A Chinese wuxia kung fu directed by Yuen Woo-ping, starring Donnie Yen and Yu Rongguang.
A vigilante is trying to defend the residents of a town from corrupt officials. This man is also running a doctor's office. Another doctor and his son come to town and this doctor promises the officials that he will catch the vigilante. There is one official who is not corrupt and warns the doctors of the government's actions. The doctor eventually meet and join forces against the top official.
Very good! It's been about 12 years since I've seen this, so I watched it again. The plot is clear and the characters are relatively identifiable. What made this stand out to me was the professionally done production and exaggerated fight scenes. Everything was filmed and edited excellently, with good framing and camera movement. The fights used Hong Kong wire, props, dust, fire, buildings, etc... to make them each unique and interesting. There were poles used as weapons and recitation of moves, something that I really like in martial arts films. Recitation of moves is only slightly less cool than extended training scenes. The style seemed close to the newer Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon (2000) style of wuxia, but it was more kung fu than swordplay, so I labeled it both. I rate this awesome because it's such an exemplary martial arts film. Watch it.
Chinese wuxia films directed by Ronny Yu and David Wu, starring Brigitte Lin and Leslie Cheung.
A swordsman from Wu Tang Clan falls in love with a woman raised by wolves who is now working for cult leaders who want to destroy the 8 clans. Because of confusion over conflict between alliances, the wolf girl's hair turns white and she turns evil. The Wu Tang swordsman spends the next 10 years waiting for a blossom on Snow Mountain which will heal the wolf girl. Meanwhile, she has created her own all-female, man-hating cult.
The first film was great and the second was terrible. I blame the change of directors. What I would like to deal with here is the video techniques which made the original unique. By use of heavy back-lighting, the characters separated from the backgrounds in a stark manner. The midgrounds were mostly black, with slightly lighter far backgrounds and even lighter characters. See the image for why I think back-lighting was used. I don't know all the details, but some of the backgrounds looked to be manipulated in a way to produce this set of value contrasts. Motion blur was also used in action scenes. With modern digital editing, it could just be added easily. With older equipment, the film would be run slower to get less frames per second. Dutch angles were also used in some sections. The original had some flying and what I call "long sleeve technique" (long fabric, hair, etc. being cast out to full length as a weapon). Rotten Tomatoes audience score dropped from 75% for the original to 43% for the sequel and I agree.
The original was unique and the plot made me care what happened. The sequel seemed like a mockery of what made the original good. I rate them good and bad.
A South Korean wuxia directed by Park Heung-sik.
A female warrior seeks revenge against 2 other warriors and there is political upheaval.
Total nonsense. I watched the first hour and could barely make any sense of the plot. Questions like when things are happening should not come up. It was very pretty though. It looked as a modern wuxia post-Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon should look. The costumes, sets and lighting were all beautiful. Some of the camera-work was good, but much of it happened in shots too short to appreciate. I have to rate this shit because I turned it off.
A Chinese animated wuxia directed by Andrew Chen.
A young debt collector makes friends with a ghost who works for a tree demon. He also meets feuding exorcists, one of which helps him.
There were some similarities and differences with this and the live action version. The fast pacing and basic characters and plot matched quite well. This featured a "ghost town", meaning a town inhabited by ghosts instead of a poor, living human town. The animation style was a little more like traditional western cartoons than eastern anime films. Lots of the character designs were simplified, but the backgrounds were rendered more realistically. Another difference is that the hero in this had a pet dog and the live action hero did not. Overall, I thought this was vastly inferior to the live action. Even though the pacing was quick, it was nowhere near the speed of the live action. There was also no climax fight against the tree demon. Everything in this animated version was way too happy, bright and Disney for the story being told. I rate this o.k. If you're really into the series, go ahead and watch it.
A Chinese American wuxia directed by Yuen Woo-ping, starring Donnie Yen and Michelle Yeoh.
A thief is sent from West Lotus to steal the Green Destiny sword from Sir Te's house where it was supposed to be hidden. Shu Lien captures the thief and hires a group of "Iron Way" warriors to help her guard it. Shu Lien's new student turns out to be related to the thief, everyone fights and most of them die.
Sometimes sequels are not so great. The original Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) was much better because it seemed sincere and there was not as much fast editing going on. The slower pace of the original allowed audiences to digest what was going on before something else happened, but this sequel seemed rushed. The flashbacks, storytelling and training scenes were too short. It seemed like the audience was not allowed time to get to know the characters in order to care about them. I also noticed that people were flying for no real reason. In the original, the wire flying was always motivated by a purpose in the fight or the plot. The plot in this was unoriginal: they are still fighting over that same sword. I know that the current trend in movies is sequels, prequels, reboots and remakes, but there are actually some decent original films being made. Sorry to Bother You (2018) is a good example of this. Sometimes it's best to let sleeping dogs lie and not fix what is not broken (cliche' sentence anyone?). I rate this tolerable because it was insincere, unoriginal, but upheld the basic requirements of the genre.
A Chinese wuxia directed by Tsui Hark, starring Jet Li and Zhou Xun.
Continuing the adventures at Dragon Gate Inn, a royal servant has become pregnant and escaped from the palace. A rebel swordsman is attacking east and west government officials. A fake, copycat swords-woman is impersonating this man and saves the servant from the government. Again, opposing groups meet at the ill-fated Dragon Gate Inn right before a sandstorm. The inn owner and her tattooed thugs are hanging around because the sandstorm will uncover a lost city full of gold.
This probably looked better in 3D at the theater. It looked fake and too CG on my computer screen. The plot was as convoluted as most new wuxia flicks. I think that too much stuff and too many people were written in. There was definitely no shortage of extras. Some of the scenes showed armies and gangs that looked real. The few main characters were a little difficult to keep track of. I watched this half last night and half this morning, so that may have something to do with it. Again, I liked the inn owner most. This time she had face tattoos and came onto a shy man. Coming in as second favorite character was her monster giant warrior dude. Both of these characters were acted very expressively. The dialogue seemed standard. There was some type of riddle password about the steeles which are the namesake of Dragon Gate. Different groups knew different information about this and about the mazes and traps of the lost city. I was disappointed in how little time was spent at this set. One would think that the lost city would get some serious screen time, but no. All of the sets costumes and locations looked amazing (as expected of the genre and date). The pacing felt rushed all the way through. The only scene that really felt on time was people arriving at the inn. Camera-work was as expected: fast cuts, lots of camera movement. I think that there were more extreme long shots in this to make use of 3D camera/projector technologies. Composition on the slower shots looked very professional. There were too many special effects. I'm good with Hong Kong wire flying, green screen, digital magic spells being cast, etc. When I say it's too much special effects, you really know it's over the top. The audio seemed to be mixed a little bit low, but proportionally well. IMDb lists a rating of 6/10 and Rotten Tomatoes lists 69% Tomatometer with 48% Audience Score for an average of 59%. Even though the pacing was too quick and there were too many special effects, I think that score is a little low. I rate it adequate. If you're watching Dragon Gate films, you might as well see them all, right?
A Chinese wuxia directed by Tsui Hark, starring Andy Lau, Carina Lau and Tony Leung Ka-fai.
Government officials are spontaneously combusting. The empress brings a former detective out of prison to solve the case.
This is what one would expect from a modern wuxia film. The plot was slightly convoluted, but that may have come from presentation rather than writing. The few main characters stood out and I think Detective Dee came across correctly. The dialogue and acting were very much what I would expect from the date and genre. There really weren't any surprises. Obviously, the sets looked expensive and authentic. There were also some CG shots of large portions of the city. I could tell because they looked too clean and repetitive. The camera-work and editing follow in the same style as New Dragon Gate Inn. Lots of close-ups, quick editing cuts and lots of camera movement. Fighting and special effects may as well be commented on as the same item. What sticks in my memory most is the underground fight in the water area where logs came up out of the water and were used as ground to walk on as well as for weapons. This is another film in which there were lots of impossible jumps and acrobatics, but no real flying. The audio was in Chinese and the version that I got had hard-coded English subtitles. Dialogue, music and sound effects were mixed correctly. IMDb lists a rating of 6.6/10 and Rotten Tomatoes lists 80% Tomatometer with 62% Audience Score for an average of 69.3%. I rate it o.k. because it was predictable. I knew exactly what it would be before watching it.
A Chinese wuxia directed by Raymond Lee, starring Brigitte Lin, Tony Leung Ka-fai, Maggie Cheung and Donnie Yen.
Opposing groups meet at an inn run by a woman. One of the groups is lead by a woman with a flute and they want to rescue children who are political prisoners. Another group is military from the organization that was holding the children prisoner. A lone swordsman also shows up who was the flute woman's boyfriend, but he becomes entangled with the inn owner.
Pretty standard for the genre. The plot was full of holes. The biggest being: where did all those guys on horses go at the end? The main characters were mostly identifiable. I liked the inn owner most, but she tended to get mixed up with sword boy's ex. The reason that I liked the inn owner was that her dialogue and acting were most expressive. The head chef from the kitchen was comic relief and he was acted well too. The sets and costumes looked great, as they should in wuxia films. Camera-work and editing were not to my liking quite so much, though. The style of editing was like a new, American action film. There were lots of close shots and very quick editing cuts. It's possible that early '90s Chinese action films started the style that post-2000s American action films lifted from them. When things slowed down, I could tell that everything was staged and composed correctly. The special effects consisted of impossible jumps with rope rather than real flying. There was also blood and a goat cutting scene with item replacement across an editing cut. Audio was in Chinese, but I found good English subtitles. Dialogue was mixed correctly and the sound effects didn't repeat as much as in older Chinese action films. There were multiple sword sounds to vary the sonic landscape. IMDb lists a rating of 7.3/10, AllMovie lists 0 AllMovie rating with 3.5/5 User Ratings and Rotten Tomatoes lists 78% Audience Score for an average of 55.25%. It looks low because AllMovie possibly did not rate it? Without the zero, it would be 73.6% which I agree with. I rate this adequate. You might want to watch it, mostly if you've seen the original Dragon Gate Inn (1967).
A Chinese wuxia directed by Ching Siu-tung.
A group from Japan arrives in China. They arrange a duel between their swordsman and a Chinese swordsman, but other people are trying to influence the outcome of the duel.
There were some good special effects, but the rest was unimpressive. The convoluted plot contained too many characters (surprised?). I think the story of the duel and the characters of the two swordsmen got neglected in favor of minor plot elements like the romantic interest that doesn't work out. The acting seemed professional and very wuxia, not cheezy like kung fu. The subtitles came with this one and worked. I thought the translated dialogue was dull and lifeless. Even the momentary appearance of a comic relief character seemed like dead pan delivery of plot outline writing. Sets and costumes looked authentic, but seemed to be community property with every other Chinese film of the kung fu and wuxia genres. All of the camera-work was very dynamic, to use a positive word. Quick takes, lots of camera movement and quick editing. It wasn't as fast as Chinese Ghost Story, but pretty quick. The actual fights were just special effects scenes with flying people and objects. There was also some prolific stage blood, dismemberment and decapitation. I'm not spoiling anything by telling that the decapitated head explodes. Some of the "flying character" shots were obviously done by a person jumping and grabbing a tree. It looked absurd. The audio was not so great, but not kung fu bad. Someone in the process seemed to be paying attention to sound levels most of the time. The style reminded me of 5 Element Ninjas mixed with Legend of Liquid Sword and Killer of Snakes Fox of Shaolin. IMDB has a listed rating of 7.3/10 and Rotten Tomatoes lists 83% audience score for an average of 78%. I agree completely. It's a regular C+ wuxia because the plot got buried under a load of junk, but the special effects were entertaining. I rate it adequate.
A Chinese wuxia directed by Jeffrey Lau, starring Stephen Chow, Ng Man-tat, Karen Mok and Law Kar-ying.
The monkey King has upset Buddha by trying to eat Longevity Monk and is disguised as a man named Joker. He leads a band of robbers who are attacked by immortal sisters. A time travel box is found and Joker must prevent one of the sisters from committing suicide, but when he does, he goes 500 years back in time. His marriage to the immortal sister is taking place at Bull King's home, but people's bodies get switched. Joker puts on the crown and becomes Monkey King again to fight Bull King.
Stephen Chow as the Monkey King in a 1995 wuxia is the answer to my heart's desires. It was 3 hours of fast paced action comedy in classic Chow dead-pan delivery. The plot reads like the mess that flies across the screen on Hong Kong wire. Characters? Forget trying to keep track of them. As long as you know who Stephen Chow is at the moment and which sister is which, you're set. The guy from India and the pig man appear at some point... It seems to me that there is more than what is apparent lost in translation between Chinese and English. Anything involving phrasing is immediately gone, among countless other things. Do you know comedic Chinese speech inflections? I don't. What survived of the comedy was mostly physical: crotch-stomping, smashed by rocks, pig man with woman's voice type humor. Alright, that is pretty funny. The sets looked like they took years to build. We had giant set pieces for less than a minute of some special effects. The heart set looked like Jim Henson made it while in an altered state of mind and the big pole set was way over the top for how little it was used. The smashed by a rock door set even had a hidden trick up its sleeve. Camera-work looked a little inferior, but that was mostly because of the extremely low video quality. There were also some shakes, jumps and blurs besides pixellation. It did conform to wuxia imagery standards. There was lots of contrast and strong lighting, back-lighting and overly color corrected scenes. As stated above, the special effects were one of the main focal points. They were mostly done in-camera with set pieces, but there were some digital size manipulations and compositing scenes as well. In Chinese audio situations, dialogue volume is not my top priority. The music and sound effects worked. I got mostly good subtitles that I didn't try switching because I didn't want to lose what little functionality there was. Style was like mixing Bride with White Hair, Legend of Liquid Sword and Jim Henson's The Storyteller (crazy, cheesy and good!). Part 1 got 7.9/10 on IMDb and part 2 got 8.1/10. Rotten Tomatoes gives the whole deal 87% audience score. 82.3% average sounds pretty high for a general population/mainstream website grade. I rate this awesome! If you like Stephen Chow, Hong Kong wire flying, comedy, fantasy and special effects to the point that it becomes absurd, you will agree.
A Chinese wuxia horror comedy directed by Ching Sui-tung, starring Leslie Cheung, Joey Wong and Jacky Cheung.
An innocent man is imprisoned because of mistaken identity, but his cellmate helps him to escape. Upon reaching freedom, he accidentally steals the horse of a Taoist magician. The 2 meet later at an abandoned temple that turns out to be haunted by a demon. Political rebels also show up and are trying to free the father of 2 sisters, 1 of which looks like the main character's lost love, Sui Sin. The main character, romantic interest, comic relief, rebels and demon all clash at the temple.
This was much slower than the first film in the series. The plot was also far more complex. An hour and 37 minutes is too short for something this cool, but there's still #3 left to watch. Even though there were too many characters with intertwining plot motives, I was actually able to keep track of them relatively well. I can't say much for translated dialogue, but there was a joke about the main character wanting to write on the hands of the sisters and them thinking he wanted to have sex with both of them. The sets were very similar to the first in the series. There was lots of darkness with colored lighting, mostly blue. The decrepit, old temple looked like it was actually old and falling apart instead of being designed to fall apart. Camera-work was very similar to #1 as well, but with much slower editing pace. The demon is not a spoiler. He happens pretty soon and was created quite well. His claws and fangs were obviously the most important part. We also had flying people and weapons and a stone stairway that split apart. There were also magic fire and freeze spells. The audio was easier this time because they slowed it down to a pace that I could read subtitles at. Style was similar to #1 of course. This has a 7/10 on IMDB, 3/5 on AllMovie and 64% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. 65% average is still a failing grade, which I disagree with. It may not be everyone's cup of tea, but I liked this and see it as a valuable part of the series. I rate it adequate and can't wait to watch #3.
A Chinese wuxia fantasy directed by Wilson Yip, starring Louis Koo and Kara Hui.
The tree demon's servant from the original has a thing for mortal men. One of them stabbed her in the head with a magic dagger to make her forget him, so she falls in love with another one. Her new romantic interest and 3 demon hunters work to defeat that same tree demon again.
This is obviously not part of the original series. The hour and 36 minutes seemed a little long in comparison with the original film's hyperdrive speed. The plot wandered aimlessly through love affairs, magic and violence that all became a big, muddy mess. Characters were very identifiable, but all of their dialogue and acting was very similar. It was sets and costumes that made this worth watching. Everyone had different clothing and hairstyles. The tree demon even got a hair color change at the end (oops, I ruined the whole plot). The magical locations had the best sets like inside the tree and a sea of leaves. In special effects, we had CG snakes and hair (among other things) as well as people and items flying. Audio had clear dialogue, a good mixdown and a sappy musical score. Although more modern and technically superior to the original film, this lacks its namesake's style and flair. The China Post gave this 2/5 stars, it has 5.7/10 on IMDB and 32% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. 43% average is a little worse than it deserves, but not much. I rate this tolerable because I like the genre, but realize that it's totally lame and hollywooded.
A Chinese wuxia directed by Michael Mak, starring Tony Leung Chiu-wai, Michelle Yeoh, Jimmy Lin, Joey Wong and Donnie Yen.
An old eunuch disguised as another old eunuch tries to destroy a gang of assassins. Some of this gang live together and there are romantic relationship problems.
The hour 22 duration felt like it took forever. The pacing was really choppy, with slow scenes right next to fast ones. The plot was nearly incoherent and the characters were difficult to differentiate. Most of the dialogue and acting were misleading because everyone was either lying or being snarky to one another. What I could see of the sets and costumes looked good. Unfortunately, the copy that I got was pixelated like a motherfucker. I'm talking big, square blocks here. 432 x 224 resolution and 211MB file size may be to blame. Given that information, looking for good camera-work was not top priority while I was watching this. The special effects were as over the top as I expected. There was flying people and items, magic, fire and a building collapse. The audio was not exactly good, but I did like the soundtrack. It was probably the best part. The sound effects were like an old kung fu flick: extremely annoying. Stylistically, this fit the early '90s wuxia mold. It has a 6.1 on IMDB. I rate it tolerable.
A Chinese wuxia directed by Ching Sui-tung, starring Donnie Yen and Leon Lai.
A princess' father, the king is killed in battle and she takes the throne. Some of the government rulers/warlords are plotting against her and shoot her with a poison dart. A hermit saves her and they fall in love. The princess must restore peace to her kingdom and reunite with the hermit.
A classic example of the new Chinese way of filmmaking. The hour and a half duration seemed right because of dynamic pacing that rose and fell with action. The simplistic premise was difficult to follow in the plot because of language. More on that later. There were basically 3 characters: the princess, the hermit and soldier x infinity. Obviously, the princess and hermit were the most developed main characters. I had issues with dialogue because of subtitles. The only ones that synched with the film were clearly written by an non-English speaker. Sentence structure and word order were the main issues. This made it nearly impossible to follow the plot. The acting all seemed fine though. I really liked the sets. They all looked professional, but my favorite was the hermit's treehouse. Camera-work was all beautifully done as well. There was lots of shot variety, mostly in distances from extreme close up to sprawling landscapes. What I didn't like about video and camera were the giant battle scenes in the flat desert. Boring. There was no flying, but there may have been some undetectable wire-work involved. The audio was all mixed right and the soundtrack was typical of the area and time. Style and flavor seemed like the filmmakers had watched too much Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Hero and House of Flying Daggers. This has a 5.9/10 on IMDB and 38% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. I rate it o.k. because it was very typical of the genre, area and time, but didn't really innovate or get creative and unique with the tools available.
A Chinese wuxia directed by Ching Siu-Tung, starring Leslie Cheung, Joey Wong and Wu Ma.
A young debt collector can't afford to stay at an inn, so he spends the night in a "creepy looking old temple". There he meets men fighting with swords and a beautiful woman playing music. It turns out that the woman is a ghost and the swordsman and debt collector try to save her from "the old dame", a tree demoness who forces the ghost woman to lure men to their deaths.
This is the fastest paced film I have ever seen. It makes Kung Fury seem calm and contemplative by comparison. The hour and a half went by very quickly. The plot was clearly communicated and held my attention with ghosts, demons and the undead. Some call this the Chinese Evil Dead. I didn't really have time to get to know the characters because they were always rushing around and speaking like auctioneers. Dialogue was very thick, lots of words per second and acting mirrored this quality. I really liked the old temple set and the town looked authentically ancient China. The camera-work actually did remind me of Evil Dead. There were lots of close ups, creative angles and high contrast imagery. I watched a version dubbed into English, but the soundtrack was awesome. I could tell that it was mostly created using a cheap keyboard and inferior piano skill, but that's what made it so cool. The style was overflowing. Think Bride with White Hair combined with Evil Dead. This won 12/23 awards that it was nominated for, has a 7.6/10 on IMDB and 67% tomatometer and 86% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. Average grade is a 70% C-. I beg to differ. I thought it was full of style, had an interesting plot and did not struggle to hold my attention. The only problem that I found was that it moved way too fast. More like A Chinese Amphetamine Story. I rate this good.
A South Korean wuxia directed by Choi Dong-hoon.
A Taoist disciple and his companion are trying to help the 3 Taoist wizards to capture goblins that have been set loose by a magic flute. Their journey takes them from ancient China into the modern city of Seoul.
Way over the top! The two hour duration was greatly appreciated, as it was filled with content all the way through. The pacing was very fast. From dialogue to special effects to editing cuts, everything moved quickly. The massive plot was clear and pretty easy to follow after the first few minutes of chaos. There were a handful of main characters that transcended time and a few well chosen extras. I can't really get into discussion of dialogue because it was in Korean, but there were a few verbal jokes that made it across the language gap and through subtitles. There were tons of physical humor jokes that the actors pulled off perfectly. The sets and costumes were amazing. Ancient China looked just as good as modern Korea and everyone's clothing fit their parts. There were even magical costume changes in the plot that all looked good. I saw loads of good camera-work. The dark scenes were not underexposed and I even identified a jib arm shot on top of a building. Special effects blew away Shaolin Soccer and Kung Fu Hustle. People flew and disappeared and there were CG goblins. Magic was everywhere. The audio sounded good to me. Again, I can't say much about dialogue, but the music and sound effects were great. The whole thing was so cohesive and had a style like Ang Lee was working with Stephen Chow. This has a 6.7/10 on IMDB, but was good enough to spawn a TV series. I liked the humor, special effects and action. I rate it good. You should watch it if you want Kung Fu Hustle and Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon at the same time.
A Chinese wuxia directed by King Hu, Ching Siu-tung, Ann Hui, Andrew Kam and Tsui Hark, starring Cecilia Yip and Sharla Cheung.
An important manuscript scroll has been stolen from a government administration building. The leader finds the house of the man who took it and posts guards, preparing to kill the thief. The thief also has guards, but inside the house with him. As the standoff tension rises, a pair of messengers burst in and accidentally cause the house to explode. They flee the scene with one of the other participants and stow away on a boat, where they meet this man's friend. The two old men perform a song and after the ship is destroyed in an attack, escape with the messengers. The old men are mortally wounded and pass their instruments and song to the messengers. The search for the missing scroll continues with plots of intrigue, lies and deception.
Pretty nice. The plot was a little too much for me, but that's pretty standard in most wuxia films. Obviously, we've got tons of characters too and I was unable to keep track of who was on what side and who was lying. The video looked VERY early '90s wuxia (that's a good thing). This included lots of fast paced editing in fight scenes and blue-lit night scenes. All of the lighting was excellent. It seemed correct for the scenes and I could see everything that was happening. There were lots of special effects. This was mostly flying characters, projectile weapons of exaggerated power and break-away sets. The soundtrack was good and I liked the plot song, but knew that the actors were not actually playing their instruments. Overall, I liked the flying fights, but would have liked a simpler plot. I rate this adequate. This is only for the most hardcore wuxia fans.
A Taiwanese wuxia directed by King Hu.
A group of rebels meet at an inn that is occupied by soldiers of a fearsome military leader. After they beat the soldiers, they lure the leader out to fight, but he brings an army.
Pretty standard wuxia. We've got complex political plots, a small group of heroes skilled in martial arts, sword fighting and wire work. These King Hu flicks from the '60s and '70s really defined the genre. This one featured no night fighting (yay!) so all of the choreography was visible. The plot did not really pull me in because it featured more politics than individual drama. The first hero's introduction scene at the inn was my favorite part. He comes in armed with an umbrella and proves that the whole gang of soldiers is no match for him. His character was really good, but the others were under-developed. The audio was a little treble-biased on the version that I watched, but the subtitles were spot on. Overall, a definitive work with some flaws. It's definitely worth watching if you're into this kind of thing. Anyone else would probably think it was boring. I rate this adequate.
A Taiwanese kung fu wuxia directed by King Hu.
A poor scholar stumbles upon political intrigue in his small town. Three rebels are hiding there and are eventually revealed. He helps them to fight against an entire army.
This was alright. It's obscurity has boosted it's reputation beyond reality. The plot is good, but extremely complex and inconclusive. The characters are memorable and have good roles. I must criticize the choreography and camera-work simultaneously here with a quote: "Let's film half the fight scenes in a deep forest on a moonless night. That way everyone will see the fighters moving". There were scenes that could have been shot with the lens cap on. Mostly it was the gleam of a sword on a black background. What's going on? They must be fighting because I can hear whoosh, clang and hyaah. There were day fights and these were amazing. They included unique techniques, special weapons and lots of Hong Kong wire. Overall, not as good as it's supposed to be, but not bad. I rate this adequate.
A Shaw Brothers wuxia directed by King Hu and Sammo Hung, starring Cheng Pei-Pei.A group of bandits has a political prisoner and the government has a bandit prisoner. The sister of the political prisoner is sent to get back her brother. She is aided by a drunken beggar.For such an early date, this really is a good film (me agreeing with Wikipedia: may never happen again). The plot is extremely complex and the main characters are all very good and identifiable. The style reminds me of later kung fu and wuxia films, probably because they copied it from this one. There is wire involved as well as special effects to illustrate magic kung fu powers. If you like fu (and I know you do), this movie is for you! I'm rating it awesome.
