Moon Warriors

Starring:Andy Lau, Kenny Bee, Anita Mui, Maggie Cheung, Kelvin Wong, Yi Chang
Director: Sammo Hung Kam-Bo
Studio: Tai Seng
Product Type: DVD

Average customer rating:

Action director Ching Siu Tung and the stunt doubles make this a very fun film
one of the best
On second viewing
A noodle western with a Last Stand that strains credulity
Betty

The Moon Warriors
Starring: Andy Lau , Kenny Bee , Anita Mui , Maggie Cheung , and Kelvin Wong
Director: Sammo Hung Kam-Bo
Manufacturer: Tai Seng
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B00008V5S1
Release Date: 2003-05-20

Customer Reviews:

Action director Ching Siu Tung and the stunt doubles make this a very fun film.......2007-03-14

Directed by Sammo Hung who has one of the best eyes for action in all of cinema, and overall an unbelievable team of directors that also includes Corey Yuen Kwai. In 1982 Ching Siu Tung made his directorial debut and also choreographed the action for 'Duel To the Death', a movie that broke new ground for wire fu. Since 'Moon Warriors' was made 10 years later, big improvements were expected and he does not disappoint. There are times when 2 actors are fighting for up to a minute not showing eithers face, and it is still totally believable. If anyone has seen 'Death Duel of Kung Fu' with John Liu and Don Wong Tao (and many other movies also), then you know that stunt doubles just aren't filmed correctly sometimes. In 'Moon Warriors', the stunt doubles are the reason the action is so thrilling. Add in Ching Siu Tung's use of trampolines and wires, and the result is pure magic. He is truly a master. Ngai Sing I would have to name star of the movie since you can clearly see his moves when doubling Andy Lau and others. I also spotted Hsiao Hou and I think he doubles Maggie Cheung.

The story is not memorable, but very well done. There is an awesome cast, including a killer whale! The action is definitely the reason to see this. It doesn't get much better than watching Chang Yi think about what to do when 20 or 30 swordsmen are coming at him. So what does he do? Charges right back at them of course!

Old school fans, and I mean really old school fans will recognize Chang Yi from the famous Shaw Brothers swordplay 'Bells of Death' made in 1968. He looks better than ever wielding a sword in this! I wish I knew the secret of not aging. And I had to point out the great Chang Yi since there is literally only a couple of words spoken about him in the commentary.

3.5/5

If you like this movie, it would be best to get the Hong Kong Legends version. There are more special features and most likely it is presented in the proper widescreen format. The Tai Seng release is acceptable, and for a budget release, I loved it.

The back of the DVD case says it's letterboxed, WRONG!!!! It is cropped, but still widescreened good enough. Sound is very good with DTS(it says Cantonese DTS, but I don't have the capability to test it), 5.1 English and Cantonese, and a mono Mandarin track. It also has a mono Cantonese track which I usually prefer, but this doesn't sound like the original.

Special Features include an alternate closing credits that shows Andy Lau training with the killer whale.

Other special feature included is a commentary with Frank Jane and Ric Meyers. I list Frank Jane first because Ric actually lets him talk! The best part about havin Frank Jane helping Ric out is that Ric keeps his incorrect information to a bare minimum. I think it's the first ever commentary where I didn't hear Ric Meyers make any errors! Frank Jane does make an odd comment at the start saying he heard that this film inspired George Lucas to write 'The Phantom Menace'. The problem with Frank's comment is that it's very well known that the action choreography in this movie gave Lucas inspiration, but I have never heard that this is where he got the idea for the story. I am sure a Star Wars fan will rip him to shreds, but maybe not (that is a big maybe though). Other than that, the commentary is very good since they focus on Hong Kong movies. You could call Frank Jane a real Hong Kong fim expert when compared to Ric Meyers. So instead of Ric's solo commentaries, they actually talk about the movie! Frank Jane is similar in at least 1 way to me. I can talk up a storm abotu Asian cinema, but tend to keep my comments on American movies much more brief. Ric Meyers can get very annoying along with his constant habit of ALWAYS making mistakes, but Frank Jane keeps a tight leash on him. Great commentary and plenty of info on the movie and all of the more popular actors.

one of the best .......2006-10-23

this movie was one of the greatest martial arts flicks i've ever seen. It had every thing one would expect from a kung-fu flick-drama,betrayal,lost love revenge and one of the best swordsplay i've ever seen in a very long time.Kudos to this movie and i highly recommend this movie to any one who craves martial arts as much as I do.

On second viewing.......2006-06-17

I watched this recently after a space of about 10 years... the first time i thought it was silly but had great action scenes. Now I think its quite a bit deeper than that. By the way, when Maggie Cheung burns the paper mid-film, I believe they are paper ingots which are burned to give money to the dead in repentence for all the innocent people she's killed...

A noodle western with a Last Stand that strains credulity.......2006-06-03

What a disappointment this film was for me!

Let me say first that I have a terrific fondness for good martial arts films, and many of the Hong Kong films of the genre, while certainly showing and revelling in elements that are cheesy, yet succeed in being extremely entertaining. But this...!

I think it's fairly well understood that the Hong Kong martial arts film genre deliberately utilises many American westerns. It's not exactly unusual to see a tumbleweed go rolling across a deserted plain or through a deserted Chinese village, however silly that may seem. But in the case of this film, it went too far. My willingness to suspend disbelief and criticism came to a crashing halt. It began, I'm afraid, with the very opening scene. As soon as I heard the Chinesified western theme (borrowing heavily from the well-known musical theme that you'll recognise the instant you hear it), I flinched and said, "Oh Lord, please let it improve."

The film's score is just a mishmash of inappropriate melodies and songs. Featuring far too heavily are those frankly appalling songs sung with sugary sweetness by Chinese popstars who moo their way through lyrics of awful saccharine fake emotion. Chinese lyrics and poetry can be so delicate and powerful (exciting our admiration especially when they use miniature to create a sense of space), but the flip side is that they can also be horribly vulgar and overly sentimental. This film showed the flip side.

The story is predictable: displaced prince (Brother Yen) wants to regain his throne after travelling like a nomad through the land for years. His faithful follower, a beautiful Chinese girl, turns out to be hired by his evil brother (who usurped the throne), but switches sides yet again (after failing to kill the prince's betrothed) to fight for the prince in the final showdown. A young fisherman named Fei, with fabulous martial arts skills, defends the prince's party in a surprise ambush, and consequently bonds with the prince, falls in love with the prince's betrothed when he's sent to fetch her, and plays artlessly with a large dolphin called Wei. (There's a truly awful song at this point, by the way - it tries to be a lovely innocent "love the environment" song, but oh dear... oh no... it's one of those moments where one cringes and fast-forwards through the embarrassing music.)

Fei hides the prince's party in an underground tomb accessible only by a path which he knows (but that doesn't stop the evil usurper from finding it without difficulty) and also by sea. The final show-down reveals that: a) an evil usurper can generally fight off as many attackers as need be; b) rightful emperors (aka the prince) can be defeated by said pole-bearing evil usurper without difficulty; c) the girl who doesn't get the guy (aka the girl who joined the prince's forces in order to betray him but ended by loving him, even though his emotions were centred upon the daughter of his old friend General NanNing (I think that's the name)) is sure to be killed by the evil usurper, and to murmur, "Even though I could not live for you, I am happy to die for you, my prince"; d) the general's daughter is of course torn between the prince and Fei, loving both of them, and of course she dies; and e) (this one's the killer) it takes a dolphin to kill an evil usurper. Yes, indeed - I joke not. The finale includes Wei surging through the river that leads to the cave in which the underground tomb is built, LEAPING out of the water to whack the evil usurper in mid-attack, and pulling down the entire tomb structure to kill everyone except Fei who finishes the film by looking at the flower-covered ground below which is the tomb, and making a philosophical comment that harks back to an earlier moment in the film.

The film's not all bad. The actors all look fine, and the swordplay is neither better nor worse than most of these types of film. I did become exasperated with some aspects of the fighting, because too much of it was dancing around attacking each other's weapons rather than each other - a big no-no in martial arts. "Have at you, you foul sword of my enemy! Let me beat you, o most hideous polearm of my foe!"... There's a good idea for a spoof there.

The story is, again, neither better nor worse than many another film of this genre - except for the laughable ending.

The cinematography is only adequate, not wonderful. It certainly isn't a patch on some of the magnificent films in this style which have emerged just recently.

The insistence on having the terrible enemy be undefeatable is a peculiarity one often meets with in Chinese films of this sort. I confess I have never become accustomed to it. Why is the hero not able to defeat his evil foe? They are both mortal. They're both skilled. It's clearly a cultural element that is difficult for non-Chinese to understand.

But by far - BY FAR - the worst thing about this film is the soundtrack.

Comparing this film favourably to "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", "The Emperor and the Assassin", "House of Shining Daggers" and "Hero" is unbelievable. The aforesaid films are not just nice-looking - they're gorgeous. The cinematography is superb. In most cases, the plots are good (in the case of "Crouching Tiger", the plot is superb and intricate). In each case for the films I've mentioned, the acting is magnificent and the fight scenes beautifully done. I'm afraid "Moon Warriors" will disappoint those who expect the same standard.

Recommended only for those who want to collect every film in this genre.

Betty.......2005-02-17

Moon Warriors is complete with a fast moving plot, interesting dialogue, good sound track of period chinese instrumental music, romance for the ladies and really fast action for the guys. You could put on this DVD just for the music. Plus, there are four super stars in this movie including Maggie Cheung, the pretty girl in Hero.

Hero and, Crouching Tiger and Hidden Dragon can't even compare to this movie because people were moving around in their seats at the theater durring some scenes, (Boredom I guess).

I also highly recommend Green Snake, very erotic in good taste.

Average customer rating:

Some clarifications and a few interesting facts (warning: contains spoilers)
A feast for the senses, an adventure for the spirit. Let yourself be enlightened.
Mystical Kung Poo with side order Nonsense!
If you want to see the special effects X-men should have had
Hard to Follow but Visually Stunning

Zu: Warriors of the Magic Mountain
Starring: Adam Cheng , Norman Chu , Hark-On Fung , Sammo Hung Kam-Bo , and Damian Lau
Manufacturer: Image Entertainment
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: 6305261385
Release Date: 1999-01-19

Amazon.com

Tsui Hark was supposedly inspired by the then-groundbreaking effects of the first Star Wars trilogy when he made Zu, a fantasy action film starring Yuen Biao, Sammo Hung, Brigitte Lin, and Adam Cheung. In a somewhat confused story line, a young soldier (played by Biao) stumbles onto a magic temple after escaping an all-out civil war battle between various armies. There he meets a magic swordsman (Cheung) and his disciples, who enlist him to help fight against the evil Blood Monster. They also run across a group of swordswomen and an ice goddess (played by Lin) who appear primarily to sprinkle in some romance and humor. The 1983 special effects look dated, but they were once revolutionary, this film forming the very first special-effects house in Hong Kong. And the playful spirit behind the effects hasn't faded. Demons (which look suspiciously like the Sand People in Star Wars) fly about in an impressive aerial ballet, and in another scene, an evil demon is bounced between pillars like a pinball. One of Tsui's earliest films, Zu is a good introduction to the fast and furious style of one of Hong Kong's most visionary directors. --Shannon Gee

Customer Reviews:

Some clarifications and a few interesting facts (warning: contains spoilers).......2006-11-24

ZU: WARRIORS OF THE MAGIC MOUNTAIN (XIN SHUSHAN JIANXIA, featuring Bridgette Lin)is a film dating back to the 1980's and is NOT to be mixed up with the much more recent LEGEND OF ZU (SHUSHAN ZHUAN, in which Zhang Ziyi appears), which appeared a couple years back, even though both are directed by Tsui Hark and both are supposed to be (I want to emphasize: SUPPOSED to be) based on a long fantasy novel entitled SHUSHAN JIANXIA (SWORDFIGHTERS OF MT SHU) by Chinese author Huanzhu Louzhu (also named Li Shoumin; 1902 ~ 1961). Many of the reviewers here seem to get mixed up between the two movies. By the way, the novel's not yet translated into English, sorry -- even though I'm perfectly confident it's more than a match for Tolkien's trilogy in terms of content. :p (Certainly the novel has exerted a tremendous influence on later Chinese swordplay fiction, such as the work of Jin Yong or Louis Cha.)

NEITHER movie is true to the original novel (which in my estimate would require at least five long films, serious). The films aren't even condensed versions of the novel. With both movies Tsui Hark has committed the unpardonable sin of whipping together a story with elements and characters selected almost at random from the novel, possibly even adding his own stuff, and naming the resultant hodge-podge after the novel itself. To give a couple examples of how Tsui Hark's movie departs from the novel, in the novel becoming a blood monster is a strictly voluntary matter; you must go through special training :p and can't become one merely by being 'infected' by a blood monster, as happens in the movie. (I don't remember the blood monster forming a coccoon of skulls around itself in the original novel, either.) Also, in the original story the green and violet twin swords were lost treasures discovered by accident by two GIRLS, NOT guarded by a female immortal who then handed them to two BOYS, as in the (earlier) film. And that's just two examples, mate.

So does that automatically make ZU: WARRIORS OF THE MAGIC MOUNTAIN a bad film? Yes and no. Yes, because it's nothing short of sacrilege to mar a work of literature in this way. No, because the film actually does have a lot of cool and spectacular effects, such as fighting with swords of lightning ;) and the visually impressive and lovely interior of the palace/fort of the 'Ice Queen' (though I doubt these appear in the novel at all), and the film's own plot is not too bad, either (I personally would have much preferred that the 'Ice Queen' could eventually cure the hero who turned into a blood monster, though). Tsui Hark has a very annoying knack, however, for rushing the story so much that all you have to do is blink and you'll miss out on a huge chunk of what's going on. Can't you have at least a few slower and calmer moments, for Heaven's sake? (This gets even worse in LEGEND OF ZU, so much so the plot is in danger of being utterly lost to the viewer.) Also, sometimes the acting just doesn't feel emotionally appropriate. When you learn that your beloved martial arts teacher is in danger of turning into a blood monster and no one can do anything to help, what would you feel? How would you act? The one playing the role of the teacher's disciple in the film acted like a stupid idiot at the point of learning that hard truth. Really. Tsui Hark really should have known better, for goodness' sake. Also, would you not feel at least some sorrow when learning of your teacher's death, even though he has turned into an evil creature? In the film, the idiot apparently didn't. Yeah, he died, now let's move on. Sure, right.

My overall assessment: superb graphics, passable plot, atrocious handling of human emotions. And that's not taking into consideration the violence done to the original novel.

A feast for the senses, an adventure for the spirit. Let yourself be enlightened........2006-10-13

The original Hong Kong version really is an incredible piece of work. I enjoyed the heck out of it. However it does require that you view it with a certain frame of mind. Most importantly you have to understand that it is not a character drama. There is little range of depth to any of the characters. They exist only to serve their various roles in the story. Think of it as if it were a legend passed down through the ages (like classic Greek mythology). In such legends you always hear the story told through a series of actions and outcomes. You're never given any insight into what drives the characters and we never see more than one side of them. They just represent these sort of unchanging idealized personas. The stories that come from this are fascinating nevertheless. So in this way The Legend of Zu is literally told in the style of a legend.

That said the story is actually quite awesome. The basic premise is again very, very similar to classic Greek mythology: There is a mythical mountain range in China called Zu. Its highest peak, shrouded in mists, reaches up into the heavens. This place is populated by immortal beings who, in their scattered temples, have devoted themselves to various schools of thought. Across centuries they've honed their skills in the martial arts and have attuned their spirits to the forces of the universe. It is their task to maintain order and balance in the universe so that man can live in harmony with nature. Their actions influence the fates of the mortals below. Trouble arises when an unstoppable entity of pure evil calling itself Insomnia threatens to overthrow the most powerful school in the heavens, the Omei clan, and throw the world into an eternity of discord.

The story is steeped heavily in Chinese lore so some parts are a bit esoteric, granted, but for the most part it's easy to follow if you can just keep up with it. There is a user on imdb who wrote "The most soulful, spiritual film I've ever seen," and I think I might have to agree with him. One of the more interesting aspects of the mythology is that just as the warrior has a spirit, so too does his or her weapon. As the warrior achieves mastery with the weapon their two souls act as one; until finally their sword is no longer a physical object but rather an extension of the warrior's own spirit, capable of unleashing devastating effects and allowing the possessor to fly. The weapons are all so unique in form and function that it makes the battle scenes quite unlike anything you've ever seen before in a martial arts film.

The visuals and CGI effects, while perhaps not up to the level of say Lord of the Rings, are utterly stunning to behold. Every frame is like a painting straight from the mind of a creative genius. Matched to the superlative audio the film is quite a treat for the senses. All of this carried along by an engaging, complex, epic narrative and we have ourselves a little gem of a film! But like I said - you have to be willing and able to both divorce yourself from western conventions and to appreciate the sensibilities and beliefs of a different culture. Step out of yourselves for an hour and fourty minutes and just allow yourselves to enjoy this fun, lighthearted spiritual journey into the world of Chinese legend!

Mystical Kung Poo with side order Nonsense!.......2006-07-05

Despite this movie being about 1. magic, 2. kung fu, 3. general weirdness and cheap funny props, 4. lots of flying in colorful outfits, 5. a spattering of cutie Chinese girls who also know magic- all of which attributes people who love kung fu think should/MUST be a really great combo- it was actually so boring to me (a diehard kung fu fan) and hard to follow that i didnt' want to watch anymore of it half way thru.

It looked like a high-budget Chinese kung fu fantasy film from the 70's. Oh wait, it was.

There was NOT a lot of fighting/kung fu, but there was a lot of flying around in funny colorful costumes and strange,convoluted dialogue.

I got the impression they filmmakers were trying for something really epic, an -alien- Chinese mythology that didn't quite have the neatly-packaged-story nature of familiar, Western mythologies. In short, it make no sense and didtn' try to explain itself (nor should it)! It was a good try tho and if I were Chinese and kind of weird and living in the 70s i'd think the movie is like Chinese star wars.
--
One more thing:
They used saran wrap enshrouded with packing tape to depict large broken blocks of ice. I mention this to attest to the early Tsui Hark's innovative set design and creative props. It was a neat although distracting way to cut costs. Also worthy of mention in this regard is the fake, incongruent, drawn cartoon lightning interleaved with fancy acrobatics and disjointed dialogue.

If you want to see the special effects X-men should have had.......2004-08-07

This MOVIE is way ahead of its time. The special effects, or fireworks as some reviewers put it were well in advance of anything I've seen in Matrix, X-men, Hulk, Spiderman and the like. If your looking for a storyline, plot and all that pick up a book instead of watching a MOVIE. For action packed, VISUAL ectsasy this is one of the greats. CGI is the wave of the future for movies my friends. Hell, the CGI Smigel from LOTR almost got an Oscar didn't he?

Hard to Follow but Visually Stunning.......2004-07-19

This movie's plot is a bit hard to follow (or pay attention to ) but the action and effects are absolutely incredible! I bought this movie because I absolutely loved Storm Riders and was hoping this would be as good if not better. You are better off renting it if possible.

Average customer rating:

Action director Ching Siu Tung and the stunt doubles make this a very fun film
one of the best
On second viewing
A noodle western with a Last Stand that strains credulity
Betty

Moon Warriors
Starring: Andy Lau , Kenny Bee , Anita Mui , Maggie Cheung , and Kelvin Wong
Director: Sammo Hung Kam-Bo
Manufacturer: Tai Seng
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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