Les Griffes d'acier

Man, this has to be up there with Kung Fu Cult Master...

It's Jet Li as Wong Fei Hung with a twist....it's got a lot of laughs. There are a lot of characters in this one and with a guy named "Mr. Pimp", you can't help laughing! The overcrowded training scene in Po Chi Lam is so funny when this poor guy keeps getting accidentally knocked out of the dojo. Wong's students Fu and So (who really earns the name Bucktooth in this one) add levity and do some decent fighting too. The villain is hilarious with that classic evil laugh. Not to be missed, do not forget to see Jet's rooster style. C'mon, you know Jet Li is the man if he can do that scene and still looks hardcore.

Did I forget about the great fight scenes? (thanks to Yuen Woo Ping) See Jet take out a guy while seated in a chair!! Who else can take down three guys at once on only ONE jump?? Definitely watch the battle between Jet and kung fu great Gordon Liu (a passing of the torch). Cheung Man fights as well and is just great to look at.

Director Jing Wong knew what he was doing and this film definitely doesn't take itself too seriously. Add Jet Li, fights done by Yuen Woo Ping, Anita Yuen (whatta babe!), Cheung Man, and a lot of humor and you have one heck of a movie!!

There are two reasons to see this movie: (1) the fighting is quite good, and (2) the translation is good enough that English-speakers will get the jokes.

This is a comic digression from the "Once Upon a Time in China" series. Jet Li again plays Master Wong. He is down on his luck, and so moves to Hong Kong to open a school in a run-down neighborhood. The austere and dignified Master Wong tries to protect his randy students from the corrupting influence of the brothel next-door, while investigating a gang of perverted Shoalin monks who have been abducting young women. In one great fighting scene, Master Wong is so disdainful of a convict with whom he is fighting that he refuses to stand up from his chair to defend himself (instead he conducts the whole fight with his butt in the chair).

A hilarious and fun movie, if about 10% too long.

Refreshing Chinese style humour, new to me, worth dozens of predictable Hollywood "blockbusters", because this is something we don' see everyday. I'm ignorant about kung-fu movies, but happy to see something new. I read a review that criticised the ending. That is very strange because at the end the good fighting scenes and the refreshing absurdities are married.

Compared with recent Jackie Chan movies, the makers of this movie seem to have some pride. The choreography is artistic and both the added music and the music that comes with the plot work well. I don't think the producers said "Let's make another Jet Li movie."

Review: I quite enjoyed this funny authentic movie about a monk whose investigating the mysterious disappearance of girls in his village. With the help of some of the people in his Kung Fu class and a brothel owner, don't ask, they find out that there is much more going on in there village then they expected. For a person that doesn't like subtitles, I actually didn't mind reading the well put together script which was witty and full of twists and turns. It's not very often that you see Buddha monks living next to a brothel in a authentic oriental movie and the different characters made the film funny and a joy to watch. Once again, the flying fighting scenes spoil the action, but after watching a few Jet Li movies, I'm kind of getting use to it now. Enjoyable!

Round-Up: One of the things that made me laugh in this film was when they were fighting and naming the styles that they were using. It really reminded me of the old Kung Fu movies that I used to watch when I was young. I didn't get the point of the corrupt police officer who kept on laughing all of the time or why they were feeding people a deaf drug but maybe I missed some of the plot whilst reading the subtitles. Anyway, it's definitely worth a watch if your into movies in this genre.

Budget: N/A Worldwide Gross: HK$18million

I recommend this movie to people who are into their Jet Li movies about a Buddha monk whose investigating the mysterious disappearance of girls in his village. 6/10

This film is amazing. The choreography work by Yuen Woo Ping is simply breath taking. Gnong Kau Chai as Legate Officer Lui in my view steals the film as possibly the best bad guy ever. His maniacal laughter and dialogue is but one of many good things in this film, another of which is Jet Li's gracious and best performance as Wong Fei Hung. Tak-Hing Kwan who for so many films had played the same character could feel as if he has successfully passed on his mantle to Li. The comic aspects of the film elevate this from Li's other films as Wong Fei Hung. The use of Wong's theme song ("Under the General's Orders") is my favourite thing about the film, especially when used by the hookers whose brothel is nest to Po Chee Lam (Wong Fei Hung's martial arts school). In a year in which Li made Fong Sai Yuk 1 and 2, Tai Chi Master. If Jet Li was a fine wine people would say 1993 was en excellent year.