Like Allen Fong earlier films, Dancing Bull deals with what it means to be a Chinese artist through a very naturalistic lens. The move from filmmaking to dancing backdrop does change how that dynamic works and the movie is much more blunt in its commentary (it is also one of the very few films of the era to dribble Hong Kong’s usual no politics rule to address the Tiananmen massacre). It doesn’t quite have the dramatic density of his best work, but shows his usual deft handle of actors (including Anthony Wong before getting typecast as low-life type) and generosity.
