Portions of the plot description will be in brackets [ ]. The reasons why will be made clear.

The Film: The Manchu's have aligned with the Japanese and plot to overthrow the Chinese. Revolutionaries and martial artists Chan Jun and Shou Yu, help in the Chinese effort to usurp the forces against them. The Manchu's have learned that key revolutionary Dr. Sun will be making his way through Canton. [Chan learns of this while at his Ching Wu school of martial arts. He plans a trip to go aid in defending Dr. Sun against any Manchu-Japanese threat. A Russian fighter named Letove, makes a challenge to Chan, but Chan explains he has more important matters to attend. ] Already in Canton, Shou does aid in protecting the good doctor. The Manchu forces in charge of kidnapping Dr. Sun learn that they have Shou's father in prison, and decide to use this against him. They try to draw Shou out by having his father write a letter to him, but his father, a proud revolutionary, declines, and instead secretly writes a letter in blood, encouraging his son, and has the letter snuck out. The Manchu's try to fake a letter, but Shou instantly realizes the dupe, and is only further angered by it, making it now a personal matter as well as a matter of pride and country. [Chan while making his way to Canton, is attacked by ninjas. And, you wont believe me when I say this, but ninjas disguised as coconuts. The Russian fighter has been shadowing Chan, and he lends him a hand in defeating the ninjas. ]

In the latter half of the film things really get kicked up a notch as Shou attacks the Manchu compound in a rage and is beaten severely by their Iron Headed fighter. While he heals, Dr. Sun finally arrives. Although they are attacked by the Manchus, the revolutionaries manage to defend him whit the aid of martial master Choy Hung. The good doctor still has a boat to catch, and the Manchus are well aware and will be better prepared. Choy and the now healed Shou devise a way to distract the Manchu's and hopefully get Dr. Sun out alive. [ Chan and Letove finally have their big face-off in a courtyard.] Shou and Choy take on the Manchu forces in a fight filled finale. [ Chan is attacked by a group of dirty sword wielding bandits.]

Okay, from the title Fists of Legends 2: Iron Bodyguards alone, should tell you this is not a legitimate film. It is instead a cut and paste job, not uncommon in HK and the surrounding territories. Probably the most notable film that does this would be Game of Death, in which surviving Bruce Lee film footage was pasted into a film with a lookalike. Here, we get, a somewhat different situation, film footage of Jet Le, a Jet Li lookalike, has been placed into an older, classic kung fu film, they slapped Fists of Legends 2 on it, and hope to capitalize on Jet Li's newfound fame. Poor Jet LE, does look like Jet Li, but sort of like Jet Li combined with Mary Lou Retton or a dwarf (Jet Li is short, but Jet LE is tiny). No, doubt it is the kind of film that can rake in a lot of money in the Philippines and Malaysia, where a lot of these knockoffs do pretty well. Jet Le plays Chan, and I have put all his scenes in brackets. Now, is this a good film, actually,... yeah. The Jet Le-Chan stuff, obviously never connects with the rest of the film, but it is mainly just fight footage, and it doesn't take up but about 15% of the running time. The other film, the real film, is actually pretty fair.

And, honestly, its really good for all the wrong reasons. The contrast in the fighting is glaring. The Jet Le-Chan stuff is all modern, acrobatic, spinning, amped up choreography, and the other film, Shou Vs the Manchus is older, classic, stiff arm kung fu. I would place the Jet Le-Chan stuff in the mid-late 90's and the other footage in the late 70's, possibly early 80's. So, that aspect is pretty amusing, with the low budget, Jet Le stuff, like the wires on the coconut ninjas,and such silliness being very funny. And, as far as the Russian fighter, Letove- A) when they say his name, I swore they were saying "Jerkoff", and B) he is played by a guy named Todd Senofonte, who is probably one of the most embarrassing things you can be, a Jean Claude Van Damme lookalike. Honest to God, look the guy up, he is Van Damme's stand-in and stunt double, and here they hired him to ape the great butt obsessed, cocaine freak, Belgian. So, the cheesy novelty of two lookalikes facing off (one doing a No Shadow Kick, the other doing splits) is worth the price of admission.

Now, I enjoyed the other film, the main film. It was your usual old school fare, and it seemed pretty decent, especially when contrasted by the Jet Le silliness. It wasn't a great film, but a pretty fair one, and its final fight scenes are really pretty good. Although the main Manchu bad guy is a familiar face, and one of the henchmen is Bolo Yueng, I couldn't place the main good guys, and the credits used names, no doubt false ones. I have asked around is anyone knows what the film was originally called and who directed it, but haven't gotten any answers. The credits list Robert Tai as the director, and Robert Tai did direct a lot of old school independents (Shaolin Chastity Kung Fu, Incredible Kung Fu Mission), but unfortunately I have never seen a complete Robert Tai filmography so its difficult to say whether he actually directed the old film, the Jet Le film, or is they just used his name to sell the film.

So, it is really corny, but somehow, on a very b-movie, its late at night, goofy mood, eaten three bowls of Cap'NCrunch sugar high, kind of way, it is a very entertaining film.

The DVD:Ground Zero presents a region 0 version, and its actually one of their better modest, non-Hidden Chambers Wu Tang DVDs. Picture-LETTERBOX. A first for the Wu Tang/Ground Zero DVDs. While 10 Magnificent Killers was slightly widescreen, and Revenge of the Patriots was a mock, weird letterbox, Fists of Legends 2 is in real letterbox. There are a few transfer glitches, like a tracking jump here and there, but overall it looks fantastic for a low budget DVD of a low budget film. Whereas most Wu Tang/Ground Zero DVDs look like vhs, this one at least looks like good vhs. The Jet Le footage looks considerably cheaper next to the older film, mainly because the cheaper cameras we use today weren't around back in the old kung fu days. Sound-2.0 mono, English dub, which is very loud and clear, considering it is recent, because they had to do a new dub to try and tie the two films together. The music on the Jet Le stuff sounds like I made it with my Casio keyboard back in 1986, so that adds to the amusement. Extras-18 Chapters. Bonus fight film footage (film unspecified, lasting 3 ½ mins. A Wu Tang Clan intro, in which one of the members ignorantly refers to Chinese martial arts films as "Karate flicks". Wu Tang music video. Hilariously, they also have a half hour documentary about Jet Li, no not Jet LE, but the real Jet Li. The special features interviews and behind the scenes stuff, and although it looks like it was made for a cable access channel, it is pretty good, a very nice extra.