Hun shen shi dan

Hi, this is probably slightly off-message, and I had the luck to see this movie theatrically (good fun, appalling CGI airship, dumb dialogue, very well shot). I actually like Michael Wong but it seems he is not particularly liked by the HK movie community as a whole, but to them I say see 'Beast Cops', which is a superb HK movie but which doesn't seem to be particularly well regarded. What I have to ask is am I the only one who thought that Shannon Lee was quite unbelievably sexy? Turned me on like a light-switch! OK, she's not exactly classically beautiful or sylph-like but Hell's Teeth! She was / is one truly sexy woman. And the tight, black togs.....

Mind you, I once had a girlfriend who looked a bit like her so that might be colouring my feelings but - lordie! - she pushes my buttons! MC.

I guess some of the naysayers about this movie have seen a different movie than I did, because this movie to me was filled to the brim with the hyperkinetic off the charts excitement that Hong Kong action movies have been famous for. Once the action starts it has a breathless place that never lets up for a minute and it has everything a Hong Kong moviephile could love some well choreographed and bloody shootouts, some dangerous eye popping stunts, and some manically hair raising mix ups. I have seen this movie in the Chinese movie store for some time and finally decided to rent it and did I get my money's worth. This is a great example of the action films Hong Kong used to make in its heydey. They had no artistic intentions other than to provide a mindblowing, hyberbolic opiate for the retinas. You can have your arty-farty plotless Wong Kar Wai films and sit there and be pretentious, but I would rather watch a film like Enter The Eagles and have an intoxicating good time much like I would rather have a sweet wine, over that dry flavorless crap anyday because when I drink wine I wanna get a buzz and enjoy getting there and not sit there sipping some expensive crappy tasting wine marvelling at how great the bouquet is. The Dragon's daughter is awesome and gets in a dust up with the Benny the Jet that is close to on par with the classic fisticuffs between Jacky and the Jet. She is just spectacular to watch in action whether she is firing a gun or unleashing her fists of fury and seems to have capture some of the charm and charisma of her father, she has a very likable screen persona and its a shame that she didnt make more movies like this.

The film isnt perfect though, I found some of the drama while adequate, just seem to be by the numbers and the sequence with the blimp was the only other complaint I had. The acting was from good to fair and Micheal Wong is compentent for a change. I find it interesting that this film didnt have a US release like Gen X Cops did, especially since most of the film is in English.

One more thing people, the glory days of John Woo's heroic bloodshed days are over, so you might as well get used to that fact and stop being so jaded because watching this film was a blast and to compare to a John Woo film isn't fair, it may not be art, but it's damn fine entertainment and better than a lot of the crap that Hollywood has been putting out lately. You can have your arty-farty plotless Wong Kar Wai films, but I take this

I give this film 7 out of 10 stars because it was highly entertaining and fun despite it faults and plus where else you gonna see Shannon Lee shoot people and kick some ass? That alone was worth the price of rental. If only Hong Kong would have a made a film with Brandon Lee and Shannon Lee together. Oh well, its nice to dream.

This is a great movie for any fan of Hong Kong action movies. Asides from it's little plot, the weak drama and bits of comedy antics, the movie is action packed with gun-fighting and martial arts action. Kept me entertained from beginning until the end. I thought Shannon Lee was awesome in the movie.

Having an action director like Corey Yuen is what keeps Hong Kong action going strong. This modern action film is highly recommended!!

Corey Yuen directs this martial arts/action outing set amid the architectural splendour of Prague.

If you've seen any Corey Yuen film before then you'll no doubt know exactly what to expect here; lots of close up, quick edit fight scenes and imaginative wire aided stunts.

Interestingly, the quick cut/edit style is a fairly recent cinematic phenomena. The advantages are obvious; Highly complex combinations of moves (which may well be impossible to film in single takes) can be created via fast editing of smaller combinations of moves or sometimes even single moves. Another advantage and one which Hollywood has keenly exploited utilising this style has been that big name stars who are, shall we say politely, not exactly gifted martial artists, can be made to look good via the same (trick) technique.

Why am I talking about all this?

Simple, it's because I really loath the said style!

For me personally, I want to see more naturally fluid fight scenes, unaided by editing trickery! If the actors can't do it for real then don't bother to do it all all!

But enough of my ranting and back to the film in question…is it any good? Well, aside from some of the aforementioned fighting scenes, the film is actually fairly entertaining stuff. There's certainly never a shortage of action and there's even a pleasant splattering of gore. It's especially great to see the legendary Benny 'The Jet' Urquidez on screen again although even his moves have suffered the editing treatment (and Benny is one chap who most certainly does NOT need any help in fight sequences!)

Overall, whilst far from essential viewing, there are certainly far worse ways to spend an hour and a half of your time.

Solid Hong Kong action movie which would be less interesting but for the presence of Bruce Lee's daughter (as I'm sure she hates being introduced) Shannon. She certainly has the moves and seems to have picked up much of the charisma, plus there are a few cool visual gags which serve to point out her famous heritage (there's a really neat bit where she tears out a bad guy's hair and blows it away, much as her dad once did to Chuck Norris}. Shannon's final fight on the airship is magnificent. Well worth checking out if you can find it.