Sake!

I am a sucker for a good kung fu film. I grew up with the occasional Bruce Lee movie on UHF but it wasn’t until high school that both technology and opportunity aligned for me and I was able to start getting into such stars as Gordon Liu, Jackie Chan, Donnie Yen, and, yes, Jet Li.

There are people in the world for whom “Rumble in the Bronx
” was their first experience with Jackie Chan. Que lastima! I knew about him from the Drunken Master movies and Snake in the Eagle’s Shadow. As excellent as those movies were (and they were very good), Jackie Chan was our second favorite and we didn’t understand why he was able to make it big in the US when Jet Li languished in obscurity (hey, this was prior to Lethal Weapon IV). The Once Upon a Time in China Trilogy was composed of some amazing movies but even they were blown away by Last Hero in China (also known as Deadly China Hero).

It tells (or continues, really) the story of Wong Fei-hung, famous doctor who has to resolve problems with the Boxers, with corrupt officials, with his students, and with the fact that he just moved his school next door to a brothel. Who cares about plot? How are the fights!, that’s the real question! Well, you won’t be disappointed. There’s wire-fu that will have you clapping with delight even though you’re in your own basement. The villian is delightfully evil, the love interest delightfully pretty (though not only just), and the comic relief actually funny (how many movies can you say *THAT* about?).

If you find yourself a-hungered for a good old fashioned tale of good vs. evil where good wins by punching evil in the face, you cannot go wrong with Last Hero in China.

So that’s my recommendation for you this week.