09-11-2014, 10:35 AM
Netflixed. Another installment in my mission to revisit classic martial arts films and see if they still hold up. This one totally does. Tsui Hark and Yuen Woo Ping teamed up and brought an epic Kung Fu superhero fantasy flick with some of the most outrageously fun wire-work fu of the time. The building suspension-of-belief and absurd Kung Fu physics escalate throughout the film until the wacky finale fight becomes strangely acceptable. Donnie Yen and Yu Gongguang are excellent, totally in their physical prime. I've always felt Yu was underrated. He had a great screen presence and mad Kung Fu skillz, but fell into Jackie Chan villain roles. Jean Wang is solid as the redeemed prostitute and Sze-Man Tsang is truly brilliant cross-dressing to play Wong Fei Hong. She has been on my 'whatever happened to?" list for some time, but a little web research told me she's been working as an HK cop since her brief foray into film (only two films according to IMDB). Yen Shi-Kwan is a great Shaolin traitor. Awesome stuff although I didn't remember the fight scenes as being so sped up. And good sword fights. A definite must-see Kung Fu flick.