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5 out of 5 people found the following review useful:
Beautifully Shot Wuxia Film, 30 March 2006
8/10
Author: bs3dc from United Kingdom

Sammo Hung has an impressive record in front of the camera, but here shows his equally praiseworthy directorial skills.

Hampered in his filming by the fact that some of the cast were available for short periods (Maggie Cheung was only on set for 2 days!) meaning that there there is only one brief scene where all 4 main cast members are together on screen is an achievement in film-making. Arthur Wong is the cinematographer and deserves a lot of credit for the beautiful images captured on camera, in my opinion not matched in the genre apart from Hero (2002). With no CGI the frequent - but not excessive -wirework had to be shot in way so that the wires were not visible and this is pulled off extremely well. The action itself is very creative which is no surprise when you have Sammo Hung, Ching Siu-Tung and Corey Yuen (known as Yuen Kwai in some of his earlier films) who are widely recognised as three of the best action choreographers in the business. They manage to make Andy Lau et al. convincing action actors despite their lack of formal training.

Andy Lau plays the hero and makes a good job of it, though his killer whale sidekick is cute but ridiculous. As filming with the killer whale took place at some aquarium/theme park if you look closely you can see the 'rocks' are made of plastic! The late lamented Anita Mui, along with Kenny Bee and especially Maggie Cheung provide excellent support in a complicated love triangle subplot.

The music appears to have been given more attention than some other films in the genre and the songs sung by Andy Lau and Sally Yeh compliment the story perfectly. The other music is by the late James Wong whose work will be familiar to many Hong Kong action film enthusiasts and includes The Swordsman, Iron Monkey and the Once Upon a Time in China series.

One minor criticism is that though the storyline is epic in nature, the film is hampered somewhat by armies being made up of about a dozen extras, reducing their impact somewhat. This is no surprise considering the small budget of the film (particularly Hollywood standards). The film is also a little short, but tight scripting by Alex Law manages to largely overcome this flaw.

Overall I would highly recommend Moon Warriors, a film that is largely forgotten, but deserves more recognition as although it has several flaws, including a ludicrous scene with a plastic killer whale, there is much to enjoy here if you are a fan of the wuxia genre.

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5 out of 5 people found the following review useful:
Very cool, 1 January 1999
8/10
Author: Scott Middlebrook from Yarraville, Victoria, Australia

The only reason I rented this was due to the fact that Maggie Cheung was in it, but I was pleasantly surprised to find a very enjoyable film. All the good guys are like-able and the bad guy is a right b******!! Excellently choreographed fight scenes, great cinematography (especially the scenes with the Fei and the killer whale Hai Wei(sp?)), and an extra bonus surprise about a third of the way into the movie - Anita Mui!!

The ending shocked me somewhat, but didn't detract from my enjoyment the movie in any way. Well worth checking out.

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4 out of 4 people found the following review useful:
Best death scene ever.., 1 June 1999
7/10
Author: Nathan-43 from Leeds UK

I remember this being quite a good, mature kick flick, but there is one scene I must have watched 20 times now, undeniably the best death in any movie. A servant reports his failure to his Overlord, whereupon the lord cuts his head off with the string of his bow, flicks it up in the air, shoots an arrow through the head whilst it flies through the air, sending the impaled bonce across a line of torches, setting fire to it. The head embeds itself on a wall, spelling out the Overlords name in fire. At this time the overlord runs across the burning torches, somersaults over to a chessboard, slams a piece down and cries - Checkmate! Has to be seen to be believed.

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2 out of 3 people found the following review useful:
One of the best movies of the Wuxia genre, 23 January 2006
9/10
Author: Matti-Man from London, England

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

MOON WARRIORS is without doubt one of the best examples of Wuxia (not "sword and sorcery" as some reviewers have labelled it) cinema. Wuxia, as I've noted in my other reviews, is a genre akin to the Japanese samurai movies, in that it is about honour, loyalty and the code of the warrior as much as it's about kick-ass fighting. There should always be a bit of romance in Wuxia movies as well, something that's almost always missing from its sister genre, kungfu films ...

If the story seems a tad corny to Western sensibilities, that's probably because Wuxia films take their inspiration from the traditional writings of the Qing and Ming dynasties. But then, STAR WARS (a film that MOON WARRIORS resembles) is pretty corny too, and we don't love it any the less.

Starring a whole flock of Hong Kong pop singers (Andu Lau, Kenny Bee and the late, great Anita Mui), MOON WARRIORS is chock full of astonishing moments. The "ninja" attack as Yuet (Anita Mui) and her ladies-in-waiting fly their kites and the 14th Prince's (Kelvin Wong) incredible skill with the bow when he ignites the logo that reads "Heaven and Earth" (not his name as another reviewer writes).

It should also be pointed out that Sammo Hung also cast his female leads against type deliberately. It would have been more obvious to have cast Maggie Cheung as the delicate princess who knows martial arts but has never used them before and Anita Mui as the hardened assassin. But Sammo is a film-maker who avoids the obvious.

MOON WARRIORS has just about everything - great action, epic storyline and it's achingly romantic - and seems to work best for those who are not kungfu film fans and thus have no preconceived expectations.

But the killer whale - what was Sammo thinking of?

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2 out of 3 people found the following review useful:
Well-executed average story, 9 May 2005
7/10
Author: sarastro7

Moon Warriors is a beautifully filmed period kung fu drama starring handsome Andy Lau as the rural and naive yet impeccably good and incorruptible (not to mention invincible) hero, who befriends the rightful crown prince who's trying to regain the throne from his evil younger brother. Of course, both brothers and everyone they associate with are over-the-top kung fu masters... :-)

The story is not very nuanced, nor very original, nor particularly good - but it is saved by the excellent actors, the excellent action scenes, the cool kung fu, and, yes, the whale! Andy Lau's character, Fei, is friends with a small orca that he plays with in the water and who saves his bacon in some crucial scene towards the end. The whale scenes are beautiful and totally feel-good! It's made even better by the extra scenes on the DVD, where the whale's good nature is highlighted in scenes where it, for instance, waves to Andy with one flipper as it swims by. Clearly, all involved had a great deal of fun!

My rating: 7 out of 10.

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2 out of 3 people found the following review useful:
pretty good period/fantasy piece, 17 July 2004
Author: movieman_kev from United States

Sammo Hung is one of the VERY few actors who is a joy to watch in front of the camera AND he's a pretty damn good director as well. This well done period/fantasy piece is no exception. Andy Lau (another favorite foreign actor of mine) is Fei, a common fisher-man who falls in love with the Emperor's daughter, who is bethrothed to the King. The king is secretly loved by his adviser who was sent to kill him. It's a tad convoluted, yes. And the part with the whale is rather silly. But all in all, it's pretty good. Not among the best of these type of movies though.

My Grade: B-

DVD Extras: Commentary by Hong Kong film expert, Ric Meyers; 'Alternate Ending' (which really is just the same ending, but instead of fading to black for the credits, it goes to whale outtakes); Cast Filmographies; Trailers for "Dragon Inn", " Duel to the Death", "the Master Swordsman", "the Duel", and "My Schoolmate, the Barbarian"

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nothing special, 5 May 2012
4/10
Author: WatchedAllMovies from United States

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

When I saw the IMDb rating 6.8 I thought this must be an unusually good Hong Kong movie. Turned out to be just average.

This movie has a simple plot: Good king persecuted by an evil brother who wants to take over his throne. Naturally, the good king wants to fight his way back to his throne.

Some romance is added to the movie to stretch it to movie length. But that's not enough, so they added a killer whale that plays trick. The editing with the orca is so poorly done, you can see it is swimming inside a pool with a man made island, and not in the ocean where the story is supposed to take place.

Strangely, even though two of the main characters are famous singers in Hong Kong, the theme songs are sang by another unrelated singer.

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1 out of 2 people found the following review useful:
Good Chinese Sword-and-Sorcery, 25 May 2005
8/10
Author: stan-shapiro from United Kingdom

I really enjoyed this movie. For me it's an HK sword-and-sorcery classic.

Kelvin Wong as the 14th Prince is a "Baddie" extraordinaire and features in some brilliant, utterly over the top action scenes that had me in stitches. Maggie Cheung is also good and adds lots of good moves to the action and character to the plot. The movie is well-paced, good to look at, well-directed and has some original touches that have been emulated and extended as the genre has become more popular and more lavish. I didn't like the English dubbing - it murders the dialogue, and prefer the original soundtrack with English sub-titles. Simplistic storyline (What d'you expect - it's Chinese Sword and Sorcery) and occasionally sentimental, nevertheless, if you like the genre, well worth seeing.

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1 out of 2 people found the following review useful:
Some comments, 6 March 2001
Author: min11586 from Boston

I really enjoyed this movie since I love Chinese history. Andy Lau is also one of my favorite singers, so obviously this movie was great. However, they made a big mistake on choosing Anita Mui as Yue Ar Yee. I thought Maggie Cheung Man Yuk would fit the role better.

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1 out of 2 people found the following review useful:
Beautiful,fast paced,a great mix of romance and adventure, 14 August 2000
7/10
Author: muichimotsu (muichimotsu@aol.com)

very well done period swordplay fantasy film.The fisherman in his simplicity is a true hero.The unrequited love that dominates throughout is well executed.Maggie Cheung and Anita Mui can duel all day long..Awesome.The villain is well played his skill is evident.musically the score is great..definitely worth seeing love,honour,pace..and great wire work must definitely put this film up there with the better made one of the genre..All hail King Sammo....

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