Zhong hua zhan shi

Watching fresh-faced Michelle Yeoh at age 24 kicking butt in her martial arts scenes and channeling Indiana Jones early on was a lot of fun. The role required a lot of physicality and she was more than up to the task. Unfortunately, the story is weak and the film is tonally all over the map, veering from lame humor to violent war scenes at the drop of a hat. It's a patriotic film about the defense of China from Japanese invasion which I respected, but it's too scattered and cartoonish, working better in its smaller fight scenes in the first half. Meanwhile, there are extraneous characters like Chin-chin and what seemed like a soundtrack consisting of a single song. Worth seeing for Michelle Yeoh, but messy.

Michelle Yeoh kicks lots and lots of butt in a cool aviator jacket in this fun martial arts movie. Presumably its English title comes from the vaguely Seven Samurai/Magnificent Seven-esque plot about defending a Mongolian town (although by my count there are fewer than seven main heroes here). Towards the end, it increases in scale to become a full-blown war movie, but I think it's at its best in the smaller-scale fights.

Richard Ng plays a con man who gets caught up in events. He provides the broad comic relief, sometimes successfully (his introductory scene involves him getting into a fight and being cartoonishly kicked around like a football).

The filmmakers recorded one catchy musical fanfare to use in the action sequences, and by gum, they're going to get their money's worth from it if it's the last thing they do!

And any fans of hers will want to see this thoroughly entertaining romp. A big-budget picture that doesn't skimp on plot or its sometimes-hilarious script in showcasing Ms. Yeoh's considerable talents (including a great scene with a whip!), THE MAGNIFICENT WARRIORS delivers on all counts. Don't miss!

'Magnificent Warriors (1987)' should, in theory, be an absolute blast. With almost wall-to-wall action that's as well-choreographed as you could hope, Michelle Yeoh in the leading role as an Indiana Jones homage, and a story that escalates from a small-scale weapons deal to a larger conflict concerning a city's resistance against the Japanese military, there's very little that outright doesn't work about the picture. However, I found it very difficult to remained engaged with it. I felt a disconnect between what I was seeing and what I was feeling, constantly aware that I should be really enjoying almost everything on screen but never quite being able to do so. Perhaps that's due to the fact that I was very tired when I watched it, or perhaps it's due to some underlying issue that's hard to pinpoint but has a distinct impact nevertheless. Either way, the result is an affair that's enjoyable yet not particularly compelling. It doesn't help that the flick has a somewhat odd pacing that makes its final third feel far longer than it actually is, slowing the relatively breezy feature down just enough that you're surprised when you instinctively check the clock and see there's still quite a lot left. The movie is well-made in most of the ways that really matter, and its star is as superb as ever as she kicks butt and takes names (and even uses a whip), but I don't enjoy it as much as I feel I ought to. It's strange to feel as though you don't like a particular movie because of your state of mind, as it calls into question any criticisms you have of the affair. However, if the feature was more engaging and - to a lesser yet still significant degree - exciting, it surely would have inspired me to sit up in my seat and pay more attention to it. It probably doesn't help that the audio was awful in the version I saw; whoever mixed it clearly wanted to avoid the common mistake of having people turning the sound up to hear the dialogue only for their ears to get blown out by the explosions and gunfire that follows it, but they clumsily compress each and every action-related sound effect so that they pop less than any of the speaking and it's just really weird to listen to. Ultimately, this is a decent - if fairly unremarkable - action flick with some flat-out fantastic set-pieces but an overarching sense that nothing is as impactful as it ought to be. Still, even at its least compelling, it's an entertaining experience that isn't likely to disappoint genre fans too much.

This movie begins as a comedy about spies and a gambler who has to support them unwillingly, but in the second half it turns into a war drama with a rapidly increasing body-count. It seems to play (no exact date given) after the Japanese invasion of Manchuria 1931. Obviously, as a Chinese production it can not be expected to be neutral on history, therefore is eager to show patriotic Chinese who burn down their home town before it falls into the hands of the enemy. "Dynamite Fighters", aka "Dynamite Heroes" on European DVD, seems a bit chaotic, but the action moves so fast you don't think much about it, and young Michelle Yeoh is tireless kicking everyone who doesn't get out of her way. I loved the opening scene when she is the pilot of an airplane and steals from those who have stolen from others. It's good fun most of the time, but in the end didn't entirely fulfill my expectations.