Wong Fei Hung V: Tit gai dau ng gung

The Last Hero In China is a movie vehicle for Jet Li. He once again returns as Chinese folk hero Dr. Wong Fei Hung, but does so with in a Wong Jing production, which means this won't be taken too seriously as a film and there will be lots of dumb jokes and slapstick. However, The Last Hero In China will not qualify as a highbrow , artistic martial arts film, I still found this to be quite enjoyable for what it is and I found the film as a whole to quite hilarious and insane. This kung fu romp has our good doctor move his school to a poor neighborhood, which Wong Fei Hung later learns is now next door neighbors to a brothel. However, he has bigger problems as he must contend with corrupt officials and rogue Shaolin monks kidnapping local girls and forcing them into prostitution abroad. This sect is led by Gordon Lui and has awesome fights between him and Jet Li. The fight chroeography is top notch and no joke and staged by Yuen Woo Ping. The action is top tier and there is a whole lot of it. At this point Jet Li has played Wong Fei Hung several times and did really well both grounding and carrying the film. While Jet Li played it mostly straight, this is the only film you can see him in a chicken suit fighting guys in a centipede suit. While this lacks the class and artistry of Tsui Hark's Once Upon In China series, this is a lighter turn in the other direction and is good, off the wall entertainment with some 1st rate kung fu fight sequences.

Review: I quite enjoyed this funny authentic movie about a monk whose investigating the mysterious disappearance of girls in his village. With the help of some of the people in his Kung Fu class and a brothel owner, don't ask, they find out that there is much more going on in there village then they expected. For a person that doesn't like subtitles, I actually didn't mind reading the well put together script which was witty and full of twists and turns. It's not very often that you see Buddha monks living next to a brothel in a authentic oriental movie and the different characters made the film funny and a joy to watch. Once again, the flying fighting scenes spoil the action, but after watching a few Jet Li movies, I'm kind of getting use to it now. Enjoyable!

Round-Up: One of the things that made me laugh in this film was when they were fighting and naming the styles that they were using. It really reminded me of the old Kung Fu movies that I used to watch when I was young. I didn't get the point of the corrupt police officer who kept on laughing all of the time or why they were feeding people a deaf drug but maybe I missed some of the plot whilst reading the subtitles. Anyway, it's definitely worth a watch if your into movies in this genre.

Budget: N/A Worldwide Gross: HK$18million

I recommend this movie to people who are into their Jet Li movies about a Buddha monk whose investigating the mysterious disappearance of girls in his village. 6/10

My introduction to kung fu movies was Jet Li's "Fong Sai Yuk", which blew me away, and I'm happy to say that "The Last Hero In China" is every bit as great as the former. Lots of good jokes (incl. bad guys with infectious fits of hysterical laughter), lots of impressive fighting - even if it's wire-aided -, lots of enjoyable acting, and an uproarious climactic fight scene at the end; rooster vs. centipede!

The story, starring the legendary kung fu doctor, Wong Fei-Hung, is an old-fashioned romp which is perfectly suited to Jet Li's acting talent and charisma. The rooster costume he dons at the end, and the fighting style he invents, are hilariously entertaining, and he pulls it off with flying colors. This is the sort of thing Jet Li does best.

8 out of 10.

This film is amazing. The choreography work by Yuen Woo Ping is simply breath taking. Gnong Kau Chai as Legate Officer Lui in my view steals the film as possibly the best bad guy ever. His maniacal laughter and dialogue is but one of many good things in this film, another of which is Jet Li's gracious and best performance as Wong Fei Hung. Tak-Hing Kwan who for so many films had played the same character could feel as if he has successfully passed on his mantle to Li. The comic aspects of the film elevate this from Li's other films as Wong Fei Hung. The use of Wong's theme song ("Under the General's Orders") is my favourite thing about the film, especially when used by the hookers whose brothel is nest to Po Chee Lam (Wong Fei Hung's martial arts school). In a year in which Li made Fong Sai Yuk 1 and 2, Tai Chi Master. If Jet Li was a fine wine people would say 1993 was en excellent year.

There are two reasons to see this movie: (1) the fighting is quite good, and (2) the translation is good enough that English-speakers will get the jokes.

This is a comic digression from the "Once Upon a Time in China" series. Jet Li again plays Master Wong. He is down on his luck, and so moves to Hong Kong to open a school in a run-down neighborhood. The austere and dignified Master Wong tries to protect his randy students from the corrupting influence of the brothel next-door, while investigating a gang of perverted Shoalin monks who have been abducting young women. In one great fighting scene, Master Wong is so disdainful of a convict with whom he is fighting that he refuses to stand up from his chair to defend himself (instead he conducts the whole fight with his butt in the chair).

A hilarious and fun movie, if about 10% too long.