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Review
by Kozo: |
Zhao Wen-Zhou’s second outing as Wong Fei-Hong finds
Fei-Hong battling pirates, corrupt government officials,
and wacky romantic subplots. Tsui Hark returns to the
director's chair and Rosamund Kwan returns as Aunt Yee. Once Upon a Time in China 5 picks up where
the last left off, as Fei-Hong and entourage are on
their way to a meeting with Aunt Yee. However, since
he has Aunt May (Jean Wong) in tow from the last film,
we get a possible love triangle. That bit of comedic
happenstance is handled in the usual Tsui Hark manner,
i.e. mistaken intentions, switched signals, and more
than a little slapstick.
Then the real plot kicks in:
the town they're residing in is under siege from evil
pirates led by Stephen Tung. Fei-Hong and the group
decide to help out the townspeople, leading to lots
of fighting and group shenanigans. Leung Fu (Max Mok),
Club Foot (Xiong Xin-Xin), and dad Wong Kei-Ying (Lau
Shun) return, and are joined by Porky Lang (Kent Cheng)
and Buck Tooth Sol (Roger Kwok replacing Jacky Cheung),
both who've been missing since the first installment.
What that means is a full peanut gallery exists for
all the hijinks and group squabbles that Tsui Hark loves
to inject in his movies. Whether we care for them in
another matter entirely.
Still, the heart of all these
films are the action and story, and those are solid
in this film. The politics of the previous films have
been replaced by more universal themes, i.e. love, sisterhood,
justice, and the follies of greed (the bastard who overcharges
on rice because he’s the only rice guy in town). The
narrative is pared down, not bothering to hang around
for large exposition like its predecessors did. What
that means is the movie works as standard entertainment,
and not as the usual political history lesson that Tsui
usually gives us. The change works, as the production
is good, with great set pieces and even some two-gun
action (really!). In the Once Upon a Time in China series, OUATIC5 is probably the least resonant.
However, it's probably one of the more fun ones. (Kozo
1995) |
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