Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen is the big screen continuation of Yen’s previous television series about the titular hero. The film takes place several years after the assumed death of Zhen. For more information on the film please see the official Shakefire review here: Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen

QUALITY:
While Legend of the Fist looks remarkably sharp there are some trouble spots such as soft shots and weak black levels in some scenes that allow grain, although minute amounts, to surface. It would appear the real issue sits with the camera work as a few scenes attempt to take extreme wide out shots that tend to lose clarity and sharpness or possibly the speed at which the camera moves. Its really hard to put your finger on what it is exactly but the transfer here isn’t exactly all it should be. Still, it’s a smart picture. Audio isn’t as immersive as I would have hoped. You hear a gun shot somewhere in the rear channels on occasion but for a film that has tons of action and major gun fights, not to mention the live music, its mostly a front heavy affair, but dialogue is clear and hits have a heavy bass thump.

BONUS FEATURES:
~DVD Version of the film
~Trailers
~Behind The Scenes
~Cast & Crew Interview
~English Language Dub

Some of the faults that lie with this release have to do with the English voice dubbing and subtitles. The English dub isn’t bad but some characters, like Anthony Wong Chau-Sang’s Liu Yutain, are poorly represented. Yutain’s English dub sounds like some comical grandfather figure from an anime and do not match up well at all. Also as usual the subtitles aren’t a perfect match as foreign films with English dubs usually have subtitles that deviate from the source material just a bit. If your going to watch I would suggest watching the film in its native language track. Another fault with the English dub is that you have to leave the subtitles on as sometimes introductions or history will scroll down the side of the screen in text form. Usually in films where this happens the subtitles are hardcoded but here you have to have the subtitles on, even when watching in English. That’s a bit annoying.