10-05-2016, 11:03 AM
I love wuxia films. It's my favorite genre. This is a solid wuxia film.
First of all, it's Sammo choreographing. There's wire work as is his style nowadays, and it's very comic book at points, plus there's some CGI enhancement especially with a whip, but it's good Sammo fight scenes - inventive, brutal, and thrilling. There's a few extended shots and a lot of lovely weapon work. All of the fights explode when they happen. Good stuff. I've always loved Sammo's work and with Wu Jing, the action is tight. Also, my old Shaolin monk friend, Xing Yu is in it, playing a heavy as usual.
The village set they built is shown off in a spectacular fashion. The whole look of the film is gorgeous, romantic in that old school wuxia sort of way. There's a decent amount of intrigue and story, akin to the old Shaw Brothers wuxia flix. The acting is solid - Koo and Lau are solid, and Peng delivers too. It starts off rather comical with an early drunken boxer fight, and then SPOILER takes a really dark turn into bloody ultraviolence END SPOILER. The soundtrack echoes Ennio Morricone, given the film an old tyme Western feel (Westerns, Chanbara and Wuxia all share that same wandering warrior sensibility). When the heroes finally assemble, when they finally heed the call, I was totally captivated. And the final fight is great cinematic mayhem.
I really enjoyed this. Totally DOOM worthy in that classic Kung Fu flick sense. Greg, you'd love the set pieces. Yeti, not only are there swordfights, there are wonderfully wacky weapons.
First of all, it's Sammo choreographing. There's wire work as is his style nowadays, and it's very comic book at points, plus there's some CGI enhancement especially with a whip, but it's good Sammo fight scenes - inventive, brutal, and thrilling. There's a few extended shots and a lot of lovely weapon work. All of the fights explode when they happen. Good stuff. I've always loved Sammo's work and with Wu Jing, the action is tight. Also, my old Shaolin monk friend, Xing Yu is in it, playing a heavy as usual.
The village set they built is shown off in a spectacular fashion. The whole look of the film is gorgeous, romantic in that old school wuxia sort of way. There's a decent amount of intrigue and story, akin to the old Shaw Brothers wuxia flix. The acting is solid - Koo and Lau are solid, and Peng delivers too. It starts off rather comical with an early drunken boxer fight, and then SPOILER takes a really dark turn into bloody ultraviolence END SPOILER. The soundtrack echoes Ennio Morricone, given the film an old tyme Western feel (Westerns, Chanbara and Wuxia all share that same wandering warrior sensibility). When the heroes finally assemble, when they finally heed the call, I was totally captivated. And the final fight is great cinematic mayhem.
I really enjoyed this. Totally DOOM worthy in that classic Kung Fu flick sense. Greg, you'd love the set pieces. Yeti, not only are there swordfights, there are wonderfully wacky weapons.
Shadow boxing the apocalypse
