Chang'an wu guai

This is the movie for people who liked The Mist but thought it had too much set up and not enough kung fu.

This movie wastes no time getting into it. The mist and monsters show up *immediately*. It's not even 30 seconds into the movie when the mist rolls in and the monsters start attacking. I guess you don't have a lot of time to establish characters or setting when your movie in only 62 minutes long. On one hand, it's a nice change from over-long, over-stuffed wuxia movies that run for twice this long or longer. On the other hand, it might be a bit too short. The story is very bare bones. There are significant characters that aren't really established at all and get no real development. There's a character that is a tough kung fu chick and that's about all we ever find out about her. The ending is rather abrupt. It has monsters in it but the kung fu stuff is relatively grounded without a lot of wuxia craziness. The monster effects aren't great but they are serviceable. It's a decent kung fu flick that doesn't overstay its welcome but it's a bit short on plot and character development.