Fong Sai-yuk (The Legend of Fong Sai-yuk)

A top work in the wave of historical Hong Kong martial arts films triggered by Tsui Hark's epic Once Upon a Time in China, which work on a modernised definition of national sentiment. Jet Li as folk hero Fong Sai-yuk has to share the limelight with his mother (brilliant: grande dame Josephine Siao) in the fight against the evil emperor's henchmen: Brief comic gender confusion and historical revision in the pauses for breath between high-speed martial arts that defy the laws of gravity, which director-choreographer Corey Yuen often knows how to endow with a euphoric urge reminiscent of Peking Opera Blues. Especially where he talks about the essential things: Such as how to fight on the heads of the audience for a quarter of an hour without touching the floor, or how to expertly hide your face behind pork chops at a critical moment. (Christoph Huber)

Photo: Austrian Film Museum