Se diu ying hung: Dung sing sai jau

There's "anything goes" and there's "Eagle Shooting Heros". About as unhinged as HK style comedy can get. Shot during a lull in shooting Wong Kar Wai's "Ashes of Time", this film seems partially improvised on the spot.

There's some sort of plot but it's really an excuse for the stars to run about in crazy "Persian" costumes or to cross-dress. Explosion kung fu, a gorilla, a 6 ft. talking bird, a floating head, flying boots, time-reversing kung fu, a soccer match and lots of unrestrained wire fu. It begins crazy, stays crazy and ends crazy.

Does it work? The actors are having fun and that rubs off on the viewer, however I found the film's lack of a real structure tiresome. The scenes comes off more like elaborate TV skits. Lots of obscure HK film references might bore the average viewer. But to the film's credit every time I was losing interest they do something so silly I was laughing again. The energy is so high that the hit and miss nature of the whole production isn't much of a problem. The martial arts are done for comedy's sake and are really sped up.

This is one of the most extreme examples of wacky HK comedy. Not used to HK comedy? You might be advised to skip this one at first. Or get ready to watch it over the course of several viewings because it can be exhausting to watch.

This movie has gone cult classic. it was filmed at the same time as another movie. Same actors. Same Costumes. This one was just done for fun. the other movie(the name escapes me), was supposed to be this HUGE hit(like Men In Black by today's standards) and it flopped majorly! but this movie lives on. go fig.

There is a wind that blows and all the good things grow with it. After the wind is gone, the good things turn back and never come any good things alike again.

So this film is from a wind that was blowing during that span of years in Hong Kong, never again you would be able to see those director, actors, screen writers, dress designers, stunt man so passionate and joyfully getting involved for fun, for imagination, for successful results.

The same name, even same director had shot anther one with the same Chinese name in 2011. It's rated very low in IMDb and it's rated like 3 in a Chinese review site. You can see how people hated it because the lack of dedication of the actors, the ridiculous taking-audience-as-a-fool jokes and random involvements of all the celebrities from musical industries into the acting business and they are naively thinking themselves that they are doing a good job. It's a shame, as simple as it is.

But this film has stars in it, real stars. Leslie Cheung, Tony Leung, Carina Lau Brigitte Lin, Jacky Cheung...I just can't name them all here. The director is the same director who 2 years later directed the 2-squeal films (A Chinese Odyssey Part One: Pandora's Box, A Chinese Odyssey Part Two - Cinderella) which turns to absolute classic now and ever and make Stephen Chow an iconic star as well.

The Mandarin voice-over done by Taiwan people is superb so if you are learning mandarin, it's top Mandarin. Originally it's Cantonese.

If you like Gongfu movie, this one is a blast. It's fine nice delicate cut between a flying Gong Fu super power guy and gravity still making sense here. It's a blessing in the 90s when computer is not good enough to make all the digital stuff. I personally prefer a stunt man than GC effect, it's real fake, not fake fake.

Again, the wind was there and people had no intention for fame and fortune because there is none, they made a laugh and take great joy about what they did - this film.

Fast in pace and rich in adventures, extravagance, color and music, "Eagle Shooting Heroes" adopts the same characters of "Ashes of Time" but, unlike Kar-Wai's epic movie, here they stand on the screen with the sole purpose of entertaining... and they fully succeed!

The movie can be roughly divided into 3 parts: in the first part, which takes place over a wide landscape, we get to meet the 9 (!) protagonists one by one, and learn about their quest (it can be love, world domination, revenge or achieving nirvana). Lin Ching Hsia and Chiu-Wai in particular shine and deliver the first ferocious confrontation of the movie, by showing us two terrific kung-fu moves: the "Sea can't be Measured" and the "Toad Shen-Kong".

Once we have met all the characters, the second part gathers them together in the enclosed space of an inn, so we see them interact. Hysterically funny is Joey Wang, who may be Leslie Cheung's sweetheart, but apart from that bears very little that can be referred to as sweet. Highly entertaining are also Ka-Fai and Jacky Cheung, who try to win the resistance of their loved ones with their musical talent.

Finally, the third part shows the ultimate confrontation. The ending may actually be the only flaw of the movie, and I personally agree with the character interpreted by Leslie Cheung, who at one point states "too ridiculous!".

However, apart from the bizarre ending, this is an excellent movie... but be prepared for many surprises! And if you thought the cross-dressing of Ranma and Final Fantasy VII are extreme, be ready to change your rankings, as far as extravagance is concerned! 9/10

PS: The DVD (from Ah-Mei) allows selection of Mandarin or Cantonese language (with English/Chinese subtitles burned on the movie), but other than that, no extra feature is included at all.

It should be well established that Hong Kong's martial arts movies are usually excuses to show off a series of stunts and gags. Always enjoyable. However, I don't know if any of these movies has been as over-the-top as Jeffrey Lau's "Se diu ying hung: Dung sing sai jau" ("The Eagle Shooting Heroes" in English). This is truly one of the wackiest, insanest movies that I've ever sat through. In addition to the stunts, it simply has the most bonkers plot ever. They just throw in one thing after another. Seriously, it's like they mixed Looney Tunes cartoons with Chinese mythology, and then went with a throw-anything-at-the-wall-and-see-what-sticks plot.

And I loved every second of it. Movies like this are what makes life worth living. I'll have to see more of Lau's movies. I hope that they're as fun as this one.