The fifth and probably the best installment in the ‘Once Upon a Time in China’ series, with Tsui Hark changing roles with Yuen Bun, to take the front position of director, once again, and Yuen Bun taking the position of action-choreographer. We even see the return of Zhao Wen Zhou and the usual cast of followers, including Leung Fu (Max Mok Siu-Chung), Club Foot (Xiong Xin-Xin), Aunt Yee (Rosamund Kwan), Aunt May (Jean Wong) and the Father Wong Kei-Ying (Lau Shun).

The movie starts off exactly where OUATIC4 left off, the Wong Family and their entourage, are on their way to meet with Aunt Yee. Although due to the mishaps of the previous installment, evidently Aunt May is still carrying a candle for Wong Fei Hung and this obviously leads into a sort of love triangle. Tsui Hark does an excellent job of showing Wong Fei Hung miserably trying to handle both of the women and not trying to create any sort of misunderstanding, although the usual mistaken intentions and switched signals do subside.

Finally after 30 minutes of dillydallying, the real plot thickens, the town they happen to be residing in is under siege from foul pirates led by Stephen Tung (from other minor roles in ‘Hard Boiled’ and ‘The Twin Dragons’). Wong Fei-Hung and his gang decide to help out the townspeople, by somehow sneaking into their main camp, which is located on a remote island off the coast of china, and capture or kill all the head pirates, responsible for the wrongdoings in the town. This leads to lots of fighting and mis-adventures, finally arriving on the remote island where the crew, dress up as pirates to fool the others. They finally lay their hands on a heap of missing treasure belonging to the Chinese government / reigning dynasty and intend on retrieving and returning it to the proper authorities, only to the dismay of the pirates when they find out later on into the movie. The pirates then travel back to the town, hell-bent on taking back what was theirs originally and also annihilating Wong Fei Hung and all responsible. The final showdown between Stephen Tung and Wong Fei-Hung is charismatic and guns blazing glory, with little room for defects. Also one of the best fight scenes between the Pirate King (father to Stephen Tung’s Character) and Wong Fei-Hung, occurs about two-thirds into the movie, where they literally fight on vases and ceramic pots and are pretty evenly matched, one of the toughest foes Wong Fei-Hung has to deal with throughout the saga.

Overall the storyline and character development is excellently portrayed, where Tsui Hark picks up on mis-directedness and defects of the previous installment and improves them ten-fold. There is even the appearance of Porky Lang (‘Kent Cheng’, from other memorable roles in ‘Carry on Hotel’ and ‘Crime Story’) and Buck Tooth Sole (played by ‘Roger Kwok’) both whom had disappeared since the first installment. We even have the two-guns blazing style portrayed in this picture in the image of John Woo, and Tsui Hark certainly deserves some credit towards the imaginative action style used throughout. The heart and soul of the OUATIC series lie in the action and story and those are definitely solid in this movie. The politics of the previous installment have been thankfully replaced with the image of brother / sisterhood, lust of greed (the rice owner, who overcharges on rice due to the turmoil in China), justice and love. This film might not offer as much invigorating storyline and subplots, as its predecessors, but nevertheless it is indeed the most enjoyable out of all of them.

Overall Rating: 8.9/10