Yi tin to lung gei

I just finished watching both parts of this remake of the Heavenly Sword and Dragon Sabre. Well it's technically a remake of the KungFu Cult Master, a 1993 Jet Li movie that never got a proper ending. I first watched a version of this story, thr 1986 TV series, when I was a child. Even as a child, I was impressed by the story, so I was excited when I learned that there's a 2022 remake, which will surely have better special effects. Well, to call this 2022 version a remake would be a blasphemy. This movie is not faithful to its source material. Some plots have been shortened or completely changed, pressumably to maintain a shorter running time (the original series has 40 episodes). The 2 biggest names in the cast, donnie yen and louis koo, have probably 30 minutes of screen time combined. The choreography is terrible, special effect looks cheap, and the characters have been neutered. The deaths of some characters, so powerful in the 1986 series, do not feel impactful at all here. I don't dislike the actor portraying Wuji, but he simply does not have Tony Leung's onscreen charisma. And the decision to alter some important plots to meet the required runtime does not help him at all. I understand they had to cram so many materials into a 4-hour runtime, but I feel it could've been executed more elegantly. The love story between wuji and zhao min feels very rushed, and there's no chemistry at all between the two actors. Overall this is an extremely disappointing attempt of what is one of the most famous chinese fairy tales. I've heard many good things about the 2019 series, so if you want to revisit your childhood, I suggest either watching that, or better yet, watch the 1986 classic.

The story is very popular among chinese audience and 1993 version is a tough record to break.

Thankfully, top cast like Janice Man and Donnie Yen gave an A class performance to tbe movie despite the dreadful dialogues.

Main hero played by Raymond Lam was considerably barely okay... as he lacks the the A Class performamce compared to Jet Li... who mamaged to deliver a more charismatic and illustrious character, and not to mention... real kungfu.

CASTING of Sabrina. Qiu and. Rebecca Zhu was the biggest mistake to this production... watching both of them in the film was an excruciating experience... there is no other way to say this... They SUCK!

The storyline was draggy at certain point considering the Director planned for 2 part to this story... which kind of bore me halfway through the film...

I doubt i would want to drag myself to watch Part 2.

New Kung Fu Cult Master 1 didn't really leave a sour taste in my mouth after finishing watching it. But, must admit this one feels slightly underwhelming. Story-wise, the film basically covered the same ground as Jet Li's version in 1993. The thing is, the CGI-laden fight scenes didn't have the same excitement and thrills, while most of its solid cast was practically wasted. Safe to say, Donnie Yen, Xing Yu, Fan Siu-Wong, or Xiong Xin-Xin came only for the easy paycheck.

I am a big fan of the original Kung Fu Cult Master with Jet Li so was excited to hear of this movie.

Plenty of famous movie stars in this movie.

They even have Donnie Yen but unfortunately he didn't do much.

Overall the movie felt kinda rushed. Don't really connect with the leads and the fight scenes were far better in Jet Li's version.

It's definitely a big challenge to squeeze such a long story into one movie, as a result it's made into Part 1 & 2. This movie (Part 1) focuses mainly on introducing the characters and the different sects (e.g. Shaolin, Wu Dang, ErMei...), as well as the complicated conflicts among them; while Part 2... NOT sure yet, as it's NOT yet released (hee...).

The pace is good and it flows well from the beginning to the end! It kept me going on and I could hardly feel bored!

The role selection is a bit off! E.g. Getting 42-year-old Raymond Lam to play the role of an early 20's Zhang WuJi is NOT convincing at times. Besides, Donnie Yen is NOT old or 'there' enough to play the role of Zhang SanFeng. Instead, they shall consider Sammo Hung.

Basically, it's a very RUSHING movie, with the first 30 minutes introducing Zhang Wuji's background info (including his parents, grand-father, step-grand-father...); then it goes straight to the fight among the various sects. Due to time constraint, there is NO CHANCE for character development within each sect. Therefore, having known the storyline of this Jin Yong's novel in advanced is definitely an advantage.

The actions are ok - typical HK + China style - where they fly here and there while fighting, NO more NO less, at acceptable level.

Overall, it's an ok movie. I enjoyed watching it, and it's pretty entertaining! Despite the role selection issue + rushing pace, I am good with it! And I look forward to watching the Part 2 in the coming weeks.