Search - Jet Li and the Legend of Wong Fei Hung Pack on DVD

3 bad movies... bad. 3 sweet features... good.

Mantis Lake | Detroit, MI USA | 03/01/2008

(3 out of 5 stars)

"This two double-disc set will likely not appeal to its intended demographic. Hardly anything available in this set has anything to do with Jet Li. There are 3 terrible movies about Wong Fei Hung. At least, I think they're about him. It's hard to tell because they change the name of all the characters (rather hilariously) in each film. They were all made for Chinese television and feature lots of weird fights with nothing to link them together. Good luck trying to follow any of them. My suggestion would be to make up some sort of drinking game.

The 3 sweet features are pretty cool, though two of them are brief. The two involve an awesome, real Lion Dance, and then a segment on the southern Shaolin style of Hung Gar Kuen, the style practiced by Wong Fei Hung. Not too shabby. The real deal is the documentary on Kung Fu. This actually has Jet Li in it (albeit briefly) at about the age of 9, and then again at about 19. He does a few things at both ages that are pretty amazing, though his appearance is not worth buying the discs for. The documentary, on a whole, is where the justification comes in. Narrated by some English dude, presumably in the very early 80's, the film covers a whole mess of styles of hand-to-hand and weapons. The practitioners are all TOP athletes, and some of their demonstrations will blow you away, like the Ground Boxing. These are not actors, they are the real deal. There are also some really cool (choreographed) exhibition matches between the various weapons and styles. Eagle vs Snake, for instance. It all offers scenery of temples and the Chinese mountains and countryside, and then off to some homes for family demonstration and gymnasiums for competition.

The name of the documentary, according to this release, is "Jet Li- The Kung Fu Years", though I seriously doubt that is its original title. If you can find this documentary apart from the several hours of filler, it would be highly recommended. With the superfluous movies, then, uhhh... mostly recommended. I guess it depends on the price."