A HEROIC FIGHT is a madcap, anything-goes kind of Taiwanese martial arts flick with a bizarre, self-referencing plot line: the film is set in and around a film studio, where a director and his special effects team are busy trying to make a historical fantasy movie before some local gangsters get involved and proceed to wreak havoc.
This movie noticeably features the talents of Lin Hsiao-Lao (CHILD OF PEACH), an actress well known for playing young boy heroes in the movies. The twist here is that she's playing a male actor who plays a woman at one point! If that wasn't head-scratching enough, the film is packed full of special effects, some of them portrayed as effects and some of them taking place in the 'real' world so to speak, so you get a mixture of film-within-a-film action and real-life fights, and there's little to distinguish them at times, so over the top they become.
It's really not as confusing as it sounds, but it does offer a whole slew of crazed, madcap fight scenes which delight in the best Hong Kong tradition. The fights are fast, furious, and make full use of props and scenery to offer the ultimate destruction. When Hsiao-Lao goes on a rampage of revenge against the bad guys, she uses all kinds of gadgets to blow them up and kill them, which makes for a great viewing experience.
A HEROIC FIGHT is full of familiar faces (look out for Yuen Cheung-Yan) but of particular note is Dick Wei who plays the chief antagonist. Wei is on top form here playing one of those unstoppable villains that the good guys have to team up for; he's a powerhouse of hard-punching, hard-kicking energy and gets far more screen time than in a film like, say, PEDICAB DRIVER. A HEROIC FIGHT might be a special effects film at the end of the day, but Wei helps move it towards greatness.
