A disgrace to martial arts...

Rating: 1/10 (18 May 2003)

When I first heard about this film I was extremely excited, having heard about the amazing martial arts and the brilliant wirework. Being a martial arts movie fan, I've seen loads and loads of them, and this was going to be the film that proved chinese cinema to be just as good as hong kong cinema, and possibly even hollywood. What a disappointment. I absolutely hated this film, completely and utterly. Is it good when films are rubbish? seemingly all the film critics think so.
The first 5 minutes started terribly, with pathetic floating around like ponces. I was cringing my head off during all the flying sequences, they were so terribly done it wasn't even funny. I mean, if they had given some sort of explanation as to why people can fly and jump miles and walk on water, then maybe I would have liked it more; but no, I know, we'll just start flying for no reason.
Arg, in so many chinese films people can jump really far and run across long grass and such, but they don't float, and they actually make an effort to jump. The bar scene, being the most cringeworth of all, even sees Zhang zi yi take off on one foot without jumping at all and fly out through the roof. Good luck attempting that.
The fighting that wa supposed to be amazing turned out to be okayish, but the wires were seriously overused and made it seem tacky and laughable. I'm so glad Jet Li turned down the role of Li-mubai, cos i don't know if I could have stayed a loyal fan if he had been poncing around like a ballerina.