Royal Warriors

This is some of Michelle Yeoh's best work, alongside Magnificent Warriors and Yes Madam (A.K.A. In The Line of Duty or Police Assassins). This movie has a mix of drama, hard-hitting action, and comedy (little less on comedy though).

In my opinion, this movie could've done without Michael Wong. He tries to create a lovable character but he just seemed to get in the way of the movie. Well, I guess the movie needed some comedy. I appreciate the casting of Henry Sanada (Hiroyuki Sanada) in the film. After Ninja in the Dragon's Den, I was hoping he would continue to pursue action flicks. His martial arts skills always seems to impress me. His character in the film is portrayed as cool and slick, but if provoked, can be aggressive. Michelle Yeoh's character is very dedicated to her work as a police officer. She will enforce the law by any means.

The action in this film was very excellent and brutal. The club scene was the best. I'm pretty sure the actors and actresses had to use some ointment to take care of the bruises after some of the scenes. Groundwork dominated this film. I really didn't notice wirework.

Overall, this a great film. The replay value is very high. Besides the action, drama and a little comedy gave the film a good mix. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!

Final Judgement: ****/****

For those who are familiar with the action side of Michelle Yeoh only from her later blockbusters like "Tomorrow Never Dies" or "Police Story 3", prepare for an eye-opening experience. She has rarely fought (or looked) better than she does in "Royal Warriors", a film made early (1986) into her career. Several of her moves will have you going "WOW!". Unfortunately, there are some problems that keep this film from being as good as it could have been. For one thing, there is too much gratuitous violence: I'm referring especially to the nightclub scene, which has at least a dozen innocent bystanders mercilessly gunned down. The nastiness of the villains comes through clearly enough through their other acts - that scene was overkill (pun not intended). For another thing, Michelle Yeoh has surprisingly few fight scenes: after her 2 in the first 10 minutes, there are no more than 3 in the rest of the film. And then there's Michael Wong, who's a pretty poorly written character: he acts as if he's in a romantic comedy, always flirting with Michelle and making jokes, when in reality he's in a grim drama, where almost no lives are spared. In fact, Michelle tells him straight to his face what is wrong with his character, which suggests that the writers knew it as well - so why did they write him to be this way? I'm still giving "Royal Warriors" a relatively high rating because of the action scenes - I just wish the rest of the movie had lived up to them. *** out of 4.

Fine follow up to Yes Madam. Not nearly as witty, but heavier on action (most of the scenes are very exciting with extremely tough baddies).

The last baddy is particularly good, with a silly mocking smile and grin. I loved the scene where he shoots the TV set.

The plot is by turns clever and cliched, and the "music" makes the whole thing feel much more cheesy than it otherwise would. Really, in some of these 80's Hong Kong films the DVD's should have an option of removable soundtracks. Alot of the films such as this would come across much stronger now without a synthesizer in the background banging away. Of course this would remove the campy bad guy forte chord which I know many viewers are endeared to.

Those who enjoy hard-edged action over wit might even prefer this to Yes Madam as the best of Michelle Yeoh's early action films.

It maybe Michelle Khan in the credits but it Michelle Yeoh.(Chinese Stars often have numerous names by which they are known.)

This is the first in a series of films about a group of police officers who end up on various action packed exploits. I have not watched them all, but I'm told that they are all pretty good with this one being the best.

This has a great deal of action and humor and if you like action films this is a good one to see whether you're a fan of Hong Kong Cinema or not since it all movies along nicely.

The films only real flaw is the fact that its dated some what. What was current back in 1986 when this was made now seems very of a period and almost annoying. Thankfully the stuff going on on screen makes you forget that and sucks you into the action.

7 out of 10

'Royal Warriors (1986)' is absolutely wild. This exhilarating action movie pushes through high-octane set-piece after high-octane set-piece, rarely letting its foot of the gas as it presents a compelling mix of old-school Hong Kong Kung Fu and exquisitely eighties action excess. It's the kind of movie in which everyone wears either 'The Terminator (1984)'-esque leather, Vietnam-era combat gear or bold business blazers three sizes too big for them. It's filled to the brim with death-defying stunts, metal-crunching car chases, squib-triggering shootouts, bone-crunching brawls and dizzying amounts of collateral damage. It's incredibly exciting. Rather unusually for a film of its kind, it only features four baddies. There are no giant fights between our heroes and hoards of faceless goons, just personal battles between people seeking revenge in a nearly endless loop that threatens to make good on the promise that an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind. It's actually a sequel to 'Yes, Madam! (1985)', and it's superior to that picture because it keeps its focus firmly on Michelle Yeoh and her co-stars, Hiroyuki Sanada and Michael Wong (playing someone called Michael Wong, for some reason), rather than cutting away to secondary characters who mostly engage in screwball comedy. It's a pretty dark and occasionally downright vicious picture, even if it does have moments of levity in the from of Wong's attempts to start a relationship with Yeoh. It's rather tragic overall and isn't afraid to show civilians getting caught in the crossfire that occurs as a result of the villains' vendetta against the heroes (a sequence set in a gloriously neon-soaked nightclub is particularly callous in its chaos). Thanks to its mixture of different types of set-piece, strong central performances (Yeoh is a total star) and consistently well-choreographed action, the well-paced piece remains really entertaining from its first frame to its last. It's one of the more sheerly thrilling examples of its genre, and it's genuinely great. Of course, it has some of the same flaws as many of its counterparts, but they're all fairly minor and aren't really worth mentioning. It's not perfect, but - for what it is - it's fantastic.