Found this one because of Donnie Yen - saw that it was a Shaw Brothers production in the credits - didn't know they were still going strong! Those guys produced an INSANE number of martial art movies in their prime.
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And this movie is the stuff of legends too, it is. With mighty fights, special effects to play on the power of Chi, swords and wire, savage martial arts fencing and nimble hops across the rooftops, yet the special effects aren't always great, the motions not always realistic, and the plot's... messy, to say they least.
It's a story that clues you in as it goes, but maybe not enough. Maybe they could've been clearer. They seem to want to reveal all only towards the end, but it makes for a confusing series of deaths initially. They don't even start with the backstory. Not much of it, anyway. They reveal more of all the further they go.
It's also a love story, and that part of it I really enjoyed.
It's a tragic one, albeit. As movies of the sort often seem to provide. But it's poetic. As is the premise. The contemplations on life, and the world. The wars. The arts, they are, the martial, as well as the marital, if we ever get there.
It's fierce and wonderful and Donnie's great, but it's a farce too, if an iconic one. Maybe the Shaw Brothers movies always kind of were...
rated 4/5: fo shizzle
