Credited cast: | |||
Jet Li | ... | San Lung | |
Rest of cast listed alphabetically: | |||
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Lan Ding | ... | Er Feng |
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Qiuyan Huang | ... | San Feng |
Chunhua Ji | ... | One-eyed Bandit (as Chun Hua Ji) | |
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Qingfu Pan | ||
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Jian Kui Sun | ... | Cross-eyed Bandit |
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Chenghui Yu | ... | Pao Shen Feng / Wu Tang Dad (as Cheng-Hui Yu) |
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Hai Yu | ... | Tin Lung / Er Long |
Two rivaling families live on opposite sides of a river. One of them practices Shaolin kung fu and has only sons, while the other has only daughters and practices the Wu-Tang sword. The father of the Wu-Tang family is so paranoid about the Shaolin kids stealing his sword style (besides, he wants a son to teach it to, and the closest thing he has is a lesbian daughter) that he is taken off guard when some real bad guys come along to kill his family, but the Shaolin family helps them out. All the while, everyone is desperately trying to get the lesbian girl to marry Jet Li. Written by Johan Wikberg
Brilliant movie. It's taken me a long time as an average white dude from America to appreciate Chinese comedy. It's definitely of a different sort. Jet Li is brilliant when he gets to show emotion other than stoic determination (his last 6 films or so). The ensemble cast was brilliant. This is sort of a Chinese 7 Brides for 7 Brothers (which, actually has a very similar feel and great choreography as well, worth checking out, seriously. I'm not kidding.) Most of the characters are archetypes, but never stereotypes. A lot of people will be turned off by this film, but I really feel that that would be due to an understanding of Chinese comedy. A particular instance would be when a character nearly gets his face planted in dog leavings, and it turns out he hadn't taken the fall. If you haven't seen Jui Kuen (Drunken Master, starring Jackie Chan, you won't get it). I have. I did. If you watch enough movies, you tend to understand the genre more. And if you haven't fast forward to the end battle and enjoy the mayhem. I bought this movie on DVD at my local Wallgreens for $3.99 and after watching it, I would easily pay $15 or more for this great piece of film. Jet Li in drag, little kids kicking ass, musical numbers, what more could you want? Great DVD transfer from Saturn Prodictions, as well. Subtitles that are easy to read, full widescreen. Great stuff.