Lobo: O Assassino

I have seen thousands of martial arts films, ranging from the Hong Kong classics of the 70's to the mixed genre, CGI works of the present day.

This is my favorite one.

The fight scenes are the single most beautiful, incredible spectacles I've seen in any action film.

When two combatants trade blows, the encounter is more a battle between two Gods than mere flesh and blood. In "The Matrix 3", the directors' efforts to achieve this failed miserably. Not so in this film.

When Donnie Yen glares at his opponent(s),one feels that the fate of the world depends upon the clash. Accompanied by a tremendous musical score, the effect is enhanced even further.

And Yen's character takes on everyone; a vicious gang of fifty men armed with machetes, an entire army of 100+ toughs, gunslingers, iron chain-wielding assassins, and many others.

One reason is that "Legend of the Wolf" represents a historic step forward in martial artsfilm-making; modern action films are shot at 18 fps (frames per second)while being played at 24 fps ("under-cranking"), which accelerates the action, but loses the sensation of power from the blows.

While LOTW utilizes under-cranking,it also features bone-crunching, vicious blows the likes of which I had never seen before in any action film.

The blows from a punch or the slash of a sword make the viewer cringe from their sheer power and might.

As excellent as the fight scenes are, it wouldn't be the greatest action film ever were it not for the tragic, depressing storyline.

It is told through flashback, describing how a dying gangster used to be a young, ruthless, and completely invincible warrior.

Yet, in the end, despite ultimately triumphing over his hundreds of opponents, the young warrior loses what is most dear to him in all the world, and is never able to win it back.

This harsh view of the "unbeatable young fighter", so common throughout martial arts films, is both realistic and deeply touching.

One of the few perfect films ever made.