The Last Hero in China

Jing Wong finally gets it right, with the help of Jet Li and Woo-ping Yuen. The Last Hero of China feels like a 90s Hong Kong martial arts compilation. A mad mix of action, comedy, and some horror, romance, and musical bits on the side. There are lion dances, drunken kung fu, horny monks, crazy weaponry, and whatever else you can think of. The madcap pacing takes care of whatever technical imperfections plague the film and if you think the plot is a little dim, the action scenes and weird comedy quirks will make sure you'll quickly forget all about it. I had a blast revisiting this one.

Last Hero in China needs a while to get going, but it's '93 and Jet Li is allowed to shine as a martial arts hero once again. Sure enough, Jing Wong is helming the film, but by then the Hong Kong machine was so oiled they could pretty much turn out these features without a director present.

The camera work is nice and it really complements the action choreography. The mix of dance and martial arts in particular is really impressive, then again I've always had a soft spot for these semi martial arts scenes. The lion fights are ace, but it's the chicken/centipede fight that made the biggest impression.

The story is of secondary importance and you have to to be able to appreciate the Hong Kong comedy, personally I think they only added to the charm. Not the biggest masterpiece ever directed, but it's super entertaining and the sprawling finale tipped it over into personal favorite territory. Good stuff.