Xun cheng ma

I am a huge fan of the $5.50 DVD bin at my local WalMart. Hopefully you have one at your local branch. You can find a bunch of campy flicks, a bunch of trash, and the occasional surprise. This movie is one of the surprises. My friend recently bought this one, and in thinking it would be another cheesy kung-fu laugh riot, I was genuinely surprised at how good it was. I watch a lot of movies, and as a result, I can almost always call how a movie will turn out; and if there's a plot twist, what it will be. Not this movie! The directing is brilliant, the plot is awesome, and the fighting is unbelievably inventive. If you see this one sitting around somewhere at a dirt-cheap price, get it! If you see it at full price, I would still recommend it.

Ronnie Yu's powerful and sometimes savage account of the struggle between heavy artillery and the plight of man is an engaging romp, the high production costs and smart direction taking it a notch above other standard kung fu fare. We are taken back to the early days of the Chinese Republic, and a popular folk tale is revived detailing the adventures of four heroic dead-end types, sent on a secret mission to reach the Lo Yang Pass in seven days carrying a special secret cargo. Our mismatched quartet become patriotic heroes however when the cargo is revealed to be heavy arms destined for the notorious warlord Yue Sai Hoi in his quest to defeat Dr Sun Yat Sen's Nationalist Guard, forcing the group to leap into action to save self and country. Action wise the movie has divided moments: from the graphic machine gun massacres and the silly supernatural Ninja bits, to some high class kung fu confrontations featuring the undoubtedly gifted talents of Kar Yan, this time not so much beard as stubble.

No pun intended - before the Transporter we had others you had to deliver packages ... although in this case it is not people that are being transported. Well at least not in the boxes they have to carry, they would be far too small for that anyway.

Quite a good troop of people you get here. Although as I understand it, Chow Yun Fat was not the one we came to know and love in later years. No John Woo movies under his belt is what I mean. Apparently he was more of a romantic movie star back then. Funny I never saw him like that (no pun intended and King & I left aside of course).

The action is very well shot and the story is tight - well it is not much of a story, but more than enough to get you invested. It is about new technology being able to ... well get rid of a lot of people (again no pun intended). There still is time and the place to add a lot of action scenes. With a lot of violence and blood ... we wouldn't want it any other way ... right? Great soundtrack too btw ... felt like I had heard certain themes ... but it probably just means others have used stuff from this ...

The one line summary really sums this film up. The story was bland, characters boring, and fights only decent, but Postman Strikes Back had THE coolest ninja I've ever seen. He didn't use ninja magic or fly, but he had the biggest arsenal of ninja tricks ever. You've gotta see it just for that. Who doesn't love ninjas?

The Postman Fights Back is an early film for director Ronny Yu, who would later direct the wuxia masterpiece The Bride With White Hair. This is mostly a starring vehicle for Ka Yan Leung best known as "Beardy") and if you seen a few old school kung fu flicks, you definitely will recognize him. This puts a postman, a thief, an explosive expert and a con man together to deliver a package that has people trying to kill them on the way. Chow Yun Fat and Cherie Chung give early appearances here and is cool to see Chow Yun Fat mixing it up with some old school chop sockey action. The Postman Fights Back is crazy, unpolished action that is a bridge between the old school Kung Fu flicks and the new wave of HK action cinema that was about to revolutionize the action movie market with the films of John Woo, Jackie Chan and others. Eddie Ko plays a similar ninja character that he played in Duel To The Death and has similar insane ninja action. The Postman Fights Back is not without it's flaws, but is definitely a worthy Hong Kong action flick that is good enough to please fans of the genre and is interesting enough to give it a shot.