Writer: Louis Cha

A tapestry of emotion, audaciously flashing backwards and forwards and shifting voice-overs to piece together the moments that have led the characters to the barren wastes of the desert.

The pairing of Jet Li and Sammo should have spawned a masterpiece, but instead the audience is left with this disheartening effort.

‘New Kung Fu Cult Master’ isn’t a great film, maybe not even a very good one, but there’s enough strengths here to make you eager to watch the second part.

It’s watchable (though don’t dare take your eyes off it for a moment or you’ll miss at least three dramatic revelations) and confidently put together, but satisfying as a conclusion to the big story it is not.

Added to the humour is the furious action orchestrated by Ching Siu-Tung that makes this much more than the average comedy film.

Part two is lavish and colourful, but simply not as absorbing as it needed to be. A steadier hand at the helm may have rectified this.

A mix of historical drama, romantic melodrama, and frantic wuxia superhero charged action, Yen and his crew certainly go all out to create an epic and kudos to their ambition.

Unfortunately ‘The Brave Archer’ is one of Chang Cheh’s least assured efforts as he foolishly tries to fit in all of the sub-plots and characters of this vast novel.

It can not be regarded as a classic of the genre, but can be hailed as a valiant attempt at faithfully adapting difficult source material.

The three films are of course better if viewed as one long film, but that is partially the undoing of this third instalment due to it’s comparatively slow pacing following the hectic earlier instalments.