Dai si hing

The main plot of this movie, you seen many times before. Group of hard to deal with misfit students get a new teacher with out of the box methods to try to bring them back in the right path. You could even say that doing this trough karate/martial arts has also be done before, so its nothing new. But having a guy like Donnie Yen could really make it fun and if lacking in originality, it could be just entertaining.

But the reality is ... it turn out not to be really about this. Donnie's character Mister Chen does teach to these kids and help them solve their problems and everything, but the martial art parts seem to be completely on the side. What i mean is that yes there is some VERY well done martial arts choreography like you would expect from Donnie Yen, but not only they happen not that often but they also seem to be added on the side to justify having Donnie in the movie.

He never actually teach martial arts to the kids. What you got is a movie about students with problems and Donnie helping them fix them and making them better students. And in some ocasions an action scenes occur. The problem is the fighting seem completely disjoincted from the rest of the movie, and the "vilains" are completely underdeveloped and appear as an aftertaught.

Yet despite this critics i can't say i was bored or disliked the movie. There is a few parts that are the product of where the movie happen and seem a bit strange for us North Americans, but in general i still found some interest in these kids and Mr Chen. And the action scenes/fights there was were a lot of fun. So i would say i had decent fun with the movie.

Be warned tough that unless i am unaware of it, this movie is only available in chinese language with subtitles. Couldn't find a french dubbed version or even an english dub. Chinese speak fast and the movie is heavy on plot, so prepare yourself to read a lot.

Overall the movie is predictable and pretty ordinary. But it was also refreshing to see Donnie Yen in this role. I am certain as he ages he can't go around beating up the world.

I liked the family elements in this film, which are universal. I think they did a decent job of exploring various difficulties that many families struggle with.

I found this change of pace to be refreshing versus a never ending conveyor belt of Asian martial arts films.

A favorite of mine is "Eat Drink Man Woman"

Anyway, if all you want is martial arts, you won't find much of it here, some, but not much. If you want to see how we all are the same no matter what language we speak and we face the same challenges, you might enjoy this film.

This is such a pretentious film that has copied a lot of Hollywood films from the 80s', 90s' up till recent ones related to the "High School" genre. The storyline is so weak and laughable. Donnie Yen's teacher role was absolutely ridiculous as other characters, from the thugs to those students in this film, all of them were dramatized and exaggerated so badly. The director couldn't do anything better since the weak and pretentious screenplay. I just couldn't understand why and how after so many years since the mainland Chinese filmmakers took over the Hong Kong movie industries, the productions have been deteriorating to a degree so pathetic and so hollow, almost every movie looked like adapted from children's books, so naive, so pretentious and so distant from the reality. Characters and roles in almost every movie just looked so stereotyped and one-directional predictable.

Just like Michelle Pfeiffer's Dangerous Minds, this is a story about a person who wants to bring change in a school. The only difference is Donnie Yen can fight. The movie also address the typical asian school system and how asian students deal with it. Although the general plot is very predictable, the issues are real.

The story line was repeated by many similar movies before and also very predictable but nevertheless, it's still a good movie worth watching at home over a bluray or DVD. There are a few very touching scenes which would make you shed some tears as well. But if you are expecting lots of kungfu or martial art movie, then this is not the one as actions are secondary in this movie.