Part six of the Wong Fei-Hong legend gambles with anunbeatable concept: why not set a martial arts epic in the Old West? The timing's right (late 19th century), the locale fits (it's the place where coolies had to work as menials and railroad workers for their white racist employers), and we haven't even touched on the possibilities for gunfights, injun attacks, and kung fu rage. Wong Fei-Hong (Jet Li reprises his signature role) has sailed to the United States to establish a new branch of his Po Chi Lam martial arts school and hospital, but an Indian raid (and a resulting bump on the head) leaves the master with temporary amnesia. When peaceful Indians discover him, he has the skin color and about the right hair style to pass as a member of the tribe. He can also pluck arrows from the air in mid-flight, demolish tribal enemies single-handedly, and even gets friendly with a squaw. Wong's Westernized betrothed (Rosamund Kwan) is exasperated by the town's unwillingness to help; to compound matters, town fathers have decided to steal the coolies' pay and jail them on manufactured charges. Samo Hung, whose martial arts direction on Double Team was magnificent, directs this in spellbinding widescreen, with slightly sped-up action so we can't quite see what's happening in the action scenes; how strange that the best moments are the quaint ones, like when Wong gives didactic speeches that repeatedly put his audiences to sleep, or those tense moments before a fight (gun or fist). Other highlights include Kwan mauling stagecoach robbers with her triple-shadow kick (I never knew she had it in her!) and all the scenes with Billy, the good guy who sides with the Chinese and learns a new kung fu moves along the way.

(2.5/4)



[Reviewed by Steve Spinali]