Moon Warriors

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Audience Member I wouldn't exactly call it a classic HK film. I love this film to death but there are flaws in the film that I find to be quite asinine. The film starts off like any standard action based medium would do during that time. A humble young fisherman from a fishing colony living by the Ocean who is then met with a troubled prince trying to escape his brother who has dethroned him. The main protagonist is sprinkled with naivete and optimism. He lives a simple life and has simple emotions up until he meets the group. About a third of the way through the film they introduce another character who then joins the main cast and she is the device that triggers the love triangle subplot (technically love square if you include the half assed Maggie Cheung subplot). Fei (Andy Lau) also has a best friend named Wei and he's a killer whale. The films sprinkled with a ton of anti-mainland elements with themes like environmentalism which I find humorous (but more like laughing at you rather than laughing with you). The fighting is beautifully choreographed. For some, the dancing fight forms can be annoying but I think it was really well done. The actors are extremely charismatic on camera and they make good use of the stunt doubles and camera angles when getting the more extreme movements on camera to show off the energetic and agility induced fight scenes. Some hard spoilers here so read at your own risk: The reasoning for my 3.5 rating is because the film, though paced really well, is a movie that starts off pretty decent but eventually brews itself into abhorrence. The main antagonist is so powerful it becomes over the top comical. In the end the main antagonist single handedly kills the entire group except for Fei but he does almost get Fei; there's a deus ex here but I won't spoil this part. The love triangle doesn't really go anywhere. In the end she tells the main guy that she loves him and she hands him some jade jewelry right before dying. He gets frustrated, all the while, the main antagonist is wire fu'ing his way towards the main good guy when that was happening. The prince who was dethroned is already dead at this point and Maggie Cheung's character (who died at the same time right by his side) already gave her half assed sentimental last words to him right before death. The ending made no sense at all and I think it's due to some missing subtext for western viewers. In the end he visits the grave/tomb of his dead friends and he states a deep existential infused philosophical quote before walking away from the shot. If anyone could explain, that'd be great! Okay here are some more pros. The film is absolutely brutal. There's no rape or nudity but there is a lot of bloody scenes and a lot of the fights don't end well for anyone ever. The night scenes are the most stunning aesthetics I've seen in a freaking 90's HK film ever and they have aged really well by todays standards. P.S I would buy a digital copy of this film if that means I can turn the aesthetic scenes into Lofi BGM Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 02/26/23 Full Review Audience Member Here comes the Wild East! Combine High Skilled Sword Fights, Horse Riders, a Eastern-Western Flair and a Love Story between a Princess and a Fisher and this in a bewichting and bounding Style of A-Movie and you get one of the best Martial Arts Movies ever! Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 02/16/23 Full Review Audience Member An ousted king fleeing his evil brother is saved by an honest peasant fisherman who attempts to help him reach the lands of his ally. Directed by Sammo Hung, this film is a real throwback to the pre-Crouching Tiger days when HK cinema was a no-nonsense crowd pleasing blend of energetic martial arts, cheesy humour and romantic musical montage. Although the story sounds grand, it's really a message about individual friendship and loyalty; that we're all essentially the same under the skin and honour and justice are the most important qualities. It features a very young and handsome Andy Lau and reminds you of just how formidable a physical performer he used to be. Although very exaggerated, the fight sequences all look very authentic in these times of stunt men and CGI and the acrobatics of everyone involved are extremely impressive; including a particularly stunning Maggie Cheung. The story is simplistic and episodic of course, but it has a naive sincerity that's quite endearing and fills the time til the next flurry of fists and swords well enough, and where else are you going to see a kung fu killer whale?! Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 01/28/23 Full Review Audience Member bitter sweet in someways and in other simply bitter Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 02/03/23 Full Review Audience Member The director of the film was Sammo Hung, but he did not do the choreography. A pretty good story, but it quickly runs out of ideas and it has a melodramatic ending instead of a good action climax. You can only watch two large groups of people fight before it gets repetitive. Good story, but fails to deliver good swordplay. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/05/23 Full Review Audience Member I think this film was made at least 5 years too early. In a sense, this is a film that predicted the coming of new age of wuxia films in the new century with Ang Lee's "Croucing Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and Yimou Zhang's "Hero." This film is based on an original story and screenplay by Alex Law who wrote a lot of films by Mabel Cheung, and it was rare thing to occur, because wuxia films were basically based on famous classic novels. Andy Lau, who later stars in Yimou Zhang's "Lovers," and Maggie Cheung, who later stars in "Hero," are already in this film. In film other than them are Anita Mui and Kenny Bee, who were both top actors of Hong Kong at that time. Sammo Hung is the misschoice for the director, I must say. He is good at making action comedies, but not good at making this kind of serious literature-like drama which weighs more heavily on story than action. It was common sense at that time that action directors directed wuxia films, not drama directors. If this was remade now by a different director, it would be totally new and better film. Rated 2.5/5 Stars •  Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 01/28/23 Full Review Read all reviews

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