MOVIE REVIEW : Outrageous ‘Legend’: Martial Arts With a Comic Kick : A contest for love leaves two families hopelessly and zestfully entangled.

Even in the exuberant fantasy world of Hong Kong martial arts movies, the contest that sets in motion the lively comedy-adventure “The Legend of Fong Sai-Yuk” (at the Monica 4-Plex) is deliriously, hilariously outrageous. A crude, buffoonish nouveau riche businessman known as Tiger Lui (Chan Lung) has recently moved to Canton. Wanting to make a social splash and also to marry off his beautiful daughter Ting-Ting (Michele Reis), he decides to stage an elaborate kung fu contest, the winner of which will become his son-in-law. The amazing kicker is that the individual the contestant must defeat is none other than Tiger Lui’s gorgeous wife, Sian-Wu (Sibelle Hu)!

Now our hero, the young kung fu wiz Fong Sai-Yuk (Jet Lee) has heard that Tiger Lui’s daughter is a beauty and steps up to challenge her mother. The martial arts shenanigans commence on a tower built of logs that tumble as Sai-Yuk and Sian-Wu duel, which means that they continue their battle leapfrogging on the heads of a crowd of mind-boggled onlookers. Catching a glimpse of the plain face of a veiled young woman Sai-Yuk believes to be Tiger Lui’s daughter, he throws the match.

But wait a minute: Sai-Yuk’s mother (Josephine Siao) dons male attire, calls herself Tai-Yuk, her son’s non-existent older brother, and successfully defends her family’s honor. This means that Sai-Yuk must marry a woman he assumes is homely; meanwhile, while doing battle, flying through the air, Sian-Wu locks in a gaze with Tai-Yuk and falls in love with “him.”

This sequence is worth outlining--first, because it goes by so fast that it may leave you confused, and second, because it suggests the zaniness of the uninhibited imagination of director Corey Yuen and his writers. From here on the lives and fates of the Fong and Lui families will be hopelessly, zestfully entangled. Complicating matters immensely is that Tiger Lui is loyal to the imperial court while Sai-Yuk’s father (Paul Chu) is a leader in the secret Red Flower Society, dedicated to overthrowing the Manchu emperor and restoring the throne to the Chinese.

Since martial arts razzle-dazzle, like splendid decor and costumes, is a given in the Hong Kong cinema, the real accomplishment of “The Legend of Fong Sai-Yuk” is in its moving effortlessly from knockabout slapstick as broad as an Abbott and Costello comedy, to pathos. Mama Fong, played so expertly by Siao, is a flamboyantly liberated woman yet is a devoted wife to her stalwart husband, who reduces his wife to jelly with his eloquent poetry; they are a singularly devoted couple. As the two families find themselves on the run, they evolve from burlesque figures to actual human beings, at once strong and vulnerable. “The Legend of Fong Sai-Yuk” (Times-rated Family) is at once fun--and surprisingly poignant.

‘The Legend of Fong Sai-Yuk’

Jet Lee Fong: Sai-Yuk

Josephine Siao: Mama Fong

Michele Reis: Lui Ting-Ting

Sibelle Hu: Lui Sian-Wu

Paul Chu: Mr. Fong

Chan Lung: Tiger Lui

A Rim Films release of an Eastern Production. Director Corey Yuen. Martial arts choreographers Corey Yuen, Yuen Tak. Co-producer Ann Hui. Executive producer Jet Lee. Screenplay by Kay On, Chan Kin-Chung, Tsai Kang-Yung. Cinematographer Jingle Ma. Editor Cheung Yiu-Chung. Costumes Shirley Chan. Music James Wong, Romeo Diaz, Mark Lui. Art director Benjamin Lau. In Cantonese, with English and Chinese subtitles. Running time: 1 hour, 44 minutes.

Times-rated Family (suitable for all ages).