The Master (1992)

The Master: Directed by Hark Tsui. With Jet Li, Wah Yuen, Crystal Kwok, Jerry Trimble. A former Chinese Kung Fu master working in L.A. as a medicine man is targeted by an ex-student, and it’s up to one of his Hong Kong decibels, who’s visiting America, to defend his master’s honor.

“In u0026quot;The Masteru0026quot;, one of his earliest and relatively little-seen flicks, Jet Li is basically placed in a fish-out-of-water situation: he comes from Hong Kong to America (knowing only a few words of English) to visit his old kung fu teacher, is followed everywhere by three Mexican small-time crooks who want him to teach them the martial arts, and tries to protect his teacheru0026#39;s shop from a gang led by a rival kung fu master. The main problem with the film is that it lacks urgency: much like the bad guy in Jackie Chanu0026#39;s u0026quot;Thunderboltu0026quot;, the villain has no real motive for his actions apart from wanting to prove that he is u0026quot;the bestu0026quot;. To put it in his own words: u0026quot;When I finish with you, Iu0026#39;ll go to China and beat all the kung fu teachers there!u0026quot;. But it has some pretty funny moments (watch Jet describing his experiences on his first day in America), great (if sometimes brief) fight sequences, and even a warm message about interracial friendship and acceptance: those Mexicans may seem like silly stereotypes at first, but if you think about it, the movie shows how people can overcome the barriers of their different races and languages to work together and help each other. (**1/2)”