The story is very simple and the scripting incredibly muddled by holes in logic. Yen plays an amnesiac soldier (WW2) named Man-hin Fung. He returns to the countryside village where he was raised but, for some unexplained reason, the only person that recognizes him is his long lost love Wai-yee (Carmen Lee) and everyone else, save a lapdog village boy Ben, regards him as a dangerous stranger. It really is just that simple. Badass guy, tries to get back his memory and his lady love, and in the last act a group of bandits, who from the sound of things are a bunch of "WOOOOOOOOoooooo!!!" shouting deaf guys, show up and all hell breaks loose. The running time gets some additional padding and hollow nature of a killer philosophizin' via bookend sequences with Man-hin in the future as an old, spray paint gray, contract hitman explaining his story to a would-be young usurper.

Today, Yen is quickly showing himself to be a truly forward-thinking martial choreographer and onscreen he looks like a guy who knows his stuff and was raised with martial arts. S.P.L. and Flashpoint demonstrate a sense of 80's style, mano-y-mano impact with submission and grappling based moves obviously inspired by the rise of mixed martial arts. However it has been a long road to get to that point and his beginnings, frankly, were not so great.

It makes sense, Yen's career was born in the time of wire fu and rapid edit choreography and being part of Yuen Woo Ping and Tsui Hark films of that era surely rubbed off on him. When it came time to flex his own muscles as a choreographer, Legend of the Wolf and his early efforts embraced the accepted hallmarks of the time, a blurry, undercranked, fast cut, dazzling messes of flailing fists and feet. The Donnie Yen of the present really choreographs with the intent of capturing the hard beauty of physical fight motion, be it hooks, knees, kicks, or chokes. The Donnie Yen of 1997 instead frames everything anonymously tight and grossly spasmodic. While that kind of choreography isn't without its charms, it also, in its worst aspect, shortchanges much of the performers physical skill and becomes more about the camera and editing.

Now, I begrudge giving films a pass because of budget or lack of experience. After all, we've seen fine films produced with exactly those two qualities. Sure, you can chalk up some of Legend of the Wolf's problems to those two areas, limited budget, learning curve helming, but at its core it fails on a level that should be innate to any action film- deliver the damned action. The genre is great because they can get a pass on low budgets, shit storytelling, and hollow characters so long as the action is frequent and winning. I'll forgive the cheap costuming that has the villagers and bandits clothed in a blur of rags, but I wont forgive making me sit for thirty-five minutes straight without a hint of fisticuffs while characters vaguely opine. Legend of the Wolf simply doesn't have a lot going on, two minor fights at the start and an extended, fine but too-little-too-late 10-15 minutes of action in the finale. The rest of the film, an hour or so of running time, is just a slog.

The DVD: Tai Seng.

Picture: The film is presented in Non-Anamorphic Widescreen. Pretty shoddy image. The film's budget and this resulting transfer have not been kind. Colors are pretty muddy. Contrast is a little grayed. Worst of all there is quite a bit of motion blur and noise.

Sound: Audio choices include three 2.0 Stereo tracks in English, Cantonese, and Mandarin that are accompanied with optional English or Chinese subtitles. Well, the soundtrack has typically hollow, stock HK action sound fx and overdubbed dialogue. For a film of its ilk that is to be expected. The subs are a vast improvement over the old "Engrish" edition. The English dub isn't recommended even for unintentional comedy. To give one example, the main baddie sounds like he is voiced by a 13 year old boy.

Extras: Nothin', which is very odd considering Tai Seng has ponied up Donnie Yen or buddy Bey Logan commentary tracks on their other releases from his oeuvre.

Conclusion: The first DVD release of Legend of the Wolf that I watched was a truly wretched number, so bad, that I actually second guessed my purchase of this new-fangled DVD device (Yeah, it was quite some time ago). I cannot find any evidence of this film getting a decent release. Apparently this is just one of those movies that continues to fall short of even the basest standards that one has for DVD transfers. At least Tai Seng offers it at a budget price.

Actors turned directors have certainly turned in worse films, but this still feels like an action debut made by an unsure hand that was minus some basic resources to help that uneasy process. So, weak DVD combined with a rough, sloppy, and sometimes tedious film, I cannot imagine Legend of the Wolf being a purchase outside of Donnie Yen's hardcore fans.