The Taking of Tiger Mountain

2014

2h 21m

Adventure

Action

List

71%

Tomatometer

17 Reviews

66%

Audience Score

500+ Ratings

During the Chinese Civil War in 1946, a communist reconnaissance soldier disguises himself as a bandit to infiltrate and destroy the gang.

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Noel Murray

The Dissolve

Tsui fulfills his primary goal here of making a classic newly relevant-not just to younger Chinese viewers, but to anyone who likes action.

Rated: 3/5

Jun 2, 2015

Full Review

Grady Hendrix

Film Comment Magazine

In an ironic twist worthy of an opera, the very same young people who are being criticized are the ones who have bought the tickets that made this film a hit.

Jan 9, 2015

Full Review

Bruce DeMara

Toronto Star

[It] has quite a lot to recommend it. But it also has a few glaring flaws that detract from it being stellar action fare.

Rated: 2/4

Jan 8, 2015

Full Review

Andrew Heskins

easternKicks.com

More boy's own adventure than patriotic anthem, Tsui Hark directs one hell of an enjoyable action yarn...

Rated: 3.5/5

Sep 23, 2020

Full Review

Julian Lytle

Punch Drunk Critics

So The Taking of Tiger Mountain is something you should really not go out of your way to see, it's probably worth looking for the English translation of the novel or if you can read mandarin read it that way.

Rated: 2/5

Jan 11, 2020

Full Review

John Lehtonen

MUBI

The film never lingers too heavily, and for all the story contrivances Tsui manages to quite deftly balance his impulses. Moments of tension or fear dissipate into the spectacle, only to reemerge again.

Jan 9, 2018

Full Review

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Audience Member

I enjoyed this one overall as it had good action and filming style, along with some spy elements in the story which kept you guessing the plotline and how it would finish

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

01/13/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Tsui Hark adapts Peking opera, "Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy" into a juggernaut of spectacularly staged action sequences melded around the sterling central story about the historical battle of wits and guts between the People's Liberation Army of China and a bandit clan.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

01/22/23

Full Review

Audience Member

A small band of scrappy soldiers are followed around in the snow by an orchestra playing nothing but patriotic music. Their mission (the soldiers, not the orchestra) is to take out a nest of bandits. One of the soldiers (who wears blue eye shadow throughout the movie) manages to infiltrate the stronghold and pose as a bandit himself. This movie did not need to be 2 1/2 hours long. The pacing is on the slow side. When any action does happen it's full of slo mo and CGI blood. Are squibs that expensive? The big bad boss, Hawk, is kept in the shadows for a good portion of the film. He should have remained in the shadows because when he was fully revealed I had a good laugh. He looks absolutely ridiculous. All the bandits do. They look like characters out of a manga. Oddly this film has two dramatic endings with the same characters. It's like the film makers filmed both, couldn't make up their minds which one they liked best, and decided to use both. If you liked other movies like Wolf Warrior and Operation Mekong, you'll probably like this as well. You'll also spot some familiar faces as actors from both these films are in this one as well.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

02/15/23

Full Review

Audience Member

It starts off very cheesy and ends even cheesier but the middle and end has some very good action scenes and story elements that made it an enjoyable watch but could have been much better if many needless scenes were cut out and if many of the CGI effects were removed too because they were not good by modern Hollywood standards at least.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

01/14/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Let the two gangs fight each other and we'll gather the spoils. The Chinese government has become corrupt, greedy, and unnecessarily difficult to their people. A young revolutionary army gets together and plans to overthrow the government; meanwhile, a group of bandits swoop in hoping to steal the riches from both sides and escape unscathed. This triangle of deceit may hurt the people more than it helps... "Only the heavenly soldiers can fly." Hark Tsui, director of The Once Upon a Time in China Trilogy, Seven Swords, Flying Swords of Dragon Gate, Dragon Inn, The Banquet, The Swordsman, and Dangerous Encounters of the First Kind, delivers The Taking of Tiger Mountain. The storyline for this picture is fairly entertaining and intricate. The settings and special effects are beautiful while the martial arts is just okay. The acting is solid for the content. "Get ready for a fight." This was recently added to Netflix so I had to give it a shot. This is a beautiful movie in classic Hark Tsui fashion and the characters were okay. Overall, this is a fairly average addition to the genre that is worth watching for fans of the genre but I wouldn't go too out of my way to see it. "I want to take on this mission." Grade: C

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

01/19/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Took me by surprise! This is really an awesome film! At first I was like "meh, I've seen this before". WWII rebels vs. rebels cliche but oh boy I was so wrong. A group so called the PLA wants to finish the over ruling of Lord Hawk. It's more like an over the top WWII Action and Drama film. With great cinematic special effects, and well made action scenes. I really like the sound of the sniper rifles and the explosions which made me more pumped up. One of the assets in this film is the villain. I freaking love the villain named Lord Hawk. The villain's side really stole the show, as one of the spies (a General) from the PLA invade's Lord Hawk's den. He joined the brother hood and slowly but surely, he does have it all planned. The spying scene is so intense that you might think, is he going to be dead soon? But his style of hiding and lying is just top notch and I loved it! I love the ending I thought the action scenes are fantastic w/o over using the special effects or CGI's too much. Feels comic at times with lovable characters but overall this is a great guilty pleasure. Very much recommended!

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/17/23

Full Review

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Hark Tsui

Director

Hanyu Zhang

Yang Zirong

Kenny Lin

203

Liya Tong

Bai Ru

Tony Leung Ka Fai

The Hawk

Yu Nan

Ma Qinglian

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Synopsis

During the Chinese Civil War in 1946, a communist reconnaissance soldier disguises himself as a bandit to infiltrate and destroy the gang.

Director: Hark Tsui
Producer: Dong Yu
Production Co: Bona Film Group, Huaxia Film Distribution Company
Genre: Adventure, Action
Original Language: Chinese
Release Date (Streaming): Jun 2, 2015
Box Office (Gross USA): $223.0K
Runtime: 2h 21m

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