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Martial arts matinee idol Jet Li Lin-Kit, who made his U.S. debut as a bad guy in Lethal Weapon 4, portrays a real life turn-of-the-century Cantonese patriot, the dauntless Fong Sai-Yuk. This is a much more blunt and straightforward effort than Tsui Hark's flamboyant Once Upon a Time in China films, but codirectors Ann Hui (Song of the Exile) and Yuen Kwai (Yes, Madam) deliver many lively and funny sequences. For U.S. viewers, the revelation of the film will be Josephine Siao, a Cantonese film star of the '60s, in both comedies and high-flying swordplay films, who plays Fong Sai-Yuk's martial mother. Siao disguises herself as man to enter a martial arts competition and ends up winning both the prize and the heart of a high official's daughter--mostly because the girl has never met a hero with so much poetic sensitivity lurking just beneath the surface. Chu Kong (Sidney in John Woo's The Killer) plays Fong Sai-Yuk's father as an anti-Manchu patriot so unbendingly upright that he's a bit of a prig, and as the action heats up, political stakes emerge more clearly. In the grand finale, Fong Sai-Yuk squares off against a Manchu killer played with great panache by newcomer Chiu Man-cheuk. --David Chute
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