Chin san chuen suet

very well done period swordplay fantasy film.The fisherman in his simplicity is a true hero.The unrequited love that dominates throughout is well executed.Maggie Cheung and Anita Mui can duel all day long..Awesome.The villain is well played his skill is evident.musically the score is great..definitely worth seeing love,honour,pace..and great wire work must definitely put this film up there with the better made one of the genre..All hail King Sammo....

Sammo Hung is one of the VERY few actors who is a joy to watch in front of the camera AND he's a pretty damn good director as well. This well done period/fantasy piece is no exception. Andy Lau (another favorite foreign actor of mine) is Fei, a common fisher-man who falls in love with the Emperor's daughter, who is bethrothed to the King. The king is secretly loved by his adviser who was sent to kill him. It's a tad convoluted, yes. And the part with the whale is rather silly. But all in all, it's pretty good. Not among the best of these type of movies though.

My Grade: B-

DVD Extras: Commentary by Hong Kong film expert, Ric Meyers; 'Alternate Ending' (which really is just the same ending, but instead of fading to black for the credits, it goes to whale outtakes); Cast Filmographies; Trailers for "Dragon Inn", " Duel to the Death", "the Master Swordsman", "the Duel", and "My Schoolmate, the Barbarian"

I remember this being quite a good, mature kick flick, but there is one scene I must have watched 20 times now, undeniably the best death in any movie. A servant reports his failure to his Overlord, whereupon the lord cuts his head off with the string of his bow, flicks it up in the air, shoots an arrow through the head whilst it flies through the air, sending the impaled bonce across a line of torches, setting fire to it. The head embeds itself on a wall, spelling out the Overlords name in fire. At this time the overlord runs across the burning torches, somersaults over to a chessboard, slams a piece down and cries - Checkmate! Has to be seen to be believed.

When Crouching Tiger,Hidden Dragon came out,critics fell over themselves praising it as being new and fresh. Whilst it is undoubtedly a good film,the fact is that they had been making films like that in Hong Kong for many years,with warriors jumping around the screen in tales of romance and honour. Moon Warriors is a good example. It has it's flaws,with one element rather laughable,but it still demands quite a bit of respect.

The action is really as good,maybe it's a bit more obvious the characters are on wires,but in terms of martial arts skill it's actually better, and just as visually great to watch. Highlights include a display of kites that suddenly somehow turns into a ninja attack,a possibly Macbeth-inspired 'moving trees'sequence,and gorgeous Hong Kong babes Maggie Cheung and Ania Mui battling it out with swords.

Despite what you may have heard about films like this,it certainly isn't all fighting. A great deal of time is given to the love element,and there are perhaps too many montages to the sentimental theme song {as usual,the translated words on the subtitles don't really work}. Howvever,the film retains that melancholic romantic feel present in many other Hong Kong fantasy movies of the time {such as The Bride With White Hair and Saviour of the Soul}.

Unfortunately there is a subplot of a WHALE which is the hero's best friend,and it's just laughable. Some versions of the film even have outtakes at the end of star Andrew Lau with the thing. Still,there's plenty in the film which is worthwhile. It's really quite extraordinary what Hong Kong filmmakers used to conjure up on what were usually tiny budgets and rushed productions.

Moon Warriors is pretty alright if you're into the wuxia pian genre. It's much better than most HK action movies from the mid 1990s like the Dragon Chronicles, the Sword Stained with Royal Blood, etc etc... yet it can't compete with films such as Dragon Gate Inn, Ashes of Time (both starring maggie cheung, who also appears as "merlin" (what a weird name) in some versions of Moon Warriors), or the eyecandy swordsman 2. Anyway, I was wondering if any of you guys have noticed the weird subtitles on some copies of the DVD. For some reason I don't understand, Andy's character is called "Philip", and his loyal killerwhale buddy's called "Sea-Wayne" (which ended up being the biggest inside joke among my group of friends). Anita Mui appears as "Moonie". Why is it that some of the characters have such ridiculous names? I mean, it's not very consistent since the rest of the cast got chinese names. Anyway, it's a pretty entertaining action flick, give it a try if you want to have a laugh or if you're a fan of Andy, Maggie and Anita.

7/10