Saving General Yang

I have watched this movie just out of curiosity to find out if there was any "connection" with "Saving Private Ryan" and to some extent there was. The plot is quite obvious with a resemblance of old fairy tales about seven warriors. There are all movie elements you expect to see in recent Chinese movies like love, brotherhood, master and student relations, political intrigues, wisdom, betrayal, revenge, etc. Everything is the way it should be, the good guys remain good ones till they die and bad guys are either punished or learn their lesson. As a person who has been watching martial art movies for many years, I could appreciate the quality of fighting scenes choreography. I can hardly imagine how warriors of the past could fight for hours using their weapons when one gets tired after fencing for just an hour. Of course there are special effects, but most of the stunts are done with minimal "wire use" that has been heavily exploited by Jet Li in his last movies. I cannot say this is one of the best martial art movies, but I did not have a feeling of wasted time after watching it. The main thing that kept me watching this movie till the end was a prophesy written by a wise master. Intrigued? Then watch it yourself.