A MAN CALLED HERO

A big-budget follow-up to the 1998 Hong Kong smash hit "The Storm Riders", again from Golden Harvest Films. The movie attains fleeting echoes of Sergio Leone's "Once Upon a Time in America"; the plot is overflowing with characters and subplots, but is far easier to follow than "Storm Riders," thanks to much more fluid lensing by returning director Andrew Lau. It contains a remarkably fine score by Chan Kwong-wing, which knits together the story's sprawling emotional fabric. Scripter Manfred Wong's extensive flashback structure, with three characters giving different perspectives on the hero's odyssey, works surprisingly well.