Corey Yuen's Fong Sai-Yuk has one of the most gloriously over-the-top villain deaths in cinematic history. The government stooge trying to kill the heroes--members of the Red Flower Society, the ethnic-Chinese secret society striving to overthrow the Manchu-led Qing Dynasty--gets killed himself by having an arrow stuck with a stick of lit dynamite that had been kicked towards him by a second fighter nail him in midair. It's gloriously over-the-top and ridiculous, but so is the whole film. Jet Li is at the top of his game here as the eponymous Chinese folk hero. The fight choreography is superb and there's a delightful lesbian subplot where the wife of a royal official falls in love with Li's mother while dressed in drag. The scene where Li's mother literally sweeps her off her feet and the wife looks up in rapturous awe is one of the best in the movie, a not insignificant feat considering how incredible the rest of the movie is.
8/10
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