actually, this film may be the best film of all time, not only jet li's best film. the action is simply incredible, the humour is genuinely very funny, helped no end by the character who plays jet li's mum, josephine siao (xiao fong-fong), a famous hong star of the kung fu genre during the 60's, and the story is the actual legend of fong sai yuk. it makes a very good film. everything works - the fighting of course because of the high standard of the cast and crew, the dynamic between all cast members is fantastic, and the story has no weak spots.
but talking of the fights - one fight to mention is the one organised by the new govenor (tiger liu) to wed his daughter (ting ting) to the winner of a kung fu competition against his wife (who is superb by the way). jet li enters not to win a wife but because he is fong sai yuk, and he loves to fight! (no really, he loves to fight), but then sees who he thinks is the prize and quits. (jet li saw ting ting earlier, and liked her, but ting ting ran away, cos she liked jet and didn't want to marry these fools who were being quickly disposed of my tiger liu's wife, and some random had to pretend to be ting ting). however, he didn't quit before a very cool fight involving lots of running on peoples heads and the like - you lose if you touch the floor. his mum hears that he has been beaten and demands to avenge for this, so she dresses up like a guy and fights tiger liu's wife, little realising that the prize is for the daughter of the host. she wins a pretty cool fight (and gains the affection of the wife as well) and has to marry the daughter. only she doesn't really want to, she just wanted a fight. and it's a very good one.
a scene which makes me laugh every time is the one between tiger liu and jet li, where jet li is to marry tiger liu's daughter, ting ting. fong sai yuk is a very popular character in his town, and tiger liu thinks by marrying ting ting to sai yuk, he will become more popular, so he has to be super nice to sai yuk. one morning, jet wakes up well early and goes outside and starts to sing at the top of his voice, clashing pots and pans - tiger liu wakes up and remembers he has to be nice, and so climbs on the roof and joins in, and the two duet, making as much bad noise as they can. it's a wicked scene, very funny. and there are countless more moments running through the whole film.
you really need to see it, there's just no other way to say it. maybe you have seen one of the once upon a time in china series - imagine that, but instead of wong fei hung, fong sai yuk, more style, more humour and better fights. you're halfway there. here are some pictures from the film, taken from the official jet li site - the costumes and cinematography are excelent - you can see how good this film looks! having said that, avoid at all costs the film called 'the legend' - the dubbed american release of this film, with many scenes cut, and no original language. |
