Tumultuous China is about to fall apart at the seams under the rule of egomaniacal warlords. Aspiring to proclaim himself emperor, President Yuan conspires with a horde of villainous bandits to weed out dissident warlords. Fu Jun (Chow Yun Fat) and three others are fooled to deliver the hidden treachery. Brutally ambushed time and again, the gang senses something foul and refuses to be part of the conspiracy. Their desperate attempts to procrastinate, however, all go in vain. They are left with no choice but to right their wrongs.

Directed by Ronny Yu ("Freddy Vs. Jason"), "The Postman Fights Back" will take your breath away with its pioneering fight and action scenes, inventive cinematography and tense plots.

The film is set in the early days of the republic, a time when China was in much turmoil. A warlord sends his envoy (Eddie Ko) to employ four men to deliver a shipment to him. He chooses a poor courier (Leung Kar Yan) who has just lost his previous job, a conman (Chow Yun Fat), an explosives expert (Fan Mei Sheng) and a pickpocket (Yuen Yat Chor). The group is joined by Cherie Chung in her debut role as the courier's fiancé.

From the outset the group are suspicious of the envoy's claims that they are delivering a birthday present and this mood grows as they face many attempts to stop them from reaching their destination. En route they are attacked by bandits, hitmen and revolutionaries and a mysterious ninja seems to follow them.

I guess this must have been an early effort from Ronnie Yu but the film is a well crafted mix of intrigue, action and adventure. The direction of the fight scenes is especially slick with some pretty innovative choreography. Look out for the fight where Chow Yun Fat faces two hired killers, one of them wielding nunchukas, its a real showstopper. Even he comes off looking good in the fight scenes. An early role for Chow but he still manages to carry an enormous amount of on-screen presence.

This is really Leung Kar Yan's film though (I suppose he must have been a bigger star at the time) and he delivers the goods as always. The film builds up to a classic Leung Kar Yan showdown which again employs some interesting ideas.

If had one complaint it would be that Yuen Yat Chor doesn't get to do any fighting at all which is a complete waste of talent. That's only a slight niggle though and this is another must see movie.

Besides Cherie Chung's character, which amounts to pretty window dressing, the movie's weak point, sorry to say, is Chow. He doesn't look to be into the character and delivers his lines without any passion. It's hard to believe by looking at this role that this would be the actor who would revolutionize ideas of what an action actor should be just as few years later with his bravura performance in John Woo's A Better Tomorrow. Action-wise, Chow also falls flat. Though he sometimes uses a cool wrist crossbow, most of the time he fights using his scarf and looks just plain silly.

If you're going into this film expecting Chow to bust out some Crouching Tiger-style flying kung fu, you'll be disappointed. But if you just want to watch a good action movie, you could do a lot worse than this.