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

Followed by Fung wan II (2009)

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Soundtracks

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

User Reviews

A triumphant mix of Western SFX and Eastern imagination.

The makers of The Storm Riders took a chance when making this experimental film. They did something that had never been done before by fusing extreme computer graphics into a Hong Kong style martial arts film. Needless to say they were very successful. I have never seen the amount of visual graphics found in Storm Riders in any film prior. With the help of SFX all the characters gain divine fighting abilities. In fact it's like watching battles between gods rather than humans. I enjoyed this film greatly and would have loved to have seen it on the big screen. The story is straight out of Asian folklore and the acting is painless. The only flaw I found in this film is also it's strength. Though beautiful and powerful, Storm Riders relies on SFX too much. There is actually very little fighting skill used. Most of the fights are completely computer enhanced and the actors never truly cut loose. The good news is that the creators of this fine film learned from it and did a little fine tuning in their next attempt, A Man Called Hero.