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Pirates
on the South China Sea are terrorizing a Cantonese town, and the
local officials have fled. Master Wong, who has been reunited with
his father, and Aunt Yee, his love interest from the first three
installments, stick around to take on the bad guys.
Tsui Hark returns to the director's chair after the previous lacklustre
installment. He brings back the regulars from the original films
but Wong Fei Hung is again played by Chiu Man Chuk. Chiu is a mystery,
he has been given a hard act to follow and it is impossible to quite
match Jet Li's screen presence when playing Wong Fei Hung. Perhaps
realising this Tsui has concentrated more heavily on the surrounding
characters (as in the TV series). This is a shame, as Chiu is never
really given a chance to show off his fighting or acting skills.
Also, Hung Yan Yan is only given one standout fight scene and the
rest play to strict genre conventions. Tsui has also tried to give
the audience something different from what they have seen before
by including some gunplay sequences. This is something he has shyed
away from in the past and it seems a good idea to pit Fei Hung against
firepower as this has always been hinted at in the previous films.
What is missing here though is a good adversary for Fei Hung to
fight in the final reel instead we get an extended (although grand
scale) shootout.
With this film Tsui has managed to recreate the style of the first
two films but unfortunately not match their heart. Therefore, this
is a watered down slice of Fei Hung, although the scale and cinematography
(as with most of Tsui's films) will impress all. Tsui would have
been better advised to reinvent another Chinese legend rather than
continue with his vision of that of Wong Fei Hung.
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