The Legend of Fong Sai Yuk

Americanized destruction of a masterpiece
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!

What you missed between subtitled and dubbed....
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...

Don't be thrown off by the reviews copied in from "The Legend"--LOFSYuk is utterly fantastic and not to be missed!!!
Due to a glitch at Amazon, there are numerous reviews cross-pasted from a hatchet-job of this movie called "The Legend." Buy the Dragon Dynasty release without fear: this is the real deal!

I've seen this movie in the theater several times. I can tell you that this is not only one of Jet Li's finest films, but also one of the real gems of HK movies, and one of the best period martial arts films of all time.

The characters are fun and charming, the acting full of energy. The story and script is humorous and heroic. The sets and period evocations are flawless.

Of course, the fighting is incredible: full use is made of many large set-pieces, similar to Iron Monkey and Wing Chun. And Jet is at the pinnacle of his grace and power, as well as boyish charm wedded to striking nobility and screen presence.

I advise all lovers of HK martial arts to see this brilliant film made during the modern height of the Hong Kong cinema glory days. And then...

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