The Legend (1993)
Fong Sai-yuk or simply The Legend is a 1993 Hong Kong action-comedy film directed by Corey Yuen and produced by Jet Li, who stars as Chinese folk hero Fong Sai-yuk. It co-stars Josephine Siao, Vincent Zhao, and Michelle Reis. The film received positive reviews, particularly praising Josephine Siao’s acting and the action choreography. The film won the Hong Kong Film Award and Golden Horse Award for best action choreography. A sequel, Fong Sai-yuk II, was released later the same year in 1993.
Plot:
The brash and ambitious Fong Sai-yuk meets the beautiful Lui Ting-ting during a track and field competition and falls in love with her. Ting-ting is the daughter of Tiger Lui, a hot-headed hooligan. Lui stages a martial arts competition for interested men to participate and win his daughter’s hand in marriage. The contestant must defeat Lui’s wife, Siu-wan, in order to win. Fong joins the contest at his friends’ urging and defeats Siu-wan. He catches a glimpse of his future bride, who is actually a servant to replace Ting-ting, who had gone missing during the contest.
Fong decides to forfeit the match and leaves.
Fong’s mother, Miu Tsui-fa, enters the contest in disguise as a man to help her son regain his lost pride. She defeats Siu-wan by knocking her off the scaffold, but catches her as she falls and they land safely on the ground. After that intimate moment together, Siu-wan becomes romantically attracted to Miu without knowing that Miu is actually a woman in disguise. Lui then forces Miu to marry his daughter.