Die Chroniken von Huadu: Blade of the Rose

My understanding was that Twins Effect 2 was changed from a proper sequel to the Twins' vampire-busting film to a period film because the (mainland) Chinese authorities wouldn't allow a film to be released that featured "supernatural" elements, such as vampires. I am a bit puzzled now though, because Twins Effect 2 features plenty of supernatural things - no monsters, but lots of magic powers and what-not (and prophecies of destiny etc). It's slightly reminiscent of The Stormriders, but less epic and vastly more juvenile smile.gif

Gillian & Charlene play "Dumbbell Traders" - women who trade in male slaves, in a land ruled by an evil queen where all men are slaves and love is outlawed. Jackie Chan's son and some gawky teenager play two such dumbbells, who come across an artefact that implies one of them might be the true king of the land - thus begins a quest, of sorts, and a love story. Aw, how sweet?

Charlene is in full on sassy mode again, whilst Gillian has the quieter, more serious role (again). The film makes it clear just how much Ah Gil has outgrown Ah Sa in every way - her acting and her appearance are much more mature, and I think the time for the Twins phenomenon must be running out. I think this is the debut film for Jackie Chan's son, and I'm sure nobody is at their best when they're thrust into a leading role for their first performance, but I have to say he comes off especially badly - he has zero acting ability or charisma, and he's sadly inherited his father's looks (but without the talent to compensate). Daniel Wu gives a fairly good performance, and Donnie Yen has presence as a character called "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon", but the only really great performance in the film is a hilarious cameo from Leung Ka Fai.

The film does have high production values, with some great sets and costumes, but they're kind of wasted on the juvenile story and direction. There was potentially a great film in here, but not with this cast and crew.

The film does have quite a few fight scenes, choreographed by Donnie Yen I would assume, since they rely heavily on over the top wirework and his personal favourite, digital stuntmen. There are some very innovative wire sequences, but the quality of the computer graphics is very poor, and the digital scenes are very unconvincing and unimpressive. The special effects in this film are actually worse than those in Stormriders. The action scenes also suffer from some major plagiarism - there are lots of moves and shots lifted from any number of Yuen Wo Ping films, which is to be expected from Donnie, but there are also a couple of shots ripped off blatantly from Ryuhei Kitamura's AZUMI. Does he really need to resort to that? Worse still, the highly anticipated Jackie vs Donnie fight is almost a remake of the Donnie vs Jet fight in HERO. How short does he think people's memories are?

All in all, Twins Effect 2 is not a good film - but it has moments that are enjoyable, especially if you think of it as a kid's film, which I guess you have to expect with a vehicle for Twins. Given the time and budget they had for making the film, it's somewhat unforgivable that they didn't do a better job though.

Like in many of their previous movies twins again failed at their latest attempt to portray themselves as serious actors.

Like many of their past movies only true twins fans can really enjoy this movie that lacks a decent plot line. Jaycee Chan (son of Jackie Chan) makes his first and only appearance to date in a film and after seeing his poor performance I recommend that he stick with music.

The only bright part to this poorly made movie is the small appearance of Jackie Chan to add some flavour to this movie.

To all the twins fans out their you would probably enjoy this but to all the other serious movie goers I would not really recommend it.

Last year's Twins Effect was surely one of the worst movies of the year, due to its corny dialouge, laughable action sequences and lack of plot. This year, it looks like Twins Effect 2 will have almost the same honour. Only the HK movie industry could manage to churn out nonsensical sequels one after another.

On to the plot: The leads, Twins play citizens of a kingdom in which men are slaves and women are the rulers. They help a guy fight the female emperor. End of story.

Nothing really makes any much sense in this movie, it suffers from the same faults as the first one. The saving grace is probably Jackie Chan's cameo, in which there is a brilliant fight sequence.

My recommendation: Only hardcore fans of Jacky Chan/Twins will watch this crap.

1/10

Twins Effect II is about a war between males and females. Nothing to do with vampires so why is it called a sequel? A strong cast of pretty boys and cute girls, this movie has a flawed storyline and badly done CG effects. Considering it is a 2004 movie, the special effects are unacceptable. Even Stormraiders and A Man Called Hero look better than this movie.

Only watch this movie if you are interested to see the poor virgin acting skills of 23 year old lead character, son of Jackie Chan. I wonder if the director was paid to cast him in the movie instead of the other way.

Mao points: 5/10

Okay, so it wasn't the best thing ever saved to celluloid, but it is not so terrible as some reviewers may claim. I was interested in seeing this film for two reasons: 1) Jaycee made his acting debut and I was quite curious as to what he could do and 2) Donnie Yen vs. Jackie Chan. Now, Jaycee has a ways to go yet, certainly... he had, I think, all of one expression for most of the movie, but he's riding in on dad's coattails (he's Jackie Chan's son) and it's his debut. I think he may have potential, he just needs some refining. There were also some problems within the set itself, i.e., Jackie nearly bowed out because his son starred in the film and he didn't want to cast any shadows on his boy's beginning. I'm glad that didn't happen, personally, but I do admit the anxiously awaited Yen vs. Chan fight was a bit of a disappointment; it had no real relevance to the movie at all and looks like the moral struggle Jackie faced (the 'should I even be in this movie?' problem) reflected here. Jaycee and Jackie are not in the same scenes and the guest appearance by Jackie ends up seeming more like a hand out than anything.

The Twins are the Twins- what did you expect? Despite that, I find myself actually liking these girls, against my better judgment. Daniel Wu plays the most interesting and tragic character in his usual style. The premise of the movie? A woman has her heart broken because she finds her boyfriend and identical twin sister cheating on her. Of course, the man (played by Wu) had been lied to by the twin and didn't know he was cheating (think they were just caught kissing, actually), but that means nothing. The broken-hearted woman magically imprisons her sister and has the man castrated. They both end up serving her and aid her rise to power. She becomes ruler of her own city where the men are enslaved and sold as beasts of burden. Loving relationships between the sexes are outlawed and it is up to Jaycee's character to free the city and restore balance and natural relations, where all are equal and no one sex is subjugated by another. I think he was a 'Chosen One' type, who's coming had been foretold or some such.

Lots of action, and it's not BAD, just noticeably CGI, which is distracting. We're used to being 'above' that kind of amateur special effects works by now. Makes me think the budget was used up by the starring cast. The movie had its moments, it's worth a rental at least, but it's not so terrible that it needs to be avoided upon pain of death as some might have you believe. If nothing else, it's colorful and lively; just don't expect an epic blockbuster, take the movie with a grain of salt (it is supposed to be a spoof), and you'll come out all right.