Shi san tai bao Li Cun Xiao

My copy is a digital file that plays on a HDTV as wide screen but small and with poor resolution. It is dubbed into English by the A team of voice overs. This hokey video format is half of what is bad about the movie. I have checked around and my copy seems to be as good as it gets. It is wider than the 4:3 of the old Ocean Shores VHS tapes but only because it is stretched. The end result is everything you see seems too close. A viewer might not even notice this but when the fights begin it breaks down. Fans of this genre are well aware of how bad a fight comes across when it is filmed too close. Compound that with the low resolution. The result is making me wonder why I kept watching it. Oh yes, to write this review and then say I am done.

The explanation for this movie is the "Terracotta Army" that was discovered on March 29, 1974 by farmers near Mount Li. This was the army of stone statues buried with the first Qin emperor. The producers took the idea of an army of stone statues and made a martial arts movie. Obviously, not much thought was added after the initial idea.

There is plenty of fighting and Dorian and Polly are excellent fighters. Unfortunately because of the poor video quality I found it impossible to enjoy the fights. Usually I don't criticize a movie for that reason but because there is no better copy in existence I cannot recommend this for fans of the genre with normal eyesight.

This movie is not good at all its filmed so close up that you cant see the fight scenes all that well and the plot is just dumb. Would nor reccomend this movie to anyone the only reason I gave it one star is because I had to so I could right this review. Do not waist your time watching this movie they really blew it with this one. Its suprising it's so bad because there is actually some pretty good action stars in this movie if you've seen any of their other films. This is an hour and a half of my life that I can never get back and strongly wish I could just horrible horrible....

The only real importance of this film is historical - and only for those who know something of the history of Hong Kong cinema. The script is by Chiu Yin Peng, who soon went on to become the most eccentric director in hong Kong (Demon Warrior, Fantasy Mission force, Shaolin Popeye).

The story is about a woman who has an affair with a statue - yes, that's right - and the child she gives birth to becomes the typical 'young hero' we see in countless chop-socky 'fu films of the '70s. The character (not the actor, who is merely walking through the paces) gets really annoying, because he misses his mom so much, he keeps shouting out "Ma! Ma! Ma!" like a sheep with a speech-impediment.

Of course, since it's a period piece, the film has to include a bit of political intrigue concerning an usurper-king; and there's some weird wizard who literally keeps popping up at odd moments throughout the film, anytime there's a loose plot-twist to resolve by magic.

But the real shame of the film is that there are good fight-performers here, but the director shoots most of the fighting in medium-shot (so we can't see the leg work) or even close-up (and we can't even see their fists!).

At any rate, the statue-father teaches his son how to turn to stone and fly through the air with the greatest of ease, and there are atmospheric fog machines, and sudden discontinuous jumps from one location to another, and characters that disappear, and whole armies represented by only five soldiers - - well, you get the idea.

If the fight scenes had been better, I might still have recommended it - as it is, don't bother.

GENERAL STONE is another nondescript martial arts movie that has some cool magical elements but downplays them in favour of dragging mundanity. The story is about a kid who is the son of a statue - don't ask - who grows up to become a master kicker determined to avenge his father's death at the hands of a ruthless army commander.

I always get a kick out of seeing magical elements in these eastern movies but the distinct lack of budget means that they're barely on screen here. Mainly it's a routine kicker as our hero goes around beating up various nondescript bad guys and occasionally teaming up with a female fighter. Although produced by studios based in Hong Kong, this was filmed in Taiwan on the cheap, as so many were; as such, the trappings of the film never convince and, even more unforgivably, the action is shot close up in such a way that you never get a chance to properly check out the skill or otherwise of the participating fighters.