Bai ma hei qi

Martial arts man mountain Bolo Yeung stars in, and playfully directs this riotous Kung Fu comedy alongside his fellow talented artistes: Jason Piao Pai, Tung-Kua ai, and Lung Chan. Two eccentric prisoners are arbitrarily called upon to become sheriff of a sleepy, vice-ridden village, thereby unleashing a stupendously joyful salvo of mirthsome madcap Kung Fu jackanapes! With a bounty of frantic knockabout chop socky, and exuberantly mounted slapstick silliness, Bolo has an absurdist 'Carry On Kung Fu' vibe that I strongly connected with. While legendarily adept at playing iconic Kung Fu heavies, it is a rare delight indeed to see Bolo so exuberantly expressing his no less masterful clowning expertise!

The acting, (overacting) directing, and almost impossible to understand English dubbing, make this movie very difficult to watch.

What seems to be a light hearted comedic kung fu movie is actually a tight psychological thriller with each character reflecting a facet of the psyche of the viewer. Bolo himself represents our hulking innocence. The most innocent and simple tasks become confusing and threatening in Bolo's world. Almost as though Bolo is attempting to reveal our pitiful arrogance by showing us the world through the eyes of the severely mentally retarded and then hanging us with the realization that this is how the world actually is to all of us.

The protagonist comes under attack by increasingly ugly townsfolk thus holding a mirror up to our own culture of destruction as the suspendered representation of our cynicism mockingly sneers at him for denying the baser aspects of existence. And just as our own cynicism grows in reaction to continued exposure to blighted existence, so too does the well dressed man grow in power and influence.

The time period the movie occurs in is unclear as elements of period china, late seventies America, British controlled Hong Kong and Japanese occupation era china seamlessly coalesce giving the picture a very "Titus" sense of epic timelessness

As the movie progresses, allies suddenly attack each other for no reason and 40 seconds later they forget it thus demonstrating the Byzantine conflicts of urges within our own egos. Character development takes a backseat since each character is a timeless human archetype and the change in the movie's personality only occurs with the destruction of all other competing drives.

There is also very terse biblical symbolism throughout the maddeningly complex narrative. Bolo's love for the 7 foot tall stick woman mirroring St Peter's own struggles during the formative days of the Christian religion being only one of hundreds of examples.

Honestly though, this movie cannot be simply deconstructed in a beginner film class by a professor. Undertaking that task is a time consuming and painful spiritual journey to the very brink of oblivion as the movie doesn't shy away from inherent subconscious horrors that lurk in the viewer. To deconstruct the movie would require the entirety of the viewer's graduate study. Additionally the difficulties increase since the film actually manages to weave together an image of the viewer himself. No two people will have the same Bolo experience.

This movie opens with the premise that if a new sheriff is needed you select two prisoners and give them the job with a reminder not to run off. Captain Obvious says "Realism will not be necessary". They steal a blind guys wagon but in the next scene they are attacked while walking separately. Next they arrive at a brothel and meet Eric Tsang in drag. Bolo wants the ugliest woman in the brothel.

At about this point I gave up trying to summarize what was happening. The scenes were so incoherent it would take longer to describe what was happening than it would take to watch and in either case you still wouldn't understand it.

The fights were also impossible to describe. They were not fighting but what was that? I just can't explain the arms flapping around and the legs moving.

There is no story to the point where whatever is happening at any moment turns into something unrelated in the next minute. Yet still I kept watching because they were still in a brothel and girls and perhaps bare breasts. Since spoilers are forbidden I cannot say what I saw.

Since I cannot explain nor summarize this movie I also cannot review this movie nor rate it nor recommend it.

Two misfit convict (Yang Sze and Jason Pai Pao, who both also produced this film) gets out of prison only if they become a lawman in a town full of corruption. Several funny scene including a comical music video highlights this slightly diffrent kung-fu film. Sze, known for playing a Bruce Lee villian in ENTER THE DRAGON directs something diffrent here compare to most Kung-fu film. He also has a diffrent looks, as if he was trying to do a career change. Pao, who was last lead in THE BLACK DRAGON is also good. Recommended to Kung-fu fans.