drngor

Everything about this film screams old school. The main protagonist is a martial arts instructor. The movie starts out with a bunch of fights that aren't even part of the plot, they just show off his skills. Most the bad guys use martial arts instead of fighting. The bad guys even hire good fighters to fight the main good guy. This is a REAL martial arts film. Don't get me wrong, I love many of the New Wave martial arts movies that came from Hong Kong. I like most of Jackie Chan's work. However, this is the type of film that I wished Jackie Chan, Jet Li, and Michelle Yeoh did more often. Movies that are full of serious martial arts and are only excuses to show off the performers' physical skills.

The storyline is simple. Some evil Caucasian gangster is going after the men who killed his family. One of gets killed. The other guy and his two daughters get saved by a martial arts instructor who must use his skills to protect them. Great stuff.

The martial arts is nothing short of fantastic. Fan Siu Wong is an awesome fighter. His kicks are awesome. We also get to see him fight with tonfa, spear, and sword. There's a female caucasian fighter who is also very talented and she gets to fight w/ her hands, a rope-dart, and a sword. Billy Chow, who's always reliable, plays a Thai boxer. Ngai Sing plays this effeminate Japanese fighter. He does a lot better job here than he did in Bodyguard from Beijing and My Father is a Hero. There's another white guy who's pretty good too. All the fights are amazing.

If there's one thing I didn't like about the movie, it's that there are some very bloody moments that I personally didn't care for. Otherwise, it's highly recommended to any fans of martial arts films. There should be no reason to be disappointed with this film.

If Sammo could ever do anything right, he could choreograph. He's a master of martial arts choreography and many of Jackie's and Biao's best films come with Sammo doing the choreography. This movie is a prime example of this.

The film deals with two Chinese men in Spain who run a food truck. They meet a pick-pocket who turns out to be heir (along w/ her institutionalized mother) to a large fortune, which is coveted by some nasy goons. Sammo plays a detective that's on the case. All this builds up to an excellent climax at a Spanish castle.

One thing that I did like a lot about the movie was the script. The rapport between Yuen Biao and Jackie Chan was excellent, and they get a lot of witty comments, comebacks, and responses to supposedly stupid questions. You have to see the subtitled version to understand.

Like I was saying, the choreography in the film is great. Unfortunately, there are only about 4 fight scenes or so before the climax that are all really short. It really left me craving a lot more. The finale is a true piece of work. Jackie takes kickboxing champ Benny "The Jet" Urquidez in one of the best one-on-one's ever filmed. Yuen Biao takes on Keith Vitale, another karate champ. Sammo takes on the lead villain in a Chinese variation of European fencing.

The action isn't wall-to-wall but what's there is excellent. The relationship between Yuen and Chan is also great. It's a Jackie Chan film worth seeing.

Now I've been watching martial arts films for my entire life. I've been watching Asian martial arts films for years, so I've seen it all. I've seen the old style choreography, the modern kickboxing, the Jackie Chan style of prop fighting, the new wave wire fu of the 1990s, etc. I'm not one of those people that'll go into the film and criticize it because it's unbelievable. After all, I watch films to escape from reality, not to let it get bogged down.

The plot deals with the events that occur following the theft of a legendary sword. These events affect the lives of a swordsman (Chow), a governor's daughter (Ziyi), a master criminal (Peipei), and the leader of an escort service (Yeoh). It's not really important to discuss those in detail.

A lot of the film's praise goes back to the fight scenes. Well, they're good. Yuen Woo Ping is one of the masters of choreography. The swordfight is especially good, probably my favorite cinematic sword fight. But on the whole, it's nothing new. Chow holds his own, but isn't spectacular. Zhang Ziyi looks decent but people like Donnie Yen could do the same things without wires. Michelle is excellent as usual, I think she was underused in the fights, she only gets two scenes (which are the highlights of the film). However, like I said, it's nothing new or ground breaking. And for people that criticize the flying people, IT'S A FANTASY!

The other praised aspects of the film is where the line between those who know the genre and those who don't gets defined. This is not the first martial arts film to have a good musical score. Just watch the Swordsman series or the Once Upon A Time in China series. Those movies have awesome scores and far more memorable songs. This is not the first martial arts movie to have a good storyline. Once again, check out the Swordsman movies or the Once Upon a Time in China films (well the first 3) and there you get good stories. Jet Li's Tai Chi Master and Fist of Legend also have good storylines. There are dozens of martial arts films out there that have good storylines. This is also not the first martial arts film to have good cinematography, acting, or characters. People treat it as if it were the first. Sorry people, that's not the case.

It's really an insult to Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung, Donnie Yen, Jet Li, Yuen Biao, and a lot of the other classic Hong Kong action starts when people praise this movie so much. Why? Because they've been doing this stuff for years (often times without wires and computer enhancement) and yet they've not gotten the same wide respect from American audiences. Also, it's insulting to them that a film with few actual martial artists (Michelle Yeoh is the main exception) gets so much praise, when the people that really know the stuff can't get the same.

I'm not saying this to say that this isn't a good film. I'm saying that it's overrated and nothing new. People who say this is the greatest martial arts film ever really need to go back and watch a lot of the classics of the genre to understand what I mean.