Huo shao hong lian si

The Red Lotus Temple, where most of Ringo Lam's "Burning Paradise" takes place, is a real house of horrors. The temple prison is where followers of Shaolin are taken, mostly to be killed in various gruesome ways. The lead character, Fong Sai Yuk, is a Chinese hero who has appeared in other movies, such as the two starring Jet Li. Here, Fong Sai Yuk's opponent is the insane military man who controls the temple. This guy is impervious to weapons, as Fong finds out early in the picture. More than anything else, "Burning Paradise" is a horror movie. Instead of a haunted house where visitors die, you have prisoners in a temple in which there seems to be no escape. Still, the movie is well made. If this movie were released in the US, it would easily get an R-rating for violence.

"Burning Paradise" is a combination of neo-Shaw Brothers action and Ringo Lam's urban cynicism. When one watches the film, they might feel the fight scenes are only mediocre in nature but that doesn't matter, it's attitude and atmosphere that counts. This great film has both!! Always trying to be different than his contemporaries, Lam gives us to traditional heroes(Fong Sai-Yuk and Hung Shi-Kwan)and puts them in a "Raiders of the Lost Ark" setting. However, these are not the light-hearted comedic incarnations that you might see in a Jet Li movie. Instead these guys fight to the death with brutal results. What makes the film even better is that anyone could die at anytime, there is no holding back. Too bad, they don't make films like this more often.

Yes, a well-choreographed martial arts melodrama from Ringo Lam. It is relentlessly bloody, adding a certain black-magic flair with the repulsive arch-villain in the story. Shaolin monks fight for their survival against Qing dynasty henchmen who are in hot pursuit of the monks. A number of kungfu battles ensue, building to the climatic ending with Shaolin masters against the black arts. Of particular interest is the view of the Qing dynasty as a source of evil in China. In fact they were regarded as "foreign invaders", eventually "ousted" in the early 20th Century. Today, due to political expediency, the Chinese communist party has chosen to delete this historic inconvenience from official history, as they refuse to admit that China today actually represents several previously autonomous regions.

Burning Paradise is director Ringo Lam's dark take on the wuxia film. Much of what he did with the heroic bloodshed genre, he did here. If you have seen some classic Shaw Bros. Period kung fu flicks you should be familiar with the struggle with the treacherous Manchu's from up North reeking havoc through China. This is the struggle of Shaolin monks in an underground prison camp run by the villainous Manchu's. The tone is bleak and told in a fairly straightforward fashion with minimal humor. While this is a fantasy film, it's approached with more gritty realism than something like Swordsman 2. There is no lack of action to speak of. The entire film is jam packed with lots of exciting wire fu sequences and it gets quite messy with a lot of blood..The hero of the film(Fong Sai Yuk is a popular figure in thsrs films and is played much more serious here than the lighthearted take on the character that was made with Jet Li). The mood of the piece is very somber and bleak. The film looks sharp and the period costumes are good as well. Much of what the film does, it does well. There are no major stars in this film, but rarely matters as everyone is good in their roles. Ringo Lam tells this story his own way and at his own pace making a very solid entry to the swordplay genre that is also both unique and well made.

Burning Paradise is an Amazing movie. I loved Magnificent Tiger Stance combined with Incredible Crane Stance. Willie Chi is a great Martial Artist, almost as good as Jet Li. This a must see, and a must buy movie. The story is about Fong Sai Yuk and Hung Hey-kwun. Fong is fighting The evil Manchus. And Hung is pretending to be a Manchurian, but he is really drawing a map of the Red Lotus Temple. In the end Fong has to save his girlfriend and fight the very powerful and evil Elder Kung. I give this movie 9/10.