Chen Zhen 陈真
Bruce Lee played Chen Zhen in just one film. Out of the story of a mentor's death and his student's revenge grew an entire screen biography, which continued to be written after Lee's death. On television, Chen Zhen was shown still as a student of Huo Yuan-Jia, and in one of the later films he returns to Shanghai after World War I.
Chen Zhen (陳真) first appeared in Fist of Fury (1972). The character was created by screenwriter Ni Kuang and played by Bruce Lee. Chen Zhen returns to the Jingwu school after the death of his mentor Huo Yuan-Jia, learns of the feud with a Japanese school and tries to find out how his teacher died. Huo Yuan-Jia did indeed die in 1910. Both Chen Zhen himself and the investigation that leads him to those responsible for Huo's death were invented for the film.
In Fist of Fury, the hero goes alone to the place where his school was insulted. The television versions give more space to his relationships with the people he protects. In The Legendary Fok (1981), Huo's student was played by Bruce Leung. In Fist of Legend (1994), Chen Zhen is played by Jet Li. In this version, Chen Zhen has a Japanese lover, and he has to work out whom he can trust on both sides of the conflict.
Donnie Yen played Chen Zhen in the television Fist of Fury (1995), and then again in Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen (2010). The second film is set in Shanghai in the 1920s. Chen Zhen has fought in Europe and now returns to the city under an assumed name. In this story, he has to protect an entire city where Japanese agents are carrying out assassinations.
