An action/comedy/western, Let the Bullets Fly is set in 1920s China where bandit Zhang (Jiang) moves into Goose Town posing as its new mayor, putting him in direct conflict with the town's current mayor (Chow). This leads them to stage a hyper-violent and hilarious series of escalating mind games.

The film switches from playful comedy to stylish action in the blink of an eye, opening with a spectacular scene in which a train is hijacked and flips end over end into the air.

As director, Jiang strikes a good balance between the narrative and the action, subtly disguising the characters' true motives even while they're trying to outwit and double-cross each other. Jiang's style of filmmaking has in the past been larger-than-life, but unlike other Oriental Westerns such as The Sun also Rises (2007), South Korea's The Good, The Bad, The Weird (2008) or China's Wind Blast (2010), the set pieces and performances are tied to a script that has a good foundation in characters, not just over-the-top action. A partial tribute to the spaghetti westerns of Sergio Leone, Let the Bullets Fly combines a good mixture of widescreen action with dialogue rich in literary tropes and double-talk.