Die schwarzen Tiger von Hongkong (1991)

Die schwarzen Tiger von Hongkong: Directed by Hark Tsui. With Jet Li, Biao Yuen, Rosamund Kwan, Jacky Cheung. Late 1800s Foshan, Guangdong: Wong Fei Hung/Jet Li trains men in martial arts to help defend against foreign powers already holding Hong Kong and Macau. He looks after cute 13th Aunt, who’s just returned from England. Lots of fight scenes.

“Jet Liu0026#39;s done some exceptional work in China. I have not been impressed by anything he did in America. Tsui Harku0026#39;s u0026#39;Wong Fei Hungu0026#39; has already been stretched into several sequels of which I have only seen the first. u0026#39;Wong Fei Hungu0026#39; has all the ingredients to make it an enjoyable epic movie. There is a story with a heart, some very well crafted choreography, good acting, and enough action and culture. Itu0026#39;s set on a historical backdrop of a pre-Communist China. The characters are very well written (with the exception of the non-Chinese who act like caricature villains). Jet Li, Biao Yuen, Rosamund Kwan, Jacky Cheung and Kent Cheng all act well. It also presents some taboo elements such as Wongu0026#39;s affection for his u0026#39;auntu0026#39; (it was taboo during the time) but this is all skillfully underused which prevents the film from appearing too preachy. The film has several layers but it tries to tackle too many things at once and becomes unnecessarily complicated at some point. The film slightly drags in the first half and the choreography of the action scenes without the main cast looked a little shoddy. Yet, the characters are very likable and the story also offers a lot to enjoy that I am looking forward to its sequels. In my humble opinion, itu0026#39;s certainly one of the better martial arts films and has a lot more substance than pretentious films like u0026#39;Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragonu0026#39;. the only other Tsui Hark film Iu0026#39;ve seen is the magnificent u0026#39;Chat gimu0026#39; and Iu0026#39;ve liked what Iu0026#39;ve seen so far.”