By Jake Wilson, Sydney Morning Herald
Dustin Nguyen and Bui Van Hai in Once Upon A Time in Vietnam.
Children of the 1980s may recall Asian-American actor Dustin Nguyen as one of the baby-faced narcs in the original 21 Jump Street. His first feature as writer-director is this strange action-fantasy, set in an impossible version of Vietnam where warrior monks ride motorcycles and drink Johnnie Walker in between sword fights.
Culturally, too, the film is a hybrid, drawing not only from the martial arts tradition but from the spaghetti westerns of Sergio Leone. Nguyen plays Master Bao, a grizzled brooder in the mould of Clint Eastwood, who emerges from the desert and takes up lodgings with a meek baker (Thai Hoa Tran) in a remote riverside village where gangsters hold sway.
Read the full article by Jake Wilson from Sydney Morning Herald.