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Reviews
Wo hu cang long (2000)
Good even if not original.
Many people are mislead that this movie is something original. It isn't. There are many previous movies that have "flying men" scenes in the fighting. Yuen Woo-Ping has been doing that kind of choreography since the 70's. It should also be noted that Chow Yun Fat cannot do martial arts and was a poor choice to play the role of a master just for that fact. Overall the movie is enjoyable and the scenery is good, but the story and fighting aren't original enough for true Hong Kong movie fans to consider it the best ever made. If you liked Crouching Tiger I recommend checking out some of the choreographers earlier works like Fist of Legend or Iron Monkey.
Fo zhang luo han quan (1980)
Worth it just for the fights.
You can tell this is one of Woo-Pings earlier works because there is very little wire work done. The fights are all of course expertly choreographed though. The movie itself has an interesting storyline, or at least as interesting as a kung fu movie from 1980 gets. Some of the fighting shows good demonstrations of fist versus palm styles. The DVD version of the movie looks good for the most part, with only a few grains and does have a line going down the left side of the screen for the first 15 minutes of the movie. Its not enough to distract you though and the only other really bad part is a thirty second scene in the dark where there is a lot of grain on the film.
Jing wu ying xiong (1994)
A needed addition to any martial arts collection.
Using the same fight choreographer as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and The Matrix you can expect the fight scenes to be extraordinary. In fact, the Wachowski brothers used some of the same moves in The Matrix because they enjoyed this movie so much. There is a really good storyline that was also used in Bruce Lee's The Chinese Connection taking place in the late 1930's. The acting is good, the story is good, and the fights are good. What more could you want. * SPOILER * The final fight with the general (wearing uniform and jackboots) fighting Jet Li is not to be missed. Personally it reminds me of fighting a boss at the end of a video game.