A daredevil airplane pilot and spy, who fights against the occupying Japanese forces in China, must rescue the ruler of the city of Kaal from the hands of a ruthless Japanese general and his advancing army.
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Reviews
"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". (***)
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!
After going to see "In The Line Of Duty 2" and having been impressed with Michelle Khan - both in terms of fighting and in terms of beauty - I didn't need much urging to go and see "Zhong hua zhan shi" ("Born Fighter"), but I was a bit disappointed.The fighting scenes were good, for sure, but the movie's comic relief was allowed to take up too much time (of course, this could have been a result of Barbadian censorship; I still remember seeing "Coming to America" and hearing Eddie Murphy's only four-letter word in the only movie being cut out, never find the fact that it also cut out the point of the joke), and ultimately diluted the movie's effect. But things worked out okay for Michelle in the end...
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.
