Tai yang zhi zi

Without ever having heard about the 1990 movie "Tai Yang Zhi Zi" (aka "Prince of the Sun"), as I stumbled upon it here in 2025, of course I opted to give the movie a fair chance. Sure, I didn't know what I was in for, for better or worse. But in a sense, I suppose writers Abe Kwong and Chun-Wai Lau, as well as directors Wellson Chin and Shan Hua, had every opportunity to entertain and impress me.

The narrative failed to entertain me. The contents of the storyline was just too silly and childish, and it didn't help that actress Sheila Chan spent most of the movie wailing and whining in a high pitched frequency.

Of the entire cast ensemble, I was only familiar with Ching-Ying Lam and Cynthia Rothrock. The acting performances were okay, but it was hard to sit and listen the silly characters on the screen.

My rating of "Tai Yang Zhi Zi" lands on a generous three out of ten stars.

This movie has its moments. There are some extraordinary fight scenes that involves Cynthia Rothrock. The fight between Conan Lee and Sheila Chan is hilarious. Besides the fights , the story is lame and the dialogue through the film is shockingly bad. There are a few good actors in this like Cynthia Rothrock, Jeffrey Falcon or Ching-Ying Lam. There is a lot of cheesy Hong Kong humor to sit through unfortunately. But fortunately the movie has better fights than any US movie Cynthia Rothrock has done so far. So this one i recommend just to Cynthia Rothrock fans (maybe). I didn't saw the Hong Kong Laserdisc which runs with 6 minutes longer. At least is better than Triple Cross or The Hostage (the US movies starring Cynthia Rothrock).

Much like the "Inspector Wears Skirts" series, also directed by Wellson Chin, "Prince of the Sun" is a mix of broad comedy and wild, over-the-top action. The first hour or so belongs mostly to Sheila Chan, Conan Lee and the little boy who is the reincarnation of Buddha; these three are sometimes funny and Sheila is cute. Cynthia Rothrock pops up for a fight here and there, but doesn't really take charge until the last 30 minutes; from then on it's all action, as the good guys, helped by the spirit of a martial arts master, fight the bad guys who want to kidnap the little Buddha and use him for their own purposes. Cynthia is in good form, but the film often gets cheesy, especially when the head villain/demon with the maniacal laugh appears. Unfortunately, the current DVD version of this movie is a total rip-off, featuring atrocious dubbing, poor full-screen framing, and even off-synch sound! And, perhaps needless to say, Cynthia NEVER appears in the sweaty tight top that the cover shows her in. (**1/2)

I had this movie waiting since a long time to watch, im a fan of Cynthia Rothrock, saw most of her American work, and got this out of nowhere. Took me time to finally decide to give it a go, as im not a fan of Chinese traditional stuff, i mean i love IP MAN, love SOME Chinese stuff, but the whole flying and traditional style they use usually is too much for me(crouching dragon...). Yet in this, the characters flies? LOL YEAH COOL cause this is hilarious, its probably the equivalent of NAKED GUN in term of kung fu parody. Cynthia even tough she is the most well known is mostly a supporting character, and its good like that, cause the choreography she do are outstanding, but its the comical aspect of the main 3 actors that make this an outstanding movie.

This is actually what Kung Fu Hustle tried to be,ridiculously funny, over the top, a mix of comedy and martial arts, but kung fu hustle failed miserably, but this worked so good. At the same time i laugh a lot to the jokes and the comic aspect, yet being hook by the main story.

I had SUPER LOW EXPECTATION for this, and now i think its one of my favourite Rothrock movies !!! LOL Im so glad i gave it a go. I recommend watching this either very hight or drunk tough, it will really make the movie hilarious.

Found reference to this movie on YouTube and just had to check it out, so glad I did too. So yeah, this movie has some similar aspects to the Golden Child and I am a fan of that movie, but I think this beats it in both comedy and action. If you like great kung fu action with old school Hong Kong/Chinese movie comedy, then this is the movie for you. Please don't miss out on this gem of a movie. I love these types of movies, so for me it's an easy 7.5/10