Fong Sai Yuk (1993)

Jet Li plays legendary folk hero Fong Sai Yuk in an adventure that finds his family drawn into the anti-Ching movement. Fong is eventually forced to choose sides in order to save his father’s life.

This is a better than average martial arts picture that has plenty of humor and creative fights but the plot becomes too scattered and the line between humor and drama is uneven.

Jet Li is Fong Sai Yuk, a Cantonese folk hero brought to the jade screen as he finds himself caught between Han rebels and the Ching Dynasty. He falls for Lui Ting Ting (Michelle Lee) who happens to be the daughter of a newly appointed Manchu official. They end up engaged after a series of mistaken identities. Later, Sai Yuk and his mother, Miu Tsui-fa (Josephine Siao) discover that his austere father in secretly involved with the rebels. Its not long before Sai Yuk’s family is discovered at the Manch official’s home by the vicious Governor Oryeetor (Zhao Wenzhou). In an attempt to get a secret list of rebel’s names, Oryeetor uses Sai Yuk’s father as bait and its up to Sai Yuk to save the day.

The pace of the film is set right at the beginning with scenes of Red Flower Society members skimming across the water on rafts to attack the Chinese Emperor. Corey Yuen, a veteran Hong Kong choreographer who frequently works with Jet Li keeps the action coming and manages to pull off some truly unique imagery. Probably the most memorable scene occurs when Jet Li engages in a fight with Sibelle Hu while hopping on the heads of the spectators. The common use of powder or chalk layered on weapons and clothing for added explosive effect when making contact on screen was over done. Also, the increasingly common quick camera editing during close shots of fighting could have been toned down. Those are minor complaints though since the fighting is the best feature of the film.

The plot is not as evenly paced. The first half of the film is more of a comical version of Once Upon a Time in China. Jet Li even lampoons his own role in the film when Sai Yuk and his friends are released from incarceration, he tells them that he changed their names so as not to have their parents discover their arrest. As Sai Yuk begins to say his name, “Wong…”, the familiar Wong Fei Hung music chimes in the background and he promptly finishes with “Jing”. Josephine Siao, a long time Hong Kong actress steals the show as Sai Yuk’s mischievous mother. Siao and Li have great chemistry onscreen as mother and son who seem to be more like brother and sister constantly getting into trouble behind fathers back. The tone grows darker in the second half when the heavy, Oryeetor catches up with Sai Yuk’s family as Sibelle Hu’s character is wounded and Sai Yuk’s father is captured. Like most kung fu films, the revenge factor creeps up and not until the very end do we see a change in the film’s mood.

This is a generally fun movie that is worth seeing. The choreography is well done and the characters are interesting, despite a fragmented plot.