La légende des héros

"Magnificent Warriors" finds its leading star, Michelle Yeoh, in top form: her speed and dance-like grace make her fight scenes a pure pleasure to watch (she's also good with a whip....and a rope....and a spear....well, you get the idea). And as a bonus, there is another girl, the beautiful and feisty Cindy Lau, who fights as well! Richard Ng, perhaps better known for his role in the "Lucky Stars" films, provides the comic relief, and he's actually quite funny here. The action offers a good mix of martial arts and large-scale battle scenes, and the story is (after the first 30 minutes) engaging and at times even inspiring. The production is spectacular and the music score appropriately epic. If you want to see an Asian take (plus a female twist this time) on the Indiana Jones formula, this is a much better choice than Jet Li's "Dr. Wai And The Scripture With No Words". (***)

This film is set during the Japanese occupation of China and follows pilot Fok Ming-ming as she tries to help a leading member of the resistance. Things don't quite go according to plan as she initially mistakes a conman for the agent. Later they are found by the real agent and the three of them start working together to thwart Japanese plans to build a chemical weapons factory in a remote city.

If you want lots of well-choreographed martial arts action combined with plenty of laughs you could do a lot worse than this. The story is fairly easy to follow and effectively introduces the key characters in an entertaining way before the main action gets underway. There are numerous action sequences throughout the film with the sense of danger increasing towards the end. These sequences are all impressive with great martial arts, some shooting and some impressive explosions. The cast is solid; most notably Michelle Yeoh who excels as Ming-ming. She really impresses in her fight scenes but also brings a sense of fun to her role without feeling silly. Richard Ng was a lot of fun as the roguish conman... I couldn't help wondering if his character partly inspired 'The Weird' in the Korean film 'The Good, The Bad, The Weird'! I was a bit surprised that the film is rated '18' here in the UK as there is nothing too extreme shown; I suspect if re-rated it would only be a '15'... and that due to certain language in an early scene. Overall I'd definitely recommend this to fans of action-packed, but not overly intense, martial arts films.

These comments are based on watching the film in Cantonese with English subtitles.

The movie certainly delivers enough, whether you are a die hard fan of Hong Kong cinema, or a casual watcher. It has strong production values, amusing comic relief, and of course a great deal of action. Once again, Michelle shows her stuff, and she is spectacular to watch.

Still, even though this is a very entertaining movie, I couldn't help but feel that the movie was spinning its wheels a bit too often. Some scenes do seem to go on further than they should. I also got the impression that the antics would be wilder and over the top (a la DR. WEI IN THE SCRIPTURE WITH NO WORDS) than they ended up. It seemed like it would be more "epic". But that's a minor complaint, and the movie does make up for it with a gargantuan battle at the end!

Watching fresh-faced Michelle Yeoh at age 24 kicking butt in her martial arts scenes and channeling Indiana Jones early on was a lot of fun. The role required a lot of physicality and she was more than up to the task. Unfortunately, the story is weak and the film is tonally all over the map, veering from lame humor to violent war scenes at the drop of a hat. It's a patriotic film about the defense of China from Japanese invasion which I respected, but it's too scattered and cartoonish, working better in its smaller fight scenes in the first half. Meanwhile, there are extraneous characters like Chin-chin and what seemed like a soundtrack consisting of a single song. Worth seeing for Michelle Yeoh, but messy.

The appearance of Michelle Yeoh in Tomorrow Never Dies and then Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon piqued my interest in the lady's earlier films and when this one came up cheap on DVD, I jumped at the chance to acquire it. I am glad I did. It is not the greatest film I have ever seen, but it is good fun and includes some good fight stuff. Michelle Yeoh looks terrific and does some great fight scenes, and all with a great sense of fun. This is one film not to be taken seriously and the result is a great way of spending 90 minutes. If you like mindless action with a touch of humour, then you could do a lot worse than this film. Check it out.