Customer Reviews: Read 15 more reviews...
  On second viewing June 17, 2006
I watched this recently after a space of about 10 years... the first time i thought it was silly but had great action scenes. Now I think its quite a bit deeper than that. By the way, when Maggie Cheung burns the paper mid-film, I believe they are paper ingots which are burned to give money to the dead in repentence for all the innocent people she's killed...
 A noodle western with a Last Stand that strains credulity June 3, 2006
What a disappointment this film was for me!
Let me say first that I have a terrific fondness for good martial arts films, and many of the Hong Kong films of the genre, while certainly showing and revelling in elements that are cheesy, yet succeed in being extremely entertaining. But this...!
I think it's fairly well understood that the Hong Kong martial arts film genre deliberately utilises many American westerns. It's not exactly unusual to see a tumbleweed go rolling across a deserted plain or through a deserted Chinese village, however silly that may seem. But in the case of this film, it went too far. My willingness to suspend disbelief and criticism came to a crashing halt. It began, I'm afraid, with the very opening scene. As soon as I heard the Chinesified western theme (borrowing heavily from the well-known musical theme that you'll recognise the instant you hear it), I flinched and said, "Oh Lord, please let it improve."
The film's score is just a mishmash of inappropriate melodies and songs. Featuring far too heavily are those frankly appalling songs sung with sugary sweetness by Chinese popstars who moo their way through lyrics of awful saccharine fake emotion. Chinese lyrics and poetry can be so delicate and powerful (exciting our admiration especially when they use miniature to create a sense of space), but the flip side is that they can also be horribly vulgar and overly sentimental. This film showed the flip side.
The story is predictable: displaced prince (Brother Yen) wants to regain his throne after travelling like a nomad through the land for years. His faithful follower, a beautiful Chinese girl, turns out to be hired by his evil brother (who usurped the throne), but switches sides yet again (after failing to kill the prince's betrothed) to fight for the prince in the final showdown. A young fisherman named Fei, with fabulous martial arts skills, defends the prince's party in a surprise ambush, and consequently bonds with the prince, falls in love with the prince's betrothed when he's sent to fetch her, and plays artlessly with a large dolphin called Wei. (There's a truly awful song at this point, by the way - it tries to be a lovely innocent "love the environment" song, but oh dear... oh no... it's one of those moments where one cringes and fast-forwards through the embarrassing music.)
Fei hides the prince's party in an underground tomb accessible only by a path which he knows (but that doesn't stop the evil usurper from finding it without difficulty) and also by sea. The final show-down reveals that: a) an evil usurper can generally fight off as many attackers as need be; b) rightful emperors (aka the prince) can be defeated by said pole-bearing evil usurper without difficulty; c) the girl who doesn't get the guy (aka the girl who joined the prince's forces in order to betray him but ended by loving him, even though his emotions were centred upon the daughter of his old friend General NanNing (I think that's the name)) is sure to be killed by the evil usurper, and to murmur, "Even though I could not live for you, I am happy to die for you, my prince"; d) the general's daughter is of course torn between the prince and Fei, loving both of them, and of course she dies; and e) (this one's the killer) it takes a dolphin to kill an evil usurper. Yes, indeed - I joke not. The finale includes Wei surging through the river that leads to the cave in which the underground tomb is built, LEAPING out of the water to whack the evil usurper in mid-attack, and pulling down the entire tomb structure to kill everyone except Fei who finishes the film by looking at the flower-covered ground below which is the tomb, and making a philosophical comment that harks back to an earlier moment in the film.
The film's not all bad. The actors all look fine, and the swordplay is neither better nor worse than most of these types of film. I did become exasperated with some aspects of the fighting, because too much of it was dancing around attacking each other's weapons rather than each other - a big no-no in martial arts. "Have at you, you foul sword of my enemy! Let me beat you, o most hideous polearm of my foe!"... There's a good idea for a spoof there.
The story is, again, neither better nor worse than many another film of this genre - except for the laughable ending.
The cinematography is only adequate, not wonderful. It certainly isn't a patch on some of the magnificent films in this style which have emerged just recently.
The insistence on having the terrible enemy be undefeatable is a peculiarity one often meets with in Chinese films of this sort. I confess I have never become accustomed to it. Why is the hero not able to defeat his evil foe? They are both mortal. They're both skilled. It's clearly a cultural element that is difficult for non-Chinese to understand.
But by far - BY FAR - the worst thing about this film is the soundtrack.
Comparing this film favourably to "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", "The Emperor and the Assassin", "House of Shining Daggers" and "Hero" is unbelievable. The aforesaid films are not just nice-looking - they're gorgeous. The cinematography is superb. In most cases, the plots are good (in the case of "Crouching Tiger", the plot is superb and intricate). In each case for the films I've mentioned, the acting is magnificent and the fight scenes beautifully done. I'm afraid "Moon Warriors" will disappoint those who expect the same standard.
Recommended only for those who want to collect every film in this genre.
 Betty February 17, 2005
6 out of 8 found this review helpful
Moon Warriors is complete with a fast moving plot, interesting dialogue, good sound track of period chinese instrumental music, romance for the ladies and really fast action for the guys. You could put on this DVD just for the music. Plus, there are four super stars in this movie including Maggie Cheung, the pretty girl in Hero.
Hero and, Crouching Tiger and Hidden Dragon can't even compare to this movie because people were moving around in their seats at the theater durring some scenes, (Boredom I guess).
I also highly recommend Green Snake, very erotic in good taste.
 Not bad, but not great. July 3, 2004
9 out of 9 found this review helpful
In my opinion, to say that this is one of the best martial arts movie of all time is an overstatement, but to say its one of the worst is hardly believable. The film was magnificently directed by Sammo Hung, an awesom martial artist himself with impeccable directing skills. He managed to make Andy Lau, Anita Mui (R.I.P.), and Maggie Cheung look like they actually know how to handle a sword. Now that's an accomplishment considering they're not all that great at martial arts,and there are several stunt doubles doing the more complicated moves. The story lies around an emperor who is running from his evil brother that is trying to kill him and permanently hold the throne. A village fisherman played by Andy Lau lends the emperor a hand and they become good friends. The emperor is on his way to retreive his supposed-to-be wife played by Anita Mui before she is killed by the brother. A complicated love story involving Andy, the emperor, Anita, and the emperor's bodyguard played by Maggie Cheung takes place. Interesting story indeed, but I have seen better films. The fights in this film are fast and well choreographed, and although there are some wirework present, its not too ridiculous. I enjoyed every fight in this film except the last one in the tomb...watch,its ridiculous. The film itself is pretty violent, but the fighters look so charismatic you sort of get distracted away from the blood. So the story is good as is the fighting and acting, so why only 3 stars? Well, I'd give the movie 4, but the DVD's sound is horrendous. The DTS track is a joke with sounds that just blast out of nowhere and it gets rather annoying. I dropped another star because the makers of the film really wanted the viewers to care about the characters, but during the whole film I didn't care very much at all. With all the mushy conversations, and there are many, it just wasn't enough to really praise this film. Plus I, along with several viewers, thought the inclusion of the killer whale was unnecessary. The scenes with the whale sort of ruined the film. To say that this film is better or close to the quality of Crouching Tiger is really going out on a limb. Crouching Tiger had wonderful cinematography, awesome action, a very good love story, and the characters were interesting. For an all round swordplay movie, Crouching was great, not the best, but great. Moon Warriors is ok, but not something to be praised so highly, and whoever did the sound on this DVD needs a new career. If you want the best version, pick up Moon Warriors from the Hong Kong Legends(HKL) distributors, but you'll need a regionless DVD player to play their region 2 DVDs. They're best for remastering video and audio elements of martial arts films. If you want to check out more swordplay films which I feel are better, then watch Crouching Tiger, Swordsman II (with jet li), Kill Bill (more action than story), and The Hunted (with Christopher Lambert). I know, you must be saying Christopher Lambert from Highlander????!! Take my word folks, this is his best film and the swordplay is awesome. Thanks for reading and check my other reviews for more martial arts recommendations.
Great Film, bad ending... Hunky Guys.... November 6, 2003
4 out of 6 found this review helpful
Moon Warriors is the story of a young fisherman named Phillip who befriends a deposed prince who is masquerading as a peasant. Through shared experiences, they begin to trust each other, and the prince entrusts the safety of his fiancee "Moonie" (yes, her real name), to Phillip's care. Phillip is sent to escort Moonie, and along the way he falls in love with her.
But the prince's evil baby brother (aren't they all?), is intent on killing the prince to become the one TRUE emperor. Can Phillip and his trained killer whale save the day?
I liked Moon Warriors (well, at least the first 3/4's of the film), but there was some definite cheesiness that must be mentioned, In particular, the scenes where Phillip is riding the killer whale, and posing like a centerfold on its back...(Groan). And of course, some of the long drawn out fight scenes.
The good parts? Who can deny that the actor who played the prince, and Phillip were great hunks, and their friendship was cute. But the ending... What were they thinking? Completey unsatisfying. I had to deduct one star!
Overall, good film, but a really, really bad ending.
|
