Xun cheng ma

The Postman Fights Back is an early film for director Ronny Yu, who would later direct the wuxia masterpiece The Bride With White Hair. This is mostly a starring vehicle for Ka Yan Leung best known as "Beardy") and if you seen a few old school kung fu flicks, you definitely will recognize him. This puts a postman, a thief, an explosive expert and a con man together to deliver a package that has people trying to kill them on the way. Chow Yun Fat and Cherie Chung give early appearances here and is cool to see Chow Yun Fat mixing it up with some old school chop sockey action. The Postman Fights Back is crazy, unpolished action that is a bridge between the old school Kung Fu flicks and the new wave of HK action cinema that was about to revolutionize the action movie market with the films of John Woo, Jackie Chan and others. Eddie Ko plays a similar ninja character that he played in Duel To The Death and has similar insane ninja action. The Postman Fights Back is not without it's flaws, but is definitely a worthy Hong Kong action flick that is good enough to please fans of the genre and is interesting enough to give it a shot.

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'.

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.

The one line summary really sums this film up. The story was bland, characters boring, and fights only decent, but Postman Strikes Back had THE coolest ninja I've ever seen. He didn't use ninja magic or fly, but he had the biggest arsenal of ninja tricks ever. You've gotta see it just for that. Who doesn't love ninjas?

Ronnie Yu's powerful and sometimes savage account of the struggle between heavy artillery and the plight of man is an engaging romp, the high production costs and smart direction taking it a notch above other standard kung fu fare. We are taken back to the early days of the Chinese Republic, and a popular folk tale is revived detailing the adventures of four heroic dead-end types, sent on a secret mission to reach the Lo Yang Pass in seven days carrying a special secret cargo. Our mismatched quartet become patriotic heroes however when the cargo is revealed to be heavy arms destined for the notorious warlord Yue Sai Hoi in his quest to defeat Dr Sun Yat Sen's Nationalist Guard, forcing the group to leap into action to save self and country. Action wise the movie has divided moments: from the graphic machine gun massacres and the silly supernatural Ninja bits, to some high class kung fu confrontations featuring the undoubtedly gifted talents of Kar Yan, this time not so much beard as stubble.