Let the Bullets Fly

The highest-grossing Chinese film of all time sports a title that suggests shoot-outs and action galore, but in fact this slyly comic satire plays more like a spaghetti Western set in 1920s-era China, full of bluffs and feints and false identities. Chow Yun-Fat plays it big as ruthless crime boss Master Huang, a man with a sense of style and a head for tactics who is pitted against a notorious desert bandit, Pocky Zhang (Jiang Wen, who also directs), who is posing as the new Governor of Goose Town—with the help of an unreliable counselor (Ge You). It's kind of a Robin Hood tale with a personal twist (revealed at the end) as three of the top stars in China fill the screen with oversized personalities and spar with a confidence and cool that elevates the sometimes silly story into an engaging battle of wits and wiles. The big set pieces are executed with tongue-in-cheek flair to match the actors in this Chinese popcorn movie featuring rapid-fire wordplay among the old-fashioned heroes and villains and rogues. Recommended. (S. Axmaker)