LEGEND OF THE FIST

Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen
Zhen is set in Shanghai before the
Second Sino-Japanese War, seven years
after the apparent death of Chen Zhen,
who was shot after avenging his
teacher (Huo Yuanjia) in Fist of Fury.
A mysterious stranger arrives from
overseas and befriends a local
businessman and owner of a prominent
nightclub frequented by foreign
dignitaries. That man is Chen Zhen in
disguise, who is part of the local
resistance. Disguising himself as a
masked fighter(based on the Green
Hornet sidekick Kato) by night, Chen
foils the plans of the Japanese to
assassinate the son of a local
Warlord(General Zeng) who has been
collaborating with the Japanese and
place the blame on a rival
Warlord(General Zhuo), thereby causing
civil war and aiding the subsequent
Japanese invasion.

With the operation failed, Tokyo sends
a death list of 100 names to the
Colonel in charge of intelligence
operations in China, to be killed
within a month. To smoke out the
masked hero who foiled their operation
last time, the Japanese leak the death
list which causes panic among the
populace, and pay a visit to the
nightclub where Chen Zhen, disguised
as his dead comrade Qin Tiansheng, is
masquerading in the day as a partner
of Master Liu, the nightclub owner and
an influential businessman. As Chen
Zhen looks nothing like his dead
comrade who used to wear spectacles,
the Japanese suspect of him of being
the masked warrior and challenge him
to save as many people as possible.

Most of the people on the death list
refuse to leave, and have to be forced
to leave by Chen Zhen’s friend who is
an Inspector in the ineffectual,
British controlled police force, and
while Chen Zhen saves many of those on
the death list, he is unable to save
everyone in time. Eventually the
Colonel’s younger brother leads a team
of killers to kill the editor of the
Shanghai Times, Chen Zhen’s friend and
comrade in the resistance. Chen Zhen
arrives in the nick of time to see his
friend killed right before his eyes
and avenges him by killing all of the
Japanese on the scene.

Meanwhile Chen Zhen is pursuing a
romantic relationship with Kiki, one
of the nightclub hostesses, whom is
actually a Captain in the Japanese
army and one of their best spies.
However Kiki starts to have
conflicting feelings due to her love
for Chen Zhen and does not inform the
Colonel of Chen Zhen’s real identity
and Chen Zhen eventually figures out
who the spy in the nightclub is after
noticing that Kiki always orders a
particular brand of cigarettes even
though she does not know how to smoke,
and warns her to immediately leave
Shanghai. At this point, the Colonel,
suspecting Kiki’s loyalty, kidnaps the
girlfriend of General Zeng’s son and
forces Kiki to kill her, even though
they are both close friends. The
incident is blamed on General Zhuo and
General Zeng, backed by Japanese
troops attack General Zhuo’s forces,
starting the second Sino-Japanese war.

Eventually the Japanese simply kidnap
Chen Zhen off the street in broad
daylight and torture him at the
Japanese Head Quarters. At the same
time, Chen Zhen’s comrades in the
resistance, together with Chen Zhen’s
sister and his Inspector friend, stage
a raid on the Japanese Headquarters
and suceed in causing serious damage
with the use of fire and explosives.
As Chen Zhen has taken pictures with
his comrades before, the Japanese are
able to easily track down and have
them hanged in public, while the
Colonel rapes Qin Tiansheng’s
sister(albeit misunderstood her as
Chen Zhen’s biological sister). Chen
Zhen is thrown out of a car in front
of the nightclub and is comatose for
many days while he heals from his
injuries.

With the Japanese invasion underway
and General Zhuo killed in action with
his forces in full retreat, there
seems to be nothing the resistance can
do to preventing the Japanese from
occupying Shanghai. However the
Colonel sends Kiki, now clad in a
Japanese army uniform, to the
nightclub to issue a challenge to
fight Chen Zhen in martial combat at
the Hongkou Dojo, the same one that
Chen Zhen defeated in Fist of Fury.
Chen Zhen accepts the challenge and
defeats all the students of the Dojo,
before facing the Colonel in one on
one combat, which he wins. Although
the Japanese eventually occupy
Shanghai, Chen Zhen continues fighting
as part of the resistance.