Hung Hei Kwun: Siu Lam ng zou

The American re-release of this film, "Legend of the Red Dragon", is a mess. Shows how important seven minutes can be to a film. Deannie Yip's part (Red Bean's mother) is ripped to shreds for no discernible reason whatsoever, which unfortunately makes an important plot twist seem trivial. Also, she has the best comic moments in the original film. Columbia-Tristar is the villain here. They must think 'Fu film fans are stupid - which only goes to show how stupid THEY are. A real insult.

The original film is by no means a great film; intentionally anachronistic and overly dependent on special effects, it is clearly a kind of throwaway for Jet Li and director Wong Jing (although certainly not as trashy as their Wong Fei Hung parody, "Great Hero/ Last Hero of China"). Still, it is entertaining to a surprising extent, largely thanks to Yip's comic performance. If you can find the original (I saw it on a Tai Seng tape), don't expect much, but you may find yourself enjoying it for the characters if not the martial arts.

This movie is crazy, and i mean it!! The Martial Arts in this movie is awesome. It was a shame that Jet Li used his Spear in the whole movie, but he did a great job any way. I especially liked Tze Miu as Man-ting, his Martial Arts skills is incredible. The story is about Hung Hey-kwun and his son, who is escaping from an invincible evil Manchu(Nice Martial Arts). I give this movie 10/10

An entertaining Jet Li period vehicle, which Li co-produced. Li plays a Chinese folk hero, a rebel who battled a violent, repressive Manchu government. Li teams with 10 year old martial arts prodigy, Xie Miao, who effectively portrays Li's kung-fu fighting son. The duo have some similarities to the "Lone Wolf and Cub" team in numerous, more atmospheric, very gory Japanese movies of the 1970's. Li and son are joined by a sly mother/daughter con artist team to protect 5 young boys who each have a segment of a rebel map tattooed on their back.

Fine photography and inventive action sequences, especially the opener, and one with a clever Trojan horse variant. Li's fight scenes are wondrous, as usual, but his part seems too stiffly written for a fluffy, child-oriented action film with much comic relief. Deannie Yip and sensual Chingmy Yau are energetic and funny as the kung-fu mother/daughter scammers.

The English dubbed version, made in 2000, has excellent, witty dialogue and appropriate voices. Prolific Hong Kong writer/director Wong Jing cameos in the closing scene.

This is an okay Jet Li flick if you're into crazy wire work instead of real kung fu. I enjoyed it, but Jet Li has done better. He's also done worse. The kid who played Jet's son was great, though. Go check out Fist of Legend (original dubbed version is the best) or Tai-Chi Master (released in english dubbed form as Twin Warriors). I think someone else suggested this as well. Frankly, Jet's screen persona has always been kind of wooden. He's a martial artist, not an actor. So why does he hardly ever get to show off what he's REALLY capable of? If you want to see a Jet Li movie thats even wilder, crazier, and has more action (albeit wire-work) then check out Kung Fu Cult Master.

Not very clever, not very elaborate, and far from original. Yup, it's another Wong Jing movie. The opening scene is stolen directly from Kazou Koike's Lone Wolf and Cub, that's our first clue. As Wong Jing movies go, this really isn't one of the best. It doesn't match the violence and frantic pace of High Risk (Meltdown) or the exploitation fun of The Naked Killer. Yuen Kwai's choreography here isn't up to the standards of his work on My Father is a Hero (The Protector), but it isn't as bad as Romeo Must Die or Fong Sai Yuk (The Legend). If you just want to see another kung fu movie, and you don't care about the specifics, you should be able to enjoy it. Just don't expect too much.