"The Legend of Fong Sai Yuk" showcases the talent Jet Li, the Hong Kong martial arts superstar with the half-shaved head and extended ponytail, whom you will recognize if you have seen either of the first two "Once Upon a Time in China" films. (The Tower has played both.)
Here, Jet shows off his acting talent, with an emphasis on broad comedy, as well as his incredible athletic abilities. In fact, his broad comic persona occasionally seems like a parody of his chief Hong Kong competitor, Jackie Chan.
Jet plays the title character, Fong Sai Yuk, a fighting fool in early 20th-century Canton, who learned kung fu from his no-nonsense mother (Josephine Siao, who is terrific). Sai Yuk is acknowledged in the area as a martial arts master - and no one wants to mess with Mom, either.
They are the film's central characters, a very close mother and son, and both ready to kick up a storm whenever necessary . . . and sometimes when it's not necessary. But the film's non-fighting moments emphasize comedy, as when Sai Yuk tries to be help Mom curl her hair, and accidentally sets it on fire!
The film is built around two parallel plots that ultimately converge, one showing us Sai Yuk's romantic misadventures and the other having to do with a secret underground organization called the Red Flower Society, which is gathering forces to overthrow an evil governor.
Early in the film, during a sports competition, Sai Yuk spots a beautiful young woman named Ting Ting and recruits her when his team is one runner short for a baton race. She's not much of an athlete - but she doesn't have to be when Sai Yuk is the final runner. He is, of course, smitten.
Later, we discover that Ting Ting is the daughter of a wealthy patriarch, who offers her as a prize in a martial arts competition. She will marry the first man who can defeat her mother in one-on-one, hand-to-hand combat! Sai Yuk's ego forces him to enter (though he doesn't know that Ting Ting is the prize), and he discovers that his potential mother-in-law is the best fighter since . . . well, since his own mother!
They kick each other, climb poles, swing on long bolts of cloth and even run across the heads of people in the crowd - the fighter whose feet touch the ground first is the loser. Later, Sai Yuk's mother gets into the act, masquerading as his brother.
What follows is a series of mistaken identities and cross-dressing comic romance that would give Shakespeare pause.
And what with all the two central father figures here being portrayed as wimps and the mothers as aggressive kung fu experts, "Legend" may be the definitive Hong Kong martial arts feminist film. (It is supposedly one of the biggest hits in Hong Kong movie history.)
There's no question that an understanding of Chinese history would help in embracing the plot. And there are some things, which are apparently wrapped up in Chinese sensibility and humor, that simply don't translate very well to this culture. (The most prominent example comes early in the film, when Sai Yuk's mother has received a beating by her husband, and it is treated quite lightly.)
There is also a lot of very broad comedy, some of which is very funny . . . but I must confess that a fair amount went right past me. Toward the end, the film tends to bog down as it veers into melodrama.
But before that happens, there is plenty of action, with an amazing amount of eye-popping stunt work, so the audience doesn't have enough time to dwell on its weaknesses.
And yes, folks, there is a "Legend of Fong Sai Yuk II." Here's hoping that one comes to the Tower soon.
Though unrated, "The Legend of Fong Sai Yuk" would probably get an R for a fight scene early in the film that features a bit of gore, though most of the rest of the film's violence is of the slap-and-kick variety; there is also some profanity.