Executioners

Starring:Michelle Yeoh, Anita Mui, Maggie Cheung, Damian Lau, Anthony Wong Yiu-Ming, Anthony Wong Chau-Sang, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Ching Wan Lau, Paul Chun, San Kwan, Eddy Ko
Director: Siu-Tung Ching, Johnny To
Studio: Image Entertainment
Product Type: DVD

Average customer rating:

Executioners need protection
Great Old School Actioner
there is a reason you pay a couple dollars more for the red sun versions over groundzero

Executioners from Shaolin
Starring: Chen Kuan-Tai , Lily Li , Lo Lieh , and Tien Ching
Director: Liu Chia-Liang
Manufacturer: Red Sun
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Similar Items:

Fist of the White Lotus
Shaolin Master Killer (Widescreen Edition)
7 Grand Masters
Shaolin Challenges Ninja
Return of the 5 Deadly Venoms

ASIN: B000F9WEUU
Release Date: 2007-02-07

Customer Reviews:

Executioners need protection.......2007-02-09

Average movie with OK acting, and many questions that needed to be answered to make this a classic!

I bought this movie because some of the reviews said that it was very good, but they did not tell the true story. At first the son was made to look like a little girl, and immediately study his mother's technique. The movie never really answered why the father made that decision,which was a key to the movie. I did like the interaction between the father and son, because that showed how the son wanted to emulate and aspire to follow in his father's footsteps as a warrior. I thought some of the interaction between the father and wife was a little unnecessary, and had nothing to do with the movie. The romance portion was short-lived, because that was it!!

Many of these movies devalue women once they have kids. They may have been a good warrior, but once the kids come then she becomes nothing but a cook, laundry maiden, and house servant. To me that is sad, because the plot would have worked even more by showing the mother as a great fighter who helped her husband's kung fu by continually fighting him with a different technique to help him grow stronger. Instead she just stood by and kept telling the husband that "you are not ready to fight Pai-Ma, you must study more!" If your husband was going to fight somebody who killed your father or brother would you send him out unprepared? NO WAY !!!

Other than these problems, the movie developed very slowly, but was not a total waste, because the scenes with Pai-Ma were all pretty good. This is not a must have, but its definitely worth watching if you are a fan of Pai Ma.

Great Old School Actioner.......2006-06-14

For those waiting decades (literally) to get a remastered and widescreen version of this film and with the original English dubs, this is so far the one to get. One important thing though, is the Celestial Pictures remastered version, even though only with subtitles, the picture and audio quality is much better. You will notice the difference if you have both versions and watch them side by side. Another thing is the Chinese dub at least at one point came on. This was the scene when Hung See Kuan fights Pai Mei for the first time and grabs his groin. Pai Mei was supposed to say "Can't find it?" Instead it was spoken in Chinese. Another noticable thing is since it seems Red Sun was mixing the English dub when convenient, the syncing would be noticable off. For instance, in the last fight with Hung Wen Ding, the sound effects are a little late after the actual movements have occurred. This syncing problem also occurs in the Legendary Weapons of Kung Fu Red Sun release.

there is a reason you pay a couple dollars more for the red sun versions over groundzero.......2006-04-25

actually reasons, and big ones at that. It's not panned and scanned, it is presented in 16:9 format. Which I actually prefer over letterbox, if I had a big screen, I would probably take the letterbox, but this is to peoples advantage if you have around a 25 inch tv like me. Also another big plus is that unlike groundzero, you will be getting beautiful remastering job with no scratches, and I guarantee that. Now the sound is really the inly thing that they could have improved on. It only has 2-channel english language but the sound quality is still very good and won't fluxuate throughout the movie. The sound does change slightly but only because during the action, they just use original language track, but whenever they shift to speech, they have the john wayne sound-a-like AND COMPANY WHO DO ALL THE OLD SCHOOL AND NEW SCHOOL FOR THAT MATTER. So get ready for the same old voices, but again the sound shifts but is barely noticeable, I'm just a nitpicker. So overall it's worth the 3-5 dollars more.

Now the movie itself is absolutely wonderful. It has the great Chen Kuan Tai playing one of the last disciples after their shaolin temple was burned down. The movie starts with an introduction of how Pai Mei became a traitor and decided to help the ching's. It show's the head abbot of shaolin in a duel with pai mei and show his special kung fu internal style. Externally is shown just as well. I honestly can't think of a greater actor to play the traitor of the ming's. So in the next fight we get the greatest cameo of gordon liu's career. I had actually forgotten that this guy is a great actor until watching this and shaolin challenges ninja again. Now the action is made up of about 5 scenes. One after the other they get better and better but none surpassed the first 2 of the movie, the rest were just better because of the character development and the finale could not have been much better. Sure it could be bette in terms of speeds and superamn jumps but this is a hell of a lot more complex than your average kung fu tale. Now if I was only rating the fu it would only get like a 3.5, compared to say hitman in the hand of buddha would get a 3.5 or 4 btu is still only a 3 star movie. So after chen Kuan Tai escapes(thanks to gordon) he goes in hidnign and travels with the peking opera on the junks. Now I will certainly not leave out li-li-li, the hottest woman in cinema history. She meets kuan tai and marries him and they have a son who is played by wong yue. I am not familiar and didn't like him al that much, but he more than fit the bill for his fighting. So when the junks are ordered to be burned, chen and lily go in hiding and he studies for YEARS in the tiger claw style to try and beat pai mei, and he constanty refuses to implement her crane style. Even after he gets defeated by Pai Mei and is sent home a miserable loser he won't try her kung fu. But I guarantee you will see an ending that is sweet and overall great execution throughout the entire movie that will leave you with a smile on your face(especially if yu are a fan of li-li-li).

Also I didn't think that it deserved 5 stars I was stuck on a 4-4.5, but then the end came around.

Also sidenote from up at the top, this is uncut just like all red sun releases, so don't expect to see a scene cut-off and then reappear with lines on the screen and distortion because somebody finally decided to press the play button in a non-action scene.

Average customer rating:

Do Not Purchase
I have a version that is englished dub, but always switches to original language track when the fights happen
Only part of the movie
What style of Kung Fu is this?!
Good film but poor audio quality

Executioners From Shaolin
Starring: Chen Kuan-Tai , Lily Li , Lo Lieh , and Tien Ching
Director: Liu Chia-Liang
Manufacturer: Ground Zero
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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( E ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video

Fist of the White Lotus
Shaolin Master Killer (Widescreen Edition)
Shaolin Wu Tang
The Kid with the Golden Arm
Five Deadly Venoms

ASIN: B00005UQ77
Release Date: 2002-02-05

Customer Reviews:

Do Not Purchase.......2006-10-16

I have both the Red Sun, and the Ground Zero versions. Both do the most terrible job of dubbing I've ever seen. I am a martial arts movie fanatic. Having over 500 movies. I have this one on VHS, but wanted it on DVD just to be able to skip around and watch all the fantastic fight scenes. In both versions, as soon as the fighting starts, all of the sound is removed and substituted by some cheesy typical punch kick sounds. This is itself is not bad. We're all used to that. The part that ruins the movie for me is that they simply delete all of the character personal sound effects. No shouting, no screaming, no anything. For me, this killed the movie. Especially since you can see they are saying something! I hope you do not make the same mistake I made, and purchase this movie.

I have a version that is englished dub, but always switches to original language track when the fights happen.......2006-05-08

there is a reason you pay a couple dollars more for the red sun versions over groundzero.

actually reasons, and big ones at that. It's not panned and scanned, it is presented in 16:9 format. Which I actually prefer over letterbox, if I had a big screen, I would probably take the letterbox, but this is to peoples advantage if you have around a 25 inch tv like me. Also another big plus is that unlike groundzero, you will be getting beautiful remastering job with no scratches, and I guarantee that. Now the sound is really the inly thing that they could have improved on. It only has 2-channel english language but the sound quality is still very good and won't fluxuate throughout the movie. The sound does change slightly but only because during the action, they just use original language track, but whenever they shift to speech, they have the john wayne sound-a-like AND COMPANY WHO DO ALL THE OLD SCHOOL AND NEW SCHOOL FOR THAT MATTER. So get ready for the same old voices, but again the sound shifts but is barely noticeable, I'm just a nitpicker. So overall it's worth the 3-5 dollars more.

Now the movie itself is absolutely wonderful. It has the great Chen Kuan Tai playing one of the last disciples after their shaolin temple was burned down. The movie starts with an introduction of how Pai Mei became a traitor and decided to help the ching's. It show's the head abbot of shaolin in a duel with pai mei and show his special kung fu internal style. Externally is shown just as well. I honestly can't think of a greater actor to play the traitor of the ming's. So in the next fight we get the greatest cameo of gordon liu's career. I had actually forgotten that this guy is a great actor until watching this and shaolin challenges ninja again. Now the action is made up of about 5 scenes. One after the other they get better and better but none surpassed the first 2 of the movie, the rest were just better because of the character development and the finale could not have been much better. Sure it could be bette in terms of speeds and superamn jumps but this is a hell of a lot more complex than your average kung fu tale. Now if I was only rating the fu it would only get like a 3.5, compared to say hitman in the hand of buddha would get a 3.5 or 4 btu is still only a 3 star movie. So after chen Kuan Tai escapes(thanks to gordon) he goes in hidnign and travels with the peking opera on the junks. Now I will certainly not leave out li-li-li, the hottest woman in cinema history. She meets kuan tai and marries him and they have a son who is played by wong yue. I am not familiar and didn't like him al that much, but he more than fit the bill for his fighting. So when the junks are ordered to be burned, chen and lily go in hiding and he studies for YEARS in the tiger claw style to try and beat pai mei, and he constanty refuses to implement her crane style. Even after he gets defeated by Pai Mei and is sent home a miserable loser he won't try her kung fu. But I guarantee you will see an ending that is sweet and overall great execution throughout the entire movie that will leave you with a smile on your face(especially if yu are a fan of li-li-li).

Also I didn't think that it deserved 5 stars I was stuck on a 4-4.5, but then the end came around.

Also sidenote from up at the top, this is uncut just like all red sun releases, so don't expect to see a scene cut-off and then reappear with lines on the screen and distortion because somebody finally decided to press the play button in a non-action scene.

Only part of the movie.......2005-03-30

Anyone who already loves this movie and wants to own it will be disappointed. The dubbing is terrible. During the fight scenes, all you get are a few sound effects (that seem forced in to save face), but none of the original sound effects. In other words, during the fighting, no one yells, grunts, gasps, breaths heavily, growls or anything else to remind you that the volume on the television is still up. A huge disappointment to fans. Moreover, people seeing it for the first time will notice this irritating flaw as well, but maybe they won't mind so much. But then again, what's a martial arts movie without the trademark "Haaiiiyyyy!!!!" and what-have-yous when someone's kicking ass?

What style of Kung Fu is this?!.......2004-04-19

Oh man! This is one of my all-time fave Kung Fu films. I remember rushing home from my paper delivery route so that I could enjoy the brutal and mind-blasting Kung Fu action-blast that was known as "Action Kung Fu Theatre" on Buffalo 29. This was in the early eighties before uptight network executives sold every last minute of air time to infomercials and dull reality television shows.

If you watch any of the classic Shaw Brothers films today, they will take you back to those golden pre-teen years when late night television exploded with great Kung Fu action.

This film represents the nutty and off the wall best that the Kung Fu films of the seventies genre had to offer. The Shaw brothers created Kung Fu films that were a sort of high water mark from which the genre has never recovered. Crouching Tiger got great reviews from people who don't love Kung Fu films but, the latest wave of " art " Kung Fu films lack the crazy dialogue and over-the-top fight sequences that make films like Exicutioners From Shaolin so amazing. This is Shaw Brothers style Kung Fu! Top notch Kung Fu for real fans of the genre.

Good film but poor audio quality.......2003-01-22

The story is excellent as is the style of kung fu. This film stresses the finding of the weak points on a person in order to defeat him. Lo Lieh as Bai Mei (white eyebrows) is especially good. He has an arrogant attitude that no one can defeat him down to a science.

The audio quality is quite poor however. The dubbing itself is clear though. It is just that they didn't dub everything. So you don't get the grunts and yell in the film, just the oral conversations. So the fight scenes, which would have been very good in the original chinese language version, lost some of its excitement.

Customer Reviews:

Silver Fox kicks about 10-12 times in this one.......2006-07-28

If you are new to the genre, then I will let you know that is not very good. The whole movie just sorts of drags along, and drags and drags and drags. I remember seeing a trailer for this and "raging rivals of the dragon". What I rememebr is how many kicks flew in one. This was not it. How the hell I sat through this whole thing, I will never know.

Charlie Rose with Daniel Jonah Goldhagen; Howard K. Smith; Richard Grant (April 5, 1996)

Average customer rating:

Charlie Rose with Daniel Jonah Goldhagen; Howard K. Smith; Richard Grant (April 5, 1996)

Manufacturer: Charlie Rose
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

( C ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video

Description

First, Daniel Jonah Goldhagen is on to discuss his new book on Adolf Hitler, Hitler's Willing Executioners. The book makes the argument that the Holocaust could only have happened with the support of ordinary Germans and explores why anti-Semitism and the slaughter of Jews embraced by the German people. Then, a conversation with Howard K. Smith. Smith's long and dazzling career began when he left Oxford, where he was a Rhodes Scholar, to cover World War II. During his forty years in news, he conducted the first television interview with President Nixon and moderated the 1960 presidential debate between Kennedy and Nixon. He has just completed his memoir, Events Leading Up to My Death. Finally, an interview with British actor Robert E. Grant, whose feature film debut was the the cult classic, Withnail and I. Since coming to Hollywood he has worked with Robert Altman, Frances Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese. He talks to Charlie about his role in the romantic comedy, Jack and Sarah.

Average customer rating:

Grim "un"reality of post-armageddon China
NOT Charlies Angels
Classic flick with all the trimmings
Unsatisfying sequel
two hours of my life I'll never get back

Executioners
Starring: Michelle Yeoh , Anita Mui , Maggie Cheung , Damian Lau , and Anthony Wong Yiu-Ming
Director: Siu-Tung Ching , and Johnny To
Manufacturer: Image Entertainment
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Action & Adventure | Genres | DVD | Video

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Similar Items:

The Heroic Trio
Magnificent Warriors
Royal Warriors
Butterfly Sword (Special Edition)
The Bride With White Hair

ASIN: 6304857276
Release Date: 1998-03-25

Customer Reviews:

Grim "un"reality of post-armageddon China.......2003-04-21

This film's prequel, The Heroic Trio, end with a triumphant mood as the sexy trifecta of Wonder Woman, Invisible Girl and Thief Catcher make good and rid China of a demon from Hell who threatened the very existance of mankind. When Executioners opens, it would seem that no one was paying attention to the evil people who lived on Earth because China (and the rest of the world by extension) is devastated in a post-holocaustic setting without clean water and with very little future to look forward to. The Trio comes out of semi-retirement to battle the evil forces of monstrous megalomanics and military murderers. Throw in a couple of superhuman freaks and the battleground is set. But fans of Heroic Trio should be forewarned: even though Good must always defeat Evil, there are very few happy endings in Executioners. It's a very sad film that emphasizes the need for sacrifice in order to acheive the Greater Good. And this film has sacrifices in spades.

On the bright side, it's well acted and Anita Mui stands out in a stunning performance that features her mercurial beauty and her martial arts guile. Michelle Yeoh is Michelle Yeoh and there's no greater compliment than that. Maggie Cheung treats the film as though she's slumming with a B-script instead of starring in an A-level art film but she's still a treat whenever she's chewing up the scenery with her grumpy outbursts. Anthony Wong provides the necessary touches of Evil that make you yearn for the Heroic Trio to hasten his demise. Damian Yau will make you cry.

The music is, as always, a plus in any HK film that features Mui.

Don't sit back and expect a rollicking good time. This is heavy duty fare here. But's it's probably the most-layered and intense HK film that you'll see in a good long time.

NOT Charlies Angels.......2001-07-11

A nuclear holocaust more or less wipes out civilization and non-contaminated drinking water becomes a scarce commodity. Throw in a lot of social upheaval, the inevitable corrupt government officials, the re-united Heroic Trio, and you get this film, where Maggie Cheung, Anita Mui, and Michelle Yeoh get together one last time to set things right. Sort of. Just be warned this film is syrupy even for Hong Kong Cinema, with lots of cloying sentimental singing over the scenes, crying little girls, destitute people, and butchered martyrs. On the brighter side, it has some truly hellish fights, with one of the three musketeers buying the farm in a manner that's grisly even for standard setting H.K. cinema. The villian is a real heavy who looks like Mankind, the professional wrestler and has a penchant and dispositon for slaughter that makes Freddy Kreuger look like a girl scout in comparison. If you're just getting into Honk Kong Cinema, this film might scare you away, if you're a devoted follower of the genre, you'll probably like it, if you're sitting on the proverbial fence, try something else like one the Chinese Ghost Story films, preferably III. All in all, I didn't really like it myself, although Michelle Yeoh never fails to impress, Anita Mui looked very sultry, and Maggie Cheung never looked better, even if her character was 99.999% attitude problem. Maggie also teaches us how to say "asshole" in Cantonese, which might come in handy in certain Chinese resteraunts where the service is really rude.

Classic flick with all the trimmings.......2001-06-22

Its hard to say that this movie was awesome, but it was close. I enjoyed the performances of the actresses more than the plot. AS strange as this may seem, each of the stars, possed skills that set them apart from the others. Anita Mui gave an outstanding performance with her talents using the sword. Not to say that Michelle Yeoh and Maggie Cheung gave there best to make this movie a classic. But the movie dragged at points. THe women made the movie worth the view!

Unsatisfying sequel.......2001-05-16

A very unsatisfying sequel to the wonderful "Heroic Trio." The movie is dark and quite frankly very depressing. Three of the most likable major characters die horribly. Defeat and darkness seem to be the major themes here. There are also other problems; the villain is unbelievably silly, even by HK action movie standards. Master Kim, the villain, spends much of his time in the movie talking to a severed head. Michelle Yeoh is barely in the movie, and much of Anita Mui's screentime is limited to domestic scenes with her husband, who apparently has forbidden her to be Wonder Woman now that she has a child. Maggie Cheung has to carry a lot of the plot (such as it is) as a result, and she's definitely not up to the task in this movie. Instead of appearing scrappy and self-reliant, as in Heroic Trio, her character in "Executioners" comes off as shrill, mean-spirited, and not very bright.

But I don't know if anyone could have worked with this ruin of a plot. Even by HK action standards, the plot is lacking. Several of the most interesting plot threads that began in Heroic Trio (the fact that Wonder Woman and Invisible Girl are sisters, for example) are dropped completely or handled poorly in this movie. The characters are denied the depth and humanity they could have had. The actresses (for the most part) do the best they can with the script (except for Cheung, who really is not very likable here), but the overall pessimism and ugliness eventually overwhelms them - and everyone else in the movie.

Overall, this sequel is very disappointing. I can wholeheartedly recommend "Heroic Trio," but not this movie. Fans of the first film would be well advised to give this one a pass. There's really nothing to recommend this depressing, sludgy mess.

two hours of my life I'll never get back.......2001-05-08

I don't know what it is about this movie, but it's horrible. That's a particularly sad thing to say after Heroic Trio is one of the best Hong Kong movies in a long time. I'm not sure if I'm annoyed with Michelle Yoeh's prolonged death or her prolonged presence with nothing to do for the rest of the movie, or the fact that the husband is killed 20 minutes into the movie.

It's not just that this is one of the dumber Hong Kong movies I've seen, it's also that it had a potential to be really great. It has great stars, it's a sequel to an amazing movie and it just falls flat. Too many places where nothing's happening, dumb jokes, awful musical montages and the fight scenes don't excite me.

Product Description

An evil eunuch has servant Invisible Girl (Yeoh) kidnap babies with the intent of turning one of them into a new emperor for China. The police, aided by Wonder Woman (Mui) and Thief Catcher (Cheung) attempt to track down the babies and free Invisible Girl from the master's influence. The Heroic Trio returns in Executioners! Michelle Yeoh, Anita Mui, and Maggie Cheung return to action as the three female superheroes, who are now faced with a post-apocalyptic world and an evil megalomaniac named Mr. Kim (Anthony Wong). In this war torn wasteland, uncontaminated water comes at a premium, and Mr. Kim seemingly owns the entire supply. Thief Catcher (Maggie Cheung) teams up with a charming rogue (Sean Lau Ching Wan) to find a pure supply to save the city, while Invisible Girl (Michelle Yeoh) is concerned with protecting the President from a possible military coup led by power-hungry Paul Chun.

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