Burning Paradise

Yes, a well-choreographed martial arts melodrama from Ringo Lam. It is relentlessly bloody, adding a certain black-magic flair with the repulsive arch-villain in the story. Shaolin monks fight for their survival against Qing dynasty henchmen who are in hot pursuit of the monks. A number of kungfu battles ensue, building to the climatic ending with Shaolin masters against the black arts. Of particular interest is the view of the Qing dynasty as a source of evil in China. In fact they were regarded as "foreign invaders", eventually "ousted" in the early 20th Century. Today, due to political expediency, the Chinese communist party has chosen to delete this historic inconvenience from official history, as they refuse to admit that China today actually represents several previously autonomous regions.

Burning Paradise is director Ringo Lam's dark take on the wuxia film. Much of what he did with the heroic bloodshed genre, he did here. If you have seen some classic Shaw Bros. Period kung fu flicks you should be familiar with the struggle with the treacherous Manchu's from up North reeking havoc through China. This is the struggle of Shaolin monks in an underground prison camp run by the villainous Manchu's. The tone is bleak and told in a fairly straightforward fashion with minimal humor. While this is a fantasy film, it's approached with more gritty realism than something like Swordsman 2. There is no lack of action to speak of. The entire film is jam packed with lots of exciting wire fu sequences and it gets quite messy with a lot of blood..The hero of the film(Fong Sai Yuk is a popular figure in thsrs films and is played much more serious here than the lighthearted take on the character that was made with Jet Li). The mood of the piece is very somber and bleak. The film looks sharp and the period costumes are good as well. Much of what the film does, it does well. There are no major stars in this film, but rarely matters as everyone is good in their roles. Ringo Lam tells this story his own way and at his own pace making a very solid entry to the swordplay genre that is also both unique and well made.

"Burning Paradise" is a combination of neo-Shaw Brothers action and Ringo Lam's urban cynicism. When one watches the film, they might feel the fight scenes are only mediocre in nature but that doesn't matter, it's attitude and atmosphere that counts. This great film has both!! Always trying to be different than his contemporaries, Lam gives us to traditional heroes(Fong Sai-Yuk and Hung Shi-Kwan)and puts them in a "Raiders of the Lost Ark" setting. However, these are not the light-hearted comedic incarnations that you might see in a Jet Li movie. Instead these guys fight to the death with brutal results. What makes the film even better is that anyone could die at anytime, there is no holding back. Too bad, they don't make films like this more often.

Nasty unrelenting action set in a prison that's itself a really creepy and important "character".

Top-notch wire work, good mix of fighting styles (including paint-fu!), and fine production values -- with the sore exception of some rubber weapons in the crowd scenes.

9 out of 10.

I have always been keen on watching Hong Kong movies, but all of them failed to meet my expectations...until now! BURNING PARADISE doesn't contain the flat humor most HK movies have, nor a second rate story line that has been dragged into the film. The story is not complex, but there are never scenes that are just there to fill some "intelligent" space (the only truely intelligent martial arts film I have seen is CROUCHING TIGER, but since Hollywood is involved it is no true HK movie for me). There are some incredible fight scenes in this movie, from the first one(which is one of the coolest I have ever seen, yet so short) to the last main scenes! But mind, there's also a lot of blood that flows (people cut in half, decapitated, etc). The production is pretty good and the special effects show that the fantasy of the writer can be fulfilled even though some shots must be pretty technical (notice: the sheet of paper that he throws and got pinned into a wall!). Yep, it's not Tsui Hark or John Woo that made my favorite Hong Kong film, it's Ringo Lam! And I'm sure as hell going to check out more from this director! Ace.