Fung wan: Hung ba tin ha (1998)

An evil warlord takes in 2 students (Wind & Cloud) in an effort to become invincible so he can take over the world.

Director:

Wai-Keung Lau (as Andrew Lau)

Writers:

Wing-Shing Ma (story) (as Ma Wing Shing), Manfred Wong (screenplay)

Stars:

Aaron Kwok, Ekin Cheng, Shin'ichi Chiba

7 wins & 13 nominations.

Cast

Credited cast:
Aaron Kwok	...	Striding Cloud / Bou Ging Wan
Ekin Cheng	...	Whispering Wind / Nip Fung
Shin'ichi Chiba	...	Lord Conqueror / Hung Baa (as Sonny Chiba)
Kristy Yeung	...	Charity / Hung Chi
Qi Shu	...	Muse / Cho Cho
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Lawrence Cheng	...	Jester / Man Chow Chow (as Tan-shui Cheng)
Roy Cheung	...	Shaolin Monk
Yue Dung Cheung	...	Striding Cloud - child
Jason Chu	...	Ming
Alex Fong	...	Whispering Prince
Rocky Lai	...	Wedding Guest
Yiu-Cheung Lai	...	Mud Buddha / Nai Pou Saat
Dion Lam	...	Crow (as Dik-on Lam)
Siu-Kei Lee	...	Wedding Guest
Tat Chiu Lee	...	Hawk

Storyline

Lord Conquer is a great and mighty warlord who wants to take over the world. To do so, he must defeat another warrior named Sword Saint; but the battle is prophesized to take place in ten years. Lord Conquer's servant, Mud Buddah, says that he can make himself invincible by then if he can make two certain children into his disciples. Those children are Whispering Wind and Striding Cloud. But Lord Conquer discovers that if Wind and Cloud were to unite against him, they could overthrow him. He tries to avoid this by marrying his daughter Charity to Wind. Cloud intervines and Lord Conquer accidentally kills Charity. Meanwhile, the time has come for Lord Conquer's duel with Sword Saint. He shows his true intentions by turning against Cloud and Wind. Now it's a free-for-all battle between Lord Conquer, Sword Saint, Cloud, and Wind. And only one will emerge the victor!

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Plot Keywords:

supernatural power | martial artist | martial arts master | asian man | asian | 

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Taglines:

Torn by fate... united in destiny

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | Fantasy

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for intense martial arts violence and a scene of sensuality

Details

Country:

Hong Kong

Language:

Cantonese

Release Date:

18 July 1998 (Hong Kong)

Also Known As:

The Stormriders

Box Office

Budget:

$10,000,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Golden Harvest Pictures (China), Centro Digital Pictures Ltd., Tianshan Film Studio

Technical Specs

Runtime:

128 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

This film is based on the manhua comic series called 'Fung Wan' by Ma Wing-shing. Manhua is the Chinese equivalent of the Japanese Manga (Comics).

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Crazy Credits

In the credits you can see how they made some of the film's special effects

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Alternate Versions

The original Hong Kong version runs 38 minutes longer than the butchered American version. The scenes with Wind and Cloud as young children are cut the most, and the bamboo forest battle between Lord Conquer and Wind's father is one of many scenes missing altogether. The American version offers an English translation of the onscreen character names that accompany each character's first apperance in the film The cuts for violence, presumably made to secure a PG-13 rating, render much of the film incomprehensible.

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Connections

Spoofed in Shaolin Soccer (2001)

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Soundtracks

Insects Fly
Music by Kwong Wing Chan
Lyrics by Xi Lin
Performed by Ekin Cheng

User Reviews

Awesome movie - dependent on which version !!!

Stormriders was a movie that was not highly publicised. After a friend recommended it I popped it into my player with no real expectations.

From the opening credits it grabbed my attention. The music was excellent and it had a hi-tech appearance that belayed my fears that it was yet another low budget Hong Kong B-grade martial arts flick.

The story progressed rather well and I became entranced in the subtleties of the plot. It flowed well from start to finish and had very little confusion that I find occurs a lot in HK movies. The action scenes while very 'Fantasy', were well balanced and not cheap. In general, Stormriders possesses a fantastic mix of stunts, CGA and musical score and will please.

I have seen both the 128 min version in Chinese with subtitles, and the 91 min English dubbed version. The only serious critical comment I have with the 128 min Chinese version is that the subtitles were a little small.

However watch the 91 min version at your peril!! Its missing so many scenes that it becomes so watered down that it becomes farcical. The main characters English dubbed voices don't suit the chars: Striding Cloud (Aaron Kwok)loses his essential moodiness, Jestor becomes a real on screen joke and Mud-Buddha loses his credibility as the all seeing prophet. In general you miss out on so many lovely little tidbits especially from Qi Shu (Muse) and the plot suffers terribly as you are forever fighting to catch up on what the heck is going on. You'll find yourself saying 'Hang on..!!', 'How the heck...', 'Woah, why is that..' etc.

When comparing 'Stormriders'(128min version) with 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon', there is no comparison. It made me wonder why the latter received so much publicity and awards and Stormriders received nothing. It is seriously like comparing 'chalk and cheese'.

However, the 91min version of Stormriders I would rate 3/10 and that is being 'very' generous. Seriously - 128min version or nothing.

To this day, Stormriders (128 min)is up there with my very favourite all time action/martial arts movies. See it, I bet it will endear to you too:)