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Rise of the Legend: Wong Fei-hong hits America!

As the new trailer for ‘Rise of the Legend’ reminds us, before Ip Man, before Bruce Lee, there was Wong Fei-hong..!


March will see director Roy Chow’s Rise of the Legend hit both the big and small screen in North America (from Well Go USA), although, at this point. there’s still no word on a UK release.

The film, directed by Roy Chow and written by Christine To Chi-long, features a very strong cast. It’s led by Eddie Peng (from Unbeatable), Sammo Hung, Jing Boran ( The Bullet Vanishes), Max Zhang (Ip Man 3), Wong Cho-lam (Firestorm), Byron Mann (Man with the Iron Fists, The Big Short) Angelababy, Sir JBS (Man of Tai Chi) and features a cameo by non-other than our own Mike Leeder as a dastardly slave trader! The film’s fight and stunt choreography are staged by legendary action director Cory Yuen – as well as Sammo himself who lent an uncredited hand with the action design.

The character of Wong Fei-hong was a real-life martial arts master and physician who is regarded as a legend in both martial arts and martial arts movie making – the character being the hero of over a hundred films and TV series, played by everyone from Kwan Tak-hing, Jackie Chan, Jet Li and even actor/singer Alan Tam in the comedy Once Upon a Chinese Hero.

Rise of the Legend approaches the character from a different angle. It is almost like The Godfather as we follow the character’s transition from a young martial artist struggling to overcome the villainy that killed his father (Yes, Chow and To, kill off Wong Fei-hong’s father who played a major role in most of the previous adaptations of the character), through his battle with his own demons… until, as the film ends, he is finally becoming the man we all think of as Wong Fei-hong.

It’s a stylish very different take on the character and Eddie Peng proves to be a worthy sucessor to Jet Li and co. as the young Wong Fei-hong. The supporting cast, led by a suitably villainous Sammo Hung, leads a family of bad guys who control the city with an ‘iron fist’.

 

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