Shu shan zheng zhuan

This film, an adaptation of Tsui Hark's 1983 classic of Hong Kong cinema by none other than the original director is a visual feast of comic book style special effects and a superhuman battle between good and evil. This is an imaginative film, full of wonder and magic on an epic scale. Legends of Hong Kong cinema unite and come to life in this magical story of supernatural beings and the deeds they do.

I rented this film in DVD form without knowing anything at all about it, part of a winter marathon of watching a film every night. After several awful American action adventure films (Ballistic, Daredevil, Cradle of Life) Zhu Warriors struck me as brilliantly original filmmaking. The story is complete nonsense, but I found the film's sincerity, good- heartedness and complete lack of irony refreshing, and the film looks spectacular. Sure, the special effects are not technically as flawless as those produced by Hollywood, but the filmmakers wisely are more interested in color, composition and movement than realism and so many of the shots are breathtaking. In one shot, two of the superhuman characters stand on craggy spires of rock, a huge moon rising before them, the image perfectly balanced by the three elements. In another, a princess-warrior spires through the heavens behind her glowing sword like a heat-seeking missile. And the colors explode from shot to shot, used to express emotion rather than to represent reality.

The characters have the same simplicity and directness of comic book characters, offering no great depth in themselves but referring to archtypes that resonate more deeply. Physically, several of the actors are astonishingly beautiful. They play their roles straight up, without irony or guile, and so are believable.

Most strange of all, despite the clumsiness of plot and thin characterizations, I found myself very near tears at the end, moved by the beautiful simplicity of the actors and the wildly original, good-hearted vision of the director.

I've read the the director made this film in order to present a vision that was not possible in the first iteration due to special effects limitations of the time. Apparently, he concentrated too much on special effects and left off the story. That being said, does anyone know if there will be a third movie that tries to concentrate on both story and effects?

... fantastic. This movie contains great actors, good CGI and beautiful cinematography! The special effects aren't as realistic as in most Hollywood movies, but they're far more original and stylish. And you just have to love the voice of Insomnia (the BAD dude of this movie)!!! It's great! I also liked the fairy played by gorgeous Kelly Lin.

There's just so much great things in this movie! It's far from perfect, but a LOT better than Hollywood special effect -movies such as The Mummy or Tomb Raider... actually I think it's even better (at least more original) than The Matrix.

I haven't seen the old ZU yet (I just bought it), but I guess it would be useless to compare the movies anyway. I guess this new version is VERY different from the old Zu warriors.

If you can handle a bit complicated and weird story and like over-the-top superhero/fantasy -action, then this movie is FOR you!

Five reasons to watch this:

1. Great special effects 2. Tsui Hark 3. Cecilia Cheung, Sammo Hung, Ekin Cheng and co. 4. Tsui Hark 5. The great music.

The people who beat me to reviewing this movie here mostly seem to have forgotten the original film, "Zu, Warriors of Mystic Mountain." Anybody who has seen that film knows how confusing it was, yet a few viewings later you can figure it all out. This movie is the sequel to that film and it's a sprawling multi-character film with too much plot to easily decypher, but pay attention and you'll get it.

The film is beautifully shot, with wild special effects that make you wonder why US films can't do super-hero movies. While short on real kung fu, the action sequences are fantastic, fun, and constantly confounding your expectations. Aside from generally knowing that Good will overcome Evil, the movie is impossible to predict.

The movie is available on DVD now, so pick it up. It's much better than "Stormriders" or "A Man Called Hero" and ten times more fun as well.