Se diu ying hung: Dung sing sai jau

This comedy from Jeffrey Lau is supposed to be a parody of Louis Cha's novel. When it comes to the plot, it's impossible to synopsize, but that's not a problem, because it's really about people acting in silly fashions, mockery of normative and romantic sexual relationships, and Sammo Hung's comedic fight choreography. A lot of it seems to be modeled on the Three Stooges.

There are comedies in which no one does anything funny. It's simply that things turn out well, according to the classical distinction between Comus and Momus. Then there are a lot of comedies in which people do lots of funny stuff, until someone says "This is all well and good, but we're ignoring the story." So they stop being funny to show us how things turn out well according to the classical distinctions between etc. and the change in tone makes me yawn. The boy gets the girl? Well, I'm glad you told me. Sorry I nodded off there.

This movie works at keeping you laughing through the end. Some of the boys get some of the girls and some of the boys get the boys in the next life, when it will be all right, and some of the boys get to go to Heaven, even if they don't get the girls, so that's all right too. And the baddies get their butts kicked. Is it a well told tale? No. But it was funny through the end.

A really fun filled comedy Wuxia movie starring almost every Big Titan of the Hong kong cinema in the 80's and '90s. A really fun movie with good slapstick humour and gags which will surely bring smile to your face. If you are familiar with the great Names in the cast and have seen their other works, seeing them together to make a fun movie together after the intense work on "Ashes of Time" will surely be a pleasing experience for you. The plot is somewhat simple yet bizarre and has good colourful shots which pleases you. It is a fun filled ride and you should definately give it a watch fan or not of hongkong cinema as this film surely help you be one.

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.

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.

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.