Let the bullets fly - review

You have to hand it to Wen Jiang, the writer-director of this Chinese action comedy. It may be too long and over-complicated, but there’s a definite sense of humour in this tale of a bandit who arrives in a remote town, poses as the new mayor and faces down the tyrannical local bigwig.

Perhaps the film is an allegory on power and corruption, though since it is set in the early Twenties, no offence is overtly intended to the present authorities. More likely it is simply a multi-layered comedy made by a director who knows his audience and invests in stars like Yun-Fat Chow and You Ge to make it work.

Not surprisingly, there are nods to Sergio Leone and a disembowelling that actually makes you laugh. It became the highest-grossing domestic release ever in its home territory but whether it will translate fully to Westerners (the subtitles flow so fast you can scarcely read them) is another matter.