Jet Li left the Once Upon A Time In China series after part three, but in Last Hero In China (his next film) he was imaginatively cast as Wong Fei Hung again. It begins like another episode of the series, but it doesn’t take long for Wong Jing’s signature stupidity to kick in. The film doesn’t really flow; it’s just a series of extended set pieces loosely tied together. The best of these by far is the strikingly surreal rope bridge duel between Jet Li and Gordon Liu (new school vs. old school).
The rest of the film isn’t that great, but at least it’s mildly diverting. Some of the other action isn’t too bad (though it’s often annoyingly sped up too fast, a Yuen Woo Ping specialty) and you get to see Jet Li in an ‘action’ chicken suit (unfortunately it’s not as funny as it should have been).
It’s true that Wong Jing is a crass film maker, but his films are actually pretty hard to hate (you have to say he has consistency on his side). Mindless Entertainment is his game, and this film kills time quite nicely.