On the surface, if there’s one thing that defines this era of entertainment, it’s remakes and remasters. Experts like to frame things a different way, though. Film Studies lecturer Dr. Matthew Jones claims we’ve been living with this culture of repetition since about 1896 and the origin of film.
The only difference, Dr. Jones said, in a conversation with Cosmopolitan, is that there are more remakes at certain points in time than others.
All anybody has to do is look at a franchise like Batman or King Kong to realize that few things are complete without their origin story, a point that keeps condemning Thomas and Martha Wayne to death between the grimy walls of Crime Alley in Gotham. Thus, we get the same yarn spun over and over again.
American Remake
In martial arts circles, things are no different. Jet Li’s 1994 vehicle Fist of Legend was built on the groundwork laid by Fist of Fury (1972), starring Bruce Lee. The 2010 movie 13 Assassins was, of course, a remake of the 1963 epic, while Dragon Inn (1992) and Dragons Inn (1967) have the same lineage. Then, there’s 2011’s The Raid, which is pending an American remake from disaster merchant Michael Bay.
The 1991 film Breathing Fire, a silly US movie that our own Henry McKeand described as depicting a group of bank robbers “searching for a slice of pizza”, is also a remake of an earlier film, The Flash Legs. Directed by Ma Wu and released in 1977, The Flash Legs offers a more traditional martial arts romp, albeit with a heist twist.
Ocean’s 11
The heist genre is a notorious breeding ground for remakes, with The Italian Job (1969 and 2003) and Ocean’s 11 (1960 and 2001) serving as perfect examples. Of course, this demand for retelling comes from the overall popularity of heists and bank robberies in fiction.
In gaming, Grand Theft Auto has made thieves out of us all, just like the Payday franchise did. A fondness for heists can be found in casino gaming, too. Playstar, a real-money online casino NJ, carries the Ice Heist slot, alongside the GTA-like West Coast Cash. These games usually task the player with opening (or finding) a safe for prizes.
The Flash Legs guides the viewer through a treasure hunt involving The Eight Dragons, a band of fighting rogues. Following a botched robbery, the Dragons split an octagonal map up into eight parts, with each segment going to a particular thief.
Breathing Fire
In the end, The Flash Legs tells a now-standard story of betrayal and greed, as The Eight Dragons whittle themselves down to just a handful of members.
What makes the film so interesting is how it ties actor Tan Tao-liang’s (Fong Yee) career together. After starring in The Flash Legs in 1977, the Chinese-Korean would eventually go on to write the American remake, Breathing Fire. It also wound up being his final cinematic project, as he retired in 1991.
How the octagonal map of The Flash Legs became the eight slices of pizza in Breathing Fire is anybody’s guess.
