Yen plays the titular Wolf, a retired assassin of renown. He's tortured by the ghosts of his past and prone to remembering the happier times, if only to punish himself even more for his past transgressions. When he's tracked down by Ben, a young upstart assassin who hopes to take the Wolf's place as the number one killer, the pro decides to dissuade him. And so begin the flashbacks.

In fact, the whole movie seems like it's nothing but one flashback after another, which makes for some very confused viewing. The Wolf was once Man-Hin, a villager drafted into the army and turned into a brutal killer. After the war, he becomes a bandit, only to realize the error of his ways. He takes out the gang, but loses his memory as a result. He becomes an aimless drifter, knowing only that he must return to Wai-Yee, the girl he left so many years ago.

From there, the predictability just abounds. What do you want to bet that he just happens to come across a village that just happens to be located next to the temple where he and Wai-Yee pledged their love so long ago? What do you want to bet that his old bandit buddies come looking for revenge? And what do you want to bet that the film will have a tragic ending?

From the minute he and Wai-Yee find eachother again, you can basically figure out each turn of the story. What makes it all "better" is how Yen just piles on the martial arts action, making liberal use of his pride and joy, undercranking. His editing knows no bounds either, resulting in fights that seem to consist of jump cuts and transitions more than actual kicks and punches. Admittedly, some of it does look really cool - Man-Hin's fight with the tiger-clawed bandit at the film's end is pretty exciting to watch - it becomes fairly old hat after awhile.

But Yen also tries his hardest to make the film "artistic" and "deep", throwing in ultra-dramatic moments meant to expose the longing and hurting in Man-Hin's life (which, unlike those in "Ballistic Kiss", rarely work). My favorite is a scene that takes place after Man-Hin's reunion with Wai-Yee. One day, Wai-Yee awakes to find him missing, and desperately searches for him. She finally finds him sitting out in the middle of field, looking pensive as he gazes into the peaceful sky, finally feeling at home. He and Wai-Yee share a tender moment, but lest we forget how tough he is, his shirt is unbuttoned and flapping in the wind.

As for the film's romantic element, it has everything going for it except passion, depth, and believability. The couple's big romantic moment, which happens during a rainstorm (of course), is so awkwardly done, with the camera right up in their faces as they paw eachother, that it looks like another one of the movie's fight scenes. Yen almost seems afraid of letting the audience's view stay in one spot for more than 10 seconds. As a result, even the lovers' embrace is filled with tons of cuts, to the point where it looks like they're trying to beat the crap out of eachother... with their tongues.

Yen plays the tortured, existential killer to the hilt, doing everything he can to make sure we know how pained his character is. I can't say if it's a problem of ego or what, but the Yen reaches way too far throughout this entire movie. Even his moments of subtlety announce themselves with dramatic music, meaningful glances that fill the screen (usually undercut with scenes of his past violence), and more slow motion than he knows what to do with.

It's shame, because Yen is a talented guy. Anyone who has seen "Iron Monkey", "Once Upon A Time In China 2", or "Wing Chun" can see that. However, in those films, he's an actor... and he rules the screen whenever he's on there (just watch "Iron Monkey" is you need proof). As a director, however, he leaves a lot to be desired, which is pretty ironic considering how hard he tries and how much he jams into his films.

REVIEW
If there has ever been a movie that people have either loved or hated, this must be it. The directorial debut by Donnie Yen features some of his best work to date. Having a minuscule budget of $500,000, Donnie Yen knew everything had to be perfect he first time around. But the restrictions didn’t dampen his artistic vision and he produced a martial arts masterpiece, in a fashion as only he could.

What makes the movie a masterpiece cannot be explained, but it is the combination of the various elements residing in the movie. The story is split into two parts with one detailing his past while the other provides a doorway into that past. In the modern day, an assassin wishes to meet the legendary Wolf (Donnie Yen), but with a dishonest motive. The setting is an abandoned building where Man Hin’s partner Wai, leads the assassin to. While Yen’s character takes a nap his partner starts to tell the tale of Fung Man Hin. Many have complained about the amount of flashbacks, but I could only count three myself. And it wasn’t distracting or disorientating. The second flashback’s entry is the best, as it jumps back into a battle with the sound of an oncoming sword. What follows is a mess of close-up filming, mixed with unrealistic combat as two combatants defeat a whole gang of bandits in a forest. Those would be the views of someone who was expecting a normal kung fu flick. This fight takes place in a beautiful forest which reappears for the final battle and the fighting looks the way Donnie intended it too, to be viewed from afar. It should be looked at as a whole, with blood flying through the air being a confirmation of the brutal assault he lays onto his victims. His kicks are mostly visible and a stunning testament of his combat capability.

After fighting against the bandits, Man Hin and his guide (Wai) soon realize that the attack was meant for Man Hin. The night is spent in an old temple where he tries to remember the girl he should meet. While Wai shows off the blade he stole to the townsfolk, he gets attacks at the temple by unknown opponents. Suffering from various injuries Wai rushes his friend to the house of Wu Yee (Carmen Lee) who nurtures him back to health and turns out to be the girl he was looking for. The relationship between Man Hin and Wu Yee is the central point in the movie and the single event that made Man Hin’s life turn out the way it did. The movie doesn’t get soppy when reacquainting the two persons, but shows us how hard it is for Man Hin to remember what he had with her. Wu Yee herself also becomes frustrated with his memory loss, but they do achieve happiness, no matter how short lived it may be.

The final flashback is told by Man Hin himself, as he tries to influence the assassin to change his life. He recounts the love he felt and tragic events that followed. One morning a whole gang of roughly 50 men enter the village looking for Man Hin. From there on we see the people all getting killed and only Wai being able to hold his own. Then Donnie emerges and walks forward through the masses playing an invincible hero, as he kicks and punches everything in his way. Then Wu Yee gets carried into the forest by the bandits. As Donnie catches up with them he fights his way to Wu Yee, only to ultimately lose her again.

Next we see the tragic element in his life, and the bandit leader explains to him what he did when he was younger. Even though he can’t remember what he did, we can see that he knows he led a bad life and that he has to pay for it, dearly. The final battle places two very good fighters in close quarters. They block, kick and punch each other's souls out of their bodies. You also get to see some amazing footwork from Donnie as he basically assaults his opponent with one leg constantly in his face. When the battle is finally finished we see that Man Hin has just punished the bandit, but with something more than death. His story did not affect the young assassin much, and he gets outsmarted by his victim and thus the story concludes.

You may want to watch the movie a couple of times until you “get” it. The fight scenes are more than just fight scenes and if anyone tells you otherwise it’s because they do not understand this movie. I believe Donnie Yen reinvented the martial arts genre with this movie and that it will one day receive due credit.

Donnie Yen has a pretty spotty track record and this film doesn't help it out much. The plot has probably been done dozens, if not hundreds, of times before and to call Legend of the Wolf's script "mediocre" would be an understatement. It literally throws every cliche in the book into the mix. The fact that none of the actors are very good is also a hindrance to the enjoyment of the film. Yen, in particular, is horrible. He has the same wooden expression on his face no matter what he's doing, whether it's chopping up bad guys or making love. Speaking of making love, why the hell does every movie seem to have a romantic subplot? I realize that's part of the Wolf's motivation for going to the village in the first place, but ultimately Lee's character seems superfluous to the plot and any scene with her really seems to bog the film down. I want to see Donnie Yen kicking ass, not making out.

What saves Legend of the Wolf are the action scenes. While they're really not that original (several seem ripped off from Tsui Hark's The Blade) and sometimes the camerawork gets in the way (e.g., too many closeups, overused slow motion/undercranking, etc.), they are pretty exciting, especially the finale, which runs for about 25 minutes. If Yen had concentrated more on the martial arts instead of the romance and heavy-handed symbolism in Legend of the Wolf, it could have been a really good movie.

The plot is basically an ageing fighter recounting the adventures of his youth to someone wishing to employ his services. The majority of the film is therefore made up of flashbacks and this is where all of the action takes place. Apparently financial problems prevented the story from being developed further so what we get is one action scene after another with a little bit of narrative in between. Luckily the action is well handled.

It was the opening scene more than anything that made an impression on me with an absolute fantastically filmed machete fight. Whatever the criticisms of Donnie Yen's films, its scenes like this that show he is capable of first class choreography and direction. The whole scene is in darkness and shadow with the combatants only being visible as silhouettes for the majority of the time. This is contrasted by the sparks that fly from the blades as they clash. Clever stuff. Although the fights later on seemed to be undercranked by a fair amount, it isn't too obvious here and easily stands out.

Despite the frequent use of undercranking throughout the film, the fights are still hugely enjoyable. The film culminates in a running battle staged in a forest that must be one of the most innovative pieces of choreography I've seen. Again undercranking is quite prevalent but I'd have to say its one of the few occasions where it actually works and enhances the impact of the fight.

Don't expect a cohesive story but do expect some expertly handled fight scenes and the last half hour is practically all fighting.

This is Donnie Yen's first time behind the camera, and he definitely has a good eye. The film is very well made and the cinematography is gorgeous. A little older now, Donnie delivers a decidedly more reserved and mature performance, but he still crackles with intensity and raw power. The fighting in the film is of the likes I haven't seen since the 1980's, and is extremely exciting to watch. A lot of people have criticized Donnie's overuse of undercranked fight scenes, but in this film it doesn't seem to detract from what's going on too much. On the contrary, the exagerrated action actually complements the melodramatic tone of the film and the larger than life characters. The fight choreography and execution is still top notch, and real-time and slow motion shots are all combined to even out the final product. The love story and other dramatic elements are handled nicely, and even delicately, but the real driving force behind the film is to see Donnie Yen kick some serious ass (which he does quite nicely). Although the story sometimes left me feeling as confused and isolated as Donnie's character, it's still a lot of fun to watch. A definite must see for action fans, kung fu fans, and Donnie Yen fans.

Amnesia story with romance and revenge, basically. I liked it a lot. Action, romance, and lots of drama with great settings; the jungle (most of the time), and a village or two. I bought this on the Jumbo Plain DVD and it had nothing special at all on it. That's just a little warning from me. But the picture quality is pretty nice, except for in the beginning where it looks like an MPEG-1 video. There are no extras, though. Chapters, yes, but no chapter selection menu or anything like that. The subtitles were easy to read, nice and big, unlike the microprint in Storm Riders.

Ok, so you wanna' know about the action. Legend of the Wolf is known for good action, and it has that, definitely. The first scene has Donnie swinging a blade around in darkness, which was hard to see due to that darkness, but afterwards he (I think it was him) jumps out a window, down onto the side of a building through a wooden plank, and then down to the ground... Ok not a great action scene, but the next one was good.

Donnie and his friend are walking through the woods looking for a temple when they run into about 30 bandits. There were some cool moments here, like when Donnie collected around 4 blades from them and threw them all over the place. He hacks and hacks, and then does an awesome looking jumping forward kick to a guy's chin and made a Bruce Lee woo sound. He kicks another, who does a backwards roll down into a pond. Then, Donnie's double (if he had one) jumps way up and does an HK spin repeatedly until he gets into the water. Awesome looking. Donnie goes berserk, kills everyone except one person, and his pal is standing in shallow water. Donnie throws his blade along the water, skips it right between the guy's legs, and it goes and stabs someone. I don't know how they got this shot, but they did. But all Donnie did here was go crazy it seemed. Some good looking moves, but it was all focused on Donnie and I couldn't see anything else really. All I saw was Donnie pounding his blade into heads and grabbing arms. Is this good fighting? Actually it was pretty good looking because of occasional slow motion and far better looking than mass slayings in other HK movies.

The next fight happens inside the temple (a small brick, run down shack, don't imagine a big gold Buddha or anything) against first a gang, which he beats quickly. One of the hits made me shiver. A guy was on the ground, and Donnie did an axe kick to his head, pushed his foot hard into his face, and twisted, making a loud cracking noise. After that, he takes on a guy with a chain wrapped around his arm. The two punch at each other's fists (like in Shanghai Affairs), but Donnie's punching at a chain, and tosses his hand around after being pushed back and cracks his own wrist, which was pretty cool. The guy kicks at Donnie's shins, who backs up, and he basically pounds whatever gets in his way, including the brick wall. Donnie grabs a sawhorse, you know the good ole' sawhorses, and uses that to his defense. It breaks, and he uses the legs to beat the man senselessly and eventually gets the chain around one of the legs. At the end, Donnie has the chain around his neck with a piece of wood in it, so he pulls the chain apart which splits the wood and it impales the guy. Any fight choreography like in the lucky stars movies or the like? No, not really. It's all just fast, with the camera on one or the other, which makes it difficult to see the middle of the two, and being able to do that is pretty important to see what goes on. But there's something different going on here. It's as though more props are being used. Donnie grabs the sawhorse, uses it for defense, it breaks, he uses the legs to get the chain, gets the wood in the chain, splits the wood, kills the guy. I hate to say this, but here we have a different kind of choreography that I actually like a little bit. It's not as good as the choreography I'm used to, but it's fast and seems to work. Let's look at the next one.

Wai (Donnie's partner from the beginning) is in the village and bandits come. So they brawl. This looks like the first brawl from Shanghai Affairs, probably because Donnie directed both this and that movie. Is the brawl any good? The people seem to stay busy, with lots of movement in the background and it's not like in Big Trouble in Little China where they just walk around and throw punches occasionally. Wai gets more involved and does a jumping full body kick into 2 guys, but when they fall against a building behind them, you see another one run up and jump into the building too. That's not how it works! But that's just a small mistake, really. Donnie gets involved from coming out of a building and does a flurry of punches on bandits while trying to get to the leader of the clan, and I don't know who the actor is so I'll have to find out. Donnie kicks one guy, who falls back, but you see something in his pants that looks like a big block of padding, which is exactly what it is. So that's how they do the falls. He kicks some more guys, and then has to run after the Bandits, who captured his girlfriend.

This, I think, is the best part of the movie. Probably a good 100 bandits are running through the jungle, with Donnie running alongside for a moment. They show it from the side, which is really cool looking. He trips one guy, grabs his bamboo pole, kicks up a rock, pounds the rock with the pole, which goes and splits into more rocks, hitting probably 5 guys. Almost like a OUATIC stunt, but it looks real here. No wires involved or anything. He runs into the pack, pounding them as he runs forward. In the mean time, Wai is bringing villagers to the pack and takes on the rear part of the bandits. Donnie keeps swinging, and then the camera shows him from the front throwing his stick back into the followers and laying out 6 of them. Finally he grabs the guy holding his girl, takes him out, but then a sharpshooter with an eye patch comes and runs after him, shooting at what he can. This is an intense scene where Donnie's avoiding bullets by trying to fake this guy out. So, if he can't shoot, he can throw a dagger, and he does. It sticks in Donnie's shirt first, then another one in his arm. But here's what I didn't understand. The guy has a six shooter (looks like a 44 magnum), but he must fire 25 shots before reloading. I don't like it when they do this. Anyways, Donnie beats him by getting a stick, which he uses to catch another dagger, and throwing the dagger back at his stomach.

The next opponent Donnie fights is someone who has a small patch in each hand with 3 claws sticking out of it. The fight here is extremely fast, probably undercranked a little, but it still looks cool because it's almost all upper body. They exchange punches so fast, but the camera is positioned as to show only one person at a time, which was used earlier on. So, you don't really get to understand what happens when one person punches, but instead you see the entire thing as a whole. I don't quite understand what purpose this is supposed to serve because, again, this is new to me and I'm trying to figure it out. With the old choreography (at least, pre-1998), when one person punched, you could see what the response was, so it was a cause and effect thing. Now, it's like a system or a flurry. After the flurry, Donnie grabs his thumb and cracks it, like in Heroes Among Heroes when he fought Hung Yan Yan. At this point, there's some Chin Na, which is recognizable because things slow down a little. Donnie grabs his arms and twists them back behind his head and then grabs his pinkie, breaking that. Ow. After doing this for a little while, Donnie jumps up and does a Chinese Splits Kick to his face, and he still gets up. More speed fighting, with the camera moving from one person to the next. Donnie gets into his kicking mode and throws around 25 kicks to the guy, a punch to the face, another punch, and he spits blood. But he's still ok. Donnie pounds him repeatedly, and finally cracks a big reverse jumping right kick into his chest, throwing him back 15 feet, followed by a kick to his face while on the ground, putting him into a 2.5 HK spin. What did I learn here? ... I don't know. I'll figure it out at the end of the review.

The last fight against the leader of the bandits starts off with the enemy coming at Donnie with a machete. He grabs it right as it's touching his scalp and gets a VERY pissed off look on his face. Man can he look pissed. They struggle over the blade for a while, kicking at each other's shins, and Donnie kicks the blade away finally. So, he's pissed because the guy just did something that would piss off any guy, and throws a ton of punches which are blocked, and fast, but you can see what happens to them. Then the camera shows them flailing around in a frontal view like in Shanghai Affairs (again), and then they both do jumping kicks that push each other away (another one in Shanghai Affairs). Donnie goes on his kicking rampage for a while, the last 2 being blocked and send him backwards. The opponent grabs Donnie's head and tries to knee him repeatedly, and then does it again, and then once more. Donnie gets mad, sets his back foot (breaking a rock, which looks pretty cool), locks the other guy's arm and nails him in the rib cage. They end up on a rock edge, and Donnie beats him in the face repeatedly until they fall into a crevice where the tide comes in. It looks pretty good because it happens frequently. Donnie keeps beating him and the guy asks why Donnie doesn't just kill him. Donnie doesn't kill the guy, but gives him a small piece of agony that no one would wanna' SEE (hint hint).

Ok, so the fights were very different than what I'm used to. But for some reason I really like them, and even though I can't see where every punch goes, I know exactly what's happening at every instant, and I imagine anyone else would have a good idea too. So, Donnie directed this, and had something in mind because his older movies didn't look anything like this one, where the fights were clear and obvious. Perhaps here he was going BIG, big moves, big parts, and evolving fights that took the contestants somewhere. During the last fight, the two go all over the place. It's choreographed, but it's not. The brutal parts look real, and the fast chaining scenes are extreme and so fast you can't see what's happening, but it all fits together somehow. I guess it's beyond me, or maybe there really ISN'T a point behind it all. But, hey, I liked it. But I still think that, because I can't figure it out, Donnie should have slowed things down a bit and made things comprehensible. But I can compliment him on avoiding special tricks, even though he has a double for a couple parts (his hair suddenly gets long), though there weren't any fake kicks, no wires, no nonsense really.

Jeez, I like it. But it's not good enough to be a 10. If I can figure out what the hell he was doing, maybe I'll upgrade it. For now, because of the awesome camera work (except for when it was problematic during the fights) and good acting on everyone's parts, the scenery, the atmosphere, mood, and characters,

9/10 - Should be slowed down. This movie could have been the best out there.

If you are looking for great action, then you are bound to love Legend of the Wolf. My friend even has it on his top 5 list of all time best kung fu movies; which mind you, he has over 2000 movies in his collection!

I personally did not find the plot confusing. Basically, a guy named Ben wants WOLF (Donnie Yen) to kill somebody (we don't know who until the very end). While WOLF is asleep when Ben arrives, WOLF's partner tells Ben the story of him and WOLF meeting for the first time. WOLF has just been in the military and lost his memory, but he remembers he has to wait for some girl in the 7th Temple. With help from partner, WOLF reunites with the girl who still loves him unconditionally.

At this time, WOLF wakes up and tells Ben himself about the adventure that follows. Basically, a bunch of guys claiming to be part of the gang of 7 WOLVES, which Donnie was apparently part of and who killed the 1st bro in protecting a girl, bashes through the village and murders pretty much everyone. When they capture WOLF's fiancé, WOLF runs faster than wind to save her. This is the point in the movie that amazes me. As you are watching Donnie Yen racing across the forest and throwing axes at the bad guys, and later punching various villains as if tapping his fingers randomly through the keyboard, you have to feel a little respect coming for him. It takes a lot of practice and skills to put up this kind of action, and I bet you now, no one in the world could have done it better. They would have done it differently, but not better in anyway.

Finally, the big brother wolfy kills WOLF's fiancé. WOLF decides to not kill this villain, but in return blinds the brother's eyes. End of WOLF's adventure. Now, back to modern HK, we find out Ben is actually out to kill WOLF! But before he pulled the trigger, WOLF's partner flashes his blade and breaks it. The valuable lesson we learn from the whole story is: being #1 isn't anything. Even #1 gets lonely sometimes. What is important is someone you love, and someone who cares for you; someone who will be with you through the times of roughness and well-being; someone who will be with you forever. That is portrayed between both WOLF & his fiancé and Ben & his girlfriend.

You might think that I absolutely loved Legend of the Wolf - NOT SO. For one thing, the violence level here is much stronger than I would allow for in a good martial arts epic. in the beginning when WOLF and partner fight the bandits, there is a river of blood resulting from WOLF's psychological memory of the past. He literally kicks/chops the bloody SHIT out of every single person. Later, as WOLF races to save his fiancé, bloodshed appear once again and does not run off the screen for a long time. The most disturbing scene however, came when wolf's brother puts a sword on wolf's fiancé's head, and swings it like baseball bat. Immediately we see her head flying like a baseball. Except I really didn't expect to see her head actually coming off and shown in such detail! Just too much violence, PERIOD. Another thing I didn't like about the movie is Donnie Yen having sex with his fiancé. That is just sick seeing our manly hero from Iron Monkey and our innocent warrior from Butterfly Sword all of a sudden turning into a sex craver. EHHHK!!! Last thing - Donnie Yen didn't do very good acting in the movie. He really didn't look like himself in several scenes. Even when he did, he looked vicious and malicious. But I guess that portrayed the wolf pretty well. But I just did NOT like Donnie Yen's attitude in the movie. But, as far as action is concerned, man is it packed with nonstop action! Never since the Venom productions have I seen a movie with such hardcore, elaborate fight sequences. However, packed doesn't necessarily mean best. The action choreography here obviously isn't nearly as good as that of OUATIC or Drunken Master II, but it is NOT cheesy either. Very entertaining action, fairly decent story. [8/10]