03-12-2012, 01:55 PM
This begins with a duel between two of the greats: Yuan Biao (Jackie's little bro) and Yu Rongguang (villain in New Karate Kid et.al.) choreographed by Sammo. Sammo's work here is very comic book - lots of over-the-top wire work to comic book hero effect ala Corey Yuan. The film ends with a sword fight - Barbie Hsu (a southpaw) in her negligee in a wine cellar. There's a decent plot (Greg's cry of 'a story where the fights were an organic part of the whole' actually applies here) and a lot of references to Chinese opera (mostly Monkey King and Farewell My Concubine). There's a lot of sumptuous costumes and sets - you can see where the astronomical (for Chollywood) $120 million budget went.
But it fails. Yuan and Yu drop out of the story too soon and the baby-faced teen idols that take over the lead roles are way to emo. Director Gao Xiaosong just won a Broom Award (China's Razzie). It's very disappointing as it had so many elements going for it - story, costume, sets, some amusing fights - but the leads were so wooden - too wooden even for a kung fu movie, if you can believe that.
But it fails. Yuan and Yu drop out of the story too soon and the baby-faced teen idols that take over the lead roles are way to emo. Director Gao Xiaosong just won a Broom Award (China's Razzie). It's very disappointing as it had so many elements going for it - story, costume, sets, some amusing fights - but the leads were so wooden - too wooden even for a kung fu movie, if you can believe that.
Shadow boxing the apocalypse
![[Image: thunderbirds_series_2_square.jpg]](http://www.album-art.net/art/tv_shows/t/thunderbirds/thunderbirds_series_2_square.jpg)