****very mild spoilers****** Ching Siu Tung and Tusi Hark are so Hit or miss it's strange. As a Team they have worked together on the brillant and super fun Chinese Ghost story series (Siu Tung has sole directing credit but most believe Hark micromanged those films)as well as the the swordsmen series which had a good second entry and an amazing third entry(the east is red). Tusi hark is also the director of the criminally underrated once upon a time in china series and the high octane action film Time and Tide.
When you watch those films as well as his absolutely beautiful fantasy film the legend of ZU you see a master at work. The problem I think is that Hark slams out films from time to time. As many films of pure genius that can be connected to him just as many turds can be as well. Were not just talking about the Van Damme embarrassments. This looks like one of them rush jobs.
That being said I still had fun watching this comic book adaption. There a few moments where you can see hints of Hark's abilities. Mostly those come from the inventive use of comic book art and interesting dissolves. The martial arts in the film are Ok but suffer mostly from not having any real martial artists in lead roles.
As well the film has lots of gun battles which can be somewhat of downer since this is a 1930 period film. After watching films like Time and Tide and the killer these gun battles appear stiff and boring.
The humor gets old fast and is probably lost in translation as is often the case in hong kong films. The special effects, namely the plane is so laugh out loud bad you have to wonder what they were thinking.
In the end this comes down to the question why do you watch hong Kong films? If you can sit back and enjoy a movie without taking it or yourself to serious you might have fun.
Also The character of big nose...played by Corey Yuen(He directs most of Jet LI's stuff)cool cameo for us Kung Fu movie geeks.
When you watch those films as well as his absolutely beautiful fantasy film the legend of ZU you see a master at work. The problem I think is that Hark slams out films from time to time. As many films of pure genius that can be connected to him just as many turds can be as well. Were not just talking about the Van Damme embarrassments. This looks like one of them rush jobs.
That being said I still had fun watching this comic book adaption. There a few moments where you can see hints of Hark's abilities. Mostly those come from the inventive use of comic book art and interesting dissolves. The martial arts in the film are Ok but suffer mostly from not having any real martial artists in lead roles.
As well the film has lots of gun battles which can be somewhat of downer since this is a 1930 period film. After watching films like Time and Tide and the killer these gun battles appear stiff and boring.
The humor gets old fast and is probably lost in translation as is often the case in hong kong films. The special effects, namely the plane is so laugh out loud bad you have to wonder what they were thinking.
In the end this comes down to the question why do you watch hong Kong films? If you can sit back and enjoy a movie without taking it or yourself to serious you might have fun.
Also The character of big nose...played by Corey Yuen(He directs most of Jet LI's stuff)cool cameo for us Kung Fu movie geeks.