Le Messager de guerre

Kung fu wise, this movie doesn't offer a great deal. There is very little fighting in it, and the quality of it isn't great. Eddy Ko (the bad guy) is good (in terms of acting), and there are a couple of pretty girls, too, but ultimately the movie is quite dull. Chow Yun Fat has a couple of fight scenes, but his moves are unconvincing - one understands why he subsequently stuck mostly to gangster movies.

The main character, capable Ka-Yan Leung, hardly does any fighting, which is a great disappointment. The story has him as a traveling postman, who's delivering an important but fateful set of boxes to an evil lord. The result is tragic, and the "hero" doesn't do anything about it until he finally gets angry and takes out the bad guy. But the story is unsatisfying, doesn't have much entertainment value, and is generally rather dull.

5 out of 10.

Dramatically set during times of rural privation, and turbulent political unrest, heroic courier Ma (Leung kar-yan) reluctantly undertakes an increasingly precarious journey. Delivering a mysterious package to a rebel leader, Ma, and his motley companions, must courageously overcome many life-threatening obstacles. Ace director Ronny Yu's wintry, thrillingly violent quest, has the mythic qualities of an existential western alongside the hyper kineticism of a blazing, exquisitely choreographed Martial Arts epic! This wild bunch's thrillingly bloody exodus in bandit country provides an adrenalizing number of dazzling sequences, and the bravura, bullet-blasted finale is a gonzo Golden Harvest classic!

Being a fan of Asian cinema (with a great love for Hong Kong cinema) and being a long-time fan of Chow Yun Fat, it was with some anticipation that I sat down to watch "The Postman Fights Back". And I must say that this is a fairly mediocre movie, unfortunately.

It was nice to see a very young Chow Yun Fat here, and I actually think this is some of his earliest work that I have seen, at least that I can remember.

The story told in "The Postman Fights Back" is about Ma (played by Ka-Yan Leung) who is a postman back in the the early days of the Chinese Republic. He is hired to bring some mysterious parcels to someone, and joins up with a couple of traveling companions. The group undergoes a long travel to deliver the parcels, and are waylaid by marauders, villains and bad weather along the way. Everyone is not whom they claim to be. So who can Ma trust and what is in the parcels that he was given strict orders not to open? The plot in the movie was fairly simple and straight forward, bordering on being too plain and mundane, you might say almost boring actually. The dialogue, well it was staggering at times, but otherwise fairly ordinary stuff here from such an old Chinese movie.

As for the acting in "The Postman Fights Back", then people actually did good jobs with their roles, despite having a mediocre script to work with. There were some good performances being put on here and there. However, as for the martial arts, well... Some of the fighting scenes were an eyesore and straining to behold, while others were nicely executed and choreographed. Now, mind you, don't expect to see martial arts that you see in Tony Jaa, Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Donnie Yen, etc. movies, because that ain't happening. And prepare yourself for some rather overly-painted sound effects for the fight scenes. I couldn't help but smiling at times because of the sound effects used.

"The Postman Fights Back" actually did have some nice scenes and some good cinematography every now and then, and that was one of the better things in the movie.

And without saying too much, then prepare yourself for a royal eye-candy treat when you see the two (black and white) ninja outfits that the main villain donned towards the end. They were off the charts, I was laughing so hard at that. Notice, in one of the close-up scenes, that the black, form-fitting shirt he wears looks to be a knitted shirt. Got to love stuff like that.

For a Hong Kong movie, "The Postman Fights Back" was fairly average as to be expected from a 1982 movie. But if you like Asian cinema, and don't mind older movies, and/or is a fan of Chow Yun Fat, then "The Postman Fights Back" is worth watching if you haven't already seen it, just to check it off the 'to-watch list'.

I am a huge fan of the $5.50 DVD bin at my local WalMart. Hopefully you have one at your local branch. You can find a bunch of campy flicks, a bunch of trash, and the occasional surprise. This movie is one of the surprises. My friend recently bought this one, and in thinking it would be another cheesy kung-fu laugh riot, I was genuinely surprised at how good it was. I watch a lot of movies, and as a result, I can almost always call how a movie will turn out; and if there's a plot twist, what it will be. Not this movie! The directing is brilliant, the plot is awesome, and the fighting is unbelievably inventive. If you see this one sitting around somewhere at a dirt-cheap price, get it! If you see it at full price, I would still recommend it.

In 'The Postman Fights Back', couriers who work under the stressful conditions in the war-torn Republic of China are hired by Hu(Eddy Ko) to deliver a set of mysterious cases. The couriers assume that the cases are simple birthday gifts until they're attacked by mysterious warriors who may be after their cargo. This film leads to an exhilarating and action-packed surprise ending. This is an early Ronny Yu film starring Fan Mei-sheng, Eddy Ko, Cherie Chung,a young and lanky Chow Yun-fat, and many others. Even Chow Yun-fat looks good the film's fight scenes as we watch his acting prowess as he fights. Not all of the action is martial arts, there's some guns which are fired as well as some monster fire ball explosions. There's also a fight scene on frozen lake which is well-crafted and exhilarating to watch. This wonderfully-crafted period-piece filmed in Korea is a classic which I feel should not be missed.