The Bare-Footed Kid

Cantopop king Aaron Kwok shows that he can kick and chop with the best of them. As "The Bare-Footed Kid", he’s an innocent country bumpkin/martial arts whiz in the Ching Dynasty who proves more than equal to the city slickers whose path he crosses. Ably assisted by director Johnnie To and with martial arts choreography by the legendary Liu Chia-liang, Aaron Kwok – generally acknowledged to be the best dancer among the pop idols – proves that he’s equally graceful at kung-fu. The ladies in the bare-footed kid’s life are impressive as well, with Maggie Cheung Man-yuk an introspective widow and Jacklyn Wu a rambunctious rich girl. Most imposing is Ti Lung, playing a mysterious fugitive, showing that he still possesses the screen presence that first brought him to kung-fu superstardom over twenty years earlier.