The story is not that interesting so forget about it! The performances from the actors are quite well! There is no shortage of humor and there is even some drama. But this movie isn't about the drama it is about the fighting scenes! It may take a while to get used to the very fast display of action! But when you do you will be hooked. The martial arts performed especially by Donnie Yen is more than top notch! It is a showcase for him what he is capable of! He produced,directed and wrote the movie and choreographed the action! And in this he really excels!. The action is explosive! He tries to be different in filming the action scenes and we have to give credit to that! You will question if he used tricks or fast editing but somehow it all looks like they are really fighting that fast! The result is that he created action scenes you won't easily forget! "Legend of wolf" is a movie you will have to see for the wonderful action!
Add a Review
-
chrichtonsworld11 April 2007
-
triplexchiu10 February 2006I'm sorry martial arts fans, this is not good quality martial arts. Its good in some bits but thats about it. Its not Donnie Yen style which is good I reckon because its showing us that he is challenging viewers.
The storyline is pretty good, has a bit more of a plot. However the fighting just wasn't that good, too violent for someone like him.
Plus the ending was just shocking especially the fight scene with the Bandit leader.
Not bad if you wanna see something different from Donnie. And to the person that mentioned that this is the best film ever. No bloody way! Drunken Master 2 is way better, so is Armour Of God. Once upon a time in China is better, so is Enter The Dragon. -
Leofwine_draca29 August 2019LEGEND OF THE WOLF is an example of style over substance that gives Donnie Yen more than enough room to show off his martial arts prowess as an assassin-turned-amnesic-hero battling to save a village from a gang of murderous bandits. Made on the cheap and shot out in the woods somewhere, this is a good-looking story that was directed by Yen himself as a labour of love. It's a film in love with film itself, all arty camerawork and very little in the way of story, which is told via flashback with jigsaw snippets coming together at the climax.
The first hour is something of a slog, although watchable. Yen battles a few opponents while the supporting players get a lot of screen time. Where this wows is in the last half an hour, which consists of one sprawling set-piece after another. There's a bandit slaughter in the village, an incredible running battle through the woods, a long fight with a talon-handed henchman, and the final coastal fight with the big bad. Yen is at his physical peak here and the action is hugely entertaining, incredibly fast and fluid and gory to boot. If only the first hour had matched this extremely entertaining extended climax. -
iaido23 October 2000Donnie Yen's debut as a director has taken a lot of criticism and was a fairly big flop upon its initial release. Is it a flawed film? Sure. But, is it worth spending an hour and a half watching? Yes.
Legend of the Wolf tells the tale, all in flashback (one of its unfair criticisms) of a how a mythic killer came to be who he is. The film belongs in the classification of 90's arty-swordplay dramas, like Ashes of Time or The Blade, heavy on atmosphere, style, lightweight philosophical musings, and blurry combat. One of the reasons, no doubt, that it was a flop was due to this particular Hong Kong genre already being tired by the time Legend came out. It looks great and has some fantastic cinematography. Although I am not a fan of the close-up, hyper paced fight scenes, Donnie directs them well and with more clarity than most directors of this style. There are two great fights, one inside a hut with a guy who has a huge length of chain wrapped around his arm, and another with a monkey or tiger claw fighter in the woods, the latter being one of the better duels I've seen. Based on those two fights and the cinematography alone, I can recommend Hong Kong action fans seeing this.
Where Legend of the Wolf fails is in its story. Unfortunately, like other films in the modern swordplay genre, it tries so hard to be dramatic, with overemphasized music, crazy camera work (though some very stunning), and ponderous plotline, it falls deeply into muddled characters and weepy melodrama. Donnie Yen should be commended for being as bold and as skilled as he is. Instead of making his debut with a straightforward no-brain action flick, he tries to tackle something of more weight. It is less than perfect, but it is admirable, just the same. -
Eiriksterminator28 September 2019How my fellow martial arts fans can speak so warmly about this movie, even calling it their favourite, and the best martial arts movie ever made, is completely beyond me... :-/ I've watched hundreds of martial arts movies, both new and old, and I'm a huge fan of Donnie Yen, in everything from his classic awesome movies like Iron Monkey, to his newer awesome movies like Flash Point and Ip Man. But c'mon, this movie is clearly rubbish? The fights are nothing but high speed closeups, so you can't really see what is going on most of the time, how is that impressive or cool? I'm really glad Donnie grew out of this kind of movie directing in his later movies (he directed Flash Point, which is pure awesomeness), because this is not how you do fighting in movies, or in real life, for that matter. I couldn't care less about the lame story either. Not a passing grade from me.
-
"New Big Boss" / "Legend Of The Wolf" is certainly an ambitious film. With its flashbacks-within-flashbacks, occasionally philosophical dialogue, a passionate love scene, a constant "poetic" music score, etc., it's obvious that Donnie Yen was trying to make something more than a simple martial-arts film. Unfortunately, he bit off more than he could chew, and the result is awful. You know something is wrong when a movie is 3/4 of the way over and you still haven't got a clue what's going on! I could easily put up with all this arty crap if there was at least some good action. But most of the fight scenes in this movie are laughably excessive (Yen runs through entire armies of villains like the Tazmanian Devil, punching people left and right), and even those that could potentially be good (like one where the opponent has chains wrapped around his right arm, or the final showdown) are spoiled by the cartoon-like, hokey sound effects. To say that this is "the greatest martial-arts movie of all time" is downright preposterous.
-
scottcampbellmclaren1 November 2003This movie is terrible. Not the kind of terrible that's charming and funny.. its the kind of terrible in where you throw your copy of the DVD away.
The story is incomprehensible, and seems as though it were 2 movies spliced together. The emotional soul searching that our hero goes on, takes up 2/3s of the movie and is painfully uninteresting to watch.
And the fight scenes. I dont know what the other people on here are thinking (they liked this?)but when you have a scene of 20+ people fighting.. you dont zoom in!! In all of the fights, they use close ups, and shake the camera to create drama? All you see is fists flying past the lens, and terrible sound effects to go along with it.
I give this movie a 1/10 and declare it UNWATCHABLE. -
Riche-312 October 1998(***1/2 out of ****)After first seeing still shots from this in an article in Bey Logans' wonderful Impact magazine, I was really looking forward to the day when I could see this film. I was disheartened to hear that it did very bad box office in Hong Kong. Especially considering it was Donnie Yens' directorial debut. Donnie set out to make a kung fu film. That it certainly is. Not in the traditional sense though with crane and snake stances, but in a Bruce Lee kind of way. If Bruce had been born 2 decades later and approved of a lot of under-cranking, then I can fully imagine him doing this type of film.
So, what is it really like? Well, very good actually. The film is told in flashback. Many people have criticised the film for having flashbacks with flashbacks. I disagree with this. Why is it wrong? After all it only shows what the character is thinking. I did not find it confusing, and it bent the rules of film making quite well in my opinion. Anyway, on with the review! The film tells the story of a legendary character called the Wolf (Yen) and his sidekick. In the beginning we are introduced to an un-named character who is looking for the Wolf in the present day. He is brought to the Wolfs' 'office' where we see him as an old man sleeping. Donnies' sidekick starts to tell the stranger the story of how they met and the legend was born. To give too much of the plot away would be silly considering how sparsely told it is. Nothing about the way the story is told is 'in your face'. Everything is very subtle. Again, something I disagree with that most people have said about the film! Yen has certainly mastered the art of cinematography. The camera angles, colour and editing is very well done. As far as the fighting is concerned, could we expect anything less than brilliant from the Yenster? He seems to be paying homage to kung fu stars past and present. He tips his hat to Tan Tao Liang by putting hopping kicks into modern fight choreography, he moves around and side kicks like Bruce Lee, does his trademark multi-kick jumps and then puts in what seems to be a new type of choreographic brilliance. This involves some quite close in shots of the two opponents arms flailing as they block and parry. So blurred are the movements that only the sound effects give us clues as to the blocking and hitting. It works very well. Donnie shows that he can take choreographing of the martial arts another step towards, and beyond an artform. A few reviews I have seen on this film have said that there isn't much fighting. If ever there was a totally false statement, that is it. Much like Mr Nice Guy, Legend has action by the bucket load. All of it hand to hand fighting. There is one forest fight about a third of the way in to the film that could easily be a prelude to Yen facing up to the main fighting villain of the film at the end. Another fight not long afterwards could very easily be an end fight on its own! A few more fights are just as big. This film has no less than 3 big fights at the end. One against multiple opponents in a village and a forest, then there is the fight against a man known as Monkey which is probably one of the best screen fights I have seen. The last fight is very brutal.
For people who hate wires (me included), this film stays well away from them. Extreme under-cranking is used only on occasion rather than all of the time. This lets in more traditional choreography. Its surreal and uses dialogue sparingly. I think that this is one film that although people are criticising the hell out of it at the moment. In the future it will get its due. -
ebossert27 June 2006Legend of the Wolf Chinese Action Donnie Yen
The poor-quality of this film can be adequately summarized by the following statement made by a proponent of this movie on IMDb:
"Donnie Yen puts in what seems to be a new type of choreographic brilliance. This involves some quite close in shots of the two opponents arms flailing as they block and parry. So blurred are the movements that only the sound effects give us clues as to the blocking and hitting. It works very well."
This is perhaps the most absurd movie-related comment I have ever seen, but it very succinctly explains the warped perspective of many who hold the opinion that films such as this (as well as Storm Riders, A Man Called Hero, and Ashes of Time ) offer high-quality action set pieces. The illogic goes something like this: A blurry set of camera frames that are impossible to follow qualifies as a great action scene. The problem with this perspective is that ANYONE even the most inept movie-maker on the planet can make such a scene fairly easily. The million dollar question now arises: How can one claim the greatness of action that requires virtually no effort whatsoever to create?
Why, then, do I give this film a 4 out of 10 instead of a 1 or 2? Simple. There are pieces of action scenes that show promise. In those rare instances when I could follow what was actually happening, the choreography was good. Unfortunately, these bits of promise were interrupted by inept camera-work that is usually invoked when the movie-maker is too lazy to painstakingly map out fight scenes or brainstorm over fresh combinations of moves and maneuvers. In other words, it's a cheap, pathetic method of film-making that covers up the low quality nature of the action at hand. Therefore, Donnie Yen made it easy on himself by lowering the bar to such an extent that fighting sequences will only require a marginal amount of choreography.
The camera-work in this film is simply one of the worst I have ever seen. While watching the opening action sequence, for instance, I literally felt like vomiting when exposed to back-and-forth rapid-fire framing that necessitates a warning on the front of the DVD that this film may induce epileptic seizures.
Finally, the plot line was horrible and the cinematography sub par for a movie made in the late 90s.
Not recommended. -
abentenjo14 April 2002Visually, Donnie Yen's kung fu vehicle is quite stunning, with some classy location shots and smart uses of lighting and colour. That aside, its entertainment value is vastly hindered by the choppy fight sequences laden with cuts and rapid sound effects which are clearly an attempt at revolutionary film making, but just come across as annoying. The story bears little resemblance to the Bruce Lee classic, with Yen and his assistant recalling, in a series of flashbacks, a time when Donnie was a wondering hero with amnesia, in search of a girl and beating the crap out of evil bandit men. There is a pretentious feel to all this, but on the plus side, Donnie is at his usually stunning best.
-
This is an example of the low start of a learning curve. Good script. Good cast. And what probably were a bevy of exceptional fight scenes. Hard to tell. Too many shots ruined by intrusive camera angles (mostly too close) and choppy edits, making it hard to appreciate what the actors and hordes of stunt players were doing. More wide shots in the mix would have been valuable, especially with so many heavily-populated action sequences. When viewers can't tell who is doing what to whom, it's as wasteful as not understanding their motivation. I think I just watched a likely 6 or 7 reduced to a 4 by not having a more experienced eye on the backside of the cameras or in the cutting room.
The consolation is that Yen soon learned his limitations, not directing since 2004, and has bestowed upon us 18 years (thus far) of far better films by serving as star and stunt coordinator. That's a winning ticket.. -
KIMaster200230 October 2005I have seen thousands of martial arts films, ranging from the Hong Kong classics of the 70's to the mixed genre, CGI works of the present day.
This is my favorite one.
The fight scenes are the single most beautiful, incredible spectacles I've seen in any action film.
When two combatants trade blows, the encounter is more a battle between two Gods than mere flesh and blood. In "The Matrix 3", the directors' efforts to achieve this failed miserably. Not so in this film.
When Donnie Yen glares at his opponent(s),one feels that the fate of the world depends upon the clash. Accompanied by a tremendous musical score, the effect is enhanced even further.
And Yen's character takes on everyone; a vicious gang of fifty men armed with machetes, an entire army of 100+ toughs, gunslingers, iron chain-wielding assassins, and many others.
One reason is that "Legend of the Wolf" represents a historic step forward in martial artsfilm-making; modern action films are shot at 18 fps (frames per second)while being played at 24 fps ("under-cranking"), which accelerates the action, but loses the sensation of power from the blows.
While LOTW utilizes under-cranking,it also features bone-crunching, vicious blows the likes of which I had never seen before in any action film.
The blows from a punch or the slash of a sword make the viewer cringe from their sheer power and might.
As excellent as the fight scenes are, it wouldn't be the greatest action film ever were it not for the tragic, depressing storyline.
It is told through flashback, describing how a dying gangster used to be a young, ruthless, and completely invincible warrior.
Yet, in the end, despite ultimately triumphing over his hundreds of opponents, the young warrior loses what is most dear to him in all the world, and is never able to win it back.
This harsh view of the "unbeatable young fighter", so common throughout martial arts films, is both realistic and deeply touching.
One of the few perfect films ever made. -
quang-29 November 1998This directorial debut of Yen is full of a kung-fu protége's indulgence with kung- fu -- his worship of physical power, his belief in commitment and obligation, and even his impertinence towards women all illustrate his devotion. But the film is also direct, sincere and without any affectations. Judging from the level of skill and technique, it is much more accomplished than other action flicks that aim solely at the overseas market. In the several fighting scenes shot in the woods, the action is superbly complemented by the physical environment, and the framing and editing are also innovative. As a new action film director, Yang is definitely talented and promising. - Ye Nianchen
-
scarmzeda22 March 2007This movie, beautiful and inspiring, is a good watch for those nostalgic for real action. Donnie Yen has done a wonderful job in choreographing this work of art. Also, the girl in this movie is the first "Damsel in Distress" I've ever seen in an Asian movie that wasn't annoying. Actually, her acting is very nice, a rare statement from me because I usually feel like hitting the "nonkungfu" damsel with a frying pan in these type of movies.
That brings me to another thing; the movie is also nice in that it doesn't jump to a lot of locations (Just a lot of events.) It stays either in the city, or in the little town of Fung Man-Hin's past. The ending was very good too. -
jrp-128 April 2004Legend of the Wolf is amazing. Donnie Yen made what is one of the best martial arts films from the 90's. Visually the film has a great colour-scheme (green/yellow, very saturated). The photography doesn't look low-budget at all, and there's a nice village and forest where the film takes place. The action is surreal and brutal. You must lose yourself in the mayhem to fully appreciate the action scenes. The story is simple and very direct. The narrative has a story-book feel to it. The music is quite brilliant too -- at times it forces certain emotional responses from you and other times it's simply haunting or furious. Do not miss this film, it's art.
-
Rea-49 November 1998Okay, let's start with what's WRONG with this movie: an extraneous framing story, occasionally over-done drama, a "dah dah DAAAAH" soundtrack that won't quite, lack of a major, logically progressing conflict, (just some junk about some bandits) sometimes silly undercranking and the fact that it's basically a "Blade" wannabe. With that said, I'll say this movie is INTENSE! Good scenery and dramatics, (if occasionally overwrought) and ultra-brutal, bloody "YAAAAAAAAH!" type fight scenes as in The Blade. Sure, the undercranking and "flailing limbs in front of faces" shots get a little ridiculous, but it's all so crazy I couldn't help but love it. It's not up there with the better period flicks of '90-'94, but it beats the hell out of a certain other amnesia-themed period movie earlier this year. And you've gotta love a movie that feels like it was only about 45 minutes long.
-
drngor23 June 2001This movie has gotten a lot of mixed reviews. Some people have praised it and others have called it pure dreck. I really didn't know what to expect from this movie. Well, I found the plot to be slightly confusing. Well, I couldn't figure out what the whole modern day story was about. The flashback told about an amnesiac who returns to a village after WW2 and finds his lost love and some old enemies. A lot of brutal fighting follows.
The fight scenes are the calling card of this film. They're all fast and furious. If you take your eyes of the screen for a second you'll miss some stuff. It's all hyper-stylized, from the camerawork to the exaggerated gunplay and use of projectiles. There's a lot of speeding up, but it actually helps the fighting out; it makes it more intense. The martial arts itself is pretty good. Donnie uses his trademark kicks and also does a fair amount of Bruce Lee impersonating. His fight with the eagle claw guy is just astounding.
There is some fairly disturbing brutality in this film. The slaughter of the village and the scene preceding the final fight are examples. I guess it's supposed to make the movie more powerful.
In the end, I think the great fight scenes overshadow the sometimes confusing narrative and the brutality of the film. -
The_Dead_See15 November 2002I will keep this very short and simple...
You have never seen a jet Li film as good as this. No, not even fist of legend.
You have never seen a Jackie Chan film as good as this. No, not even drunken master 2.
In fact you have never seen *any* other martial arts film that even comes close to this.
If you are a martial arts fan... then rent it. And if you can't rent it then buy it. If you can't buy it then steal it.
'Nuff said. -
pressureworld4 August 2001Boy oh Boy after I watched this I felt like a kid at Christmas time except for fist of legend Jet li has never made a film this good. this is donnie at his brutal best and he's going for the throat. No wires or undercranking the story is nice (a man whose past come back to haunt him to sum it up) It's got Carmen Lee a costar that is eyecandy as well as a cool score but what you want is fights and donnie fights like a son of a bitch the choreography is mind blowing don't play yourself out check it out
-
dtn4b23 February 2002When I finally got the chance to see this movie, it lived up to and surpassed most of my expectations. Donnie Yen is both excellent as an actor and a director. Legend of the Wolf is definitely one of the best kung-fu flicks since Fist of Legend or Iron Monkey. It effectively recaptures a genre that has not been effectively done since the late 80's and early 90's.
The movie contains at least 5 or 6 amazing fight scenes that complement the slightly confusing, yet thoughtful story, well. The speed of the fight scenes is lightening quick and all of the action is intense, the only downfall being that a little editing was necessary for some of the earlier fights. However, this film overcomes all of its flaws and provides a thrilling experience that should please all martial-arts fans. final score 10/10 -
ngoc_dq27 January 2003Recently, they released this movie in Occidental under the name of The Big Boss, so check it out. One of Donnie Yen's best. I really feel sorry that he is not as famous as Jet Li. The man has got a much better look than Jet Li and he is just as spectacular. He deserves to be known. If only a good director will give him a chance to be the lead star. He appeared in Blade II as Snowman. About that film, I really think the director underused Donnie Yen. He would be cool playing the bad guy, the vampire. And a fight between him and Weslet Snipes would be super-mega-cool. Other great martial artists : Mark Dacascos(Crying free man, Brotherhood of the Wolf, Drive), Man Cheuk Chiu(another descendant from Shaolin, like Jet Li, movies: Once upon a time in China IV & V). These guys only need a chance to prove to the occidental viewers how great they can be. My greatest dream ever is to have a movie starring :Mark Dacascos,Man Cheuk Chiu, Donnie Yen, Jet Li and Wesley Snipes. YEAH!!! I would pay 100$ a ticket just to see that movie.
-
elyyozef20 September 2020One of the best martial arts movies I've ever seen. I thought I'm watching a Zhang yimo movie... for me, this movie is in the same level of 'hero' and 'house of flying daggers'. Jet li could never have done such a thing. I really think that donnie yen is "Bruce Lee" of our days.