the english dubbed version:

1. Fong Sai Yuk (Jet Li's character) curling his mom's hair. It may seem trivial, but without it my friends didn't understand the close relationship between the two characters. Not to mention, it's a funny scene. 2. The mother's uncontrollable orgasmic interpretive dance reaction to the father reciting poetry. It's an ongoing joke in the film and with these scenes cut out and dialog missing, there is a real confusing part in the end for people who haven't seen the subtitled version. In the subtitled version Fong Sai Yuk and his lovely new bride ride into the sunset. As they ride off, Fong Sai Yuk recites poetry to her. With the dialog changed and without seeing the previous deleted scene, my friends were confused to why Fong Sai Yuk's new bride was going into deadly convulsions on her horse as she rode away. 3. When Fong Sai Yuk's Mom wins the fight to win the daughter's hand in marriage, she is forced to sign a marriage contract with a knife to her throat. When Tiger Lu can't get her hand open to put her thumb print, he just shoves her fist into an ink bowl and just stamps her fist on the marriage contract. Great physical comedy. Later on at Fong Sai Yuk's home, the mother has the palace guard's swords to her throat as ransom- which is how they manage to capture Fong Sai Yuk. A scene that was also deleted. 4. Tiger Lu trying to make friends with Fong Sai Yuk by joining him in making terrible music in the palace courtyard. This is a hilarious scene! Fong Sai Yuk is determined to make his father in law to be (Tiger Lu) hate him. He is doing this to get out of marrying his daughter, or who he believes is Tiger Lu's daughter. At the same time, Tiger Lu is trying to gain acceptance by marrying his daughter to a popular young man from the town (Fong Sai Yuk). To cheese off Tiger Lu, Fong Sai Yuk starts playing pots and pans in the palace courtyard at the break of dawn and chants some terrible off key tune. Tiger Lu awakens angrily but goes into the courtyard Smiling and joins him with a gong. The two try harder to annoy and warm up to each other while the palace servants fall victim to the terrible racket.

There are other deleted scenes not worth mentioning. The dialogue in the original version was highly witty and also the lines between character's were more in depth. Still, although the dialogue wasn't up to par compared with the original, there is some credit due that they didn't make up really terrible dialogue in it's place. For the most part, the story moves along exactly as it does in the original and it's the story that is the real incredible part of this movie. The story contains romance, mistaken identity, traitors, heros, villains, tragedy, and (of course) victory. The storyline of this movie seems almost like one of Shakespeare's plays. Also, the original dialogue was even wittier than what Shakespeare would come up with- which makes me upset it was lost. My friends understood the story though, and loved the movie with it's flaws. As others have stated, it's inexcusable for a DVD release not have both languages and subtitles on it. That's whole point of getting a DVD, those great extra features. I'll wind up buying both versions, it's the kind of movie you want to share with people and some people just can't keep up with subtitles. I suggest you rent or buy the english version "The Legend", and if you like it- check out the subtitled version. You can find the subtitled version on eBay.

Rating:
Summary: This is one of Jet Li's Best!
Review: I thought this movie was excellent. Great cast, great plot,drama, comedy, plenty of *awesome* kung fu scenes...it has it all! I liked this better than Tai Chi Master. :)

Rating:
Summary: Americanized Kung FU flick!
Review: I've been reading through the reviews of others and can see that people either hated or liked this film.

Personally I liked it! The fight scenes were well done, and Jet Li does do a good job as a comedic actor. It's a nice change to see him in a light hearted role. His mother played by Josephine Siao also lends alot of comdeic relief.

You'll read in the following reviews about poor editing, and dubbing. I've never seen the original version of this film, Fong Sai Yuk, but I was satisfied with the Dimension release. I found the dubbing to be much better then the Fist of Legend release, and the story much more intelligent than The Defender.

So here's the long and the short of it. If you're a die hard Kung Fu fan, try to get Fong Sai Yuk. If you want a fun Kung Fu flick without worrying about subtitles, try The Legend. You won't be disappointed. I only wish Dimensoin had an optional Chinese subtitle feature.(reason for the 4 stars)

The Legend 2 just came out, so if you like this release, I would also recommend the second story of Fong Sai Yuk, and his mom. It's well dubbed, and funnier in my opinion!

Rating:
Summary: Fong Sai Yuk vs. The Legend
Review: I've seen both the subtitled Fong Sai Yuk and english dubbed The Legend on DVD. The movie itself is fun and exciting with plenty of great action. Being a Jet Li fan, I found the subtitled version much better than the dubbed only because the dubbed version left out or changed much of what was said and done in the subtitled version. For example, in the subtitled version there was a funny reference to Jet's Once Upon a Time In China films, while in the dubbed version it was completely left out. The only problem with the subtitled version was that the subtitles tended to dip into the bottom of the screen in the beginning of the movie. If you can get a hold of the subtitled version, it's definitely worth watching.