Chin san chuen suet

Moon Warriors is pretty alright if you're into the wuxia pian genre. It's much better than most HK action movies from the mid 1990s like the Dragon Chronicles, the Sword Stained with Royal Blood, etc etc... yet it can't compete with films such as Dragon Gate Inn, Ashes of Time (both starring maggie cheung, who also appears as "merlin" (what a weird name) in some versions of Moon Warriors), or the eyecandy swordsman 2. Anyway, I was wondering if any of you guys have noticed the weird subtitles on some copies of the DVD. For some reason I don't understand, Andy's character is called "Philip", and his loyal killerwhale buddy's called "Sea-Wayne" (which ended up being the biggest inside joke among my group of friends). Anita Mui appears as "Moonie". Why is it that some of the characters have such ridiculous names? I mean, it's not very consistent since the rest of the cast got chinese names. Anyway, it's a pretty entertaining action flick, give it a try if you want to have a laugh or if you're a fan of Andy, Maggie and Anita.

7/10

I remember this being quite a good, mature kick flick, but there is one scene I must have watched 20 times now, undeniably the best death in any movie. A servant reports his failure to his Overlord, whereupon the lord cuts his head off with the string of his bow, flicks it up in the air, shoots an arrow through the head whilst it flies through the air, sending the impaled bonce across a line of torches, setting fire to it. The head embeds itself on a wall, spelling out the Overlords name in fire. At this time the overlord runs across the burning torches, somersaults over to a chessboard, slams a piece down and cries - Checkmate! Has to be seen to be believed.

Sammo Hung is one of the VERY few actors who is a joy to watch in front of the camera AND he's a pretty damn good director as well. This well done period/fantasy piece is no exception. Andy Lau (another favorite foreign actor of mine) is Fei, a common fisher-man who falls in love with the Emperor's daughter, who is bethrothed to the King. The king is secretly loved by his adviser who was sent to kill him. It's a tad convoluted, yes. And the part with the whale is rather silly. But all in all, it's pretty good. Not among the best of these type of movies though.

My Grade: B-

DVD Extras: Commentary by Hong Kong film expert, Ric Meyers; 'Alternate Ending' (which really is just the same ending, but instead of fading to black for the credits, it goes to whale outtakes); Cast Filmographies; Trailers for "Dragon Inn", " Duel to the Death", "the Master Swordsman", "the Duel", and "My Schoolmate, the Barbarian"

very well done period swordplay fantasy film.The fisherman in his simplicity is a true hero.The unrequited love that dominates throughout is well executed.Maggie Cheung and Anita Mui can duel all day long..Awesome.The villain is well played his skill is evident.musically the score is great..definitely worth seeing love,honour,pace..and great wire work must definitely put this film up there with the better made one of the genre..All hail King Sammo....

"The Moon Warriors" (aka "Zhan shen chuan shuo") has every ingredient to be a masterful epic Wuxia movie. It has an impressive cast list, a well-established director, beautiful scenery, good props and costumes, lots of action and good choreography...

...but it ultimately failed to be more than a mediocre movie given the fact that the entire movie seemed nothing more than a scramble of bits and pieces of different story lines put together in a fairly incoherent assembly in order to make a movie. There was no overly coherent red line throughout the course of the movie, and it was a chaotic mess as the story jumped all over the place.

I watched "The Moon Warriors" for the first time around the mid- to late 1990's. I wasn't overly impressed back then, but had purchased it solely because of Maggie Cheung starred in it. And now returning to the movie about 20 years later, I am sad to say that the movie still isn't all that impressive for me.

What is impressive, though, is the cast list for "The Moon Warrior". They had managed to acquire some really big talents for this movie, which includes Andy Lau, Maggie Cheung and Anita Mui. And that is one of the main reasons for watching this movie; the cast ensemble.

The martial arts and fighting sequences were also quite good and well-choreographed. And this is essential to this particular genre of movies.

I do also enjoy the details in movies, such as seen in the props, sets, landscape, etc. And there was a lot of nice touches to this movie, both in costume and sets.

But the storyline was just killed off by a way too scrambled and confusing directorial attempt at making something epic. And it was a shame, because "The Moon Warriors" really had all the right things served on a silver platter in order to be a very outstanding movie.

I am going to have to settle on a mediocre five out of ten stars for this 1992 Hong Kong movie, although it pains me somewhat, as I am a big fan of both Maggie Cheung and Andy Lau.